Cheaper than Peanut Oil, we'll see about the taste

I've been looking for a cheaper alternative to Peanut Oil for my turkey fryer, and found this at Sam's Club for $17 and change, about half the price for a similar amount of Peanut Oil, my usual frying oil. It's Soy Oil, and claims a burn point of 450 degrees, just like Peanut Oil. I'm switching out oil today and as soon as I get the chance to fry up something I'll let yo know how it works out.

Fantastic Fotography

Hey y'all,

AquaMojo is prepping a new set of shots for a major fish food company and has shared some of the preliminary work. It's a series of Lake Malawi cichlid photos and as his stuff usually is, they're gorgeous!

Check 'em out!

Dunkard Creek fish kill

There are reports of a massive killing of aquatic animals in Dunkard Creek, Greene County. Fish, salamanders, mussels...all being found. This is a really bad situation.

From the Pittsburgh Channel
From Hunting PA

update 10.4: Could the problem have been the introduction of a non-native algae?

What ate that Carp?

Otter? Raccoon? Maniac mutant squirrels? Whatever it was, that was a nice-sized carp. That's my minnow bucket above it for scale. It's intact head is to the left, and to the right you can see it's anal fin and how it's tail curves upward just behind that. The view of the skull is from beneath 'cause it's a little twisted.

little girl catches Carp by hand!

I did this once at a rock dam on Pine creek. I saw the Carp's tail sticking out of a hole so I grabbed it. 'Course, if that Carp was proportionate in size to me that this one is to the little girl, it would've weighed about 165 pounds!

I caught a Wiper!

It was a beautiful couple of hours yesterday, the fish were very cooperative and I met a cool fishin' buddy who just moved here from Florida.

PLUS, I fish the Ohio River for Hybrid Striped Bass normally, and get some monsters out of there. I know people have had a love hate relationship with them in Lake Arthur for years. Me, I'd never caught one there for some reason.

Saturday changed all that. Finally, I caught my first, rod-bending, reel-screaming, baitfish bustin' Hybrid Striped Bass in Lake Arthur!!


Awesome eh? :D

The Serious Fisherman

Ken Abrames has done great things for salt water Striper fishing, things that obviously can be extrapolated to apply in various situations. In fact, one of his flies has become one of my go-to flies when I'm chasing our inland Hybrid Striped Bass.

I just read the current article on his site and here's a portion:

Serious fishermen seldom try to draw attention to themselves, as a rule they are clandestine and avoid large groups of spectators. They often come out only at night and cannot be identified by the bumper stickers on their vehicles or by the display of rods and reels attached to the front or top or back of their off road 4X4 super duper fishing trucks because they don't often own one. They mostly walk by themselves or with one or sometimes two other serious fishermen that they have known for twenty years or more. They are not actually stand-offish but they are truly going fishing when they appear on a beach and so they are not likely to join in a group of spectators who are there primarily for the companionship of staying out all night with brother 4X4 beach riders.

They seldom listen to the radio or watch television when they fish and are more prone to fish than to socialize. They never sit in lawn chairs and their equipment is often old-fashioned which now-a-days means two years old or more. When observing Human Being behavior on a beach it is easy to overlook their movements but for the careful observer the patterns of their behavior and the results they achieve while fishing can identify them as aberrations to the norm. Overlooking the obviousness of their fishing results and speculating about the next blitz will comfort those who prefer the companionship of the herd to the adventure of discovery.

Read the rest here. It's good! In addition to a description of the wily Serious Fisherman, Ken offers some tips to get you one step closer to being that guy.

How to tie a Wooly Bugger

Oh man, can you tell how long it's been since I had any fish fun? My poor blog has *stomp* spider webs on it! Lemme change that. The Woolly Bugger is one of those universal fly patterns worldwide because the pattern is that good. It just works!

You can buy some if you need to, and by the way you can use them on a spinning rod too, but if you're able to tie your own you'll be a whole lot more confident getting them down into the weeds, rocks and timber where they should be fished in order to coax mr mouth down there into biting!

Chasing one, catching another

If you want peace in your heart at the end of your fishing day you sometimes have to be willing to compromise. I've learned to be happy as long as something is tugging my line, so when I set out last Saturday to fly fish for Pike, I was prepared for the possibility of few bites by bringing a rod outfitted for panfish so that if need be, I could make the switch.

After 3 hours of not seeing even a glimpse of Pike I considered exchanging my 8wt for my 4 wt, but first I decided to downsize my fly from the 3/0 Rabbit streamer I was throwing to a 1/0 Calcesieu Pig Boat (black and Grizzly) to see if maybe the bass would come to visit. Lo and behold, they did!

I caught about 4 like this, then they seemed to disappear. So THAT was when I switched to my 4wt and caught enough Bluegills to end the day on a very happy note. Hey, 4 bass like this on the fly and a bunch of Bluegills should be good enough for any man. :)

Sometimes you get the fish...

...sometimes the fish gets you!

