South Fork Serenade

HOMAGE TO THE FORGOTTEN

Pure Delight, No Glory

that's o.k. with us

South Fork Madison River

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.. We fish the South Fork of the Madison River more than we mention. It's full of fish.
.. It has untrammeled stretches. It's full of willow thickets. It has cute little meadow sections. It roars in places, (softly of course.)

.. This little river is not the closest, nor most easily accessed river from our front door. It's not the best fishing in the area. It's not famous for anything. It is, however, the least visited and provides the most solitary fishing experience that is close to home.
.. The spawning run from Hebgen Lake is late in the season and frequently requires a snowmachine for access.
.. During that run there is the possibility of fish larger than 7 pounds, (the way the worm folks measure.) Normally the fish are around 10" to 12" with a giant in the 14" range possible. There are many 7" & 8" fish that provide nearly constant action if you find them.
.. The river provides all the hatches of it's more famous siblings in the neighborhood. Right now the caddis are swarming and the hoppers are hopping. There seems to be more beetles here than elsewhere. Probably this is because there are only a few dirt tracks separating the forest from the water. Both spruce moths and white miller caddis are working as you read this.
.. Surprisingly deep holes dot the willow runs and it's possible to kick the trophy fish out of them before you know it.
.. If you wade the river a short rod is mandatory. If you don't wade, a very long rod is better. A strange beast is the 10½ foot four weight stick. We use one with a level 5-weight line. Works great for precision casting the short line over the willows. Bringing the fish to hand is facilitated by strong short leaders, (five to six feet long and usually 3x or 4x. The fish don't appear to be leader-shy most of the time.

.. This is a nymph fisher's paradise. The upper reaches hold stoneflies and the lower reaches have weeds for the mayflies and caddis flies. We went up, (be sure that your vehicle has adequate clearance,) to the free stone section last weekend. There were little yellow stone flies on the grass and in the air.
.. We fished the nymphs and did fine - even though there were fish on the surface. We dapped the flies next to the sparse willows and slightly undercut banks: took a couple of monster 10" fish. Fat little creatures they were. All of them had earned their wings and went airborne several times. Panic and pain is most probably a highly motivating factor for these seldom visited fish.

.. We must note that there is an insidious notion that is fostered by the hatch charts of the experts. Most of the feather merchants have a hatch chart for your perusal. The charts let us know when bugs appear at the peak of their emergence cycle. We are led to believe that this is the only time the bug is around and we must buy the right fly at the right time to be a successful catcher of fish. Well so be it.
.. The little yellow stone flies were happy to be alive and cavorting on the South Fork at least a month later than the experts would have you believe. Or, maybe they are extraterrestrials. After all there is a distinct resemblance between the two.

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South Fork Solitude

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Huge Tuna Caught out of San Jose

Daniel Fisher is no stranger to success when it comes to fisher. He is well respected and  held in awe by many local anglers and we can see why.....this past Saturday he boated a huge yellow fin tuna, that he caught on a live "bolito", this is a small bullet shaped tuna....yes they are cannibals. Daniel caught this 292 lb yellow fin tuna at the inner Gordo on 80 lb test line. He also formed part of the last year's record setting team that won the Tuna Tournament with a 383 lb specimen just a few pounds short of the all tackle world record.

Pisces Fish Report

September 17th to September 25th, 2010


Overall Catch Success Rate 97.3%

BILLFISH: Tropical Storm Georgette was a barely noticed visitor to our shores this past week, producing much needed rain, but zero wind and just a few swells on the Cortez side. The Port captain decided to close the Port one day as a precaution and the next day everybody was ready to go out and fish! One of the best days was on the 25th for Greg Cooper and friends from Arizona, who released four striped marlin aboard “Attitude Adjustment”, our 46 ft Bertram at the Herradura; they also boated twelve dorado between 20-25 lbs... way to go guys! This same day, Barry Satterfield from Franklin, TN released two striped marlin aboard “El Gallo” they took live bait at the 190 Spot; they also caught two dorado between 30-35 lbs. On the 24th “Valerie” released one striped marlin and one sailfish for the Tony Berkowitz group, the striper took a blue & white lure and the sailfish live bait.

“Valerie” had a double marlin day on the 22nd for Robert Thompson from Placitas, NM; both were released he then went on to catch two nice dorado at 40 and 50 lbs respectively, 10 miles from the Old Lighthouse. The only blue marlin caught during the week was for Cindy and Jason Kinnie from San Francisco, CA it weighted 300 lbs; they also released one striped marlin at the 160 Spot and kept one dorado for dinner. Billfish catches decreased somewhat perhaps due to full moon mid-week, but which is a ripe time for really big fish also. Forty five percent of our charters caught billfish with a total of 15 striped marlin, 1 blue marlin and 5 sailfish this week all but one released.

