Z Fish Report (4/29/10)
The 79 degree clean water is holding around 12 miles, with the deep blue water about 30 miles, and along the 1,000 fathom line. Inside 30 miles, the fishing for the offshore species has been slow, and as reported by Mike Bulkly, the owner of the super panga Huntress, many boats are not even getting a strike. However, he did tell me the inshore fishing for jack crevalle, chulas (a small, but excellent eating tuna with teeth), and black skipjack tuna is still good.
Plus, this weekend, starting Friday, is the annual offshore tournament, with a new car or pickup given as the prize for the largest 3 sailfish, largest marlin, and largest dorado. Fortunately, with the tournament starting on the full moon cycle, and slow offshore conditions anyway, the normal 120 to 150 boat tournament should have poor results. I say this because Zihuatanejo has yet to get out of the stone age with this 30 plus year running tournament. It is a kill tournament. In years past, with just slightly more favorable conditions, I have seen as many 750 sailfish hitting the dock over the course of the 3 day tournament.
Tim Gage of Texas fished with Martin on the Gaviota for a day. Tim was very disappointed with Martin, as well as me. They got a sailfish, and released it, but when the 200 pound blue marlin Tim got was at the boat, the crew killed it. Later, talking to Martin, he explained to me the heart was gone and the fish was going to die (which happens all too often with blues). Martin is very experienced, and will continue to be my favorite captain for the cruisers of the fleet. But, like all captains the world over, they can be fairly hard headed. He needs to be taught a lesson for not communicating correctly with the client, and not even making an attempt for the revival of the marlin to prove the fish was not going to make it. Tim started the teaching process by canceling the next day’s charter with Martin, which hits him in the pocketbook. I am the second step, because like all captains, their egos can also be quite big….When he reads this about him, I assure you things will be different in the future.
But, this is what it takes. The need for catch and release of bill fish cannot depend on the annual tournament to change; it has to start with the captains.
Ed Kunze
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Loose Lucey
Tuesday a good client of mine Clint,had a couple of his "big-wigs" in town and wanted to take them out on a guided trip so he gave me a call. We had just gotten a good bit of rain and the river was high and muddy but we dug our heels in and made it work. We started off with a cool windy morning, but as the afternoon progressed the temps warmed up and we got onto a nice bite. We landed a few nice brownies and lost another one during a good fight... I guess you have to lose some to catch some, right? Clint didn't get into the fish as much as the other guys but he made a great assistant,helping the others keep their lines in the water! All in all it was a fun day with some great action and good times!!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Steady action is the name of the game
If I haven't posted in a while, the fishing is good.
It hasn't been great, but it has been steady.
We've been fishing Sarasota Bay off Stephens Point and doing quite well on spotted seatrout to 5 pounds. The number of "slot" trout has been amazing. The average fish has been 17 inches, with numerous trout to 20 inches. Most are being taken on D.O.A. CAL Jigs with gold paddle tails, MirrOlure MirrOdines, D.O.A. Deadly Combinations and my Big Eye Baitfish Fly.
The Spanish mackerel, bluefish and pompano that were so plentiful just a couple of weeks ago have disappeared.
Good news: Snook are showing up under the lights. I've encountered them most every time out as of late. My friend, Rick Grassett, caught one recently that helped him win the Fly Division of the Sarasota CCA spring tournament. It was the only snook entered!
Perley Welch of New Hampshire (below right)joined me for a half-day of fishing and caught a number of fish. It was his first saltwater outing. Perley managed spotted seatrout to 20 inches, ladyfish and flounder.
John did hook up briefly on a snook just before daylight.
I've got a new Native Watercraft Ultimate 14.5 ordered. It should be here by mid-June. That will give me three Ultimate 14.5s. I sold the two Heritage Redfish 12 Anglers.
I received my new TFO spinning rods. Wow! That's all I can say. They're everything I thought they'd be -- and more! They're light and strong. I'm impressed.
Beach snook season is starting. First trip is scheduled in just a few days, but I'm not sure we'll get it in. West wind has the surf really stirred up. We should enter our spring pattern of east wind soon.
Beach snook angling is my favorite. It's totally sight-fishing and leads to some very exciting action. If you have never done it, give me a call (941-284-3406) and book a trip. The days are filling up fast.
Bad angling Pointon!!
I have been fishing the river Tean over the winter period on a beautiful spot that is on the banks of my mate Andy Warems (Wess) house..
Andy has sealed all the rights to fish this wild river and I have joined him to see what's in there, well we had a very successful Grayling season and visits gave us plenty of action with fish upto a pound.
We did kick samples and were amazed by the quantity of invertebrate.
In the last few weeks we have wondered the river looking for signs of trout, we started to see trout in likely looking spots but to my amazement these fish are huge! Most looking to be around the 2lb mark, now these are truly wild fish, this river has never been stocked and ever been fished with the fly so we have been very eager to get a taste of the action..
We were unsure about hatches of olives and again it has been rewarding to see fair amounts of Ldo coming off around 1 o'clock but also to see Grayling rising to them yet another bonus, the big question was would these huge trout we had seen be brave enough to rise to the olives. Well this is how the story has gone so far.....