Remembering the part called "angling"

I really enjoyed this post by FishErie.com member Duncsdad, and he was kind enough to give me permission to share it here. I added the pictures because of my obsessive need for imagery, but all the words are his. Enjoy, and thank you Duncsdad!
**************************************************************************
The root word of the term angling is….

ANGLE.

I am amazed how often this concept is ignored by fishermen (and fisherladies, but the generic term will be used going forward). And I can think of no other fishing situation that requires being at the proper angle than dry fly fishing for very, very selective stream reared trout in clear water.

Yet I witnessed this disregard for technique again on Tuesday evening.

I arrived at the Little J somewhat later than I would have liked and when I got there, there were already fish on the surface. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, but I wanted to get to an out-of-the-way area to avoid the circus that had ensued and that would take some time.

While there are a few remote spots on the River, most stretches are easily reachable within a reasonable distance from parking areas. I typically don’t like to get too remote because it can be dangerous, especially when fishing by one’s self. The wades can be long and tough and there are enough dangerous snakes about to make a pitch dark trip out not too fun. But some of the out-of-the-way but not exactly remote spots are difficult enough that most won’t venture there and they are within a reasonable (make that 15 – 20 minutes) walk/wade.

Since I was running late, I bypassed some pools in order to hustle to where I wanted to spend the bulk of the hatch. About 200 yards short of where I wanted to be, I just had to stop and throw a few casts at a pod of fish that were just smashing duns with reckless abandon. They were in a tough spot, almost completely across the creek and their lie has a downed tree in the stream guarding any real good approach. After watching them for about 10 minutes – trying to figure the proper angle, I waded in slightly above them, threw a high arcing cast over the water level tree and tossed an in air mend to put the fly line below the tip of the tree branch. By dropping the elbow, this produced enough slack to get about a foot or so of drift. That was plenty. By moving my position up or down stream a few feet, I was able to raise 7 fish and catch 5 of them. I also think that the two that I didn’t hook may have missed the fly completely on very violent rises. From the angle I had to work from (there was a way too fast, way too deep spot that would have given me the right shot), I think they rose aggressively to the fly, then spotted some micro-drag that I couldn’t see or remove from the drift because of the angle, an aborted the feeding attempt.

Deciding that I really needed to get where I was headed, I gave up on the still rising fish and moved to the area I wanted to fish.

And there were two guys already there.

The fisherman in the upstream position was positioned just fine. The gentleman in the downstream position was trying to fish two feeding lanes from the same standing spot. Both guys were good casters and both had on the proper fly. But they weren’t doing very well.

I stood back out of the way to watch – due to what time it now was I was committed to being here for the evening. After about 5 minutes, the upstream fisherman waded over to where I was standing and said “they’re all yours, I can’t catch them.” He said he hadn’t caught a fish all evening and at this point the hatch had probably been rolling for hours.

Why was that?

ANGLE.

He was in the right standing spot. Fish were rising at casting distances of anywhere from 10 to 60 feet away. But his casting angle was all wrong.

He was throwing a straight right-handed over hand cast. With the direction of water flow and the 4 – 6 different current seams he was facing, there was absolutely no way he could get a clean drift of any length – even a foot or so.

In addition, his buddy that was downstream was in such a spot so as to prevent the upstream angler from wading out another 5 feet and down another few to make that type of cast workable without disturbing his fishing.

So I waded in where he left, even though his buddy was still an obstacle to getting into a perfect position. In order to get any type of drift at all, I had to lean at the waist and throw a semi-backhanded cast across my body. This put the fly, and much more importantly, the fly line; in position to get at least some drift.

I raised a fish and missed it. Over the next 45 minutes or so, I probably raised 20 or so and only hooked 3 – one shook off, one that took a massive upstream run actually broke off (the tippet was fairly abraised, I think it rubbed against something rather hard), and I land only one – and it was foul hooked under the chin. I think that I was getting the same micro-drag as the previous spot and the fish were missing the fly on purpose. But this was the only angle I had with the guy downstream.

The downstream gentlemen thought it funny that I was getting frustrated at rising but not catching. During the same time period he raised 3 fish and caught two – one of which was foul hooked under the chin also.

He finally decided to leave and stopped to talk a little while I repaired the leader after breaking the fish off. He had been fishing all day and had caught 5 – the last two of which I witnessed. He said that these trout were so tough.

I gave him a fly and told him of a spot upstream (on his way out) that I knew had a single feeding lane. With his casting skill and only one target area to think about, I knew he would do well.

Upon his departure, I waded into the spot I had been in, took a few steps out and a few down and started to use a completely sidearm backhanded cast – one that I couldn’t use when he was positioned where he was. In short order I caught 4 trout – with zero missed fish, or more correctly zero fish missing the fly.

I then moved to where he was standing and saw that there were two distinct feeding lanes – neither of which could be accessed properly from that exact spot. By moving a few feet up and half a step out, I could get clean drifts into the upper feeding lane. And by continuing to make slight adjustment, I was able to catch 7 trout from that seam. I did miss 3 fish, probably because I got lazy and didn’t make the slight adjustments needed to get a clean drift.

