This week I spent 35 feet off the ground putting a roof on a house in Peoria. For those of you who think its cold and windy in the winter time, try climbing up 3 stories and working off of 2x4's for 8 hours. Its nice and toasty when we come back down to the ground!
Anyhow, I don't have enough people that want to go guided ice fishing through the week, so in order to pay the bills (and Christmas presents) I work construction. I grew up building houses starting in the summers when I was 11 years old, and I actually like building, but I like fishing even more!
Today I am taking a group of guys from Lincoln, IL and a group of guys from the Quad Cities fishing. My mom and dad are gonna help me today (they are the best labor on the planet- free). I am getting ready to head out now, just killing some time while I wait for them to wake up!
Hopefully we catch some fish today! For some reason I still always get a little bit nervous before heading out fishing with clients, you just never know if the fish are going to be biting? I will hopefully report back later tonight with some good fish pictures!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Happy New Year
Happy new year and lets hope the fishing is good.
Lets also hope that common sense prevails and the forward thinking laws that have made Ireland the envy of the European Bass fishing world are maintained for many years to come. I'd also like to see better controls on all commercial fishing before its too late for us all but I doubt that will happen any time soon.
Anyway Slรกinte and Enjoy!
Friday, January 7, 2011
06/01/11 - R.Frome - Snuff Mills
Weight – 3lb 9oz
Catch – 2 Brown Trout, 1 Chub.
Weather – Cloudy, no wind, felt colder later
Snuff Mills wasn’t my intended choice? I had driven to Ivy House to have a practice for my clubs re-arranged Christmas match, but on arrival all lakes were closed and still covered in ice. Closer inspection revealed the water was like tap water, very clear. That doesn’t bode well for Sunday.
With any other decent commercial at least 1-1½hr away, I thought about the Bristol Avon, but didn’t have the right kit or bait with me. So in the end thought of Snuff Mills, it was 10mins from home and it used to be full of good quality roach. It was probably 10 years since I last fished here and as well as the roach, there were skimmers, plus loads of Gudgeon and minnows, I even had a small carp.
Although the venue is close to home, I have been put off fishing here because it is in a public park which is popular with dog walkers and the many screaming kids, but being a week day there shouldn’t be that many people around. My favourite spot was 10mins from the car park, above the weir, where the river is 18m wide and 6 foot deep.
With no river based groundbait with me, feed was caster at 13/14m and pinkie/maggot at 6m. Due to limited time, decided on 1 rig. A 4x14 jolly, with .07 bottom and a 22 B520.
Although the river looked perfect, I didn’t get my 1st bite until after 1hr 45mins. I was at the point of going home, but a 2½lb chub was very welcome. It was also a concern, because it had quite a bit of caster down its throat and I wasn’t exactly feeding heavily, 4-6 casters every 5mins.
The 6m line used to be guaranteed for minnows & Gudgeon, but other than a ½lb trout, 30mins later was the only bite I had from here. Over the next hour, I hooked another decent fish, which broke me close to the net. This prompted a switch to .08 bottom, then the hooked pulled out of what I think was another trout, before I landed another trout. But no roach! Very, very surprised, don’t know why, I can only assume cormorants have had their fill. I saw 6 of them sitting in a tree a few weeks ago around Swineford.
Catch – 2 Brown Trout, 1 Chub.
Weather – Cloudy, no wind, felt colder later
Snuff Mills wasn’t my intended choice? I had driven to Ivy House to have a practice for my clubs re-arranged Christmas match, but on arrival all lakes were closed and still covered in ice. Closer inspection revealed the water was like tap water, very clear. That doesn’t bode well for Sunday.
With any other decent commercial at least 1-1½hr away, I thought about the Bristol Avon, but didn’t have the right kit or bait with me. So in the end thought of Snuff Mills, it was 10mins from home and it used to be full of good quality roach. It was probably 10 years since I last fished here and as well as the roach, there were skimmers, plus loads of Gudgeon and minnows, I even had a small carp.
Although the venue is close to home, I have been put off fishing here because it is in a public park which is popular with dog walkers and the many screaming kids, but being a week day there shouldn’t be that many people around. My favourite spot was 10mins from the car park, above the weir, where the river is 18m wide and 6 foot deep.
