Thursday, July 28, 2011
asian carp vs the great lakes
One of the best documentaries I've seen yet on the asian carp and the problems we face in the great lakes region. Well worth the time to watch it. This story came from the Detroit Free Press.
Great Fishing Today Despite Rough Seas
Summer brings hot days and great fishing action as well as family members for holidays. Shown here is Tracy's niece Victoria, 15 years old with her first saltwater fish, cutting a good impression on the waterfront.
The family were out aboard "Rebecca" despite 18 knot winds today they fared well. Joe Dubeau aged 13 managed to release a 100 lb sailfish that took him twenty minutes to bring to the boat.
The whole family were all smiles back at the dock.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Dunure
I tried for some bait briefly at the weekend and a local rock mark which is normally pretty good for Mackerel but even these proved hard to get. I managed a few Coalies and a stray Launce hardly what I need for a next weekend and meagre tally for an hours hard feathering when you need about 20 Mackerel .....sometimes you just need a boat.
27/07/11 - Glebe - pool 1
Weight – 111lb 4oz
Catch – 25 Carp
Weather – Mostly sunny and light breeze
Match – MFS Float only – 7th out of 16
24hrs before this match it was fully booked with 20 anglers. However, on Monday 1 dropped out due to a bad back and the other because the first was his lift. Mark was unable to fill the spaces, so 18 for the match. Uh no, after managing to track down 1 non attendee who forgot!! The 4th drop out however with the best (and genuine?) excuse. 5 miles from the fishery he had a car accident…. with a police car – ouch!
With a north/north easterly breeze, I really fancied a draw in the middle of the lake, since there was more likely to be ripple on the water. I was last to draw, with only 18 & 26 left in the bucket, I really wanted Herbie to draw 26, but he didn’t, which meant I was on 26 for 2nd time.
Whilst setting up I was concerned about the flat calm condition, with the ripple starting in front of Nick Merry on p24. As for p18 it looked spot on and I was a touch envious.
Today was all about keeping it simple concentrating on catching shallow, feeding caster. Unfortunately the day was anything but simple. As well as 2 shallow rigs, 2 rigs to fish the 5m line (1x paste and 1x corn) and 1x paste margin rig were set up. I really didn’t fancy the margin today, because the water looked a touch clearer than last time. I did give it a few minutes, but was soon binned. The 5m also failed to produce, so all fish came shallow at 13-14m.
The opening 2 hours was a case finding something that worked. There was plenty of fish coming to the feed, but getting them to take the bait was turning into a mare. I tried various shallow rigs, from only a couple inches to 2ft. I was thankful I brought my pellet waggler rod and fished a loaded puddle chucker, finding it best to fish with a 12” hooklength with 3 or 4 floating maggot to create a really slow fall. In the flat conditions the waggler definitely seemed to be best.
The 1 thing I will say about the Glebe carp is they are fit. I’ve never come across fish that run so hard, I had 1 that managed to straighten a B960 and Mark had a couple straighten a carp feeder hook.
After 3 hours I had 15 fish and after the initial slow start was pleased with my progress, but the following 3 hours became difficult again. The main issue was the Puddle Chucker floats I was using. I had 2 were the clear plastic body popped off the loaded weight attached to the line. The 3rd puddle chucker used had a longer body and wasn’t right for the job. I also went through a period where I lost a few fish, which didn’t improve my mood.
I was disappointed to finish with only 25 fish, but surprised to weigh over a ton. Mark drew the end peg 30, but also had the same problem catching shallow, but his 29 fish weighed 163-0, included 50lb from the margin so obviously some bigger stamp fish.
Nick won from p24, mostly shallow taking advantage of the ripple. As for peg 18, Herbie weighed 111-8 pipping me to the section money by 4oz – gutted!
This was the 6th match in as many days on the lake and the weights still remained impressive and with a more favourable wind, I’m sure there would have some bigger weights.
Immediately after the match I was pretty p****d off, not only because I missed out on a pick up by 4oz, but I knew hadn’t my waggler’s failed I would have caught more. Now is the next day and putting everything in perspective that’s 2 visits to the Glebe and 2 tons, whilst I was disappointed, I was unlucky not to have the ripple and I know I would have caught more. So despite the difficult condition, I think the method was right. Ben on peg 28 fished the pellet waggler, as well as fishing on the deck, but struggled for 51lb.
