Wouldn't you have liked this to be your 16th Bday?

We are always thrilled to hear when people have a good experience with us, especially when we can help fulfill  a young person's dream, with a memorable experience.

We received this letter from Judy Marshall who brought her 16 year old grandson Nick, down to Cabo for the ultimate fishing adventure.

Below are Judy's comments which really made us feel good, especially in regard to our crews

"Hi just wanted to let you know how wonderful our experience was with the Pisces fleet, best of all we caught and released 2 marlin. The boat, the excitement of the morning boarding, out to the sea but the very best was wonderful captain Nicholas and his mates, the skill at handling the boat, fishing and making the 2 days we spent with them just the best. Your organization should be proud to have such skilled people as part of the team.  

Thanks for a great vacation and the very best 16th birthday present a young man who loves fishing could possible have sincerely,

Judy Marshall."

weekend steelhead forecast

Flows are falling in a major way on every river in southeast Wisconsin. Many of the smaller rivers that have been producing in a big way over the last few weeks are just starting to experience low flows. Light rain is in the forecast for Friday with heavier rain coming through on Sunday. I’m not a meteorologist but am excited to see what impact the rain will have on our rivers.

BOB with a lake michigan tributary steelhead

Pike River- Still flowing and fishable but without rain the flows will slowly start to taper off. If you are looking to fish here, try to get out in the next couple days.

Root River- This weekend could be tremendous for fly fishing on the Root River. Flows have come down close to 1500 CFS in the last week and spawn and plug fisherman have recently been scoring some nice fish. The Root is my prediction for this weekend’s hot bite. I’m convinced that the river is full of fish but expect heavy pressure.

Oak Creek- Flows are almost nonexistent, and all fish will be in the deeper pools. Drifting will be out of the question but do try twitching streamers in the deeper sections.

Milwaukee River- The Milwaukee River is still high, but as time goes by the flows will continue to drop. Without any major rain, look for the Milwaukee River to be hot in the next week or so.

Damien scores this steelhead mid-week on a small tributary

Are we nearly there yet...

The end of the calm weather has brought a flood of small Bass to our shores.

This one took a 6" Zipper Shakin' Worm in Hologram Shadow

mounted on a 1/2oz / 14g Power Football Jig Jig Head and was most welcome!

Straight Stud

Over spring break I got to go fishing with some of my closest friends. We went up to the White and fished for a about a day and a half. It was awesome. We ate good food, caught some nice fish, laughed some good laughs, and just loved life. Jack is their Son. He is 11 yrs old and throws a loop as tight as most adults I know! This is a photo of a solid brown he hooked up on about 4 gens of water on the White! What a little stud, right?

Bruce and William

Bruce and William fished with me last week. We decided to put in on the lower river for a day of fishing. Even though it was pretty stained, the guys probably caught more fish than any other boat. At about 11 a.m. I decided to pull the plug and go look for clean water. Not only did we find clean water we found better fish! The boys probably had 7 fish over 16 inches hooked up and a couple around 20 inches! We lost some good ones,landed some good ones and that's just what fishing is all about! It turned out to be a stellar day on the water and a lot of fun!

Another day in Paradise

Last week, I took my good buddy Ed Drilling out for a day of fishing. We mixed it up a bit...we fished from the boat, we did some wading, we all around crushed it! We caught a lot of fish. We had to work hard for all of them though and that's OK..I don't mind it when the fish act that way, it keeps things interesting! We fished a lot of new water and Ed tried a few new techniques, manipulating flies in new ways. I think that was pretty cool stuff. It's always rewarding to me to teach an already good angler new tricks!

Electrofishing Season Has Begun!!

Electrofishing or as most people say it, shocking the pond season has begun! The absolute favorite part of my job is going to new places and finding out what fish are swimming beneath the surface! Always is exciting. Yesterday did not disappoint, we went to some awesome places, met some great new clients, and dialed up some BIG fish. Here is a picture at sunset of the last place we were at.



