Rosie and I decided to take a little trip. A get away for the weekend. See something different and try something new. This idea led to my suggestion that we drive to the other side of the island and stay at Anglers Paradise. We both had heard and read about the fishing retreat. The owner James Siers had quite the reputation as a fisherman and a photographer.
So after several email and a couple of phone calls the plans were made. We would make the leisurely drive, about 3.5 hours to their place on Friday afternoon. Sleep there Friday night and fish on Saturday, sleep Saturday night and take off Sunday morning for a nice drive home.
After packing enough fishing gear for twenty people, I finally have the truck loaded and we are off to a great start at exactly 12:00 noon. Gas up, check the oil and fill the fluids. After all our truck is a bit old.
On the road again
The wind in my hair and pot holes under my tires. The road has degenerated since my last trip down here. Bad weather and lack of maintenance has taken it’s toll. Two hours later we have traveled what should have taken one hour.
We grab a bite to eat and hit the road again. Now it is starting to rain, but that does not dampen our spirits. After all we are going fishing!
We make a scheduled stop at a fishing store in the Jet set town of Nadi. We find nothing to buy and decide to just move on.
The road conditions in Nadi are horrible. This is the first impression a tourist/visitor receives. It is like driving on a logging road only with heaps of traffic and rain to boot. I have to say it is rather embarrassing.
It is now 4:00 p.m. and we still have an hour to go. Traffic is bumper to bumper and the final stretch takes us two hours to cover.
We arrive just at last light, exhausted, wet, dirty and ready to fish.
After meeting James (Jim), his sons Conrad and Kaji and the two women that take care of the cooking and cleaning, Lisi and Sisi, we have a bowl of kava and dinner and retire to our room.
The plan
Up at 5:00 a.m., breakfast at 6:00 and on the water at 6:30 a.m. Put in a full day of fishing and return around 4:00 p.m. For a shower and kava session followed by fish for dinner.
Our captain for the day is Conrad and the deckhand is Murad and the tag along is Kaji (he is 14 yo). They decided we should take the 40ft boat instead of the center console. A decision that would come back to haunt them.
The morning
The weather has cleared and it is shaping up to be a beauty, blue sky and a little puff of breeze. As we motor along to our first stop I am busy prepping our gear for the day. The mood on board is upbeat and anticipation is high. We are soon visited by a pod of spinner dolphins and they proceed to put on a show for us.
We arrive at our first fishing spot and after a little jostling around we pick our spots on the boat to fish and settle in.
The tide is starting to turn and go out, the weather is great and we are soon into a rhythm of casting giant poppers in hopes of enticing Giant Trevally to bite.
Things are a little quiet to start but that does nothing to dampen the spirits on board, after all, this place has a reputation of producing GT’s that can bust 80lb line like it was thread.
We are cruising along the edge of reefs and coral heads, casting at bait and anything that moves. There are big rises all around us and schools of bait everywhere. What a fishing dream.
The haunting
After about an hour of fishing, suddenly the motor is switched off and the crew are all inside the cabin with the engine compartment open. This can’t be good. Turns out the engine is over heating and no one knows why. The decision is made to drop anchor and call for help.
Unfortunately where we drop anchor is too far away from the reef to fish. So after 15-20 minutes of casting practice the rods are put up and we settle in for the wait. By the time help arrives in the form of a mechanic and Jim, several hours have ticked by.
It is decided that we switch to the center console and the mechanic and Jim will take the big boat back and we will fish on.
The afternoon
By now the tide is running full out and the sun is straight up. It is starting to get hot and the breeze is nonexistent. We continue to fish without a bite for the next couple of hours. Finally the deckhand, Murad, hooks what looks to be a nice fish. Unfortunately the fish made it home before Murad got it to the boat. Fish 1, boat 0. Amazing how one fish can get everyone a bit excited and reinvigorated.
A little while later Murad makes up for his lost fish and lands a nice GT.
Now everyone is fired up and the boat is abuzz with excitement. All for not.
The next fish would not be seen until 3:30 p.m. I was lucky enough to be the one to catch it. The surface exploded and a hole opened up where my popper was. As my 50lb braid came tight it was obvious this was a good fish. The fish gods were smiling down upon me as the GT headed for deep water instead of it’s home. That gave me a fighting chance. After several good runs pulling braid at 10kg of drag, the GT finally gave in and came to the boat. It pulled the scales down at a respectable 16kg. Not the biggest but a nice fish none the less. That proved to be the last fish we would see for the day until dinner.