In the middle of our beat wezz and myself were hiding behind a tree watching ldo trickling down, this was great as the river is quite clear and we could watch there behaviour taking the dry, this is when we saw a huge buttercup yellow brown glide into the middle of the run, and hang just below the surface, we both lay there our eyes fixed on this wild fish, before long it did what we had hoped for, it started to take the full dun, now this was pure fun to watch, we were at least 10 ft away watching it on the feed heavily, it must have taken 30 plus olives in a half hour space.. Now these fish have not got this size from being foolish and we soon had to work a plan out..we decided to come back the next day all prepared with the dry..
The next day we once arrived at the river all geared up to have a go at this fish, both of us buzzing of what we had seen before..
As we arrived around 12 the pool looked dead with no hatches or rising fish, I opted for a method explained to me by John Tyzack...we would sit and wait and the fish would eventually feed at some stage..sounds boring but not when you get the rewards of catching a fish like this on the dry, many a angler I know would just work a duo through the pool with no hatch and properly stand a good chance of catching this fish, but as Jt tells me 1 fish to the dry is worth 20 to the nymph..how I believe this to be true, to catch this fish to the dry would be some feat, now you might think this is not hard on most rivers but these fish are so cautious I have seen no other spooky when the river is low, even a branch snap puts these fish down, they have not grown this big in a small stream from being foolish..if not feeding they are down in there lye, this one under a tree root in a deep hole.
After a hour or so of talking shit between us we saw the Grayling start to rise, emergers at first then the full dun, before long into the hatch the big old dogger came calmly into the swim and started to walop olives down like his daily treat, it was Wez who set up to have a go and I was going to stay put giving info to wez as he go in position, we opted for a crawl infront of the fish with a down stream cast hiding behind a tree, wezz got in position and I watched this fish rise every ten seconds full on show to me and told wezz the position..I was buzzin and wezz was too, he flicked his rod back and cast a nice line down the food lane, the fly was drifting straight to the fish and for a reason not known the fish just turned away and sunk back to his deep hole, ahhh gutted, that was it, something had spooked the fish and put it down, there was no drag, the fly was a Jt olive.. The only thing I could come up with that the movement of wezz,s rod upstream in the fishs view put it down or the flyline hitting the water...we had failed but our hunger to get this fish got stronger..
We left it over the weekend and decided to have another go this week, we arrived again at the magic 1 o'clock to see this fish again in the middle of a full hatch on the feed!
It was my chance to get ago at this fish as it had got in my head and Wess has past it over to me as he knows how much I would love to catch it, he has got another one he has seen in his head!!
I opted for a different position on the other bank suggested by Wess, I would have to put a upstream cast in this time as not spook the fish again..
I crept around over the weir bridge to the other side, wess was now opposite me who could see the fish but the light was bad from this side so he had to guide me of where the fish was stationed, I selected a long tapoured leader down to a 2lb tippet mudded up with a emerging olive pattern I had tyed the night before just for this fish, the fish was taking full duns but I think a emerger can look more appealing to a spooky fish...
I had to lay on my front in nettles holding my rod out infront of me, I had told wezz to shout strike when he saw the fish turn as to hook it...my first cast was a bit wank which put me in flat water so I waited and then dropped it perfect in the food lane 3ft infront of the fish, Wezz whispered 'sweet cast bro' my heart was pounding in my chest, I have not been this nervous for a long time but I just knew how hard this was going to be even if I hooked it...the fish would just bolt to the tree roots and would my 2lb tippet hold the lunge as I was going to have to give it some stick..
I could see the cdc sticking out the water as it drifted down sweet, then the fish turned and headed straight to it and the gulped to fly.. My heart was in my mouth, I struck down stream hard and 'nothing!!' I then heard 'strike' from wezz, I had struck too soon and pulled the fly out of its mouth, I had not even pricked the fish but again it slowly drifted back to its hole...I heard a voice in my my mind from my teacher John Tyzack 'bad angling son bad angling' this is something he says to me when taking the piss if I have messed up!!
Wess looked across at me gutted, shaking his hand in the sign of a wanker...
Well you can imagine how gutted I was but the bonus was I got the fish to take the dry and that is sweet for me so as I write this the fish is still in my head big time..
I know I could wait for the river to get some colour and flow back and this will make it easier but I love it hard and to catch it like this would be a memorable one...
This is now my main target, so watch this space...
Andy has sealed all the rights to fish this wild river and I have joined him to see what's in there, well we had a very successful Grayling season and visits gave us plenty of action with fish upto a pound.
We did kick samples and were amazed by the quantity of invertebrate.
In the last few weeks we have wondered the river looking for signs of trout, we started to see trout in likely looking spots but to my amazement these fish are huge! Most looking to be around the 2lb mark, now these are truly wild fish, this river has never been stocked and ever been fished with the fly so we have been very eager to get a taste of the action..
We were unsure about hatches of olives and again it has been rewarding to see fair amounts of Ldo coming off around 1 o'clock but also to see Grayling rising to them yet another bonus, the big question was would these huge trout we had seen be brave enough to rise to the olives. Well this is how the story has gone so far.....
In the middle of our beat wezz and myself were hiding behind a tree watching ldo trickling down, this was great as the river is quite clear and we could watch there behaviour taking the dry, this is when we saw a huge buttercup yellow brown glide into the middle of the run, and hang just below the surface, we both lay there our eyes fixed on this wild fish, before long it did what we had hoped for, it started to take the full dun, now this was pure fun to watch, we were at least 10 ft away watching it on the feed heavily, it must have taken 30 plus olives in a half hour space.. Now these fish have not got this size from being foolish and we soon had to work a plan out..we decided to come back the next day all prepared with the dry..
