Meat Ice Fishing Today

Today I went ice fishing with Brian and Mark from Morton and Mackinaw. We fished my meat fishing pond today in Peoria. Our goal for this trip was to catch some fish for dinner and also to learn about Vexilars. I am telling you, if your not fishing with a vexilar you are missing out on lots and lots of fish!

It took Brian and Mark all of 5 minutes to get the hang of fishing with electronics and they were off chasing suspended fish! I drilled over 40 holes and they would keep moving all afternoon long to new holes to pop suspended fish until finally the last 30 minutes of light they each found holes that were loaded with fish and they sat tight pulling in one after another.

I didn't take too many pics today, cause I was busy drilling holes the first 3 hours and cleaning fish the last hour. The last 30 minutes I couldnt clean the fish as fast as they were flopping them on the cutting board!

Latest Fish Report

December 18th to December 23rd, 2010

Overall Catch Success Rate 88.58%

BILLFISH: Billfish catches showed a slight improvement this week but are still on the slow side, nevertheless our boats are still seeing marlin – getting them to take bait has been the more difficult task. Although yellow fin tuna remained the main target of anglers, twenty three percent of our boats did manage to catch billfish this week. The 22nd was the best day for billfish when we had such catches as those aboard “Tracy Ann” for a group from Ontario, Canada with one striped marlin released at Los Arcos. “Rebecca” also released one striped marlin for the Fransen family from Oklahoma at the same spot. The Morgan´s from Mesquite, TX had a fun day aboard “Bill Collector” releasing one striped marlin as well as boating three dorado and five yellow fin tuna between 20 to 30 lbs. This same day “La Brisa” released one striped marlin and caught thirteen yellow fin tuna between 15 to 45 lbs for Martin Sisk and family from McArthur, Ca… god job guys! On the 20th, the Stephenson family from Camargo, OR caught one striped marlin and one yellow fin tuna at sixteen miles out from the Jaime bank.

OTHER SPECIES: Dorado catches continue steady with twenty percent of our boats catching between one to eight fish. On the 21st, “Attitude Adjustment” did very well for Dennis Elliot and friends from Oklahoma boating eight dorado in the 30 to 40 lbs range, twenty seven miles out from Cerro Blanco; the fish took a combination of lures and live bait. Actually we should mention that this day the captain rescued a couple of tourists on a panga – they were bobbing around in the ocean and have no idea how lucky they were that Captain Edgar spotted them and came to their assistance. He could not leave them there, so they towed the panga closer to the shore and let them use his mobile to call someone to pick them up. Special thanks to Dennis Elliot for his kindness and understanding, as his fishing day was cut short. This same day “La Brisa” boated six dorado between 20 to 30 lbs for Hagan family from Kansas City, KS; they also caught five yellow fin tuna. Tuna catches were still number one this report with fifty two percent of our boats catching between one and twenty seven fish. Top tuna boat was “Valerie” on the 20th for Cameron Blair and friends from Edmonton, Canada landing twenty seven yellow fin tuna, pretty much all football size, which took cedar plugs and hoochis. Another group from Canada out on “Tracy Ann” was not far behind with twenty tuna for James Giffin and friends from Ontario; they went twenty nine miles out from the 210 spot. The next day “Tracy Ann” did well again for Todd Kershbaum w family and friends from Houston, TX boating sixteen tuna between 15 to 40 lbs; they tried the same spot as the previous day, which worked out for them. On the 22nd Larry Hollington and friends from Georgia had a good day aboard “Valerie” boating twelve football size tuna; they will have plenty fillets to take home. On the 21st, Chuck Weatherly and friends from Kansas City, KS caught five yellow fin tuna aboard “Adriana”, one of them weighed 70 lbs – the largest of the week; they were fortunate to release a striped marlin as well. Our total tuna count was one hundred and forty three fish.

As to other species we had some rooster fish, Spanish mackerel, amberjack and jack crevalle.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear, sunny skies, seas mostly calm, cooler mornings.

LOCATION: Pacific Side - Golden Gate, Los Arcos, Migriño, Gaspareño, La Ballena, Old light house, San Jaime, 180 spot, 210 spot, Cerro Blanco,

AVERAGE WATER TEMP. 74 F

BEST LURES; Cedar plugs, tigrillo, green, red/black, green/yellow, red/orange, petrolero, rapalas, hoochis, guacamayo, white/blue

Live ballyhoo and caballito

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

It Can Get Cold

Ice Fishing Monster Bluegills Today!

Today I took Tom and Shawn ice fishing for some big bluegills. They are from up near Henry, Illinois and it was actually Shawn's birthday today! The weather was perfectly calm and sunny and we caught some monster big bluegills today along with some rainbow trout and one crappie.