Rosie had a total of one looker for the day.
I guess that is why it is called fishing and not catching.
We wrapped up the evening drinking kava with the staff and telling stories of fish caught before.
The drive home
We left our new friends from Anglers Paradise around 10:00 a.m. On Sunday morning and headed home. We decided to stop in Nadi to grab a bite to eat. As I was waiting for Rosie to get the food a friend who goes by the name of Elvis hijacks us to go to his house and have a bowl of kava. This turns into an all day ordeal. Oh well such is the life in Fiji. We finally arrive home after 6:00 p.m. And sleep early.
Here are some construction pictures of a floating dock we built and installed for the Brakers and Lemans in Morton. We specialize in building floating docks and only use the best materials available!
We built the 16'x28' frame in 4- 8'x14' sections at our shop. Also on the top of the pile is our 8'x12' long gangway. We used 2x8 pressure treated framing lumber with heavy duty marine grade hardware.
Once the framing is complete, we load all the dock sections and premium dock floats onto our trailer and haul it out to the job site. Building the docks at our shop shaves tons of hours off of the dock building process.
When we get to the pond or lake, we strategically bolt the 8' sections together and use special hinges to attach the 14' sections and the gangway. Below are some pics of the corner hinges and gangway hinges.
Attaching the floats and the sections at the job is a breeze when we get all of the components laid out correctly!
Doesn't the water look inviting? We use our own mixtures of various colors of lake dyes to custom make each pond water look exactly the color the owner wants it to look! I have various shades of Blue, Green, and Black.
Our floating docks are very stable, heavy duty, and custom built to last a lifetime!
I will post the completion pictures once it quits raining. Seems like it has been raining the entire month of April!
Have been out monitoring the yellow perch over the last few weeks. They have been very aggressive and moving around alot since the ice has come off, and now have finished spawning in most of the area lakes and ponds.
Here is a picture of what perch eggs look like:
Here are some of our best Perch we have collected so far:
Saturday I headed north for an electrofishing survey for Larry Gerdes. He played basketball for the University of Illinois long before I was even born, and was wearing his Illini Cap when I pulled in Saturday morning. I am a big Illini fan myself and was excited to see a guy who has made his living in Atlanta, Georgia for the last 20 or 30 years still wearing the Orange and Blue! Anyhow, Larry stocked his pond 7 years ago and stocked it with some fairly large fish to begin with! His pond is extremely fertile and overall fairly shallow, but it grows some really big fish for only being 2.5 acres. The water visibility was less than one foot due to all the rain we have been having, so it was tough to see the fish in the electric field, but we did manage to get quite a few real nice largemouth and catfish.
We tagged about 25 bass and a catfish, took some pictures, and hashed out a completely customized management plan for Larry's pond and fish. I always will customize a management plan based on the clients goals, budget, and timeframe. He wants to keep the vegetation down in his major recreational areas and wants to focus on growing big bass, but still wants to keep enough bass in the pond for all the grandkids to not get bored fishing as well.
Wednesday I met with the staff at Ravina on The Lakes about keeping their lake beautiful for all of the weddings, receptions, and events out there this summer. I only live 2 miles from the facility, but had never been there. Anyhow, I was very impressed when I pulled in! That place is just awesome, it is tucked back in the woods and has some really cool facilities for big events, weddings, company picnics, family reunions, and such.
I know that most all of their weekends are completely booked for the summer, but I think they still have some weekdays and afternoons available. Also this year their lakes will match the rest of their facility and look incredible!
Ravina on The Lakes 5326 W Charter Oak Rd in Peoria, IL 61615 Website: ravina-onthelakes.net Phone: (309) 692-3530
I met with Rodger Tuesday, and it was windy, cold, and rainy. He has a 5 acre pond stocked with Smallmouth Bass, Hybrid Bluegill, Bluegill, and Redear Sunfish. The smallmouth bass have been growing up to about 3 lbs which is very typical for ponds around central Illinois, but we have a plan set up to help turn those smallies into plumb footballs.
Smallmouth wont typically grow much larger than 3 lbs on a diet of bluegills, because their mouths do not allow them to eat big enough bluegills to grow any bigger. They can hunt down and eat fathead minnows, and 3 inch bluegills all day long, but will not be able to gain weight unless they eat bigger meals and dont have to excercise as much. If you had to run a mile every time you wanted to eat a small meal, you wouldnt gain much weight either.
