National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior, Yellowstone National Park, P.O. Box 168 Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 30, 2012 12-055 Al Nash or Dan Hottle (307) 344-2015 YELL_Public_Affairs@nps.gov YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK NEWS RELEASE Yellowstone To Implement Fishing Closures
Yellowstone National Park is planning to implement some temporary fishing closures. The following waterways will be closed to all fishing, effective Wednesday, August 1: • Gibbon River below Gibbon Falls • Firehole River below Keppler Cascades • Madison River • Hot air temperatures, limited rainfall, runoff from thermal features, and below average stream flows have all resulted in high water temperatures in these rivers. Water temperatures in the Gibbon River have been above 73 degrees most of the past two weeks, with water temperatures in the Firehole River above 78 degrees temperature. • Water temperatures this warm can be stressful and even fatal for trout. Yellowstone National Park staff will continue to monitor water temperatures and stream flows in these and other rivers and streams throughout the park. The extended forecast calls for continued hot and dry conditions with a slight chance of isolated afternoon thunderstorms. These conditions contribute to continued low stream flows and high water temperatures, and could result in additional fishing restrictions.
So i have left it a month before i posted another report simply because i couldn't be bothered to do so...still cant really! lol.
I cant really remember what i have caught beginning of month, well apart from the one or two better fish i had! Including my new P.B Wrasse of 5lb 14oz which i caught on Mullet gear!
(I found a new spot for Wrasse other day also and had 15x Wrasse on the SPs Bass Assassins and only there for 1 hour!...So hopefully will winkle a big one out of there soon too)
I Booked one day off work and got a invite to go on Karl Thomas Boat! We had a good day out!
We had a few Turbot but nothing too big:
Little Red Gurnard took my Mackerel
Karl with a Ling!
16lb Ling i had on a light rod! Didn't half put a bend in it!
I had a few Pollock on the SPs too up to around 8/9lb! :)
Karl with a Mackerel which was only like 2oz short of the Current Jersey Record! 2lb 12oz if i remember correctly! :)
This next photo gives you a idea of the size of the beast!
I have tried a couple of times to better my previous Smooth Hound but i suck at them and dont get the luck.
Here is a small one i had on the Hermit!
Same session as this Lee Jarvis managed his first ever Bullhuss! he has been wanting one for a while!
I have been trying for Mullet quite a bit! had some success mainly with the Golden Greys on the beach etc ( no pics of them they all look the same ;) ) . But here is a Thick Lipped i did have!
Here is a Bass i had on a dead Grodo on the mullet rod 1oz running ledger 4/0 Hook.. put up a great fight for its size, only 3lb 7oz:
Had a good Session on the Gilthead s, had 7 in one session aswell as 2 bass and a small Golden Grey Mullet. These where the two biggest of the day:
Went out on ritchie's Boat for a few hours other day too in search of some mullet we failed but a few Pollock was landed on the Boat :)
Will thats it for now! Not so many big fish but a few bits and bobs! :) Got fishing Comp coming up which i take the week of for ..keen! This time of year i cant be arsed taking pictures really but hopefully the fish i will be catching will be worth a photo lol! Laters :)
(Adding this in as i had it in July still but on the 31st :) Had around a dozen Wrasse again few over 4lb and this one was the biggest weighing 5lb 1oz! (As i was on my own i had to use the Self timer on the camera, worked out alright) it went back strong. Ready to catch him again in the Competition coming up end of month
This has been the absolute perfect summer for building lakes and ponds! We have a handful of lake construction projects rolling at various stages right now and here is one we are finishing up tomorrow. Its the absolute perfect smallmouth bass lake!!
Along with smallmouth bass, it is actually already stocked with pellet trained blue catfish, yellow perch, hybrid striped bass, and redear sunfish. Sounds like a pretty fun combination eh? You bet!!
Ok so the dam actually went in this spring and we have been pumping in water from another lake on the property so the fish have got a great head start on life (even in this drought), they are looking great with most of the smallies already a rock solid 7-9 inches.
Anyhow since there was going to be alot of shallow water for about a 2 acre zone on the upper half of the lake we decided to build some really cool islands and peninsulas. We do these islands and peninsulas to actually save lots of money. It costs alot to move dirt a long distance, but it actually doesnt cost much at all to simply move dirt just a few feet.