OTHER SPECIES: We had tons of Dorado this week with seventy eight percent of our boats catching from one to twenty four fish, with global total of 202 overall. Weights varied from 15 lbs to nice 50 lb fish. After the rains left by Tropical Storm Georgette, dorado could be found all over the place. The top day was the 23rd, when Robert Thompson from Placitas, NM was fishing alone and caught twenty four dorado aboard Tracy Ann, he was so tired that he came back early; his arms just wouldn’t work anymore (majority of his fish were released). This same day Angela Lacy and Kim Hubbard from Dallas, TX caught eighteen dorado, some released and the others between 15 to 25 lbs aboard Andrea with captain Orlando Murillo and deckhand Abraham; the fish took live bait and green/yellow lures at La Margaritas on the Pacific side. Adam Berke and friends from Texas had a great day aboard “Shambala” with captain TJ, with fifteen dorado between 20 to 30 lbs, one 40 lbs wahoo and one sailfish released at Gaspareño. The same day, Marco Ehrenberg and friends caught fourteen dorado and two yellowfin tuna aboard “Andale” they took all kinds of lures at Golden Gate. On the 22nd Nicholas and Rebecca Hicox from Vancouver, WA caught sixteen dorado aboard “Andrea” with some released they still had plenty to take home. Tuna catches were steady with thirty four percent of our boats catching this species. On the 18th, Scott Shulze and friends from California fought a large tuna for one hour and 45 minutes on 60 lbs test line, resulting in the successful catch of a 150 lbs yellow fin tuna at Golden Gate aboard “Rebecca”. It took blue/white lure. Bill &Patty Rose along with friends, Debbie & Mike Cledenning caught seven yellow fin tuna, football size, and let a striped marlin go, as well as boating three dorado aboard the “Tracy Ann”. On the 20th, Nancy and Art Clairmont from Orlando, FL caught six 20 lbs yellow fin tuna and two dorado between 40-45 lbs aboard “Andrea” out by San Jaime. We were told of a 330 lb tuna caught out of San Jose by Daniel Fisher, a well known local guy who has a lot of amazing catches to his credit. Daniel was part of the team that broke all records last year at the Tuna Tournament with their 383 lb fish. We are looking for photos and will post if we can get one and verify the catch. Wahoo catches were pretty good this week, with September 23rd being particularly productive: first up was Barry Satterfield and friends aboard “El Gallo”, with both a 40 and 50 lb fish, twelve miles out from the Old Lighthouse. Next were Sam & Athea Lijoi from Cleveland, OH for catching a 40 lb’er plus two 35 lbs dorado aboard “Great Escape Jr” all on guacamayo and petrolero lures. Then was the Jordan family from Westerville, Oh who caught another 40 lb wahoo and still had a lot of action with eleven dorado and one yellow fin tuna to boot.. We had a total of 37 yellow fin tuna and 6 wahoo this week..

WEATHER CONDITIONS: One rainy day due the tropical storm, cloudy days and sunny days at the end of the week

LOCATION: Sea of Cortez: 95 spot, Cerro Blanco, Herradura, 180 Spot, Cerro Colorado

Pacific Side: Golden Gate, Jaime Banks, Lighthouse, Margaritas, Pozo Cota, Los Arcos, Migriño, Gaspareño

AVERAGE WATER TEMP. 84 F

BEST LURES; Cedar plugs, blue, tigrillo, petrolero, green, purple, green/blue, blue/white, black/green, green/yellow, red/green, guacamayo,, all colors, rapala

For live bait was caballito and ballyhoo

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



vulcan lakes preview (mchenry county, il)

Ever since I’ve been able to drive and started to travel to different locations I’ve heard the rumors of a private gravel pit that held fish of monstrous proportions. Bass and walleye past the 5 pound range, and pike the size of children always kept me wondering if it was worth the risk of sneaking in? This place has long been a no trespassing area and it was strictly enforced by local police. The signs along the highway clearly stated the cities intent to keep this hidden gem a secret for just a little longer.

vulcan lake, crystal lake, il

Well things do change and a 10 year itch is about to be scratched. Residents of Crystal Lake are probably already aware but Vulcan Lakes is about to be opened to the public. I spent Sunday afternoon in the Huntley area going to my oldest son’s football game (go Timberwolves) and was able to stop by and see it with my own eyes. They are building a beautiful new facility that very much reminds me of Independence Grove. It also seems that it will be operated very much in the same fashion as IG. They will have pricey boat rentals and even steeper prices for those who aren’t residents. I’m not sure if it’s residents of the city or county but either way being from Lake County I’m going to be taking a hit. They are going to be open Oct 1st till the end of the month which is just enough time to give us a taste of what’s to come. From what I read they are going to be strictly catch and release for the first 2 years and haven’t heard anything about ice fishing.