Justin and I pulled off a marathon of epic proportions. First thing in the morning we headed out at 5:30 am towards Chesterfield, IL. We arrived at 8:30 am and installed a Vertex Air Three aeration system and an AquaPro ADF 75 fish feeder for a 2.5 acre pond.

This pond we electrofished last fall and the owner is now implementing his new plan for killing watermeal while growing some giant bluegills and feed trained bass. We also dropped him off a years supply of fish food and all the materials needed for cleaning up the pond. Then at 11 am we headed down south yet again towards Norris City, IL. We arrived at 2:30 pm and electrofished a 5 acre pond. We dialed up bunches of fish, but most were 8 inch bluegills and 11.5 inch bass. We did get this one big momma though was the only bass over 12.5 inches: BIG FISH



These pond owners want to consistently grow bigger bass. Here is the whole crew checking out the fish:



The pond is severely lacking in bottom contour, structure, and cover. There was only one shelf and one tree limb in the lake and thats where a majority of the bass were hanging out. To grow big bass, you need to create places they can feed efficiently and just hang out without spending any energy the rest of the day. This lake the bass all had to be roamers to find a meal and that just takes up too much energy to gain weight. Also the lake was 35 years old and all the bass originated from the same family, inbred mutts was basically what they are.



We didnt find a bluegill less than 5 inches long in this lake. Bass need to eat 3-5 inch bluegill in order to grow, if you want big bass than you need to make the habitat that will produce oodles of small bluegills! Anyhow that is just the basics of what was going down, collectively we came up with a plan that will work for them for growing some bigger bass consistently. Then from there we headed a few miles down the road to this brand new 3 acre pond. This guy is building a paradise for fish and kids and I guess grown ups alike. Wow is this pond gonna be awesome! Check out this dock rope swing catapult contraption thing:

Ok this pond is gonna be a crappie/walleye pond. No bass and no bluegill. A management plan like this is intense and labor intensive, but this guy knows what he wants and now has a game plan (with a back up plan) and a back up, back up plan for getting what he wants. Forage will be growing all summer long as the pond continues to fill and then 500 crappies per acre will be stocked this fall. Walleyes will be stocked the following fall to clean up the next years baby crappies. Bojo bug lights will be installed to feed the crappies at night. He has a complete plan that works for his budget and management style. Next at 5:30 pm we headed over to Carmi, IL to electrofish a newly acquired 2 acre pond.



This little gem hasn't been managed or fished much over the years and WOW was it full of some awesome fish! About as good of a natural balance as I have seen in similar situations. We shocked up a handful of 3-4 lb and a 14 lb catfish, bass of all sizes, monster bluegills, a couple small walleyes (that had been stocked 4 days earlier) and pulled these big crappies out of the cage the owner caught and put them into 3 days earlier.









These guys want to produce lots of fish for eating. With a 2 acre pond, a natural balance isn't going to produce as many fish annually as these guys want to eat. I can tell, they are big dudes and they wanted to eat all the fish in the holding tank. I talked em into just eating the catfish for now and gave em a plan for producing 100's of pounds of meat every year!

At 8 pm we were back on the road headed for home. Five hours later I was in my own bed conked out. We were supposed to take 2 full days for this road trip, but a couple guys in Mt. Vernon canceled and we were able to reschedule everything on the fly and get er all done in one day. I am pretty excited for this season and especially anticipating the end of the snow and cold! The next few months are gonna be pretty exciting.

Just in....

Some new lures have just arrived in. With the evenings getting longer, its only a matter of time before we will be out chucking these lures off the rocks again....cant wait.

Sasuke 75 Shad (SK75-003)

"The Killer" Sasuke 140 candy

IMA Gyo Do 130 MD Candy

IMA KO 130S Ko-011 (also availble in candy)

Komomo II (11-005)

Sasuke 120 Candy

Sasuke 120 RP117

Sasuke 105 (sinking) candy

Sasuke 105 (sinking), SKF105-034

Tight lines.