With no river based groundbait with me, feed was caster at 13/14m and pinkie/maggot at 6m. Due to limited time, decided on 1 rig. A 4x14 jolly, with .07 bottom and a 22 B520.
Although the river looked perfect, I didn’t get my 1st bite until after 1hr 45mins. I was at the point of going home, but a 2½lb chub was very welcome. It was also a concern, because it had quite a bit of caster down its throat and I wasn’t exactly feeding heavily, 4-6 casters every 5mins.
The 6m line used to be guaranteed for minnows & Gudgeon, but other than a ½lb trout, 30mins later was the only bite I had from here. Over the next hour, I hooked another decent fish, which broke me close to the net. This prompted a switch to .08 bottom, then the hooked pulled out of what I think was another trout, before I landed another trout. But no roach! Very, very surprised, don’t know why, I can only assume cormorants have had their fill. I saw 6 of them sitting in a tree a few weeks ago around Swineford.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Bonefish for Christmas
Fly fishing for bonefish at Christmas isn’t the ideal time to target them, not in Cuba anyway, but December was the only convenient time we could take a family holiday and Cuba is where we wanted to go. So on 8th December, my Mum, Dad and I flew to Havana. We stayed there for one night and then took a second flight to Cayo Coco, Jardines del Rey. Cayo Coco is one of a string of islands that shelters Cuba’s North coast. As we arrived at our hotel, before even checking in, we were greeted by our fishing guide, Tito, with a cold beer for my Dad and a Pina Colada for my mum and me - a very warm welcome - and we were soon discussing our fishing plans in the little Spanish I know and the little English the guide knew. Reading between the lines it sounded as if we’d probably arrived at the worst time, as a cold front had shown itself in the previous few days and it didn’t look like it was going to improve over our five fishing days we had booked.The area we were to fish is called Paredon Grande, a beautiful nature reserve area of mangroves, flats, islands and channels, an hours drive from the hotel by taxi and renowned to hold some very large bonefish. Despite the weather, we were still hopeful of landing some nice Bones and a few other exotic species.
On our first day we spent wading the flats. As predicted there was a chilly northerly wind making the water choppy and hard to see fish. We only saw four or five bonefish but Dad managed to catch the first one he encountered - a lovely fish of around 4lb 8oz. We couldn’t believe how cold the water temperature was, and after a tough day we returned to the hotel. Dad was shivering and we also discovered he’d caught a cold and it really came out in the evening. He said he thought he had felt one coming on the day before - not a brilliant start to our trip, one fish and a cold, but I did find a large Starfish.
On our second day fishing, the weather looked slightly better, but the water was still cool as it hadn’t had the chance to warm up. We checked out the flats in the morning but there were no fish there, so we decided to head for some deeper channels and do some fun fishing with bucktail jigs, plugs and flies. For most of the day we did this and we caught a good variety of fish - mostly Mutton, Cubera, Gray Snapper and small Jacks. We also caught Schoolmasters and Blue Runner. We saw a shoal of about eight Tarpon swim past but they took little interest in a popper or jig. Mid-afternoon we headed back to check out the flats again in the hope that they’d warmed up a bit and some bonefish had moved onto them. We spent the last hour poling the flats and spotted one nice Permit but it was on a mission, not stopping for anybody. Minutes later, we came across a small shoal of bonefish and I managed to catch my first Cuban bonefish - my biggest on the fly.
The following day, the conditions were much, much better - low wind speeds, a low tide and a bright, hot, cloudless day - perfect. The flats were alive, at last, with the odd Stingray, Trunkfish, and more importantly, Bonefish. We spotted a big one, not difficult as it was feeding hungrily with its whole tail waving clear out of the inch-deep flats. Dad made a cast and it landed perfectly. As the bonefish finished feeding in the sand Dad stripped the fly a couple of times and the bonefish nailed it. What a fight! It tore off into the distance, ripping off lots of backing. Eventually he got it safely to the boat. He’d caught it on one of his rubber legged, Crazy Charlie flies. The guide estimated it around 8-9lbs, we don’t think it was that big but it was still Dad’s P.B Bonefish on a fly.