Fishing should be great and people should make the time to check this out. If you’re a fan of IG it’s a must. Here is the link and the map...

http://www.crystallake.org/index.aspx?page=326

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780 lb Blue Marlin Aboard Shambala

Captain T.J Dobson, has done it again aboard "Shambala"....another huge fish, this time just 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 deckand 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 vengence and enhaled 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.

"Shambala" the 60 ft Hatteras didn't make it back to port until well after dark where it took nine men to hoist it up on to the scale, which showed the fish weighed 780 lbs.  Great job guys....and well done T.J for his third fish over 600 lbs in under two months......

Northern Pike and Salmon Fishing Trip

Sunday morning, Sept 26th my dad and I pulled into Mckinley harbor in Milwaukee at 5 am. We were 30 minutes early so we decided to check the gps for any nearby fast food joints. We found a Mcdonalds just .6 miles away so off we went. 14 minutes, 317 orange cones, and several winding oneway streets later we were at our destination. We found a short cut for out return trip to the harbor and were back in the parking lot 2 minutes later.

Here is a pic of the harbor from our boat in the twilight.

Anyhow professional angler Steve Ryan invited us up for the day of fishing. Steve travels the globe in search of pretty much every species of fish on the planet. He just got back from Venezuela last month and is making plans for Papa New Guinea in the future. Anyhow the empty parking lot and lack of shoreline anglers pretty much gave us a pretty good indicator there werent many fish in the harbor yet, but we still decided to give er a try since we were already there with a nice boat, some good bait, and a Wisconsin fishing license.

It didnt take long to confirm what everyone else already knew. According to the calendar, there should be quite a few fish staged in the harbor, but the 90 degree temps earlier in the week and strong northeast winds just got them salmon all messed up. Oh yeah, the massive cold front that came through and dropped the temps by 45 degrees didnt help open the mouths of the fish either. We knew that too, but still you never fully know until you give er a try.

Oh yeah also, when you go fishing on Lake Michigan in the fall, bring some very warm gear. Even when its warm and sunny at home, bring some warm fishing gear. I had a hunch that it might be chilly on the morning of our trip so I threw in a light jacket, when really I should have thrown in my full arctic waterproof gear!!!

We missed one good fish at the harbor, when I say we really I mean me, just toned down a bit. The only king salmon we saw caught the whole day was by an extreme angler in a kayak. Yep a stinking kayak angler caught a behemoth salmon. Here he is just getting done landing the fish.

After seeing the kayaker land the salmon we thought about sticking around and trying to scratch out a fish or two, but we had better things to do than cast our baits into the fishless abyss. By 10:30 am we were en route to a lake full of feisty northern pike.

Our destination was Lake Delavan which is just right above Lake Geneva in southern Wisconsin. We launched at the lakes only boat ramp and drove across the lake to a secret spot that was shared by about 15 other boats throughout the day. The other boats were doing alot of fishing, but not any catching. I didnt figure we would be doing any catching here either with the massive cold front that brought in the strong northeast winds, but boy was I wrong.

After 10 minutes of fishing I landed this monster Wisconsin largemouth bass. She was down on the bottom in 22 feet of water. A very short, but obese fish!

A few minutes after that and this real nice pike which was nearly 3 feet long was tugging on my line. By this time I was pretty stinkin impressed.

My dad managed to miss a handful of really nice fish over the next hour or so. I missed some too, but wanted to highlight his misses since he hadn't landed anything yet. I gave him a hard time with every missed fish until he shut me up with this walleye on his drop line and northern pike on his float line back to back simultaneously. I plopped the walleye into the livewell for this double pic as he was reeling in the pike.

We were following the outside weedline edge in 20-26 feet of water all the way down the shoreline. All we were doing was dropping big 8-10 inch suckers down to the bottom and bouncing them up and down as we drifted. We also set out a couple big baits on slip bobbers and let them drift behind us. The wind was blowing pretty strong so we had to use a large drift sock to slow us down.

It didnt take long to locate where most of the activity was coming from in our 500 yard stretch of shoreline we were targeting. The big fancy boat house with double blue shorestations was the place to start paying attention as we drifted by. We caught fish all along our drift pattern, but that one spot we often caught two fish at a time.

If you look real close you can see that my fish is quite a bit bigger than dad's on this double we caught in the money spot! I enjoy giving my dad a hard time while fishing.