Fishing News Update

MARCH 19th to 26th, 2011


Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 58%

BILLFISH: So we are in March, we know what that means, traditionally slow marlin catches – I like to call this the “March Doldrums”. Marlin are present and are seen often, but getting them to bite is a completely different issue. On one day last week one of our boats reported seeing eight marlin at Punta Gorda but couldn’t get any interested in bait, they referred to them as “window shoppers”, this boat however (Adriana) did manage to hook a swordfish, which they battled for two and a half hours before it broke off. The fish was estimated to be 250 lbs and was played by Richard Tootle from El Reno, Oklahoma. “Tracy Ann” also spotted a swordfish this same day 40 miles out from the 180 spot but had not luck in enticing it. These weren’t the only swordfish in Cabo this week, we also heard of another boat, “Go Deep” that landed a 300 lb. swordfish. The only people excited about marlin this week are the scientists, they think the behavior they are exhibiting could mean that they are mating and the researchers will be out with their equipment, trying to capture larva. We know that this is just a temporary situation and very common at this time of year. The good thing is though, that there is quite a bit of action inshore for delicious yellowtail, sierra and other small game. Despite this some boats did get lucky with marlin; “Tracy Ann” was the hot boat this week with two marlin released on the same day at Destiladeres by Tom & Dawn Oliphant, David Taylor & Larry Walters from Houston. Both fish were around 150 lbs and took live caballito. “Attitude Adjustment” caught a marlin this same day but in a completely different location, 22 miles out from the Old Lighthouse. This one was also around 150 lbs and was released by Bruno Sasson from San Diego. “C-Rod” was the other boat that caught a striped marlin at Punta Gorda for Jim Carey & Jim Croce….sounds like a famous duo…but these guys are from St. Louis MO and in fact it was John Croce, John Carey also and Ale Corey. Ten percent of boats caught marlin this week out total was four fish. The la niña current, present on the Pacific is a continuing factor in slower catches, but this will be ending soon.

OTHER SPECIES: Yellowfin tuna catches were fair this week with a little over twenty percent of boats landing between one and fifteen fish. “Ruthless” was the top tuna boat with fifteen caught off of San Jose by Josen and Jim Carmock from Newport Beach, California – all took cedar plugs and were up to eighteen pounds. Top tuna day ended up being the 23rd, when the word went out that San Jaime was the hot spot. Boats zipped up the Pacific and then out from San Jaime between twenty and twenty five miles. “Rebecca” did best this day with eight fish from fifteen to a nice fifty pounder for the Power family from Klamouth Falls, Oregon. A very enviable catch this week was aboard “Bill Collector” a double header on wahoo accomplished by Timothy Reedy from New York & Ray Majesty from Glenview, Illinois. The fish took green colored lures just three miles out from Chileno and weighed 45 and 65 lbs respectively. Great catch! Inshore there were yellowtail up to 30 lbs, sierra, roosterfish and other bottom fish. Small game catches accounted for thirty four percent of the catches this week.

WEATHER: Some partly cloudy days, Sea of Cortez calm, Pacific with whitecaps some days, mix of hot days and cooler nights.

LOCATION: Punta Gorda, Destiladeres, San Jaime, Old Lighthouse,

Migriño.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 72 F

BEST LURES: Live caballito, cedar plugs, green.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

We had two hook-ups on elusive Broadbill Swordfish, this week; generally considered the most prized of all billfish catches. In most places in the world they are caught at night. Here in Cabo we catch them during the daytime. They are occaisionaly found dozing on ther surface and if a bait is presently exactly correctly you may get a hook up if they are very hungry. Captains often say they try to smack them on the bill with the bait, to cause an automatic reaction to get them to bite. They have very soft mouths and the hook often rips out.

Anyone Interested?