Minutes after, we confronted a large shoal of fish that I cast to. I was soon hooked up and holding the second bone of the day. This was all in about an hour and a half. We had a couple more chances but we messed up and for some reason they suddenly didn’t seem interested anymore. A thick band of cloud then began to loom over, coupled with an increasingly strong wind. The fish soon disappeared so we headed into the mangroves for some more fun fishing with flies, plugs and jigs. We caught a variety of species on flies including Dog Snapper, Bar Jack and more Cubera and Gray Snapper. I also had a few Barracuda on plugs, and a couple on the fly.
This string of cloud was the start of another bad cold front which was to last for another 3 days. Tito decided to postpone our next two fishing days as he thought it would be too rough and would be a waste of time. This wasn't a bad thing, as it gave my Dad time to get over his cold as he was quite rough.
When we fished again with our guide for the last 2 days of our booked fishing, the flats were still very cold but we did manage to catch a few more bones on the right tide, but they were few and far between. It was very windy too, so most of the time, we fished the deeper channels or mangroves. On the last day, between us, we caught about 70 Mutton, Cubera and Lane Snapper, some of which were over 5lbs. They were great fun on the fly rod - a fish over 5lbs really puts up a fight! I caught a big one of around 7 - 8lbs too. We took one of these Snappers back to the hotel to eat and had it grilled with garlic, lemon and lime - mmmmmmm! On the same day Dad caught a Scamp (a small species of Grouper) on the fly.Our guided fishing had come to an end so we decided to do some exploring of our own. We hopped on the local bus and tried some of the bridges on the way to Pilar beach, Ernest Hemingway’s favourite beach. Around these bridges we caught Black Grouper, Stoplight Parrotfish, Snappers, a couple of Barracudas and a tiny Goldspot Goby which took the smallest fly I took out with me!
We also bumped into a Canadian fisherman at a hotel - a Pro Staff guide who worked for Ross Reels - Claude Bosquets. He very kindly gave us advice on where to do some DIY flats fishing as he knew the area extemely well. These areas were on Cayo Coco and possibly the best flats we’ve ever walked on. I did get stung by a Jellyfish though on these flats, which was quite painful!
Here, Dad nearly caught a bonefish but it refused his fly at the last minute. We only spotted about 4 the whole 3 afternoons we fished it, but we did catch Trunkfish on the fly, Bluestriped Grunt, Bar Jack, Snapper and one afternoon I had 3 Barracuda in the space of about half an hour, all around 8lbs. They took a Yo Zuri Crystal minnow as the tide was coming in. Claude explained to us how the locals had caught many of the bones in large nets, which they eat.
At our hotel we made good friends with the staff and one recommended to go out fishing with his best mate. So, as the weather had improved, we took him up on his invitation and went out with him one afternoon on his boat. Again, we caught a variety of fish on flies but the biggest shock was catching an 100lb Eagle Ray on a piece of plastic binliner! The guy wanted to catch one as he wanted to take it home for his family and friends to eat, he said they taste very good, so he tied a piece of red plastic binliner on to a large treble hook and told me to cast to one! Astonishingly, as it fell through the water, the huge fish turned on to its side and engulfed it! I was amazed it took it! It was one of the strongest fights I’ve ever had with a fish, especially on Dad’s small spinning reel, and after half an hour of battling with it, we had it to the boat. I was pleased to find out he’d decided not to kill it as he thought it was too small!!! He didn’t give up though - Dad hooked one minutes later about 350lbs, but it was so powerful it just stripped the reel of braid so we had to motor after it. After about three quarters of an hour the guy tightened the drag up a little too much on Dad’s reel whilst he was playing it. You couldn't pull the braid off with your hands - this fish just ripped it off with ease. It went on another long run and the 50lb braid snapped. In a way, I think this was probably a good thing as one, it was getting dark and two, the fish got to live another day - it would have been a shame to kill such a magnificent creature.We also had 3 hours fishing on Laguna La Redonda, a lake on mainland Cuba which my mum joined us on, one day, and really enjoyed. The lake is on the way to the town of Moron and you have to go over a huge causeway that links Cayo Coco to the mainland. On the causeway we saw a massive flock of flamingoes making a pink line on the horizon - a fantastic sight. On the lake we fished for African Sharptooth Catfish, an invasive species indigenous to the River Nile. We caught two, the biggest being about 12lbs, which took strips of freelined carp! It was great fun casting our baits into the mangrove roots for the catfish. It was a beautiful place too.