So we turned a 2 acre zone that was gonna have an average depth of 4 feet or less into a smallmouth bass wonderland with an average depth of 8 feet and more in less than a week. Here are some pics, let me know what you think:
This area we threw alot of dirt on the shoreline to use for making the future building site.
With this island we eliminated shallow water on the east side of the lake. Also you can see the channel we cut in down the middle while making the dam.
This peninsula we made because we wanted to eliminate some shallow water on the west edge of the lake.
Jared putting the finishing touches on a really cool island:
Justin finishing up spreading the dirt needed for the building site and road:
Some sunflowers we planted along the west edge of this new lake earlier this spring. It is very cool to see all the birds coming in and out of this mega bird feeder all day long. Most folks think food plots are just for hunting, but we get more people wanting them just to enjoy them and their benefit to all wildlife all year long!
Reminds me of a story at our 6 acre bird feeder plot. We had a missionary from Haiti out to our place last week who went out and counted like 24 species of birds one morning from our plot consisting of sunflowers, winter wheat, sorghum, sweet corn, beans, and probably some other stuff Justin and Jared planted this spring. Anyhow it looks very cool right now and even a bunch of geese were milling around the ripe winter wheat just last night.
I guess while I am at it, it has been a very eventful and fun last few days. On Friday I took Mae and Noah to work with me. Our mission was to take the team from HorseMeister up to a critique large horse property we have listed for sale just north of Henry next to I-80. For those who don't know, HorseMeister is a pretty big horse operation located near Glasford that specializes in breeding Fresian horses. They sell and breed these prestigious horses all over the United States, along with several other types of horses too. Also they do vaulting camps, and several other horse things that I know absolutely nothing about.
Anyhow this property for sale has a state of the art horse operation and I needed to get some experts up there to learn the ropes and make sure the horse stuff is all set up correctly. Judy and Karin did a phenomenal job critiquing the entire property and now I feel confident we can help the seller market the property correctly and help the future buyers know exactly what they are getting and what it will take to operate.
Here is a video clip Judy made of there day up at the property, of course we had to bring some riders up with us to try out all the trails as well. They had a blast:
So back to Mae and Noah's adventure. They tagged along and just loved hanging out with the horses. Also I gave Noah my old digital camera and gave him a mission to take photos of all the horses which he was super proud to have that job! He took it very seriously:
So anyhow for a house update (Brook is watching the olympics, so I am just typing away listening to them) Who knows I might just keep writing all the way till 11 pm. I am not used to having this much free time lately. Every spare moment has been working on my house. I dont got any pics at the moment, but finally am stocking drywall tomorrow baby!
Oh yeah, some lady interviewed me a few times a couple weeks ago for an article she was doing about the drought and heat's affect on midwest fish, lakes and ponds. I was polite and answered all her questions and bam I start getting calls from people reading that article that hit the top story news headline on their smart phones, etc. Here is one of many links to the various major websites that picked up that article http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48372976/ns/weather/t/drought-killing-fish-waterfowl-threatened-too/
Then here is the kicker to that story- CBS National Evening News team calls me up on Sunday afternoon and wants to do an article about that story on Monday. Very cool to be called by a major news network, but we were unable to make that work out on such short notice. However once another round of fish kills rolls through the area they want to come and shoot some footage of the dead fish, interview the owner of such unlucky fish and have me explain what happened. So the next person to have a major fish kill, call me up.
According to Brook the American men are doing terrible in gymnastics, but a few minutes ago me and the kids were doing a victory dance just before bed as Americans went Gold and Silver in the 100 Meter backstroke.
Well we have jampacked quite a bit into this blog post, but I am sure I can dig up some more good stuff. Noah loves his Herman Brothers T Shirt, wears it proudly.
He also loves Justins new Blood Hound Copper. Copper is only like 14 weeks old or something and is getting huge. These two young pups are best friends:
Chef Todd sent me this pic from a kid who caught a monster bass at Otter Creek last week:
I find myself daydreaming of offshore fishing alot lately. We are gonna be pike fishing up at Lake Delavan in a couple weeks, then salmon fishing up on Lake Michigan a few weeks after that, and then fishing down on the beach in Gulf Shores a few weeks after that, but yet no daydreaming about those places or fish species.....the blue water way off the coast of the gulf of Mexico is what inhabits what little time I have to think about stuff other than what is right in front of me.
The next couple weeks are gonna be pretty exciting. We will be filming a top secret show for a few days next week with a major production company from the East Coast that I am not allowed to talk about but am on a roll so why not just a brief mention. Now I am out of time as the Japanese just paid off the judges to get them to reverse their original scoring to steal the silver medal back from the Great Britains. Is that what you call them- Great Britains? Englishmen? Oh well.
