Z Fish Report (10/3/10)

There is not much to say about this week for the fishing. The 83° blue water is still out at the 1,000 fathom curve (30 miles), but there is clean water within 6 miles of the beach. There are very few people fishing and tourism is slow. Most of the captains are taking this time for the opportunity for their annual maintenance of the boats. They are pulling them out of the water for new paint, bottom paint, repairing last year’s dings in the fiber glass, etc.

            The one bright note is the heavy rains we experienced this year have let up and the rain season is just about over. This will bring the blue water back close to the beach, and most of all, clear up the inshore waters for our anticipated excellent action for roosters.

Ed Kunze

Lightly fished Lake Manatee is a fly angler's paradise



Sunrise on Lake Manatee often is quite beath-taking



Just one of many bluegill on the Myakka Minnow



Lake Manatee is perhaps my favorite lake to fish.

One reason is that it's close to home. Another is that the lake produces a lot of fish.

I made my first trip of fall to Lake Manatee and wasn't disappointed. I launched my Native Watercraft Ultimate 14.5 shortly after dawn and began catching bluegill and stumpknocker almost immediately on a popper and dropper (bead-head nymph).

The action slowed down after about 30 minutes, so I paddled along the north shoreline to an area where I usually do fairly well. But the popper and dropper just wasn't working. I switched a fly that normally produces, my FLY Nymph.

Wasn't the answer. Got nothing on it.



I noticed a fallen tree about 10 yards from me and figured I'd switch to the Myakka Minnow that I had on my 2-weight rod when I got there. First cast resulted in a feisty, hand-sized bluegill. Over the next three hours, I must have caught 70 bluegill, a few shellcracker and a couple of stumpknocker.


This Lake Manatee largemouth bass fell for a Myakka Minnow



The highlight of the outing was four fish that I couldn't land. I hooked and lost four large channel cats on the Myakka Minnow. Two broke off quickly. I fought another for about 30 seconds when the hook pulled. The fourth fish hit near the shoreline vegetation and headed for the middle of the lake. I back-paddled furiously and fought the fish at the same time. When I was about 50 yards from the shoreline, I concentrated on what I figured to be at least a 10-pound cat. I got the fish on the reel, but that's when the hooked pulled.

I've encountered the cats on a number of occasions. They hit flies readily. They're stronger than an elephant and fight when great determination.



But they're too much for the 2-weight.



Last time this happened to me, I decided to fish a 4-weight with 8-pound tippet. I only hooked one channel cat, but I landed it. To show you how strong these fish are, it took me 5 minutes to land the fish. And it only weighed 3 pounds!



We're entering a special time of year for Lake Manatee, a 2,400-acre reservoir, is located nine miles east of Interstate 75 off State Road 64 in Manatee County. Won't be long before we start catching fat speckled perch (black crappie) which are a blast on fly rod.



There's a 20-horsepower restriction on outboard motors on the lake. If your outboard is larger, you can use your trolling motor.



I launch at Lake Manatee Fish Camp, 23745 State Road 64 E (941-322-8500). Launching is free and the ramp is decent.



I paddle under the bridge and fish the east side of the lake, usually concentrating on the north shoreline.



While I target panfish, I do catch my share of bass. I've taken largemouth to 6 pounds on a variety of panfish flies.



Bass will school this time of year. So, it's important that you keep your eyes and ears open. You can usually hear the bass busting shade in the old river channel. This often takes place in early to mid afternoon the water warms up. That's when the shad begin feeding on plankton.



These aren't typical school bass. They're often 2 to 5 pounds. And they'll hit most anything. The key is to get the fly to the fish quickly.



Flies I prefer include a No. 12 bead-head nymph that I call Aunt Sara's Homely Daughter, my FLY Nymph, Wooly Buggers, No. 10 popping bugs and the ever-mighty Myakka Minnow.

Although the lake has an official name, I call it Gibby's Lake because I'm often the only angler out there. So, it kind of feels like it's my private lake.

Lake Manatee State Park (http://www.floridastateparks.org/lakemanatee/default.cfm) is located at 20007 State Road 64. It's a great place to camp.