The next day we once arrived at the river all geared up to have a go at this fish, both of us buzzing of what we had seen before..
As we arrived around 12 the pool looked dead with no hatches or rising fish, I opted for a method explained to me by John Tyzack...we would sit and wait and the fish would eventually feed at some stage..sounds boring but not when you get the rewards of catching a fish like this on the dry, many a angler I know would just work a duo through the pool with no hatch and properly stand a good chance of catching this fish, but as Jt tells me 1 fish to the dry is worth 20 to the nymph..how I believe this to be true, to catch this fish to the dry would be some feat, now you might think this is not hard on most rivers but these fish are so cautious I have seen no other spooky when the river is low, even a branch snap puts these fish down, they have not grown this big in a small stream from being foolish..if not feeding they are down in there lye, this one under a tree root in a deep hole.
After a hour or so of talking shit between us we saw the Grayling start to rise, emergers at first then the full dun, before long into the hatch the big old dogger came calmly into the swim and started to walop olives down like his daily treat, it was Wez who set up to have a go and I was going to stay put giving info to wez as he go in position, we opted for a crawl infront of the fish with a down stream cast hiding behind a tree, wezz got in position and I watched this fish rise every ten seconds full on show to me and told wezz the position..I was buzzin and wezz was too, he flicked his rod back and cast a nice line down the food lane, the fly was drifting straight to the fish and for a reason not known the fish just turned away and sunk back to his deep hole, ahhh gutted, that was it, something had spooked the fish and put it down, there was no drag, the fly was a Jt olive.. The only thing I could come up with that the movement of wezz,s rod upstream in the fishs view put it down or the flyline hitting the water...we had failed but our hunger to get this fish got stronger..
We left it over the weekend and decided to have another go this week, we arrived again at the magic 1 o'clock to see this fish again in the middle of a full hatch on the feed!
It was my chance to get ago at this fish as it had got in my head and Wess has past it over to me as he knows how much I would love to catch it, he has got another one he has seen in his head!!
I opted for a different position on the other bank suggested by Wess, I would have to put a upstream cast in this time as not spook the fish again..
I crept around over the weir bridge to the other side, wess was now opposite me who could see the fish but the light was bad from this side so he had to guide me of where the fish was stationed, I selected a long tapoured leader down to a 2lb tippet mudded up with a emerging olive pattern I had tyed the night before just for this fish, the fish was taking full duns but I think a emerger can look more appealing to a spooky fish...
I had to lay on my front in nettles holding my rod out infront of me, I had told wezz to shout strike when he saw the fish turn as to hook it...my first cast was a bit wank which put me in flat water so I waited and then dropped it perfect in the food lane 3ft infront of the fish, Wezz whispered 'sweet cast bro' my heart was pounding in my chest, I have not been this nervous for a long time but I just knew how hard this was going to be even if I hooked it...the fish would just bolt to the tree roots and would my 2lb tippet hold the lunge as I was going to have to give it some stick..
I could see the cdc sticking out the water as it drifted down sweet, then the fish turned and headed straight to it and the gulped to fly.. My heart was in my mouth, I struck down stream hard and 'nothing!!' I then heard 'strike' from wezz, I had struck too soon and pulled the fly out of its mouth, I had not even pricked the fish but again it slowly drifted back to its hole...I heard a voice in my my mind from my teacher John Tyzack 'bad angling son bad angling' this is something he says to me when taking the piss if I have messed up!!
Wess looked across at me gutted, shaking his hand in the sign of a wanker...
Well you can imagine how gutted I was but the bonus was I got the fish to take the dry and that is sweet for me so as I write this the fish is still in my head big time..
I know I could wait for the river to get some colour and flow back and this will make it easier but I love it hard and to catch it like this would be a memorable one...
This is now my main target, so watch this space...
Andy Warem is doing day tickets for the stretch, and he lives on the bank and will show you the river, it a testing river but the trout are huge and rise to the olive, plenty of grayling that take the dry too but a nymph is a killer. stealth is the key...its catch and release only...
If you want a session ring Andy on
07989323051
Nice one
Glen
Glen Pointon Electrical Contractors
mobile 07973951352
Monday, April 26, 2010
25/04/10 - Lands End - Match Lake
Weight – 72lb 7oz
Catch – 14 Carp, 3 Tench, 1 Crucian
Weather – Cloudy muggy start, becoming showery & breezy
Match – Open - 4th overall
This match should have been called the Cider Farm overspill open. With Sue needing the car on Saturday I only had Sunday to fish, but where to go? Mark was fishing a clubbie in Devizes and a call to Tony revealed he had an Open at Cider Farm, which was sold out. Mike was only running a Saturday open, so it looked like I would be pleasure fishing. I was giving Cuckoos Rest serious consideration because 2500 small carp had been stocked and the bream & tench were on the feed. However late on Friday Mike called back to say there were a few interested in a Sunday match, so I booked in.
There was only 10 of us and we all in the same situation, either too late to book in or didn’t wish to fish Cider Farm. With an 11am draw I arrived an hour early and walked around the lakes. There were loads of carp cruising the surface, with most around peg 7/8, 14 and the 20s. I drew peg 1, which I wasn’t too disappointed with, because there was a few fish moving around between myself and Lee Trivett on p24.
Pete Nurse was peg 3 and Mike West on 5. All match these 2 never stopped winding each other up, it was like listening to an old married couple. Pete was convinced Mike had beaten him and vice versa, but as it happened neither won because they both weighed 52-11.