Overall, on our trip, we managed to catch 13 Bonefish and 16 new species of fish - 8 on the fly. Despite the weather and Dad’s cold, we had a really good time, even though it’s not the best time to visit for fishing. The hotel was great and we met some lovely people there - including a teacher from my school! - would you believe it? it’s small world - I’m sure they were checking up on me! You can see why Jardines del Rey (Gardens of the King) was one of Ernest Hemingway’s favourite fishing spots - the flats there are fantastic and we would love to go back there again one day. A big 'thank you' to Alexander Kennedy of Castaway Flyfishing for arranging such a smooth trip for us.
Thank You Letter from Ron Smart
Hello,Tracy & company
We fished our yearly trips last Monday & Wed.15-11-10 & 17-11-10. Beto & Ernesto on the Ruthless worked hard & put us on the Marlin (4 caught & released). Rey & Salvadore on the LaBrisa worked hard & put us on the Marlin (3) & one large Dorado. I can't tell you how much we enjoy fishing with these two crews on your 31's. We've been with them so much it seems like we are part of their family as well as they are part of ours. They call my wife Mamasita. These guys change lures & tactics constantly trying to put you on the fish. If every Striper took the bait that was pitched to them, on these two trips, we would probably have had 30 fish on. Anyway, tell the crews thanks & as always you run a first class operation. Attached is a photo of my wife's 10th Marlin.(I don't like to bring them aboard,but she's never had one in her lap). See ya'll next year.
Ron and Mary Helen Smart, Granbury Texas
Z Fish Report (1/6/11)
With cooler 77ยบ water pushing down from the north, the fishing is remaining steady in the clean water, with most of the action taking place only a mile off the beach. The boats heading out to the 6-12 mile areas are running past the actively feeding fish, and averaging only 1 or 2 sailfish a day. Boats working the inshore areas are getting between 3 to even, as the El Renee did, up to six sailfish a day.
The reason for the near shore action is the water is a couple of degrees warmer than further out. The captains are all saying there are lots of sailfish out there, but they are lethargic and not willing to bite. The close in water is also producing a few dorado. They are only averaging about 12 to 15 pounds, but there are enough of them to help keep things exciting.
Plus, for a regular visitor here at this time of the year, which is the peak of the sailfish season, would find it incredible there are so few boats going out. We would normally have about 15 to 18 cruisers and about 25 to 30 pangas fishing every day. The pangas would be stacked up side to side 6 deep waiting to pick up their clients. Yesterday, only about 10 pangas and 8 cruisers had clients. The only “stacking” that occurred was when Cheva called out and asked me to get him a cup of coffee. Francisco, on the super panga Huntress, was at the pickup point getting a block of ice and loading the rods and gear. Cheva then brought the Dos Hermanos II over alongside and Francisco passed the coffee off to him.
Most of the lack of tourism is from the economy and the drug war scares, but also gone is the Tournament Anglers Association with their annual tournament here. They not only would help the local economy with 45 to 50 people for a week in the Dorado hotel, but also used an average of about 20 pangas for 5 days. In fact, a very sad thing is what they have posted on their web page ( http://www.fishtaa.com/Go_Fish/Home.html ) Our next tournament will be in Cabo San Lucas January13-17th. The host hotel is the Pueblo Bonito Los Cabos. This was the Ixtapa Sailfish Tournament previously. It has been moved to Cabo San Lucas due to the declining fishery in Ixtapa.
However, the overall fishing in all of Mexico is declining, and I certainly do not see how they will get better results in Los Cabos at this time of the year. They are true conservation conscious anglers, coming here annually for over 16 years, with over 6,000 bill fish releases between their East Cape and Ixtapa tournaments over the years. But, if they want things to be like they were years ago, rather than changing locations, it seems more effort in working with local authorities could have been in order. It is almost like a spoiled kid who will take, but not give anything back to help or improve a situation. What will happen when the bill fish stocks are too low? Are they going to do like commercial fishermen and start targeting lesser species?