Our local vet Humberto Macias,had visitors from Guadalajara in town and being from here, he knew where to turn to make sure his friends had a successful trip, Pisces of course. They were out on Ruthless and released a striped marlin and caught 8 tuna and a dorado, probably something the vet's city slicker friend had never seen before which is why he was trying to eat it whole....well he wanted fresh fish..
It was another spotty week of fishing on the East Cape.
The weather has been about as nice as it can get. The water is 82 to 84 degrees and a beautiful purple blue. There is loads of flying fish, and birds everywhere. I just keep waiting for the bite to explode.
At the high spot off La Ribera red snapper and amberjack along with huge skipjack are providing action early mornings. Striped marlin and sailfish have also been plentiful but are a little finicky. Further off shore tuna cooperate and bite for a couple days and then disappear. So far they have been up and down all season. Boats go out and have a killer tuna day but then might not be able to find them the next.
This is the first time in history a qualifying 300 pound minimum blue marlin was not weighed for the EC Bisbee. There were some good moments for the tournament though. A 57 pound dorado was brought to the scale and a 213 pound yellowfin tuna. We thought the tuna had that division iced but the last day it was trumped by a 265 pounder. Yikes!
Bisbee shot gun start. These guys are here to have fun
Love seeing young fisherman with their first billfish. The smiles tell the tale.
Early morning snapper
Amberjack
Anglers were brought to their knees by big tuna this week
I don't think this method will work
Is there a doctor in the house. We had to preform surgery to get our Halco lure back. They are tuna candy
As I continue to explore the Milwaukee River going further north, my love for this water grows exponentially. Originally last year when I got started hunting smallmouth in this watershed, I was focused on areas just north of the city limits of Milwaukee. Every trip I have taken this year has brought me closer and closer to reaching its headwaters.
working a foam filled pool on the upper Milwaukee River
After exchanging upwards of sixty emails, it was finally nice to meet my new buddy Brian out on the river and to do a little tag team fly fishing. Recent rains have bolstered the flows back up to a moderate level. After such a long and dry summer so far, the fish have responded well to the increased water volume. I will say that the action was fast and constant and the fish were snapping. Catching well over 30 bass in a short morning was a serious confidence boost but our only complaint was the lack of that one big fish we were stalking.
small but average size for the day
As a side note, the pike have been more active recently then I have ever witnessed. Twelve pike in one day as well as a half dozen bite offs make me consider up sizing my leaders (but that probably wont happen). The second part of my day will be up later this week as I ventured even closer to the headwaters of the Milwaukee River.
Despite it being the weakest tide of the cycle a chance to fish the extremes of night presented itself so Michael Quirke and I joined forces again at the weekend and agreed to meet at mine for 3.00am to head off and fish a bay on the falling tide which we duly did. We found the bay to be free of suspended weed so fishing hard plastics was no problem. Wading in the clear water I was fascinated by the streams of phosphorescence swirling of my waders as I felt my way around under the stars casting into in the darkness probing around the water column in search of a fish. Michael moved from the open strand onto a rocky point and got hit by fish a few times but didn't connect, buoyed up by the presence of active fish I joined him and we concentrated our efforts here as the dawn slowly broke behind us. Sensing that our chances of finding a fish or two in open water were decreasing fast as the light levels increased, I moved on to another section of the strand and after a few casts I connected with a fish which I got to the surface before it threw the hooks and the line went slack, tough going but the results so far were about what we’ve come to expect of the fishing this “Summer”. With the sun well on its way up we returned to the car and headed off for a deeper water rock mark which we fished intensively with soft plastics and metals to no avail until, just as we were about to call it a morning and head to our homes for a well earned rest, this most welcome fish grabbed my Wakasagi (Dark Brown/Silver Fleck) Spindle Worm mounted on a 7g Batchi jig! So, not a great session numbers wise, probably about par for the course at the moment, but very enjoyable all the same...
Date: Thursdays, August 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th.
Location:Hooked on Fishing Park
1807 N. Main St.
East Peoria, IL 61611
(309) 219-3560
Our camp will feature pro angler instruction in a classroom setting with an on-the-water guided practice here at the park.All anglers will learn casting techniques, lure presentation, tournament fishing, and tournament preparation. Registration: All forms will be available at the Hooked on Fishing Park.You may register by phone or in person. Availability is limited to the first 30 applicants.
