Smallmouth Bass Eats a Snake

On Saturday we electrofished a 4 acre smallmouth bass lake over near Victoria, IL. We found this smallmouth bass with a partially digested snake hanging out of it. We either shocked the snake out prematurely or the bass was trying to get rid of it from its gut:

Smallmouth bass lake looks pretty interesting eh?

Greg Grimes from aquatic environmental services down in Georgia came up Thursday night with a truckload of fish for many of my clients. He stayed for a few days to do some deer hunting and helped out quite a bit on a few electrofishing surveys on Saturday between hunts.

I thought this retaining wall looked pretty cool. The beach is still under construction, but will be real nice once completed. It is from a clients lake near Henry, IL.

Greg and Justin were able to get some good practice in before going out to hunt every evening.

Not a bad day.....

After checking the weather last night I was delighted to see some high pressure sneaking in between the constant low pressure we were having. From past experiences I found that if you can find some clean water on the open coast the day after a strong blow that it can fish its socks off, so hopes were high for a good day.

I arrived onto the copper coast early afternoon and after checking the usual marks it was clear that it wasn’t going to be easy to find some clean water, after checking countless marks I said Id take a gamble and try a mark I had not fished for a couple of years. After a bit of a trek I found what I was looking for, some reasonably clean (mixing) water with plenty of fizz!

Lure of choice was a Sasuke 140 in candy colour. Within the first few casts I had a nice Pollack, I was delighted thinking to myself if the Pollack could find the lure if there were any bass around Id be in with a good chance. Sure enough within 20 minutes I hooked a good fish that doubled the Injection and proceeded to strip countless yards of line of my 3000 sized reel, the gear was well up to the test and after a few minutes I slid the most well conditioned bass I have ever seen onto the shore, the girth of this fish was remarkable, on the boga she came in at over 9lb.

The tide was really pumping in at this stage and there was a thick line of kelp on the foreshore which was slowly starting to get picked up and beginning to float in front of where I wanted to fish, making things difficult. Fishing amongst this floating weed was a nightmare, but on one of the retrieves I felt a bang then another, thinking to myself here is another Pollack I stopped the lure and bang…not a Pollack but bass on, the fish really wanted that sasuke, giving yet another outstanding fight on the light gear, definitely the best way to catch these fish. Again on the sasuke 140.

Confidence was sky high at this stage and but the line of kelp had made its way out in front of me so time left fishing the mark was of the essence. A few minutes later I hooked another fish again in close which went on one hell of a run but the on this occasion the fish won and all I got back were two big bass scales on my sasuke.

A quick break for lunch and into the shop for a couple back up lures to have for the dropping tide and of course to let Cian know what he was missing. So onto the next mark that I generally fish on the dropping tide, and which had been fishing very well for me of late. Sure enough within 5 minutes I had a fish which came in around 8lb on the boga.

Fishing where I was I only had another 30 minutes before the water would strip off in front of me making the gulley I was fishing into impossible. Just as I was thinking I would move on I hooked a reasonable fish which after a bit of head shaking on the surface took me to ground,, DISASTER the fish and the lure of the day gone.

The confidence knocked a bit after losing my lure of the day I fished on and to round up the day nicely I had a nice 6lber as the sun was setting on yet another perfect day on the copper coast.

Tight lines,

James.

Latest Fish Report

PISCES FISH REPORT

September 26th to 30th, 2010

Overall Catch Success Rate 100%

BILLFISH: Wow what a week…the big fish continue to appear and the biggest story of the week was aboard our very own “Shambala” the 60 ft Hatteras, with Captain T.J Dobson producing his third fish over 600 lbs in the last two months. T.J had a group from Texas aboard on September 26th this fish was just a few pounds shy of 800 lbs. Yesterday a group of Texans were aboard fishing with T.J and were having a great time; they had already released a striped marlin and a sailfish, when T.J spotted a huge marlin in the Destiladeras area where they were fishing, attracted by a teaser tied to the back of the boat. Captain T.J was quick thinking and told his deckhand to toss a sierra; he had on board, back to the fish. The fish leapt on it, grabbing the bait, but then jumped and spat it out. He must have been hungry because he turned with a vengeance and inhaled a lure still in the water, known as a "Gay Bob", which is blue, white and pink. The fish was solidly hooked and Ed Shatte from Houston, Texas was on the other end of the line. Ed pumped and heaved the fish on 80 lb line for three hours, when they realized that it had died.....it takes a while to haul up 780 lbs of dead weight and then drag it onto the deck through the transom door, but they did it. Another large fish was a 500 lb’er aboard “La Brisa” for first time angler Adam Damini from Pittsburgh who had never been fishing before in his life.....we are talking not even a river, lake or stream, but today he was fishing with his friend Roger Young from Connecticut, just three miles off of Los Arcos when a large marlin assaulted a green/yellow lure being dragged by "La Brisa", after a considerable battle they got what ended up being an approx 500 lb blue marlin aboard, but wait, there's more......they also caught 18 dorado and released seven. Sixty one percent of charters caught billfish, with many excellent catches – we had a total of five blue marlin, two sailfish and twelve striped marlin.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado were the number one catch in Cabo this week with eighty seven percent of our boats catching from one to thirty two fish (many released) – we should mention here that catch limits are being strictly enforced in Cabo and the limit is two dorado per fishing license. To enable our anglers to keep a few more fish, we have purchased yearly fishing licenses for our crew members, so that anglers have the opportunity to take more fish home if they like. Weights on dorado are from 15 to 30 lbs. Our total dorado tally this week was 266. Wahoo catches were pretty good with nineteen percent of boats catching fish in the 35 to 45 lb class. Yellow fin tuna catches are beginning to increase slightly too with twenty five percent of boats catching mostly football size fish with the odd big one up to 100 lbs.

LOCATION: Los Arcos, Herradura, 7 miles out from Solmar, Punta Gorda, Migriño, Gaspareño, Pozo Cota, Golden Gate, San Jaime.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 84 F

BEST LURES: Ballyhoo, guacamayo, tigrillo, purple, green/yellow, red/black, green/black, petrolero.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

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!