Also I think the smallmouths in his pond are reproducing too fast and they are all competing for what limited food is available. Our plan is to tag and relocate all of the skinny smallmouths regardless of their lengths to make room and more available food for the big mommas! We are also going to be adding more appropriately sized forage for the smallies to eat. Golden Shiners and Yellow Perch are longer and more slender than bluegills, and are much easier for them to eat! We have some Jumbo Perch Broodstock coming in just a couple weeks!
Here is a pic of an average male smallie from the pond. It is a very nice fish, but could be much fatter!
This was perhaps one of the busiest weeks ever, and I actually think this is going to be the norm for the next 6 months, seeing as we havent even started our normal pond maintenance and applications yet.
Justin, Allen, Josh, and Lee spent the week building docks, a deck, installing a fountain, and shipping out products. Our online store sales of lake products are picking up almost at a rate too fast to keep up with, and seems like I cant get the boys out the door before 10 am. Last year Justin alone could get the shipments done everyday by 8 am. We are starting to get some big orders coming through as well. One gentleman from Louisianna purchased $6,000 worth of pvc fish structures!
Anyhow, I had my week already full with On-Site Consultations and Electrofishing Surveys, and had a couple of fishing practices with the Peoria Christian High School Bass Fishing Team during the evenings. Then friday was the Bass Fishing State Sectionals and our two teams did really well! Our first team was one fish short of reaching the podium, and our second team had 3 fish in the boat before most teams had their first fish. Once the wind picked up though, their pattern went dry and never landed another fish.
This week I met with Rodger Moon at his Trophy Smallmouth Bass Lake, Ravina on the Lakes about keeping their main lake looking like a million bucks for all the weddings and receptions this year, Ed Kirby about keeping algae under control in his backyard pond, Larry Gerdes for an electrofishing survey and complete management plan for his pond, and Joe Yobbka south of chicago about keeping his pond free of curly leaf and american pondweed. I am planning on writing about these pond visits, because some of these are pretty cool projects!
I currently have 3-5 On-Site Consultations or Electrofishing surveys lined up for every week for the whole summer, and that is in addition to everything else we have going on. I obviously wont be able to be in the office much this season, so I hired Marci Cox as our Office Manager. She is a bookkeeper/accountant extraordinaire and is whipping our office into shape faster than I could of ever imagined! Can you imagine stepping into an office that has been organized and managed by 2 outdoorsman for the last couple years! The biggest mistake we have made so far is not hiring Marci about 2 years ago.
Anyhow, it is Sunday afternoon, the Cubs are whooping up on the Cardinals, the Bulls are hanging in there with the Celtics, and I am just relaxing in the air conditioning for the rest of the night! Not too often you will ever catch me inside during a 75 degree afternoon in the middle of turkey season, mushroom season, and spawning season!
Weight – 17lb 0oz Catch – 26 Bream, 2 Hybrid, 1 Common Carp. Weather – Mostly sunny, but cool. Strong southerly wind. Water Temp– 14.5c > 15.0c
At last the revision is over, the exam was yesterday and I’ll get my results in 6 weeks.
I organised a day off to go fishing with Mark on the Kennet & Avon Canal at Devizes to hopefully catch the resident tench & bream. Unfortunately being a canal to get the most from it, an early start was required, so the alarm was set for 4.30 and the car was loaded up the night before.
To be honest I really didn’t want an early start, because I felt wiped out from the exam and revision. So when I was woken up by a text from Mark at 2am saying he was ill (some dodgy sushi the day before), I was disappointed because Devizes offers some great fishing. However on the other hand I welcomed the opportunity for a lie in, assuming I could get back to sleep, which I couldn’t!
So I thought sod it, might as well go fishing. Mark had some of my bait, so I only had pellet available and I didn’t fancy driving too far.
Decided to fish the duck pond again, because I wanted to see if the carp were still around. Tactics were similar to last time and my only concern was, would only fishing pellet effect my catch?
As the session progressed, I caught mostly on the waggler, but the fish weren’t really turned on to the pellet and I was fairly certain that if I had a few maggots I would have caught much more. So I finished a little disappointed, particularly after last weeks session.
As for those carp, the 1 I caught only weighed a pound. A walk around the pond tells its own story. Being only shallow, the water colour used to be is very coloured with the carp churning up the bottom, but now there is a certain clarity, which suggests the volume of carp in the pond isn't as it used to be.