Not really wanting to get on a soap box, but Paul Phillip’s small and underfunded Fintastic Fish Total Tag and Release Tournament did more for the conservation of the bill fish here than all the years of the larger money Tournament Angler’s Tournaments, for the simple reason Paul worked with the authorities and the leading conservation conscientious captains here. His tournament ran only 5 years, but we are still seeing the results of his endeavors every day. There is no telling what Paul could have accomplished if he had bigger money behind him.
Anyway, back to the current conditions: Gary Meger of Toronto is here for his annual 6 week vacation to escape the harsh winters of Canada, and will be fly fishing several times during this period. Yesterday, fishing with Cheva, they only had one sailfish come to the boat, but got a hook set. Gary fought the fish for about 15 minutes, and the hooks pulled. We’ll call it a long release.
Adolfo on the panga Dos Hermanos, is continually proving me wrong about the roosterfish action here this last month. Fishing his 19th day straight, of a total of 25 days, with his French man and wife team they really found the roosters up north again. Using spin rods with surface poppers and live bait, they came back to port with 10 roosterfish flags flying.
Inshore action has been very good for light line conventional gear fishermen, with a variety of sierras, black skipjack, and medium sized jack crevalle.
Ed Kunze
IGFA Representative
The reason for the near shore action is the water is a couple of degrees warmer than further out. The captains are all saying there are lots of sailfish out there, but they are lethargic and not willing to bite. The close in water is also producing a few dorado. They are only averaging about 12 to 15 pounds, but there are enough of them to help keep things exciting.
Plus, for a regular visitor here at this time of the year, which is the peak of the sailfish season, would find it incredible there are so few boats going out. We would normally have about 15 to 18 cruisers and about 25 to 30 pangas fishing every day. The pangas would be stacked up side to side 6 deep waiting to pick up their clients. Yesterday, only about 10 pangas and 8 cruisers had clients. The only “stacking” that occurred was when Cheva called out and asked me to get him a cup of coffee. Francisco, on the super panga Huntress, was at the pickup point getting a block of ice and loading the rods and gear. Cheva then brought the Dos Hermanos II over alongside and Francisco passed the coffee off to him.
 |
| The super panga Huntress with Francisco |
However, the overall fishing in all of Mexico is declining, and I certainly do not see how they will get better results in Los Cabos at this time of the year. They are true conservation conscious anglers, coming here annually for over 16 years, with over 6,000 bill fish releases between their East Cape and Ixtapa tournaments over the years. But, if they want things to be like they were years ago, rather than changing locations, it seems more effort in working with local authorities could have been in order. It is almost like a spoiled kid who will take, but not give anything back to help or improve a situation. What will happen when the bill fish stocks are too low? Are they going to do like commercial fishermen and start targeting lesser species?
Not really wanting to get on a soap box, but Paul Phillip’s small and underfunded Fintastic Fish Total Tag and Release Tournament did more for the conservation of the bill fish here than all the years of the larger money Tournament Angler’s Tournaments, for the simple reason Paul worked with the authorities and the leading conservation conscientious captains here. His tournament ran only 5 years, but we are still seeing the results of his endeavors every day. There is no telling what Paul could have accomplished if he had bigger money behind him.
Anyway, back to the current conditions: Gary Meger of Toronto is here for his annual 6 week vacation to escape the harsh winters of Canada, and will be fly fishing several times during this period. Yesterday, fishing with Cheva, they only had one sailfish come to the boat, but got a hook set. Gary fought the fish for about 15 minutes, and the hooks pulled. We’ll call it a long release.
 |
| Richard Gill of San Antonio TX with Jose of Puerto Vicente Gro. and a decent fly caught jack crevalle |
Inshore action has been very good for light line conventional gear fishermen, with a variety of sierras, black skipjack, and medium sized jack crevalle.
Ed Kunze
IGFA Representative
SALE
There will be a sale in the shop this weekend, starting tomorrow there will be some great deals on lures, rods and reels so be sure to call in!!
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