Gear Fishing
November 6th, 2008
What is up everyone? I hit my local reservior, Quail Creek, today with Jack Daddy. It’s getting cold down here finally and the bass are slowing down. The water has dropped to 60 degrees, so the most active fish now in this lake are the trout. But we were after our beautiful green friends. Anyway, we only caught 3 today, but all were quality fish. The biggest was the first fish I caught today, a nice 19 inch/4 lb largemouth. I got another that was about 16 inches and Jack Daddy got one that was about 17 inches. We also both accidently caught one trout each. It was the first time I’ve caught a trout on a football jig/hula grub. Only took a couple pics to share.
Posted in Out of Area, Warm Water | 7 Comments »
October 20th, 2008
A huge lake between two straights in the Great Lakes system, but’s it’s not recognized as one of them. Total world class wamwater fishery and probably one of the best Smallmouth scenes in North America. It’s not drift fishing the St. Croix, but it diverse (1-9 feet deep) and supports 6lb smallies.
You can site fish them on the flats in the spring, or fish blindly over deep weed edges in the summer and fall. Clousers, crayfish patterns and weighted sculpins (a non-indigenous species, round gobies are over the great lakes now.) Heres a pic of pops. I have had 20 fish days on flies. 4-5 pounders……..
MR
Posted in Out of Area, Warm Water, Fly Fishing | 3 Comments »
October 20th, 2008
Posted in Out of Area, Warm Water | 5 Comments »
September 19th, 2008
My father-in-law, Jack Daddy, and I hit Quail Creek for our weekly Friday fishing trip while my daughter is in school. Was another tough 3 hours of fishing, but it was quaility over quantity again.
We launched about 930am into 73 degree water with smooth glass like surfaces. Only about 3 boats beat us out there. We headed to my buddy John’s spot in hopes of some hogs, but I only caught a couple 12 inch fish on weightless senko’s. Jack daddy only donated a few jigs to the lake bottom.
We motored out of there and headed to “the sticks”. This is a long beach-like shoreline near the campgrounds that is loaded with flooded sticks. This is the same place I caught my personal best earlier this year in March. Anyway, the first bite over here was a bluegill caught by Jack daddy on a craw. Then I tossed my senko into the brush and just saw my line take off. I set the hook and tried to muscle the hog out of the bushes. Got it past the first couple then it wrapped me up on a last stick before the boat. Jack daddy grabbed the net as I trolled us closer, all while watching the fish pull my line up and down on the stick. I thought it was gonna snap for sure, but Jack scooped it up just in the nick of time. High fives ensued. Weighed near 4 lbs and measured about 19 1/4 inches.
Jack Daddy, who was struggling a bit finally hooks into a nice fish with his signature craw/jig and fights it perfectly into the net. This fish measured 20 inches and weighed around 3 1/2 pounds, which I still thought was light. We fished for about another 1/2 hour before we had to leave, but no bites. Not a great day, but not a bad day either.
Next Friday we’ll head to our other nearby reservoir, Sand Hollow, where it’s usually more quantity than quality, but does have some giants too. I will be scoping out the lake for the next day’s tournament.
PEACE OUT……
Posted in Out of Area, Warm Water | 7 Comments »
September 18th, 2008
I did some half ass fishing last weekend at a local reservoir down here in southern Utah. This reservoir, Quail Creek, is only a 15 min ride from my house and holds some quaility largemouth bass that are fed by tons of stocked rainbow trout, along with populations of bluegill, green sunfish, black crappie, and crawdads.
So let’s just say these bass are well fed and can be hard to catch at times, but when you get into them they are usually very nice in size. The current catch and release state record is from this lake. Which was a 27 inch behemoth. Anyways, I say it was half assed because it was on a typical busy Saturday after sleeping in. Real fisherman don’t sleep in…..lol.
So we got to the lake a bit late and had a slow start in our first little cove tossing around some football jigs with hula grubs. My wife wanted to throw a drop shot since she has more confidence fishing that technique. Of course I had to set it up, so after I got it ready I snuck in a couple casts and just got hammered by the fish in the picture. This fish was just pissed! Made about 3-4 good runs before we netted it.
The handheld was reading 3 lb 14 oz - 4 lbs. Snapped the picture and released it to be caught another day. Ok, we thought the bite was gonna start to pick up but it didn’t. I called my buddy John, who was on the lake in his bass boat wacking fish all morning and found out where he was and bolted over to “his spot” and began to get bites. My wife then hooks into a nice 18 inch largemouth and watching her fight this fish made the whole trip for me. I did have to help her with her drag a couple times though.