The pair of Canadian Geese pictured have 7 very young chicks. I wondered whether they were on some sort of sucide mission, because they seemed to think the road was an extension of the pond, stopping traffic on a couple of occasion as they wandered around. At one point I had to get up and usher them back to the pond.
Took the Peoria Christian High School Boys to the Fishing Park for a little tune up before the state sectional at Banner Marsh on Friday.
It was freezing cold and rainy, but on the water instruction and technique critiqueing was a must before the big day. I didnt think we would catch any fish, but we did manage about a dozen bass, 8 bluegill, and a HUGE rainbow trout.
Here I am showing the boys what it is going to take to win this tournament on friday. Just look at that beautiful black bass:
Jake and Keith did a great job catching everything but bass:
Spent Saturday working at our Lake in Norris, and took a little time off to take my Uncle Spark and 2nd cousins Eddie and Dr. Bobby Meister fishing. They caught 2 walleye, 9 trout, and 7 largemouth bass fishing off of the dock. Just kicked back and had a great time! Blue Fox spinner turned out to be the hot bait for the day. Here is a pic of Bobby with his first trout of the day:
I took a few casts at some rising trout on the far end of the lake while working on the lake siphon system and landed a beautiful 3 lb rainbow trout! No pics though and no witnesses either.
The AF crew has flown the coupe! After spending all week polishing up the bus full of goodies, it was time to take it for a spin. The magic bus made the journey to Melbourne and was back home in time for Sunday’s episode of AF. They couldn’t wait to share pictures of the Mogan Tour with the Mogan Maniacs.
The Mogan Tour rolled in Melbourne on Saturday. The AF Crew chatted it up with shoppers that stopped by “The Lodge” in Dick’s Sporting Goods. Blair gave seminars and showed off the new AF Zone end cap which houses all of the sponsor gear that helps him fish like a pro. The AF team loves seeing Mogan Maniacs show up and snapped pictures with the Shelly Clan. The tour bus travels to DSG on Gulf Center Dr. in Ft. Myers on April 25th . Come out to see us and don’t be left out of the zone.
Capt. Blair got his Permit and this week he’ll be “Wreckin’ Tampa”. Capt. Chad Manning takes Blair offshore to get wrecked by some Permit outside of Tampa Bay. Put a blue crab on a Lazer Sharp circle hook and hang on! Get your fix this week on SunSports with AF airing Friday @ 2pm, Sunday @ 7pm, Monday @ 9pm (bonus show), and Tuesday @ 6:30am.
Survey says? In efforts to keep in contact with our peeps (another senseless bird reference), we have added a Poll to the front page of the AF site. Periodically, the questions will change and your answers matter. We want your 2 cents! Who knows, add enough pennies together and you make change. This week’s question: What is your favorite color pattern?
The Mogan Man wants YOU! Addictive Fishing is recruiting new members for the Mogan Militia. Join the growing army of AF supporters on MySpace & FaceBook. Check out the latest pictures from the Mogan Tour, keep tabs on Blair during the Redfish Cup, and meet up with other Mogan Maniacs. While you’re there, post your recent catch or just tell us what you think of the show. Make sure your friends are a part of the coolest group on the web and watch the hottest show on the tube. Send this to 10 friends and you will catch a Mogan on your next fishing trip. Do it! It really works!
Went to Ellastone last night for a few hours, Dave (squire) had been in the day and said it was quite hard going, On arriving the weather was hot and bright but no fish were really rising, just the odd rise now and again, As the light started to fade the river errupted with fish rising all over the place, managed to take around five fish to the dry, most were taken on a grey duster and the dhe, all were quite small but i hooked a out of season grayling that was huge, (see picture), I unhooked the fish in the water and never picked her out so photo was taken holding her upstream, taking a mark off my rod the fish was just over 14 inch long!! I would say it was over 2 lb, I am not a grayling man but this was the largest one i have seen and it looked a old fish.. I also saw some big rainbows leaping out last night but failed to hook one, its seems only Dave can catch them this year!! Another good night for me on the dry and may fly is still to come...