Next decision would I be using Tony's lovely crisp casters, probably not, because we were only paying 1 silver place. So pellet & paste rigs were set up for up & down the shelf, the silvers would have to wait for another day. On the all in I started firing 4mms towards the island and a ½ pot of 4 & 6mms with some paste at 14.5 down the left hand edge at the bottom of the shelf. I also put ½ pot of micro, 4mm and some casters at 13m in open water just in case the wheels fell off (which I never used).
I went straight down the right hand edge under the tree, having seen some carp moving around at the start, but only managed a 12oz crucian. After a couple of put ins at 14.5m with paste and I had a 9lber, followed shortly by a 4lber, so a good start, but then I couldn't get another bite. In fact I didn’t get another fish for an hour, despite carp moving around the island, but I couldn’t get them to take my hair rigged 6mm pellet.
Another look down the RH edge produced a carp and 2 more followed at 15m down the LH edge on top of the shelf before they disappeared again. At this point the heavens open and the wind picked up, making it more difficult to fish long with paste. I had kept the pellet going into the island and most of the fish I could see were on the other side in vacant peg 22, but my feed had definitely pulled a few to my side. The problem was finding a clear spot, due to roots and god knows what snagging my rig. I managed to trash 3 rigs, but after much messing around with depths & shotting, found it best to fish 16.5m, a metre off the point of the island and I started to string a few fish together, including 3 tench in quick succession.
I did try down the LH edge but only managed 1 more carp. I had intended to go 17m, but since the wind picked up I simply couldn’t keep the rig there long enough without the pole being blown into the bank side foliage. At least fishing the island if a gust of wind did blow it pushed the pole away from trouble. Besides I think most of the carp were settled by the tree stump, which was 19m away, however the stump is only 14m away on p24 and Lee started catching a few tight in during the 2nd half of the match.
For the rest of the match I would catch a few from the island, when they backed off I would try other swims without success, but when ever I came back to the island the fish would have returned and I would get a couple more before they back off again.
In general this was a frustrating match, apart from a 45min spell when I caught regularly I had to keep chopping and changes to keep the fish coming. The wind ruined my plan to fish 17m down the left hand margin and trashing my rigs didn’t help either.
Peg 1 isn’t the peg it used to be since Mike cut the trees back and snags by the island doesn’t make for an easy days fishing. However I think (I may be wrong) 72lb is the best weight from the peg for quite sometime, so I was pleased with that, but its difficult to compete with the form pegs at the moment. Garry Wall caught all day on p14, fishing paste to the platform on his right, whilst Shaun Townsend caught shallow on pellet from peg 7.
1st – 147-14 – Garry Wall – p14
2nd – 117-10 - Shaun Townsend – p7
3rd – 90-10 – Lewis Townsend – p21
4th – 72-7 – Ken Rayner – p1
5th – 68- 0 - Nathan Hawke – p16
6th – 64-12 - Lee Trivett – p24
silvers – 25-8 – Dave Sawyer – p11 (skimmers/soft pellet)
Catch – 14 Carp, 3 Tench, 1 Crucian
Weather – Cloudy muggy start, becoming showery & breezy
Match – Open - 4th overall
This match should have been called the Cider Farm overspill open. With Sue needing the car on Saturday I only had Sunday to fish, but where to go? Mark was fishing a clubbie in Devizes and a call to Tony revealed he had an Open at Cider Farm, which was sold out. Mike was only running a Saturday open, so it looked like I would be pleasure fishing. I was giving Cuckoos Rest serious consideration because 2500 small carp had been stocked and the bream & tench were on the feed. However late on Friday Mike called back to say there were a few interested in a Sunday match, so I booked in.
There was only 10 of us and we all in the same situation, either too late to book in or didn’t wish to fish Cider Farm. With an 11am draw I arrived an hour early and walked around the lakes. There were loads of carp cruising the surface, with most around peg 7/8, 14 and the 20s. I drew peg 1, which I wasn’t too disappointed with, because there was a few fish moving around between myself and Lee Trivett on p24.
Pete Nurse was peg 3 and Mike West on 5. All match these 2 never stopped winding each other up, it was like listening to an old married couple. Pete was convinced Mike had beaten him and vice versa, but as it happened neither won because they both weighed 52-11.
Next decision would I be using Tony's lovely crisp casters, probably not, because we were only paying 1 silver place. So pellet & paste rigs were set up for up & down the shelf, the silvers would have to wait for another day. On the all in I started firing 4mms towards the island and a ½ pot of 4 & 6mms with some paste at 14.5 down the left hand edge at the bottom of the shelf. I also put ½ pot of micro, 4mm and some casters at 13m in open water just in case the wheels fell off (which I never used).
I went straight down the right hand edge under the tree, having seen some carp moving around at the start, but only managed a 12oz crucian. After a couple of put ins at 14.5m with paste and I had a 9lber, followed shortly by a 4lber, so a good start, but then I couldn't get another bite. In fact I didn’t get another fish for an hour, despite carp moving around the island, but I couldn’t get them to take my hair rigged 6mm pellet.
Another look down the RH edge produced a carp and 2 more followed at 15m down the LH edge on top of the shelf before they disappeared again. At this point the heavens open and the wind picked up, making it more difficult to fish long with paste. I had kept the pellet going into the island and most of the fish I could see were on the other side in vacant peg 22, but my feed had definitely pulled a few to my side. The problem was finding a clear spot, due to roots and god knows what snagging my rig. I managed to trash 3 rigs, but after much messing around with depths & shotting, found it best to fish 16.5m, a metre off the point of the island and I started to string a few fish together, including 3 tench in quick succession.