Anyway, the fish was hooked pretty deep, but I managed to get the hook out without any damage, but due to how long it took me we released it without snapping a picture. We figured we would catch more. We didn’t. Well I did catch another bass about 12 inches and a couple big bluegill.
We decided to make a move and let John have his spot to himself but that turned out to be a bad move. Stayed about a hour or two more but no bites so the wife and daughter just went swimming. Was a decent day as it aways is on the water. Quaility over quantity this trip. Now if all goes right with this first attempt at a post, the picture will show up. Later…….Bobby D.
Posted in Out of Area | 6 Comments »
July 20th, 2008
We’re managing to get out on the rivers here and there. I thought I might post up some pics from some recent trips.
LipRipper snaps his Lamiglas here, folks. Saw it happen.
Hey LammyGlassssssss eh hmmm…But seriously, I love my Cert Pros. And, maybe, well nevermind. I won’t say it. Hercules Hansen.
Here’s another one of Hansen as we sneak a diver along this clay wall…..
Sal & Kenny Mack
I’m well aware of the fact that Mr. McDonald aka…and my newly coined ‘Kenny Mac’….may very well not like being handled as such. In this case….I guess we’ll take a poll. Sal, what do you think Ken’s name should be?
Nook dead drifts a sweet little slot in the shade….
..and little up and under…
…some of LipRippers special little ‘tackies’ for Steel……nice….
And since I’ve heard flowers are good for the soul, I’ll leave you with this….
I have a sweet Bald Eagle shot that I may put the picture straight to the gallery or something like that.
Tight Lines, Guys, and congrats to anyone managing to get out these days.
H3LLCAT
Oh and by the way, I”ve mentioned Jeff Mishler before….well…..courtesy of LR, here is a recent picture of Jeff’s that makes me do the Tarzan yell.
Posted in Salmon, Trout & Steelhead, Gear Fishing, Fish Reports | 4 Comments »
June 12th, 2008
……..by h3llcat…….June 2008…….archived good times…….
I’m dreaming about fishing almost every night now, so I knew it was time to post a really cool picture. I thought I’d share a the 15lb Marathon, Florida Permit I caught on a little scud in maybe…2001 or something like that. Enjoy.
Thanks a million to Sal Monid for making this trip happen..it was one of the best!
Posted in Out of Area, Fly Fishing | 4 Comments »
May 30th, 2008
Story by SALmonid, Tampa, Florida…..
A week ago, I headed off to Tampa Bay to meet 4 friends and do some angling in Florida. We had two boats to fish from. After the first evening catching up on old times, we were all ready to bag some fish.
It was prime time for big tarpon and that was going to be the main target.
On 3 of the five fishing days, it was overcast and windy and choppy. We used the larger of the two boats - a 25 footer captained by Rick Swanson to go for the tarpon in the main bay and the smaller boat a 19 footer captained by Bubba Sloan to fish the more protected mangrove areas.
We fished live bait on the tides and spent most of the time near the main bridge in the Bay. Overall we hooked 5 tarpon and landed none. All of them were in the 80 110 pound range. Rick had one on for over 45 minutes but did not land it.
I had the thrill of hooking one, watching it madly peel 90 yards of line, come all the way out of the water and shred my line with its teeth. All I could muster was Wow!
We also landed 3-4 grouper which are amazingly strong for their size and got to see two large manatee resting on the bottom in about 10 feet of water. One of these was 8-10 feet in length and likely weighed over 1,000-1,500 pounds.
We also had a great time fishing schools of false albacore feeding at the surface on small baitfish. We found the schools by watching the diving birds and white boiling water where the fish were feeding. Several times, we were able to pull up close enough to the action that we could cast into the middle of the madly feeding school. We were using steelhead wieight spinning rods. When hooked these guys would run 70-100 yards on the first run. After 10 minutes or so we could land and release them. What a gas.
The flats and mangrove fishing was also great, even with the wind. We mainly used 1/8 ounce jigs casting while drifting across the flats or along the mangrove line. We caught lots of fish, the most common being sea trout. I landed a sea trout that was 24-26 inches but the average was 14-16 inches. Captain Bubba landed a nice redfish.