It is 29 miles from my house to here and takes me a around a hour to get there, but well worth the run.. The river looked in fine form, short of a top up but running clear, this strech is a joy to fish with deep slow runs to fast weed runs, lots of overhanging trees with wily trout rising under them.. The river is the widest i have fished and wading can be a bit tricky if you dont know it well, i noticed that the bottom of the river can go from shallow to deep in a few steps so care is needed to be taken in these areas, i think a wading stick will be purchased on my next visit, Arrived around twelve to see a good hatch of granom coming off, the sun was bright but did not put the fish off from rising, First cast produced a nice 10 inch wild brown to my DHE, I tied a couple of these with a green band of dubbing on the bottom of the hook to match the granom coming off, i was getting free rises to this fly taking 4 fish until all were caught in trees Having no more dhe i went for anything in my box brown and took quite a few fish on a adams.. My best fish of the day came while wading through a deep slow weedy run, i saw a rise under a overhanging tree and while casting to it i only had 3ft of run until i had drag on the fly.. after four flies in the tree i managed to hook and land a lovely wild brown which fought its head off.. Had a top day and took 8 trout in all, these fish seem to fight harder than dove fish, All were taken on a dry fly which is what i love so will be back again soon for another go...ref="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4n0KvWpsrKyU9HbEgzIU0jH0wEx9NTK-pVwUOM20fNyBJPyy3ry9LyEjDK2UC9db-i8otYVq-vbA1HsTILyGEFojMG2lYHipf37U4am947pAxFkWKShi3MLC_hJLpQYbKebKXBrkDAgU/s1600-h/18042009131.jpg">
Weight – 35lb 9oz Catch – 59 Bream, 1 Roach, 1 Common Carp. Weather – Cloudy, showery. Heavy rain to finish
The Duck Pond is situated on a road junction, has 3 small islands the depth ranged from 1ft to 3ft and you only fit a handful of people around it. So why would I fish here?
The pond is only 10 minutes from the office and during a lunch break a few weeks ago a chance meeting with Dave Tierney revealed the pond was now free fishing. The last time I fished here was 5 years ago, when the pond was looked after by my former club Frome Vale AC. However it appears that Winterbourne Parish Council were making more demands on the club in terms of looking after the pond, that Frome Vale decided to give up their rights.
I caught my first double figure carp here and it was where I learned about fishing for carp. My best weight from the pond was 70lb of mainly carp and since the pond was only 10 minutes from the office, I thought it could be an ideal venue for a summers early morning session. However, was it still worth fishing? As usual I had 2 different opinions. Dave said there was still loads of skimmers in the pond, as well as the carp. Whilst someone else suggested loads of carp had been removed.
I had the week off to revise for my exam next week and needed a break. So decided on an afternoon session. I set myself up on what I call the bus stop swim, because it’s next to a bus stop. Settled on 2 swims, the 1st was 10m along the wall, which runs parallel with the road and the 2nd was 16-18m towards the island, fishing the waggler.
Bait was either double red maggot or Tony Rixons jelly pellets. Feed was 4mm coarse pellet. I prefer to use the waggler here mainly because it less likely to get in the way of the general public and for that reason I tend not to fish the pole any longer than 10m. Also I use my less expensive J27, instead of my N47.
I started on the pole and soon started to catch skimmers up to 1¾lb on maggot. A switch to the waggler resulted in more skimmers, but they were on average smaller than on the pole. As the session progressed, I started to catch on pellet, but this didn’t improve the average size, either on the pole or waggler. As the session drew to a conclusion I concentrated more on the pellet hoping for a carp, but other than 1 weighing 12oz on the waggler I had no others. You usually see the carp moving round, but I didn’t see any signs, so perhaps they have been removed.
Today was an enjoyable distraction from my revision and I will back to see whether there are any carp left.
It's almost ready to be launched. I know I have been saying that for a long time but I think it is close now.
On Monday the decals get put on and I think the cushions and top will be ready also.
It is a 28ft center console with an aluminium pod on the stern. The top is designed by me and custom built, as no one in Fiji has ever built one like this. The bow rail is also custom to allow fishing up front in rough seas.
Here are a few things I had done, 300lt fuel tank, 100lt fresh water with pump and hose, salt water wash down, built in ice chests, Garmin 4010 plotter/fish finder, 2kw transducer, there will be a radio box hanging from the t-topwith stereo and VHF. Spot lights around the top and lighting under the gunnel. Padded gunnel around the rear for fighting fish in comfort. Toilet in the console for those that are shy. 8 rod holders on the rocket laungher and another 8 on the gunnels. And much more but that is for another post. Next week pictures of the boat with logo and hopefully in the water. Yahoo!!!!