I did try down the LH edge but only managed 1 more carp. I had intended to go 17m, but since the wind picked up I simply couldn’t keep the rig there long enough without the pole being blown into the bank side foliage. At least fishing the island if a gust of wind did blow it pushed the pole away from trouble. Besides I think most of the carp were settled by the tree stump, which was 19m away, however the stump is only 14m away on p24 and Lee started catching a few tight in during the 2nd half of the match.
For the rest of the match I would catch a few from the island, when they backed off I would try other swims without success, but when ever I came back to the island the fish would have returned and I would get a couple more before they back off again.
In general this was a frustrating match, apart from a 45min spell when I caught regularly I had to keep chopping and changes to keep the fish coming. The wind ruined my plan to fish 17m down the left hand margin and trashing my rigs didn’t help either.
Peg 1 isn’t the peg it used to be since Mike cut the trees back and snags by the island doesn’t make for an easy days fishing. However I think (I may be wrong) 72lb is the best weight from the peg for quite sometime, so I was pleased with that, but its difficult to compete with the form pegs at the moment. Garry Wall caught all day on p14, fishing paste to the platform on his right, whilst Shaun Townsend caught shallow on pellet from peg 7.
1st – 147-14 – Garry Wall – p14
2nd – 117-10 - Shaun Townsend – p7
3rd – 90-10 – Lewis Townsend – p21
4th – 72-7 – Ken Rayner – p1
5th – 68- 0 - Nathan Hawke – p16
6th – 64-12 - Lee Trivett – p24
silvers – 25-8 – Dave Sawyer – p11 (skimmers/soft pellet)
Dogwood Canyon Branson Missouri
So after jampacking the first 3 days of our trip with all sort of activities, we decided to head out to Dogwood Canyon on Sunday morning after a little church service at the lodge. We got to the canyon just in time for the 11 am tour on the tram. Dogwood Canyon is another one of Mr. Morris' masterpieces. It is a 2200 acre nature preserve that is full of springs, waterfalls, bridges, trails, animals, and of course rainbow trout. Everything at this place is just done right and is first class. Hiking, biking, walking trails and picnic areas are very well kept and scenic.
The tram is a 2 hour tour of the park hitting all the highlights like the wilderness chapel, big trout streams, caves, and of course the animals. The elk, bison, whitetail deer, wild turkeys, and texas long horns were very impressive up close. They came right up to the tram (with a little food incentive of course) and you could literally reach out and touch them if you so desired.
The kids absolutely loved having these huge beasts within an arms length away. Very very cool. Here are some pics from our dogwood canyon adventure:
After the tram tour we had a picnic overlooking one of the trout streams. We brought lunches to eat, but the twenty dollar bill in pocket was gladly exchanged for a bison burger and smoked trout at the dogwood cafe. In all honesty I actually like regular cow burgers better than bison, but for some reason am a sucker for a bison burger whenever given the opportunity. Something about eating a buffalo burger that is just cool.
So we headed out of the canyon with full bellies and headed straight for the swimming pools at Big Cedar. (good thing it was a 30 minute drive eh?) After swimming we topped off the evening eating the rest of our fish and as much of the leftover food from the trip as possible. Then went to sleep in the fancy sheets for the last time. Monday morning we headed back towards real life.
Anyhow my computer broke down the first day of our trip. I think some kids (or possibly even Brook) might have got ahold of it and I wasnt able to get any of the work done I had planned on working on. If your reading this and expecting a lake report or email correspondence from me, please forgive me for the delay. I have everything stored on that laptop and feel kind of naked going into this next week without it. I am trying to figure out everything planned for this week without it, because my only calendar is in there! I stopped by Haas It in Tremont to drop off my laptop on my way back into town from the trip. Tom and co at Haas are the backbone of most all of my web work and are computer and website genius'. Currently it feels like losing that laptop is almost as crippling as losing an organ or appendage or something. Its just a weird helpless feeling.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Wessers Wye Wacker puts a smile on our faces
Has my usual session on the Wye Sunday and guested my mucker Wess for his first session on the dry at this holy river, i met him at the Peacock at 9.00am and we sat down for my now regular coffee in the lounge..
Just seeing Wess's face was a picture as i knew how he would be buzzing as i was on my first visit, even i am still the same every time i come to this place..
Jenny Mcenzie brought us the flys that are sold at the Peacock and we had a chat about how are day would go, there is nothing like the antispation of getting yourself ready for the days fishing as his place can make dreams come true. I told Wess of the mistakes that people make who come to this river which i have done myself, You pay your money and go mad fishing everywhere trying to cram it in in one day, by doing this you end up missing hatches all over the place and can go home with a smacked arse..my method is to choose a section and get to know it and wait for it to happen...because it always does..
I choose to work the beat above midway, somewhere i know quite well and this would give me chance to help Wess all i could.
We drove along the A6 following eachother with our arms hanging out the windows inpersonating being into a big fish!! Peolpe walking past must have thought we were mad!!
We soon tackled up next to the river with some pure piss take from our dress sence, Wess thinks he looks cool with his chav cap and his mchammer type waders!! when i look pure class on the street! with my barbour gear!!
