Stuff & Such

Few over last couple Weeks!

Fishing Report from last few trips!

Well i am getting into this slow retreiving soft plastic's along the bottom for wrasse now and it has been working well ! the fishing has slowed down for most people including me in terms of catching fish ! but its about getting out there and giving it your best shot!Ritchie Campion Took me to Rock Mark i have never fished and i managed this:

Bass of 3lb 5oz on the 27th December was a great fight on a light spinning rod!

As you can see by the close up the Soft-Plastic i am using Reins Paddle Tail 10gram Jig head

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The Wrasse have seem to disappeared recently, until Ben Bates proved us wrong and had this one:

We did a little bait fish session - Ritchie & Ben had Scorpion Fish both on the Really light Rods (LRF - is what they call it pffft )

i had 2 dogfish (i am not proud of) but Ben had this one (he seemed over the moon!!:

And here is a Funny Video for you guys to watch it involves Me Slapping Ben Bates Multiple times with a dog fish before kindly releasing the poor thing :) :

Thanks for Reading! More of this to come !

February is the time for pompano, bluefish and Spanish mackerel

The Big Eye Baitfish Fly is indestructible and quite productive.

Cold weather means cold water.
And cold water means we don't have a lot of variety in out fishing.
Until the water warms, spotted seatrout, redfish, ladyfish and flounder are pretty much what are available.
That will change when we get a few days of warm weather.
I look for pompano, bluefish and Spanish mackerel to show up in mid-February. And when they do, fishing over the deep grass in Sarasota Bay should be really hot. There were days last year when we took more than 50 fish per outing.
The blues averaged 3 pounds and we caught several around 6 pounds. Pompano went at least 2 pounds and several approached 5. Spanish mackerel ranged from 2 to a whopping 7 1/2 pounds!
This action is available on spin and fly tackle. Spin anglers should use medium-light rods, 10-pound braided line and 25-pound fluorocarbon leader. Top lures include the D.O.A. 1/8-ounce CAL Jig with gold paddle tail or D.O.A. Shrimp (glo or gold flake). I also like to use the Deadly Combination (D.O.A. Shrimp under a popping cork).
This is also prime time for fly anglers. I like a 6-weight rod, sinktip line and 6-foot, 20-pound fluorocarbon leader. My fly of choice is my Big Eye Baitfish, a nearly indestructible fly that is irresistible to many species.
I designed the fly with toothy critters in mind. It's made entirely of synthetics and will last all day, providing your leader isn't cut by a big blue or feisty mackerel.
The Big Eye is easy to tie.
Recipe:
Hook: No. 2 Mustad 34008
Thread: Fine mono
Body: Flexi-chord
Wing: White Fish Hair topped with chartreuse Super Hair.
Eyes: Medium or heavy Orvis Crystal Dumbbell Eyes.
Coating: Devcon Two-Ton Epoxy.

Clouser Deep Minnows will work, but they usually are history after one blue or mackerel.
When the blues, pompano and mackerel are here, we often hit the water about an hour before daylight to get in a little snook action around lighted docks. These fish are suckers for small, white flies.

But it will be trout, redfish, ladyfish and a few flounder until we get a warming trend.

Kayak stealth is the real key to fishing success

Ask around and you’ll probably discover fishing has been good, but catching tough!

Jason Beary battles another fish on fly rod.

Abnormally cold weather again is the culprit.

However, there are areas where fish congregate during the cold and make for easy pickings if you know where they are and you’re stealthy enough to take advantage.

My clients and I have been averaging 100 fish per outing over the last six weeks. That includes a low of 20 fish and a high of 250. Most often we’ve been getting at least 60 fish. The totals include mostly spotted seatrout to 22 inches, but we’re also getting flounder, redfish and ladyfish.

The action has been steady on both spin tackle and fly rod.

I’ve watched amazingly as those in powerboats visit the same spots, fish for 10 minutes and then head off for a honey hole 10 miles away. They usually show up, make a dozen casts and are gone.

What they don’t realize is their large boats give away their presence. The hull displaces a tremendous amount of water, sending out fish-alarming pressure waves. Also, their outboard motors are danger signals to the fish. Ditto for electric trolling motors.

I’ve even seen professional guides “throw” their anchors in the fish-holding holes.