Mark is running a match on 24th April (Easter Sunday) at Todber Manor - Park Lake.

A recent match was won with 178lb, with 160lb & 150lb framing, which is loads of carp & F1s. Silvers were won with 48lb of roach!

£25 pools, paying top 3, plus 3 sections.

If you are interested, please leave a message or click on this link http://www.matchfishing-scene.co.uk/showthread.php?12269-Todber-Manor-Matches-Names-please

End of season Pike and Perch

I've finally got round to updating my blog, as lately, homework, revision - and fishing - have taken up all of my time. The river season has now ended, and although I will miss my river fishing over the next 3 months, there's still a lot to look forward to. For the past month we've been continuing our quest for Perch on our local rivers, mostly with lures. The last few weeks of the river season can sometimes be some of the best, but this hasn't been the case this time round. So to keep the bites coming, we've been experimenting with Drop Shotting and trying out some new lures we bought about a month ago.

The last couple of weeks has only just started to be light enough to fit in a couple of hours after school to jig our local river. One warm but cloudy day seemed to tick all the boxes for great Perching conditions. After recently trying out Drop Shots and Wacky Style Worm fishing on the River Ivel with some success, we were keen to try it on the Lea too. I lip hooked a 3" dull, split tail shad on to the hook, tied via a palomar knot about a foot above the end of the line. To this I attached a 1/4oz drop shot weight. By presenting soft baits in this way, you can fish them very slowly - and by lip hooking the bait - whether this be a curltail or shad, you can twitch them enticingly, very much like an injured silverfish, and this can prove irresistible to lethargic predators. It's also amazing how such small fish can engulf such a large bait - not long after starting, a Perch fell for my Drop Shotting tactics - only a fish of around 10oz, but it still managed to completely engulf the 3" split tail shad! Hopeful there may be others in the swim, I cast out again. Hardly moving the rod tip, I twitched my bait delicately along the bottom, and soon found myself playing a larger fish at over 2lbs.

20 yards further down the river I found myself hooked up again to another good fish. Seeing the Perch as it approached the net, it looked and felt bigger than the previous fish, so I played it carefully in the hope that it wouldn't come off. The fish soon tired and I netted a lovely Perch at 3lb 1oz, which again fell to the Drop Shot. I managed to land another small one, but it wasn't long before our couple of hours fishing was over, as it was now pitch black. Unfortunately for Dad, who had persevered fishing our normal jigging method (which normally works very well), had blanked - so it just goes to show how a change of approach can sometimes make a difference.

In the last few weeks of the season we caught some nice fish on drop shots up to 3lbs 8oz. It's also proved a great method for catching Pike, Chub, and even Brown Trout that live in the river too. We also fished the River Thames on the last weekend of the season in our boat - the fishing was tough but we still managed to catch nearly 30 Perch to just over 2lbs, I also caught a 12lb Pike fishing a Wacky Style Worm intended for Chub!

Talking of a change of approach, my Dad had really been wanting to try some quivertipping but as usual, we'd got carried away with lure fishing But this time he was determined to try it, so after an evening collecting lobworms from our local football field, we were ready to give it a bash. Arriving around midday, we set up in an area where we thought we'd have a chance of catching Chub and Roach. We fished using bread and maggots, but after 3 or 4 hours without a bite, we opted for the lobworm in the hope of a last minute Perch. We sat back patiently, waiting eagerly for that magic moment - when the tip swings round. With time running out, I suddenly heard the sound of a drag of a reel. I looked round and my Dad was playing a fish. I walked over to give him a hand with the netting - he said it felt a good fish, but until it graced the net we didn't realise how 'good' it really was!