1st 198-12 – Nick Merry – peg 24
2nd 163- 0 – Mark Poppleton – peg 30
3rd 159- 4 – Holwell – peg 1
3rd 159- 4 – Pete Bailey – peg 4
5th 113- 8 – Tim Suttle – peg 14
6th 111- 8 – Herbie – peg 18
7th 111- 4 – Ken Rayner – peg 26
8th 107- 0 – Clive Pritchard – peg 20
Catch – 25 Carp
Weather – Mostly sunny and light breeze
Match – MFS Float only – 7th out of 16
24hrs before this match it was fully booked with 20 anglers. However, on Monday 1 dropped out due to a bad back and the other because the first was his lift. Mark was unable to fill the spaces, so 18 for the match. Uh no, after managing to track down 1 non attendee who forgot!! The 4th drop out however with the best (and genuine?) excuse. 5 miles from the fishery he had a car accident…. with a police car – ouch!
With a north/north easterly breeze, I really fancied a draw in the middle of the lake, since there was more likely to be ripple on the water. I was last to draw, with only 18 & 26 left in the bucket, I really wanted Herbie to draw 26, but he didn’t, which meant I was on 26 for 2nd time.
Whilst setting up I was concerned about the flat calm condition, with the ripple starting in front of Nick Merry on p24. As for p18 it looked spot on and I was a touch envious.
Today was all about keeping it simple concentrating on catching shallow, feeding caster. Unfortunately the day was anything but simple. As well as 2 shallow rigs, 2 rigs to fish the 5m line (1x paste and 1x corn) and 1x paste margin rig were set up. I really didn’t fancy the margin today, because the water looked a touch clearer than last time. I did give it a few minutes, but was soon binned. The 5m also failed to produce, so all fish came shallow at 13-14m.
The opening 2 hours was a case finding something that worked. There was plenty of fish coming to the feed, but getting them to take the bait was turning into a mare. I tried various shallow rigs, from only a couple inches to 2ft. I was thankful I brought my pellet waggler rod and fished a loaded puddle chucker, finding it best to fish with a 12” hooklength with 3 or 4 floating maggot to create a really slow fall. In the flat conditions the waggler definitely seemed to be best.
The 1 thing I will say about the Glebe carp is they are fit. I’ve never come across fish that run so hard, I had 1 that managed to straighten a B960 and Mark had a couple straighten a carp feeder hook.
After 3 hours I had 15 fish and after the initial slow start was pleased with my progress, but the following 3 hours became difficult again. The main issue was the Puddle Chucker floats I was using. I had 2 were the clear plastic body popped off the loaded weight attached to the line. The 3rd puddle chucker used had a longer body and wasn’t right for the job. I also went through a period where I lost a few fish, which didn’t improve my mood.
I was disappointed to finish with only 25 fish, but surprised to weigh over a ton. Mark drew the end peg 30, but also had the same problem catching shallow, but his 29 fish weighed 163-0, included 50lb from the margin so obviously some bigger stamp fish.
Nick won from p24, mostly shallow taking advantage of the ripple. As for peg 18, Herbie weighed 111-8 pipping me to the section money by 4oz – gutted!
This was the 6th match in as many days on the lake and the weights still remained impressive and with a more favourable wind, I’m sure there would have some bigger weights.
Immediately after the match I was pretty p****d off, not only because I missed out on a pick up by 4oz, but I knew hadn’t my waggler’s failed I would have caught more. Now is the next day and putting everything in perspective that’s 2 visits to the Glebe and 2 tons, whilst I was disappointed, I was unlucky not to have the ripple and I know I would have caught more. So despite the difficult condition, I think the method was right. Ben on peg 28 fished the pellet waggler, as well as fishing on the deck, but struggled for 51lb.
1st 198-12 – Nick Merry – peg 24
2nd 163- 0 – Mark Poppleton – peg 30
3rd 159- 4 – Holwell – peg 1
3rd 159- 4 – Pete Bailey – peg 4
5th 113- 8 – Tim Suttle – peg 14
6th 111- 8 – Herbie – peg 18
7th 111- 4 – Ken Rayner – peg 26
8th 107- 0 – Clive Pritchard – peg 20
milwaukee river smallies redemption part 2
Part 2-
After a quick snack, I was back after a few more bass to round out my morning of smallie fishing on the Milwaukee River. The early part of the morning had gone great and I was really starting to feel like I was making some progress dissecting this immense river. This was my first completely wet wade wearing only swim trunks and a pair of old sneakers. I was cool as a cucumber all day long and only needed to drop down shoulder deep when I even suspected it was hot out. The river was running cool and clear and I felt comfortable even though a tad creeped out about what I may rub up against. Do you ever really know what’s hanging out in those deep pools?
