Fishing world

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Here is an opportunity that I am pretty excited about! Below is information about a field day the QDMA is putting on at Otter Creek Preserve. I have been asked to speak with Grant Woods at this event. If your reading this blog post and your interested in Deer or Fish or the great outdoors than you will want to make plans to come to this event! If your not interested in the great outdoors you might as well come along for the entertainment value of me speaking to a group of people.

Grant is perhaps the nations best speaker about all things whitetail deer and habitat. To have an opportunity to put on an event of this caliber with him is simply unbelievable! Here is the info, come on down. You will not be disappointed with the caliber of most of the speakers, the facility, or the caliber of this property overall! We will be touring hands on the many food plots, orchards, warm season grasses, timber, and of course the bodies of water! This event most likely will sell out so make sure to reserve your tickets.

Here are some aerial photos of the property we will be touring and learning hands on from:

Property Design Field Day --- July 9th, 2011 Dr. Grant Woods http://www.growingdeer.tv/ will be presenting at this full-day event, located at Otter Creek Preserve (NE of Astoria, IL.)

Event focus will be on Property Design, Food Plot Layout, Growing and Hunting Quality Deer. Special presentations by Nate Herman will cover; Incorporating Ponds, Lakes, and Wetlands Into Property Design.

This event will consist of indoor and outdoor seminars, with a field tour of this premier recreational property. A lunch will be provided with the cost of admission. Registration begins at 8:00am, and event will conclude at approximately 4:00pm.

Contact Chase Burns (309)368-0370, or Steve Hood (309)756-8350, to get your tickets today. Tickets are priced at $20 each, and are available now. All tickets must be purchased in advance, and seating is limited!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Latest Fish Report

March 3rd to March 11th, 2011

Overall Catch Success Rate 72.92%

BILLFISH: Despite a dip on marlin catches this week, thirty percent of our boats released striped marlin. The majority of the boats met with success in the Sea of Cortez, between the 95 spot and up as far as the Gordo Banks. The Top marlin boat this week was definitely “Tracy Ann”, with two double-header marlin days and the rest of the week one a day, with the exception of a single day when they saw them but couldn’t get a hook up. First double marlin day for “Tracy Ann” was on the 10th for Charles Meissen and Dave Schroder from Colorado; they ending up sharing a boat and did very well releasing a marlin each, both estimated around 150 lbs, released three miles out from the 95 spot. On March 8th, they had another double marlin day for birthday girl, Susie Hodnik from Juno, Alaska. Both the fish were released at Cabrillo sea mount and took live caballito. Susie was thrilled as this was her first marlin ever – way to go Julio & Martin; what a great birthday gift. “Adriana” did well too on the 5th for Mike and Melissa Brightwell from Springfield, Maryland. They did well to catch two stripers this time on the Pacific in Migriño area. They released on of the fish and estimated at 170 lbs and the other died during the fight –this one proved to be the larger of the two weighing in at close to 200 lbs, larger than usual. On the 7th, Larry and Saundra Dunsnoor from Klamath Falls, OR released one striped marlin which weighed approximately 160 lbs again, board “Tracy Ann”. This one was found at a favorite haunt of striped marlin, Golden Gate. On the 4th, Doug Noonan and friends from Florida had a great day, guess with whom... Yeap “Tracy Ann”! They were not even trying for marlin, instead they wanted to concentrate inshore and managed to hook up twenty sierras and a bonita at Gaspareño; on their way back to the dock with all the lines out of the water, Martin, deckhand, saw a marlin jumping out of the blue. Now, Martin is young lithe and eager, he leapt to the bait well had a caballito on the hook in no time, cast it with accuracy right in front of the marlin and got a hook up. It was Doug´s turn and his first marlin. He reeled and reeled under the watchful eye of Nicolas Winkler, skippering that day, and with some coaching managed to get the fish boatside for a couple of photos, before releasing it. He was extremely appreciative of crew’s skill. Thank you Doug for stopping by to the office and share your story. Pisces anglers had seventeen striped marlin this week; all released except two.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado catches were better this week, but not great. Nine percent of our anglers managed to find this species. We had a couple of good sizes though, such as on the 5th aboard “Fearless” for Christopher Garcia and friends from New York City, NY who caught a respectable 40 lb dorado, taken at thirty miles out from Chileno bay; they also boated two yellow fin tuna between 15 t& 30 lbs; the fish took a combination of lures. On the 10th, Scott Towers and friends from Littleton, CO landed a 35 lbs dorado aboard “Adriana” and they caught one 20 lbs tuna as well. The same day, “Ruthless” caught another dorado from the equal size hooked with a blue/white lure for Tyler Mincemoyer from Philadelphia. Tuna catches were slightly better this week with fifteen percent of our boats catching between one to eight fish. The best day was on the 5th for Carla and Bill Davis from Pawley Island, SC they boated eight yellow fin tuna between 25 to 30 lbs fifteen miles from Cerro Blanco, all the fish took cedar plugs. They were lucky to release one striped marlin too. Early in the week, “Andale” caught six yellow fin tuna on feathers for a group from New York; most of them were football size. Catches are still steady with nineteen percent of our anglers hooking up to these tasty but tough fighters. On the 10th, Michael and Cindy Hulquist from Alaska had a good day aboard “Salsa” panga with a total of fifteen sierra from about 8 to 10 lbs; all caught with hoochis. On the 3rd, William Bartow tried the same boat and caught fifteen sierra as well as releasing a couple of rooster fish and a jack crevalle, close to the old lighthouse. We had a few yellow tail this week, on the 3rd the McLean´s from Florida caught ten of these fish (great for sashimi) aboard “La Brisa”; they went for a half day so they focus on inshore fishing and caught eight sierra and one 25 lbs sea bass. Other species; we had yellow tail, rooster fish, sea bass, trigger fish, mako sharks, grouper and a lot of bonitas.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies. Mostly calm seas, great weather overall.