I wanted to start by showing wess some nice runs and did not want to fish until he had taken a fish, i sometimes feel a bit under pressure when showing a section i fish incase it does not happen and i would get some severe stick if we drew a blank..
But it was not 5 mins and Wess hit a fish on a elk hair caddis, a small fingerling rainbow but a true wild one and Wess was buzzing!! He started to get the feel and started to take fish so i got my rod out we went wondering around and sighting fish..
We saw a big rainbow in the gin clear water and it was my turn for a go so i just flicked a JT olive into the path of this fish with not much confidence, but like in slow motion it slowly moving into it path and sipped the fly in, i waited then bang set the hook home and she was off downstream zingging my lamson, after a right good scrap wess netted my a nice 1lb 8z rainbow..
It was now Wess turn and he did exactly the same but this time a nice brown came to hand and was realeased..sight fishing is superb, wess was on a high he was shocked to see what was going on, i too could not beleive that these fish were 'on it' and a fly put past in the right manner would be taken..
We spotted another good rainbow and Wess flicked his sedge out only to see the rainbow smash it like i have never seen, a few scary minuites and i put the net under a wild cock rainbow that was perfect in every way tipping the scales to 2lb 2oz...
The first three hours gave us tremendous sport but there after we were punished and the river switched off in the afternoon, we got to the stage where we were flogging the river slightly and it was very hard going wth fish showing no interest at all, so we opted to chill out in the town and have some tea..
Nothing got going later on so wess got off buzzing his head off and i went the Peacock for my posh pt of coffee
Sweet
Glen
Jenny Mcenzie brought us the flys that are sold at the Peacock and we had a chat about how are day would go, there is nothing like the antispation of getting yourself ready for the days fishing as his place can make dreams come true. I told Wess of the mistakes that people make who come to this river which i have done myself, You pay your money and go mad fishing everywhere trying to cram it in in one day, by doing this you end up missing hatches all over the place and can go home with a smacked arse..my method is to choose a section and get to know it and wait for it to happen...because it always does..
I choose to work the beat above midway, somewhere i know quite well and this would give me chance to help Wess all i could.
We drove along the A6 following eachother with our arms hanging out the windows inpersonating being into a big fish!! Peolpe walking past must have thought we were mad!!
We soon tackled up next to the river with some pure piss take from our dress sence, Wess thinks he looks cool with his chav cap and his mchammer type waders!! when i look pure class on the street! with my barbour gear!!
I wanted to start by showing wess some nice runs and did not want to fish until he had taken a fish, i sometimes feel a bit under pressure when showing a section i fish incase it does not happen and i would get some severe stick if we drew a blank..
But it was not 5 mins and Wess hit a fish on a elk hair caddis, a small fingerling rainbow but a true wild one and Wess was buzzing!! He started to get the feel and started to take fish so i got my rod out we went wondering around and sighting fish..
We saw a big rainbow in the gin clear water and it was my turn for a go so i just flicked a JT olive into the path of this fish with not much confidence, but like in slow motion it slowly moving into it path and sipped the fly in, i waited then bang set the hook home and she was off downstream zingging my lamson, after a right good scrap wess netted my a nice 1lb 8z rainbow..
It was now Wess turn and he did exactly the same but this time a nice brown came to hand and was realeased..sight fishing is superb, wess was on a high he was shocked to see what was going on, i too could not beleive that these fish were 'on it' and a fly put past in the right manner would be taken..
We spotted another good rainbow and Wess flicked his sedge out only to see the rainbow smash it like i have never seen, a few scary minuites and i put the net under a wild cock rainbow that was perfect in every way tipping the scales to 2lb 2oz...
The first three hours gave us tremendous sport but there after we were punished and the river switched off in the afternoon, we got to the stage where we were flogging the river slightly and it was very hard going wth fish showing no interest at all, so we opted to chill out in the town and have some tea..
Nothing got going later on so wess got off buzzing his head off and i went the Peacock for my posh pt of coffee
Sweet
Glen
Roger's Rainbow's
Friday, I had Roger Cole,a good client of mine fishing with me. We decided we would pursue some bigger fish. As it turned out, we caught lots of big fish!! We had thunderstorms on the radar but decided to go ahead with our plan anyway. I think the biggest fish Roger caught was about 5 1/2 pounds! Who knew the Little Red River even had Rainbow trout this big? It was unreal catching fish after fish worthy of being put on the reel. Roger also had a new switch rod we wanted to try out, so we rigged it up and played around with it for a while. It was an amazing day of trout fishing for us, that's for sure!!
Doc and Rick
This past Thursday I took Doctor Usdan and Rick out fishing. It seemed like it was going to be the perfect conditions. We had low water and sunny skies. We were able to get into some fish but they sure were being picky. We worked hard for all of the fish we caught. We found one stretch of the river that seemed to be holding the most fish, so we concentrated our fishing there. At lunch we got out of the boat and did some wade fishing. It was so nice to be out of the boat and wading! Haven't been able to do much of that lately. Rick caught this nice brown at lunch and Doc caught several nice bows. At the end of the day we got into an awesome caddis hatch and caught a few fish on dries...another great day on the river!