New Water-
The new water that was recommended to me, came from a member of the DTA (Driftless Trout Anglers, the best trout forum around). This guy is from Minnesota and saw my earlier blog posts from the Milwaukee River. He instantly knew what stretch of the river I was fishing and shot me an email regarding his exploits in the area along with a few tips. It was info that was much appreciated, so I wanna thank you. I bumped into him on a Dane County stream earlier this summer but didn’t realize who he was until we posted about our days on the DTA. Talk about really having a huge fishing search radius! From the twin cities to mad town, the mil and everything in between! And I thought I traveled to find fish? Mucho respect brother, mucho respect!
In general, this section of river held faster and shallower runs with a lot more chutes and funnels. The water, ripping threw the narrower areas, was propelled out the other side with almost a white water effect. It was a much more difficult wade that left me pretty banged up from the heavy rock bottom and a few near stumbles. To shallow there for cranking so I opted for a nothing special, white spinner bait. It was the perfect tool to pick that water apart, plus no hanging up in the weeds. The fish here were in the textbook spots. The tail outs from the fast current produced when ambush spots were present. Smallies caught from the current areas sure fought harder then those taken from pools. Also, I picked off numerous fish by burning the spinner over those “pot holes” or minor depressions in the river bed. The pools were only a few feet deeper then the surrounding water but inevitably held some good fish. The back side of boulders and current breaks were also good bets. Fifteen fish wasn’t bad for a morning out on the river, and finally decided to call it a day. I don’t know where this weekend will take me, yet. If I do end up back on the Milwaukee rest assured I will explore her deeper and further than ever before.
After a quick snack, I was back after a few more bass to round out my morning of smallie fishing on the Milwaukee River. The early part of the morning had gone great and I was really starting to feel like I was making some progress dissecting this immense river. This was my first completely wet wade wearing only swim trunks and a pair of old sneakers. I was cool as a cucumber all day long and only needed to drop down shoulder deep when I even suspected it was hot out. The river was running cool and clear and I felt comfortable even though a tad creeped out about what I may rub up against. Do you ever really know what’s hanging out in those deep pools?
New Water-
The new water that was recommended to me, came from a member of the DTA (Driftless Trout Anglers, the best trout forum around). This guy is from Minnesota and saw my earlier blog posts from the Milwaukee River. He instantly knew what stretch of the river I was fishing and shot me an email regarding his exploits in the area along with a few tips. It was info that was much appreciated, so I wanna thank you. I bumped into him on a Dane County stream earlier this summer but didn’t realize who he was until we posted about our days on the DTA. Talk about really having a huge fishing search radius! From the twin cities to mad town, the mil and everything in between! And I thought I traveled to find fish? Mucho respect brother, mucho respect!
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| a scenic stretch of the milwaukee river |
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| a milwaukee river bluff |
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| burning a spinnerbait for milwaukee river smallies |
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| last bass of the day |
Commercial Striped Bass Fishing!
Up at 3:30 am this morning. Headed out to do some commercial striped bass fishing on the Atlantic side of the Cape. Here is an early morning shot of the old school harbor:
You know Cape Cod is pretty much one of the coolest places on earth for a fish geek like myself. The only problem with the Cape is that Boston is only one hour away and pretty much every major city on the East Coast is nearby. Big cities bring lots of people and I pretty much don't like people in general.
We motored out to a remote beach and spotted a bunch of birds dive bombing baitfish. Instantly hooked up the moment our big diamond jigs hit the water! Crazy. Insane. Unbelievably Awesome. My first striper was a 10 lber, but it was too short to keep. They have to be 34 inches long to be legal fish and we caught tons of 32" 10 lbers. Here are some pictures of short fish that had to be released:
We also caught a handful of bluefish today as well:
So altogether we caught and released about 45 short fish in the 8-10 lb range. Along with the short fish though, we caught our limit of legal fish! Legal fish are in the 13-30 lb range and our limit was 30 of those monster fish. Our biggest fish today was 27 lbs and our average keeper was 17 lbs. Here are a bunch of pictures, fishing was just blow your mind incredible today.
Justin caught the biggest fish of the day:
We were fishing very close to the beach. Here is a photo of just how close:
Here is a shot of the view looking out. When the schools of stripers are located, every boat within miles come running in to get a piece of the action. Lots and lots of boats. Our remote beach turned into a zoo by the time we left.