It was a great trip. My thanks to all the guys, especially Rick and Bubba for use of their very nice boats. The weather gave us a challenge but we did not let it slow us down. We are figuring the next trip might need to be for Louisiana or Texas redfish in the winter.
Sal aka The World Traveling Fish Slaying S.O.B. (okay I added that part….but isn’t he?……h3llcat)
Posted in Out of Area, Gear Fishing, Fish Reports | 4 Comments »
May 23rd, 2008
Article posted by Nookslayer aka Richey aka Your Mother
This was an interesting article from the Oregonian this morning….
A new agreement to reduce over fishing of salmon off Canada and southeast Alaska could allow an estimated 1 million more Chinook to return to hatcheries or spawning grounds in the Columbia River Basin and Puget Sound over the next 10 years.
The treaty, negotiated over 18 months by the Pacific Salmon Commission, calls for Canada to reduce its catch by 30 percent and Alaska to reduce its catch by 15 percent. That could increase Chinook returns by 3 percent to 7 percent in the upper Columbia River.
At the top end, it could result in 10,000 more Chinook returning annually to spawn in the Hanford Reach, a stretch of free-flowing river near the Hanford nuclear reservation, said Mike Matylewich, a fish manager for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission in Portland.
Salmon migrate to the ocean from Northwest Rivers and streams as smolts and typically take a hard right once they hit the Pacific. Most travel north to feeding grounds off southeast Alaska or British Columbia, staying there for three to five years before returning to spawn in their home rivers and streams. It’s on the return trip that they’re caught in large numbers by sport and commercial fishermen off Alaska and Canada. “The main thing the agreement does, because of reduced catches in southeast Alaska and the west coast of Vancouver Island, it should return more fish upriver (in the Columbia),” Matylewich said. “It’s a good deal because it lessens harvest impacts and there’s more assurance of sustainability.” But the agreement, which would go into effect, next year, comes with a price tag. The United States will pay $30 million to compensate Canadian fishermen for the reduction. Most of the money will be used to pay fishermen to retire their commercial trolling licenses.
About $7 million will go to reduce commercial fishing in Alaska. Other money will go to salmon habitat improvement and research. The agreement resulted from negotiations involving representatives of four states, one Canadian province, the federal governments of the United States and Canada, and two dozen Native American tribes. In addition to management of Chinook, the plan addresses catch limits, habitat improvement and even egg collection methods for Coho, chum, pink and sockeye salmon. “Chinook was the most complex piece of the puzzle because the fish migrate through many jurisdictions,” said Olney Pratt Jr., executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and U.S. tribal commissioner on the salmon commission.
For Alaska, the catch reduction “is a tough position for us to accept,” said David Bedford, the state’s representative on the salmon commission. “While we had to make some sacrifices to reach this agreement, we were convinced that this is a responsible agreement that provides stability for our fisheries and helps ensure the long-term health and sustainability of shared salmon resources.”
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire called the agreement historic. “This could not have happened had we not come with a common goal and a collaborative approach,” she said. “We now have a fighting chance to save the salmon.”
The agreement must be approved by federal officials and the Canadian government. The money that will be allocated to Canada, Alaska, Washington andOregon needs congressional approval.
Sacramento River run The agreement comes just a month after federal authorities virtually shut down the ocean salmon fishery off California and Oregon, after the sudden collapse of the Sacramento River Chinook run. Most of the Chinook caught in the ocean off Oregon come from the Sacramento. The federal disaster declaration opened the way for Congress to appropriate economic disaster assistance for coastal communities in Oregon, California and Washington. Scientists are studying the causes of the Sacramento River collapse, factors that range from poor ocean conditions and habitat destruction to dam operations and agricultural pollution. The governors of Washington, Oregon and California have estimated that economic losses from the coastal fishing collapse will total about $290 million. California is seeking $208 million in disaster aid, Oregon $45 million and
Washington $36 million. The farm bill approved this week also includes $170 million for the disaster-plagued Pacific
Coast salmon fishing industry. And on Thursday, the U.S. Senate approved a war-spending package that includes $75 million to help alleviate economic impacts related to fisheries disasters around the country. The fishing arrangements under the new salmon treaty between the United States and Canada were up for renewal at the end of this year. The new agreement covers U.S. and Canadian management plans from 2009 to 2018.
In two years, the Pacific Salmon Commission will renegotiate fishing arrangements for the Fraser River system in Canada.
Nook
Posted in Salmon, Trout & Steelhead, Fish Reports | 3 Comments »
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