Table Rock Lake Fishing and Branson Family Trip
Wednesday evening we loaded up 11 kids and 16 adults and headed down to Branson, Missouri for a mini 5 day family vacation. We stayed at The Cliffs at Long Creek Resort overlooking Table Rock Lake. Let me just say that Johnny Morris, Bass Pro Shops, and the Big Cedar Lodge know how to build and develop the best vacation properties in the United States. This is their newest project that is just 3 miles from the Big Cedar Lodge. Here are some pics of our 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 3500 square foot luxury houses we stayed in. Each house has a full theatre room in the basement, 7 large flat screen tv's, pool table, poker table, downstairs bar/kitchen, is completely furnished with all kinds of luxury furniture and decorations, and comes with its own boat slip on the lake as well. Basically nothing in this place could have been done any nicer, bigger, or better.
The story of this trip actually begins back in Sept of 2009 when I was down here at the Big Cedar Lodge teaching at the Pond Boss Convention with Justin. We were in charge of the hands on seining demonstration for the conference. Anyhow on our way home from the conference we stopped in at Bass Pro Shops in Springfield and happened to be in the right place at the right time. They had just opened up this new resort and were looking to fill it up with people this spring. Justin and I didn't come close to meeting the financial requirements to sign up for this promotional trip, but we were lucky we had my dad and older brother along.... They each signed up for the 5 day promotional trip and were abit apprehensive about doing so, but oh my goodness did that ever work out great! We hit the jackpot with this one.
These houses regularly cost about $1000 per night ($1500 or so during peak season) and here we are virtual white trash compared to regular guests who visit these sort of places, being treated like kings. They had free movie rentals, nintendo rentals, drinks, coffee, etc 24 hours per day. It was great (at least for this trip). I still envied the folks camping at the state parks I drove through. I would actually rather camp most of the time given the choice. Nothing beats a campsite overlooking some water, bathing out in nature, sleeping by a campfire with real wood, campsite hot chocolate, and preparing a huge campfire breakfast. But needless to say, experiencing this sort of luxury vacation is at least an experience to chalk off the list.
Let me just say we made the most of every minute of our visit here. We swam at the heated swimming pools and hot tubs nonstop, played shuffleboard, volleyball, pool, card games, and watched movies. Here are some pics of these amenities:
Anyhow we also got good discounts from the resort on many of the area attractions and even $100 Bass Pro gift cards. We went into Branson for the Noah's Ark Musical, Branson's Landing Shopping, Bass Pro Shops, Dogwood Canyon Adventure, and of course had to spend an afternoon fishing too! We rented two fishing boats from Cricket Creek Marina about 8 miles south of the resort, because I had a hunch the fish would be down in the shallow creek channels towards the bottom of the lake. I figured it was easier to drive a car 8 miles than drive the boats that far down. We actually were in Arkansas so we had to get Arkansas fishing licenses.
We get to the marina and had 7 fisherman with a 7 passenger fishing pontoon reserved, but when we got there the first thing the marina guys pointed out was the weight limit for the 7 passenger boat! We exceeded the weight limit with our first 5 guys, not counting gear!! Anyhow they had a nice fishing boat we ended up renting along with the pontoon. We got loaded up in the boats, the marina guy said folks were catching fish North, but I still wanted to head South. So we headed out South looking for fish in this 40,000 acre lake that averages about 50 feet deep. Let me just say I didn't really expect to catch many fish without a guide or any knowledge of this lake whatsoever, but was intrigued with giving er my best effort and figuring something out. The task of finding some fish became even a bit harder with a dead trolling motor battery, generic in the dash depth display and only 6 hours till the boats had to be back to the marina.
The first 3 hours of our trip, this is what we were able to bring in the boat by fishing around the obvious shoreline structures. We caught a handful of bait sized bluegills, a couple 10 inch smallmouth bass, and a 15 inch largemouth.
Anyhow we were getting somewhat discouraged (and rained upon every 30 minutes or so) and then we decided to start shaking things up a bit. In order to eat fish for dinner we needed to figure something out in a hurry. We started trolling around from point to point and focussing on offshore structures and contour changes. Thats when things started happening and fish started flopping on the bottom of our boats! The last 2 hours of our trip we caught tons of short smallmouth, largemouth, spotted bass, longear sunfish, bluegill and small crappie but we also caught the following huge crappie, nice walleye, and flathead catfish.
We had to have the boats back in at 7 pm, but if we could of stayed out for another 1.5 hours of fishing light we would have filled up our coolers completely with fish! Before we left the marina I found out that there was a $150 charge per hour for being late, which wouldnt have been too bad in a situation such as this, but the marina guy caught onto my inquiry pretty quick and said that along with the late fee the lake patrol would be out looking for us as well. Needless to say we were back in at 6:59.
So anyhow there was this guy fishing from the bank on a sandbar and I could see some fish flopping from his stringer. We eased up and started talking to him a bit and had to find out what he caught this monster flathead on. He said he caught it on a 10 inch piece of carp. He graciously allowed me to take a pic to document this beast. When he help up the fish the first time to show us, he had lots of veins and muscles bulging. When I help up the fish, you cant really see any veins or muscles bulging??? (just an extra layer of chin insulation) All I can figure is that I guess I just must be alot stronger than this muscular looking fella was?
carp fishing (fox chain of lakes, il)
Today I was meeting up with Neal and Randall for some bank fishing on the fox chain. We were planning on targeting some big carp, cats, and whatever else we could drum up. I pulled into the lot first and had enough time to set up 2 rods before Neal came rolling in. We fished together for almost 30 minutes before I caught the first fish which happed to be a decent crappie. He inhaled a jig and minnow combo on a rod that was sitting on the dock while I was rebaiting a different rod. After about 15 more minutes we decided to move to a different spot where we could really pepper the shoreline with some extra rods.