At this time, the registration fee will be $20.00 per session. (unless we can find a sponsor or donor to cover these costs). Attending all four sessions will qualify you for a special six hour fishing tournament at Otter Creek Preserve on September 22nd, from 7:00am to Noon. Otter Creek is a privately owned premier fishery that boasts a 125 acre lake and 45 acre lake intensively managed by Herman Brothers Lake and Land Management. Do not miss your chance to fish some of the most famous fishing waters in the state of Illinois!
All anglers are required to bring their own fishing pole. Tackle boxes must be labeled with participants name for security and safety purposes.
If you have any questions regarding the camp please contact the camp director(s) Mike O’Reilly at (309)256-1801, or Ryan Ortega at (309)256-2435.You may also visit the website for more details at http://www.HookedOnFishing.org.
If you would like to volunteer for the camp please use the contact information above. We would like to encourage coaches of the participating schools to attend. Here is the schedule/speaker line up:
PICSES CAUGHT 22 STRIPED MARLIN BETWEEN SIX BOATS TODAY
Six Pisces boats went out fishing today and caught 22 Striped Marlin & 1 Sailfish 24 Yellow Fin Tuna (one was 160 lbs) 1 Dorado 1 White Skipjack Top boat was Rebecca for 8 striped marlin released plus a sailfish for James and Tammy Kiser from Cyprus, Texas. Followed by Tracy Ann with six striped marlin and six tuna for Amy & Jeremy Ross from Lufkin, Texas. La Brisa had ten tuna ranging from 10 to 60 lbs, PLUS a tough 160 lb fish that took Holt Jones from Lake Charles, Louisiana two hours to boat. NOW IS THE TIME TO BE IN CABO AND FISHING WITH PISCES OF COURSE.
As much as I appreciate catching and not blanking it was more small Bass last night. Jamie had two school Bass on a pink& purple Komomo 2 fished across a shallow and weedy point on what was a really blustery night. They didn’t fancy the same lure in black magma so not a good start for me and had started to think about blanking. This unusual for me but put it down to being tired from Friday night. We fished on at the first mark till the lights went out and then moved to another spot to fish the remainder of the drop.
I switched to the controller and SP which is a stone wall imitation of a butter fish or I guess possibly a Blenny, given the terrain we fish in a certain prey item for a Bass. It’s a proven catcher here and worked on dead slow retrieve. I was optimistic after picking up a couple of better fish on Friday night but in truth the tide times and heights were against us. I did manage 4 small Bass and Jamie added another to his tally on a Sluggo. No pictures for the blog, only so much I’m motivated to do at night with a 1 1/2 Bass. We hit the road just before dawn and I checked the forecast ahead of our trip next week. I think I had better dust down the beach gear and check my frozen crab as things are not too clever. I can see me picking some weed out of leader knots and digging some worms for the first couple days.
Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 99%
DECKHAND MARTIN GONZALEZ MAKING SURE THIS BLUE MARLIN IS RECOVERED FROM THE FIGHT BEFORE LETTING HIS BILL GO
BILLFISH: The only way to describe Cabo fishing this week was superb, with plenty of action to keep anglers busy, with a variety of game fish available. Every boat we sent out, except one who wanted to concentrate solely on finding a big blue marlin, caught fish. The big story this week was that of a 750 lb blue marlin caught by a boat named Acero Azul, we heard about this story and posted the news and received several comments, some angry, asking why the fish was killed. We just reported this story, but thought the captain should give his input. Firstly, the fish may well have been over 750 lbs as that was as high as the scale went, secondly, they crew intended to release this beauty but it died after ninety minutes and almost spooling them three times. They knew they had a dead fish and angler Gary Steelberg from Newport Beach, CA, had his work cut out for him, taking another 40 minutes before the fish appeared belly up at the transom, then another 30 minutes for the crew to manhandle it onto the swim-step. The fish was caught at the 95 spot on a flying fish color lure. In regular fishing news “La Brisa” released a blue marlin a little under 300 lbs at San Jaime on the Pacific as well as catching five tuna for Heath Jones from Lake Charles, Louisiana. At the start of this report “Rebecca” was hot, releasing three striped marlin, at Migrino then going onto land six tuna and a dorado for James & Nancy Oden from Kaufman, Texas. This same day, “Tracy Ann” had Alyson & Tom Fix from Glendale, Arizona on board who did well to release two striped marlin and a sailfish that was quite large at around 100 lbs, plus six tunas. On July 22nd “Great Escape Jr.” had an outstanding