The scales read 4lb 1oz - my Dad's first four from the Lea, and our 3rd from the river in total! We stared at it in awe, and after taking pictures and much excitement, we released it back to it's watery home. We were soon back fishing though, as we knew that although he'd caught our 2nd biggest from the Lea ever, there was still a chance of another decent fish. It wasn't long before I had some interest showing on my quivertip, and I struck in to a fish - not to be outdone by my Dad! I soon had the fish in the net and this weighed 3lb 3oz - another cracking fish, not a beast like Dad's, but it had made my day. However it wasn't over yet. Not long after casting out again, the tip swung round and I landed another of 2lb 6oz too.

Chopping and changing techniques has certainly paid off over the past difficult weeks - sometimes when fishing gets harder it can be a good thing as it forces you to try new things. It's always sad to see the season over, but now I'm really looking forward to flyfishing reservoirs.

vernon county wisconsin trout fishing

vernon county wisconsin trout stream

 Damien made it out to Vernon County last week to do some trout fishing. Had a good day catching plenty of numbers of fish. We have plans to head out there together a couple weeks from now. We might be trying some new water to see if we can hook into any bruisers. I can hardly wait!

vernon county wisconsin brook trout

vernon county wisconsin brown trout

Mike Iacanelli Recap with Pics

Lets just start with the food eh? Chef Todd and Chef Kevin cooked all weekend. Their specialty was blueberry, bluecheese gourmet elk burgers! If you like blueberries, blue cheese, and elk than you loved their conoction. If you didnt like that stuff, surprisingly enough they convinced quite a few people into trying it out of curiosity sake and a good majority of those people will now be serving blueberry, bluecheese burgers at their cookout this summer. Let me know when you next attend or attempt a cookout with that combo!

Just want to say that Mike Iacanelli didnt eat his blueberry elk burger. Not that he probably didnt like it, he just actually is a pretty small guy. He didnt even taste it as far as I know. He was too busy speaking, talking, and signing autographs. I offered to sign a few autographs, but didnt have any takers for some reason? Mike however had a line that stretched through the whole 40,000 square foot store waiting to get his herbie hancock....

Here are some pictures of Mike's seminar. He used our trout pond for some demonstrations:

Here are some pictures of kids fishing in the trout pond. We had over 400 kids fishing in the pond over the weekend. Probably 75% of the kids on Saturday caught fish, but only about 40% of the kids on Sunday caught fish. The trout were worked over pretty good the first day.

Here is a pic of filling the pond from Thursday night.

At the end of the day Sunday, we were all pretty tired from standing around, talking, and eating all day long. Everyone helped take everything down and clean up which was much appreciated! I also want to give a shout out to the limestone high school bass fishing team!! They helped kids fish in the pond from sunup to sundown both days! Here they are draining the pond.

Here are some pictures of burning prairie grass last week. We do this on these fields every 2-3 years. On large properties we rotate fields so that we end up burning 1/3 of the grass every year. This helps create amazing year round habitat.

You definitely need to be careful when playing with fire. We start alot of back burns like this one below to help keep the fire from getting too large. Just use the wind to your advantage to start fires that will eventually put themselves out.

Its about 5:45 am on Monday morning. Justin and I headed down to Southern Illinois for a mini road trip. I am actually using his wireless card and typing while he is driving. Pretty cool! Anyhow our first stop is in Chesterfield, IL to install a Vertex Air 3 aeration system, fish feeder, and teach the property caretaker how to maintain the pond for the upcoming season. We are unloadin a years supply of fish food (500 lbs) and some herbicides and algaecides and bacteria to kill the watermeal, duckweed, and algae.

Then from there we head down to Norris City to electrofish a 5 acre lake that wants to grow bigger bass. Then we go a few miles down the road to consult for a brand new filling 3 acre lake that wants to focuse on an intensive plan to grow monster crappies. From there we head to a hotel near Harrisburg.

Tuesday we are electrofishing for a newly acquired 2 acre pond near Carmi to find out whats in there and come up with a gameplan for growing better crappies and walleye. Then we probably head for home or maybe make a stop through Brownstown to check on some clients if time and schedule allows.