We pulled into the second spot and started to unpack the gear. Randall made it just about that time. Neal and I fished a simple bottom rig made up of an egg sinker behind an oversized swivel and a small live bait hook. We tossed those out and put the rod in a rod holder with a tight line and loose drag. We alternated our baits from minnows to leaches to corn and bread balls. Randall opted for a leach on a jig head and a second rod with a minnow and slip bobber.
Randall didn’t stay too long but was there long enough to catch a healthy young muskie. He caught him on the jig and leach combo right from under a dock he was casting to.
Neal was the cat fishing king for the day and must have gotten about a half dozen cats. He also lost a nice carp right up on the bank.
I ended up with one crappie three carp and a cat.
The weather conditions weren’t good. We ended up in our waders and rain coats very early and fished through the scattered showers all day. Despite the rain, we still found a way to catch fish, grill some sausages and brats, and have a great time chilling with some friends. All the fish were released.
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| 1st fish of the day is a crappie |
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| fog + wind + rain = fishing in full rain gear |
Randall didn’t stay too long but was there long enough to catch a healthy young muskie. He caught him on the jig and leach combo right from under a dock he was casting to.
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| randall with a bonus musky |
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| the catfish king |
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| fox chain of lakes carp |
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| mirror carp |
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| carp fest |
Friday, April 23, 2010
Z Fish Report 4/22/10)
The 80° blue water is still holding at less than 12 miles, which is historically very unusual for April. But, since the migratory fish don't know the "historical" difference, the fishing within the normal "day" charter distance of about 20 miles, is very poor for the average charter.
Incredible action can be had, but at the magic numbers of 40 to 50 miles. There are lots of blue marlin, sailfish, and yellowfin tuna right over the near vertical drop from 6,000 feet to 14,000 feet. (Just check out Google Earth if you don't believe me about the depths.)
This trench, called the Middle America Trench , extends 1,700 miles from a bit north of us, down to Costa Rica, with depths at times of over 21,000 feet. It is a virtual highway for pelagic species like marlin, yellowfin tuna, and sailfish. This is where our local commercial pangeros, in a single engine open panga, go every day to make their living.
Mike Bulkley, owner of the super panga Huntress, with Francisco as the captain, told me the clients do not want to pay the extra gas money and time it takes to get to the 45 mile mark. They read the daily charter rate on the internet, and expect the captain to take them to Hawaii, if that is where the fish are, and be back in Zihuatanejo at the end of the day.
Rather than try and explain to a client to pay extra fuel for a trip of a lifetime, the Huntress has had very satisfied clients by going inshore and catching a lot of small game fish on light line. Then, as Mike only steers the boat on the blue water trips, Francisco has been taking the clients to Ixtapa Island for a lunch with their fresh caught fish, a little snorkeling, and water sports before returning to the pier, without having to stop for gas in Hawaii.
Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos, is very optimistic (read promoter), but then what can you expect from the very best captain in this port. He is getting a few roosters off the beach, with several sailfish and striped marlin in the blue water, when nobody else is getting them. Of course, he did not tell me where he got them, but his clients are very satisfied.
Ed Kunze
Incredible action can be had, but at the magic numbers of 40 to 50 miles. There are lots of blue marlin, sailfish, and yellowfin tuna right over the near vertical drop from 6,000 feet to 14,000 feet. (Just check out Google Earth if you don't believe me about the depths.)
This trench, called the Middle America Trench , extends 1,700 miles from a bit north of us, down to Costa Rica, with depths at times of over 21,000 feet. It is a virtual highway for pelagic species like marlin, yellowfin tuna, and sailfish. This is where our local commercial pangeros, in a single engine open panga, go every day to make their living.
Mike Bulkley, owner of the super panga Huntress, with Francisco as the captain, told me the clients do not want to pay the extra gas money and time it takes to get to the 45 mile mark. They read the daily charter rate on the internet, and expect the captain to take them to Hawaii, if that is where the fish are, and be back in Zihuatanejo at the end of the day.
Rather than try and explain to a client to pay extra fuel for a trip of a lifetime, the Huntress has had very satisfied clients by going inshore and catching a lot of small game fish on light line. Then, as Mike only steers the boat on the blue water trips, Francisco has been taking the clients to Ixtapa Island for a lunch with their fresh caught fish, a little snorkeling, and water sports before returning to the pier, without having to stop for gas in Hawaii.
Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos, is very optimistic (read promoter), but then what can you expect from the very best captain in this port. He is getting a few roosters off the beach, with several sailfish and striped marlin in the blue water, when nobody else is getting them. Of course, he did not tell me where he got them, but his clients are very satisfied.
Ed Kunze
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
John and Ben
This past Saturday and Sunday I took John and Ben out for a day of fishing on the LRR. We had low water and great weather. Saturday our fishing was kind of tricky until about 10:30, then we got on top of a lot of fish and absolutely smoked them! There were a ton of boats on the water and eventually the pressure put our fish down, but we sure had fun! Sunday was a different story. We only saw one other boat on the river. It was so nice. We fished dry-dropper rigs almost all day and caught tons of nice fish! John was on fire and it seemed like he was catching fish on every cast for a while. It was incredible! It was a fun two days,mixing up some techniques and fishing a few different styles. It kept things interesting for sure. I certainly love spring fishing for that reason!
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