day with a quadruple billfish count, consisting of three striped marlin and a sailfish for a group of guys from Oregon headed up by Joey Blatner. Captain J.R on “Rebecca” loves to fish striped marlin which is evident by the amount he catches, proving it again on July 23rd, with his second triple header of the week, plus three tuna for Wendi Tillen Lloyd Wynn & Ken Gregory from Atlanta Georgia & Madison, Alabama….go southerners! Rounding out the week for better than average catches was “C Rod” who fished at Pozo de Cota and Los Arcos areas catching three striped marlin, six dorado and three tuna for the Reynolds family from Cleburne, Texas.Fifty seven percent of our charters caught billfish this week, giving us a total of forty five billfish; 41 striped marlin, 3 sailfish and 1 blue marlin, all released
OTHER SPECIES: Yellow fin tuna catches, still topped the tables this week with seventy one percent of boat catching between one and twenty seven fish normally in the 12 to 25 lb class, with cedar plugs the most popular hook up method as well as regular lures. “Tracy Ann” caught the most in one day, 27, for Kevin Love and friends from Humble, Texas fishing off of the Old Lighthouse and San Cristobal. There was disappointment for Derrick Baker from Missoula, Montana – he hooked an enormous tuna aboard “Valerie” at the Jaime Bank, that he struggled and sweat over for almost six hours, before losing it. His consolation prize were four smaller fish up to 25 lbs. The big one that got away took a live caballito.Our total tuna count was 202 fish. Dorado catches were at thirty five percent with catches of one to seven fish and weights up to 45 lbs, though more commonly between 18 and 25 lbs, on the Pacific at various spots. Just one wahoo this week, smallish at 30 lbs for an angler from Hawaii, aboard “Falcon”. Inshore not much happening or we are simply not fishing there, though there were a few roosters up to 50 lbs and some white skipjacks.
LOCATION: Pacific, Old Lighthouse to San Jaime, 95 spot on Cortez.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: We had some beautiful days where the sea didn’t even look like it was moving, then towards the end of the week some warm breezes on the Pacific strong enough to produce whitecaps. It is still cooler than normal for this time of year and still not a drop of rain for Cabo San Lucas.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 79 F in the areas we are fishing.
BEST LURES: Caballito, cedar plugs, silver, green colors.
Another dark session last night which started badly. I had some issues knotting my Sunline after three attempts out came the spare spool with Power Pro. Nothing wrong with the braid but can’t say the same for my eyes, certainly at night anyway.
I started off with a Bombarda and Pearl Skaliwag which had been doctored two tone with a black marker to make it blurple a nice mixture of black and purple. First cast I just getting my eyes adjusted and looking for the controller which was still about 20 ft away when I had a solid take, 1.15am. A good start, not a really small fish but not what I was after and with a quick picture just up the beach the fish was back on its way.
This was followed by another about 30 minutes later. The fish got hung up in weed and the headlight had to go on, wading stick bounced off a couple of rocks and I realised I was making too much commotion between this and flashes going off earlier. I then stumbled along the rocks in darkness and gave myself the comfort of my red light for the last few feet.
I had changed my offering for something bigger, a 200mm SP( lets call it x) but the hook was too heavy for the shallow and weedy terrain and it found every bit of bladderwrack there was. Another change of SP and I had an instant return. This fish didn’t just take the lure it ran with from the get go tearing through the weed. How good does Power Pro sound leaving the reel at speed going up through the guides? Strong fish, after a quick visit to the weighing bag, 3 pounds on the nose.
I checked my drag but found it to be surprisingly tight. The fish had just given a super account of itself with 3 terrific runs before wrapping the leader around some weed stalks. More wading, more commotion, not good but decided to use the camera this time. I sat for 10 minutes to rest the area and had another cast, smash! This one didn’t go as hard as the other but yet again hung itself up in the weed so in I went again, 3 pounds 4oz .
The Yamaga was outstanding and extra length a great help not least to keep wading to a bare minimum and getting over the weed /taking zone at the end of retrieve. It was pleasure to use and while not really what it was designed for it took to it well.
I only fished for 4 hours this morning and the last hour was a non-event, too much wading and noise but it was good to get some slightly better fish. I think I learnt a few handy things for the future.