Meanwhile, my clients are usually catching fish and enjoying steady action.

I’m convinced it’s mostly because the fish don’t know we’re there.

I had a fellow out from near Buffalo, N.Y., the other day. He has fly fished for steelhead and salmon around his home, but had never caught a saltwater fish on fly rod. After doing well on spin tackle, he wanted to try the fly rod.

He caught 20 spotted seatrout.

We had anchored along the edge of a channel where we had located a school of trout. We caught fish after fish because they had no clue we were there.

Many years ago, I figured I’d use my kayak to get to my favorite wading spots, anchor the boat, get out and fish. Didn’t take me too long to figure out I was less stealthy wading than I was in the kayak.

I rarely wade any more.

During November’s MCFF/CCA Fall Fly Fishing Challenge, I caught enough fish to win the Snook Division and Trout Division. You could only win one division, but it felt good to know that I’d caught that many fish.

I caught seven snook around one dock. I never had to make a cast of more than 25 feet.

Again it was a case of the snook not having a clue I was there.

And that makes a big difference.

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'EM

COLD IS HOT

Hebgen On Fire

smokers galore

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.. It's nice that in this world there are youngsters that take pity on their elders. It's nice that some of them pretend to enjoy our company.
.. It's even nicer when they bring over some tasty golden bounty from nearby Hebgen Reservoir. We pretend to understand their language and we get along just swimmingly.

.. We offer toasty toes and a wee bit of a 12 year old single malt. They accept the toes, but dash to the truck for a couple of cold ones.
.. We trade lies about the temperature, (-20's & -30's,) and extol the seeming virtues of being able to exhaust oneself by partaking of the exercise necessary to drill a hole in the ice -- and sit in a small shelter while the wind roars across the naked expanse of ice.
.. It's cold enough here that we usually don't have to resort to "wind chill" factors to impress anyone. On the other hand a -52° F / wind chill factor in the bright and blinding sun is not an experience for the faint of heart.
.. So, long story made short: smoked fish is the dish of the day. These kids are genuine smoked fish aficionados: they cold smoke the fish most of the time. It takes more time but the fish last longer, taste far better, and are flaky and buttery smooth.
.. On rare occasions they will hot smoke them with a sweet brine and then throw the boned fillets in a blender with some mysterious ingredients and produce a smoked fish dip that goes great with just about anything.
.. These fish were taken about a week or so ago. There are still some in the smoker. There will be more tonight - damn the weather. Bless their hearts.
.. Apropos of our recent posts a few were taken on a fly. Not a single one on any of the flies we've mentioned. These were taken on a small renegade. Most were taken on bits of night  crawler. A few were taken on the last of the maggots left in town. The fish are hungry in the winter.

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Pheasant Hunting then Ice Fishing!

This morning I went pheasant hunting with my good friend Ben Ginzel and his two dogs Toby and Chester. Toby is 11 years old and his son Chester is 3 years old. They make a great hunting team! Here is a picture of Ben and Toby! Toby is actually the son of my old chocolate lab Coco. Ben picked him up when he was 6 weeks old and they have been inseperable ever since!


Here is Chester and Toby together. Chester is Toby's son and his mother is my sister's lab Brandi. Its a small world out there.....Anyhow these labs are great hunting and family dogs and Toby and Brandi will most likely be having another litter later this year!


Then it was off to Princeville, Illinois to do some ice fishing. Yep, we now officially have safe ice again over most of the area! Be careful though, some places along the edges that were opened up a few days ago are still borderline on thickness.

Here are some pictures from the afternoon.

We drilled lots of holes and caught fish from most of them. I was using a small frostee tipped with waxworm and the other guys were using jigging rapalas along with 20 other types of jigs and spoons......When the fish are biting Chef changes up baits every few minutes. When the fish aren't biting Chef also changes up baits every few minutes.....He is a lure guy, I am a bait guy!

I will be on the ice again this weekend. The rest of this week will be spent working construction.

More Brown Action!

Yesterday, Amy and I decided to get back out on the shoal and do some more fishing...We had a few hours of baby sitter time and it was well worth it. We also got to fish with my pops a bit, but I didn't get any photos of him. All three of us killed it. It was back to back brownie action! Amy probably caught 25 or 30 nice browns! What an awesome experience it was for everyone!