We got started at 9 am and just barely caught the tail end of a really good bite! The first hour we caught half of our big fish today and spent the next 5 hours just to duplicate what we did the first hour. Kind of confusing so I will try to sum it up for those who don't realize what I am trying to say: we should have went out fishing earlier!

Anyhow we had a great time, drilled alot of holes and just enjoyed being outside on a beautiful winter day. When the wind isn't blowing, and the sun is shining, and there is snow on the ground it is just really nice to be outside. Oh yeah, we also caught some amazing fish and you don't want to miss these pictures!

I am booked up for the rest of this week, which also happens to be the rest of the year! Hopefully we can finish of 2010 with a bang (and a whole bunch more trophy fish!)

Thrummin' Hornbergs

IT'S ANY ONE'S GUESS

Slightly Modified

weighted body

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.. This slightly modified classic is just now making it's appearance beneath the ice on Hebgen Lake. The neighbors call it the "Bearded Hornberg," or the "Rasty Hornberg." It's tied just like the standard pattern with the addition of a large beard.
.. It's attached to the fishing line behind it's ample head with a standard riffling hitch; a small split shot is also suspended from the eye of the hook. Rigged correctly this allows the fly to hang in the water in a nearly horizontal position.

.. Neighbors don't remember a Whitefish being taken on this fly. Speculation allows it to mimic a small fish, thus attractive to the large rainbows and Browns in the lake. Truth be told it's any one's guess about what it really imitates. And like so many attractor flies it is not a major topic of conversation. It works, and that's that.
.. This pattern is almost always fished with a thrumming rod. Infrequently it is dangled beneath a tip-up. The thrumming rod allows the vibrations from the thumb-thrummer to move the fly in subtle ways beneath the water. Additionally, speculation allows that the vibrations attract the fish. Whatever the case, this is a rig that the neighbors favor when looking for the big trout in the reservoir.
.. NB: Maggots are scarce already. Meal worms are disappearing fast. Most night crawlers are dry or growing green stuff. It might be time to give the artificials a heavy workout.
.. More to come

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Merry Christmas

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pistakee bay and petite lake double header

Thursday morning was our holiday office party and me and Neal had the rest of the day free to prospect for panfish! Even though very little work got done, those 6 hours seemed to crawl. After minimal work, holidays gifts, and an expansive buffet we burned rubber back north towards the Fox Chain of Lakes. There was plans to meet Damien out on Pistakee Bay fishing until dark and switching over to Petite for the night bite.

Met Damien and a couple of his friends out on Pistakee Bay around 2:00pm, they had been fishing since 11:00am. Our reward for showing up late was an abundance of predrilled holes, a refined location, and a dialed in presentation. They were not just on fish, they were on some big sunfish with a few crappie and bass mixed in. Pistakee was crowded and there were 2 major clusters of fisherman one in shallow and another out over deeper water. Damien had a hot hole and was crushing some huge bull bluegill consistently without even moving once. Neal and I scratched some nice fish here and there but found ourselves bouncing around a little more the Damien. We fished with them until the sun set and parted ways each with our fair share of fish.

my biggest was smaller then a dozen of damiens gills

After stopping for a quick bite (eaten in the car) and a pack of smokes we found ourselves standing in the middle of Petite Lake just after dark. The air temperature had to be 25 degrees and without a gust of wind, it was really quite a pleasant night to be out. We started to hand drill a series of holes which we marked depths from 5 to 12 feet. A few holes located close together had some steep drops in-between them and we really blanketed those drops with our tip ups. The shack was set in 10 foot and the propane heater deployed. We gave the holes in the shanty a good hour of fishing and tried to call the fish to us with some glow jigs and a swedish pimple pounded on the bottom. Not a bite or even a nibble was felt during that first hour and the decision was made to push out to deeper water.

Leaving the warm shack behind we grabbed just the necessities and headed out into to evening air. One lantern guided our way as I started drilling a second series of holes. I zigzagged our holes out towards the middle and Neal followed 2 holes back with the vexilar looking for even the slightest bit of movement. When something would peek his interest I came shuffling up quickly to have a closer look at the screen. Watching carefully as the bait fell, the reaction from the fish came quickly and almost for certain we would watch the 2 little red lines rise up from the bottom. A quick hook set and a fish played from 17 feet down would reward us for all the hard work we were doing. Hand cranking through ice is no easy task and when your finding a fish every 6 holes and it has to be a shared duty. We never found a pocket of multiple fish and we never caught a second fish out of the same hole (even returning later)! A handful of bluegill and crappie fell victim to the glow rat-finkie with glow plastic tipped with a spike. Mobility was a huge factor in our catches and I’m willing to bet that staying in our shelter would have left us fishless. Here’s some footage I shot while we hole hopped halfway across Petite lake.

In The Day