LOCATION: Pacific Side – Golden Gate, Migriño, Old Lighthouse, Cerro Blanco, Margaritas, Gaspareño, Cerritos, Elías Calles

Sea of Cortez – Chileno, 95 spot, Punta Gorda, 11:50 Spot, Santa Maria, La Playita, Barco Varado, Chileno, Cabrillo

AVERAGE WATER TEMP. 71 F

BEST LURES; Cedar plugs, rapalas, hoochis, green, guacamayo, yellow, blue/pink, yoyos, tigrillo, green/white, purple, blue/white, red/black, feathers

Live bait: caballito, ballyhoos, sardine

Based on the catches of Pisces by Ale Almada & Tracy Ehrenberg.

Tyler Mincemoyer and friends from State College, PA with a 30 lbs dorado aboard "Ruthless"

Doug Noonan pictured with his first marlin released aboard "Tracy Ann"

mid week and weekend tributary outlook

Things are starting to heat up in the rivers. River levels are starting to fall and clarity is improving system wide. Fish are in there just a bit hard to locate given the water conditions. Spawn and egg patterns have been producing fish here and there. There are reports of some fish up on gravel but from what I saw the pools and deep bends still seem like a better bet. My weekend forecast is optimistic.

damien with nice fish taken on spawn

oak and pike river report

Me and Neal tried our hands at some of the smaller rivers this weekend. The pike was running fast and cloudy at 150 CFS and the river was high. The oak was much calmer and clearer at about an even 100 CFS. Neal went 0 - 1 on fish and almost brought his fish to hand. Fish took an egg pattern and the color was orange. Its too bad I work weekdays because these rivers could be popping mid week here.

That afternoon I made it out alone and took a nature hike looking for some of the more remote stretches of the Pike River.

pike river, racine, wi

Monday, March 14, 2011

Hooked On Fishing Fundraiser Dinner

I want to thank everyone who came to the Hooked On Fishing Park fundraising banquet on Saturday night!!! At 7 am on Saturday morning I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to not just throw together the finishing touches, but rather to throw together a majority of the event. Thank goodness my family was available all day Saturday from 7 am to 11 pm to bail me out!

Anyhow we had 285 awesome guests, super cool prizes, great food, and an amazing facility! We had the dinner at Metamora Fields Golf Course in Metamora, check out this place. I was too busy at the event to take pictures, so I just grabbed some from their facebook page:

The staff at Metamora Fields was first class and the facility is world class. They put on a feast of stuffed mushroom and hawaian meatball appetizers. Then I got up and entertained the crowd by butchering up pretty much all my words. Then Luke Luginbuhl got up to say the prayer for the meal and before that went into an impromptu speech with enough gushiness to make me turn red in front of everyone, but it was very nice nonetheless.

The food I wish so bad I had a picture of, but these words are just gonna have to paint the picture for you: First there were like 6 of those fancy roaster things full of like 3 different kinds of various vegetables (basically doctored up rabbit food). I didnt even bother looking in those, cause I loaded up on the real food- chicken cordon bleu, stuffed pork loin, and carved beef from a carving station with au jus and horseradish sauce. That new restaurant there is dynamite!

Then I got back up again in front of the crowd for some more entertainment (at my expense) and then I showed the crowd this video about the park on the big 12' screen:

Then Chris Brackett got up to explain about the silent auction guitars that he brought that were signed by Zac Brown. Then Jeremie Draper talked for a minute about the Sandblasted or blown glass sculpture things. Then we drew the raffle prizes!

Some dude won a Franchi Renaisance Over and Under 12 guage, another guy won an awesome Otter Creek fishing package, and three ladies won skin dimensions and grand prairie packages. Then we finished up the evening with the silent auction.

We had some awesome auction prizes like car care package from Bob Grimm Chevrolet, wood carved crappie, Presleys fishing gear package, Bass Pro fishing rods, Cabelas gift card and camping chairs, big bluegill fishing trip, Otter Creek fishing package, 150 acre deer/turkey hunting lease, Electrofishing survey, Catered event with Chef Todd, Maui Jim Sunglasses, lots of smaller items and days at the park! Special thanks to everyone who bid and won those packages!!!!

I don't have the actual numbers computed yet, but we raised way more money and support than I was even hoping for!!! This is shaping up to be an awesome year at the park! This is just the jumpstart we needed to kick off the year. Don't forget about us though, the amount of kids we are able to teach and seniors to host is endless, our funds and volunteers however are not. We still need your help this summer!

Also on another note, Jonn Graham hosted a flyfishing day at the park on Saturday also and raised over $400 while teaching the art of flyfishing. He will be available on a somewhat limited basis this summer to teach flyfishing, but nonetheless will be available to teach some groups interested in learning. Here are some pics from the day:

We have a volunteer/needs email list for the fishing park that we will send out an email to when we need volunteers or specific items for events this year. Anyone wanting to join that list please send an email to hookedonfishingpark@gmail.com. Don't worry your not committing your summer away by joining the list, just when an event falls on an opening in your schedule reply back and say you would love to help out on that day.