Anyhow altogether we caught about 15 northern pike and missed another 15. When using the big baits, we would have to let the pike eat the bait for almost one whole minute before setting the hook. It was not easy for us to get the hang of right away, but our hook up ratio got much better throughout the day as our patience level increased. At $16 per dozen you learn the technique pretty quick. Once a bait has teeth marks on it, it doesnt work very well anymore. Here are a couple of the smaller guys, which really weren't that small.

Throughout the day many boats would come up real close to take a look at what in the world we were doing to catch so many fish. It it was me on my home water, I probably would have had a dummy rod rigged up with some insane pink lure to show people when explaining what the secret was, but Steve didn't mind sharing his info. In a prideful sort of way it felt good to be catching fish when no one else on the lake was. Now I know how that kayaker felt in Milwaukee harbor- he had the best fishing day ever!

Here is a sunset shot from the boat ramp of Lake Delavan:

Of Runts, Residents, & Runners

SAME SPECIES - DIFFERENT FISH

Different Parking Places

similar tastes

A NOSE IN THE AIR - SOFT & EASY TAKE

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.. Just knowing what it is that your fishing for is not necessarily enough to get the job done.
.. Fishing where the fish are parked helps some. To state the obvious; lake-run fish are generally larger than resident fish and seek out more secure parking spaces. These are usually deeper, darker, and sneakier.
.. To state the less obvious; the invading fish displace resident fish and a domino-effect takes place; (known as trophic displacement.) This musical chairs phenomenon works for many fish in any given segment of the river. The ultimate result is that some large resident fish are stuck with less secure hides, and the runts are scattered to hides you wouldn't normally target.
.. Parking places for displaced fish need not be spatially very far from their old parking space. In fact they are usually close. This situation is currently exacerbated by the low water and slow flow conditions of the rivers on the west side of Yellowstone National Park. There are few good parking places for any size fish right now.
.. In practical terms this means that runts can be in the same fly-presentation zone as the newly arrived interlopers.

3 peas in a hide, (click for large view.)

.. Some times the new arrival and the residents are separated by just a few feet or even inches if an intervening rock or snag shelters them.
.. In the photo on the right three runts, (8" - 10",) share the insecure shelter of a single small boulder. They feed and return to the same place because other parking places are taken by larger fish.
.. This phenomenon can be either a happy or sad situation for fishers. The question is often posed: "why aint I catching the big fish?"

Everyone want a caddis fly.

.. These three fish were very active and catching them would have been relatively easy. They were busy competing, not only for the parking space but for the food that is delivered to their location.
.. Mega-swirls occur on the surface as more than one of them attack the same morsel of flotsam that passes overhead.
.. The fish pictured are in about 14" of water, and only just 4' from the bank. We found them while looking for smaller fry that are usually parked in this parking spot. The fry are nowhere to be seen.
.. Frequently, because of proximity, the large fish and the runts will attack the same bit of supposed food. The larger fish do not, (REPEAT: Do Not,) always win.
.. If your presentation and fly are appropriately deceiving it might behoove you to fish the same parking spot repeatedly if the fish you have just taken seems under-fit to the location. Little fish will often attack large flies and even giant streamers. This is particularly true right now as many have been displaced and the fall feeding imperative is still strong.
.. By keeping in mind that the river is a different place during the run you should increase your chances of catching - all other things being equal, (which they never are.) Of course parking places can be hard to find and even big fish are occasionally found in shallow water.

A large fish in 10" of water; just two feet from the bank.

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A caddis swarm - where's the fish?

.. With the continuing warm weather and bright afternoons the caddis are putting on a show. Both the Firehole River and the Madison River are enjoying this eruption.
.. The Firehole River is hitting spike temperatures around 72° right now and mid day fishing is neither too successful nor desirable.
.. Both rivers are running very low and it is important to seek the darkest water and shady banks for chances to catch fish in any numbers.
.. As the days get shorter the prime caddis time is subsequently shorter as well. Nymphs and emergers can be successful from about 3:30 PM until the flies are on the water and in the air. From 5:00 PM until dark, (about 7:45 or so,) match the hatch. These guys are on the small side and a size 14 or 16 is not too small.
.. The hoppers are fewer than just a couple of days ago, but still active. This is the perfect time to present a hopper/dropper to the residents.
.. If you'd like a chance at both large and small fish, (we hate surprises,) drown both of them and fish on a slow swing with a fast sink tip line. Lift firmly but not too rapidly when you feel the tug. Flying fish are a distinct possibility with this combination and elbow-jerk reflexes.
.. Reports are sparse from the meadow section of the Gibbon River. One cell phone photo from the narrow section around Tuff Cliff does verify that the runners have penetrated past the junction pool and are present at least that far up the river. A report of two weeks ago of a runner in the plunge pool of the falls is the only other instance of an early arrival and deep penetration.

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Just a pleasant afternoon in Yellowstone National Park.