Nice Tuna Caught Today Aboard Bill Collector

Seth McGinnis from Dallas, TX caught this beautiful yellow fin tuna estimated between 180 lbs -200 lbs.  The fish took a petrolero lure (brown, gray and cream colored) and took 20 minutes to boat on 100 lb test,  20 miles out from the Old Lighthouse aboard Bill Collector with Captain Julio Gonzalez. They also boated two dorado. Congratulations Seth, but it t his is about a month too early for the Tuna Tournament.

multi-species fishing (fox chain, il)

fox lake in the fall

 Today me and Neal fished the Chain of Lakes on a favorite point on Fox Lake. The wind was constantly blowing hard and the temperature never made it above 50 degrees the entire time we fished. We were fishing bottom rigs with a combination of corn, worms, and minnows for bait. Click on the photo to see our set-up.

make sure the swivel is big enough to not slip through

We were out there for just around 4 hours because we weren’t really prepared for the weather but we did manage to catch a good multi-species bag. Our fish totals were:

10 fish caught today-

• 4 carp
• 3 catfish
• 1 drum
• 1 bluegill
• 1 walleye

fox lake carp

Minnows played a major role today in the fish that we caught. All fish were caught in 2 separate 15 minute windows where we would have almost a flurry of rods getting bit. Most bites came in the shallow water as well.

neal with a nice bluegill

neal the catfish king

It was a lot of fun running around as different rods were getting bit. Neal was busy landing a nice carp so I went to real in my closest rod to avoid any tangles. As I gave the reel a couple turns I felt a small tap and set the hook on my first chain walleye in a long time. It was just short of legal but was still awesome to catch!

nice to see a fox lake walleye

 Later, I had just landed a modest catfish and Neal was just about to take a picture when the farthest rod away from us got a good hit. Without my photo I put the death grip on the catfish in my hand and took off running for my rod. I was halfway down the beach when I hear Neal yell “Drop the fish”. In mid-run I launched the fish 20 yards out into the water. The reward of all that excitement was a healthy 8 pound carp. The photo of the carp sure turned out a lot better then the photo that got away!

the carp i ran for!

Watch The Ball Girl !!

HER NAME IS:

Lotta Hustle

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..

The Wild West.

Fished the West of Ireland last weekend with fellow bass addict John Weir based in Co Clare. The weather preceding the weekend was not ideal with a Strong Northerly breeze blowing for 24hrs swinging to SE later in the weekend. Day one was bright, calm and surprisingly productive for me with three species being caught over rough ground on hard plastics namely Pollock Wrasse & Bass.
The Wrasse were insanely hard fighters diving straight into the nearest snag instantly when hooked, the Pollock gave quiet a good account of themselves, pound for pound and the Bass were quite docile by comparison. John joined me for Day 2 persisted with the surface lures and was rewarded with a decent bass off the top which he is seen here playing. I switched to soft plastics to target the Wrasse and had some more epic tussles with fish that I could see hitting the baits with my Costas. Looking forward to trying it all again with better conditions.

Pentax W60

All photos on this blog have been taken using the above camera. I have to say it's been excellent. The number one feature of course is the fact that its genuinely 100% waterproof and also shockproof, which is ideal for Bass Fishing photography. The W60 uses a standard size SD card which suits me, I like the fact that the zoom is internal meaning no lens protrudes out of the camera when its powered up. Picture quality is good although I'm no expert as you might have noticed! Minor gripes might be the face recognition featue which needs to be turned of each time the camera is powered up, when not needed, which is most of the time for me. The battery can be inserted with the wrong polarity into both the camera and charger which, although does not cause damage, could have easily been designed to be impossible. Maybe a lens cover would have been a good idea. Others have noticed that the tapped hole for the tripod is off centre making it a bit more tricky to balance on a micro tripod than if it were centered. There was already a later version available when I bought this over a year ago, the W90 but it looked more of a sports camera in its bold colours whereas this on passes itself off as any other Compact Digital for all round use. 

9/10 Very Satisfied.