We were one of the first boats to limit out today! We filled the cooler up completely by 1 pm with 509 lbs of stripers and 47 lbs of bluefish!
Basically you cast out a big jig/spoon bait and real it in as fast as you possibly can. The big stripers come out of nowhere and smash your bait so hard it about rips the pole out of your hands. The coolest thing is that you literally watch each fish slam the bait! My arms are completely and utterly jello right now. Just picking up each bite of food to put in my mouth is not easy with such sore arms, but I am managing.
As a matter of fact I am eating seared scallops on top of seared pear slices marinated in some special Cape Cod lemon marinade. Eating while I type. Take a look at this appetizer:
Also we are having more lobsters, fresh striped bass, and fresh bluefish. We brought some fresh striped bass to the neighbor lobster lady and she dug us out 3 nice big lobsters in exchange to compliment our dinner. Seriously, this is as good as it gets. Pretty much the best food on the planet and Brett is a gourmet chef.
So before I forget, we were fishing with Steve today. Steve is a 5th grade school teacher here on the cape and he commercial fishes in the summer. He was focussed and determined all day, no messing around. Finally once we just about had the fish box full of fish I got him to pose for a quick photo.
Steve and I make a great team. He needs help catching 30 stripers everyday, and Justin and I love fishing in the Ocean for free. Tomorrow we will be to Steves at 4:30 am ready to roll!!! My arms hurt, my stomach hurts, and I am tired. Too much fishing and eating. One thing is for certain, this boy is Fat and Happy! Sleeping will be nice, tomorrow will be here soon.
You know Cape Cod is pretty much one of the coolest places on earth for a fish geek like myself. The only problem with the Cape is that Boston is only one hour away and pretty much every major city on the East Coast is nearby. Big cities bring lots of people and I pretty much don't like people in general.
We motored out to a remote beach and spotted a bunch of birds dive bombing baitfish. Instantly hooked up the moment our big diamond jigs hit the water! Crazy. Insane. Unbelievably Awesome. My first striper was a 10 lber, but it was too short to keep. They have to be 34 inches long to be legal fish and we caught tons of 32" 10 lbers. Here are some pictures of short fish that had to be released:
We also caught a handful of bluefish today as well:
So altogether we caught and released about 45 short fish in the 8-10 lb range. Along with the short fish though, we caught our limit of legal fish! Legal fish are in the 13-30 lb range and our limit was 30 of those monster fish. Our biggest fish today was 27 lbs and our average keeper was 17 lbs. Here are a bunch of pictures, fishing was just blow your mind incredible today.
Justin caught the biggest fish of the day:
We were fishing very close to the beach. Here is a photo of just how close:
Here is a shot of the view looking out. When the schools of stripers are located, every boat within miles come running in to get a piece of the action. Lots and lots of boats. Our remote beach turned into a zoo by the time we left.
We were one of the first boats to limit out today! We filled the cooler up completely by 1 pm with 509 lbs of stripers and 47 lbs of bluefish!
Basically you cast out a big jig/spoon bait and real it in as fast as you possibly can. The big stripers come out of nowhere and smash your bait so hard it about rips the pole out of your hands. The coolest thing is that you literally watch each fish slam the bait! My arms are completely and utterly jello right now. Just picking up each bite of food to put in my mouth is not easy with such sore arms, but I am managing.
As a matter of fact I am eating seared scallops on top of seared pear slices marinated in some special Cape Cod lemon marinade. Eating while I type. Take a look at this appetizer:
Also we are having more lobsters, fresh striped bass, and fresh bluefish. We brought some fresh striped bass to the neighbor lobster lady and she dug us out 3 nice big lobsters in exchange to compliment our dinner. Seriously, this is as good as it gets. Pretty much the best food on the planet and Brett is a gourmet chef.
So before I forget, we were fishing with Steve today. Steve is a 5th grade school teacher here on the cape and he commercial fishes in the summer. He was focussed and determined all day, no messing around. Finally once we just about had the fish box full of fish I got him to pose for a quick photo.
Steve and I make a great team. He needs help catching 30 stripers everyday, and Justin and I love fishing in the Ocean for free. Tomorrow we will be to Steves at 4:30 am ready to roll!!! My arms hurt, my stomach hurts, and I am tired. Too much fishing and eating. One thing is for certain, this boy is Fat and Happy! Sleeping will be nice, tomorrow will be here soon.
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