I moved a little below where he had been, like 4 – 6 feet and had a good angle to the lower lies. Eleven trout came from there – including one of about 16”.

Turning around, I saw a pod of fish under a very low hanging limb, gently rising. This indicated that they were on spinners and not slashing at duns or emergers. I changed angles to get a good drift – no easy feat with the limb right over the fish and no downstream approach available. I rose and caught 4 fish from the pod, one again of about 16” and one that stuck out several inches on either side of my landing net opening (which is 17.5”). It had a huge kype and teeth. This fish had been around for a while and it was one of the largest trout that I had caught in the River that was not from the Jurassic Park area.

Of course, I finally put a fly in the tree and broke my lead to heck. It was getting dark rapidly, so I reeled up and quit with trout still rising.

When I was back at the vehicle putting my gear away, the gentleman that I gave the fly to approached with his three fishing comrades. He asked how I did and I told him that I caught a few including one good one. He said that he went where I told him and used the fly until the trout tore it apart. He caught more fish in an hour than he had in the last three days (they were from out of state on an extended fishing trip). He wanted to know where he could get that “magic” fly.

The morale of the story isn’t that there was a magic fly, but rather he was fishing the fly in a spot that forced him to be at the proper angle due to only one feeding lane and he got some clean drifts. In addition, its not that I am a super fly guy or a great caster (those that have fished with me can attest to that), but rather, if one studies the water and gets the proper angle for a clean drift, one can overcome less than great casting, less than a perfect fly, and less than perfect technique.

The root word of the term angling is….

And that was the difference between one of the people I met on the river catching zero fish in a day; the other catching about a dozen (the bulk of which came after he was unknowing forced into fish from the proper angle); and myself landing over 30 despite arriving late and not getting to fish for a decent period of time from the angle I wanted to.

As a post script, during my conversation I found out that these guys fished Erie Tribs for steelhead. When I asked if they were FishErie board regulars, the response was, “No, those guys are just a bunch of a-holes.”

Little did he know that a FishErie a-hole more than doubled his catch for the day.

Perhaps next time I’ll ask the FishErie question before providing flies and spots.

Deadly Waters

I wrote this one a while back but the heart of it is useful to anybody who works or plays outdoors, especially near water.
--------------------------------------------



We’ve had invaders… Asian Carp, the Zebra Mussel, New Zealand Mud Snail and the Round Goby have impacted our fisheries greatly. Fish populations have fluctuated wildly because of changes in water quality, predation upon egg and free swimming fish, being out-competed for food and the Asian Big-Headed Carp has even had a direct, physical impact on boaters due to their propensity for jumping into the air when startled by the sound of a boat motor. Broken noses and black eyes to fishermen have been reported. What else can you expect when a fish weighing up to one hundred pounds jumps into the air in the path of a moving watercraft?

One of our greatest dangers however, is much smaller than that giant, flying minnow. In fact, one of its most dangerous features is that you probably won’t know that it’s there until it strikes, and when this invader strikes on its microscopic level, it kills.

It’s target isn’t Rainbow Trout, or Walleye eggs, or even algae. It’s meal is the very flesh on your bones, and if you don’t act immediately upon discovering it having an effect on you, the odds are great that you will be dead within days. Unfortunately, it’s a very widespread invader, and it must considered a constant companion.

It’s a form of streptococcus bacteria and it IS in the water you fish. It causes a condition known medically as “necrotizing fasciitis”, but you’ll recognize it more quickly by the name bestowed upon it by those who’ve witnessed what it does to its victims. They call it “Flesh Eating Bacteria”… because it will devour you.

The various forms of streptococcus bacteria are part of the natural microbiology of animals and humans. It is a form of streptococcus that gives its name to the condition “Strep Throat”, Scarlet Fever”, and forms of pneumonia. Like so many other substances, strep type bacteria live unnoticed until some barrier is breached in the human body, or the immune system is compromised, and then they do their work. The particular species of bacteria which cause fasciitis is Streptococcus pyogenes.

Acute Streptococcus pyogenes infections may take the form of pharyngitis, scarlet fever (rash), impetigo, cellulitis, or erysipelas. Invasive infections can result in necrotizing fasciitis, myositis and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. Patients may also develop immune-mediated sequelae such as acute rheumatic fever and acute glomerulonephritis.

Recent examples have made headlines this man fell into a harbor polluted by raw sewage after heavy rains, and apparently cut himself while climbing out:

A 34-year-old mortgage loan officer is near death with a flesh-eating disease after falling into the polluted waters of the Ala Wai Boat Harbor last week, according to his friends.
Friends of Oliver Johnson said his doctors at the Queen's Medical Center diagnosed him with necrotizing fasciitis, a Group A streptococcal infection that "destroys muscles, fat and skin tissue," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The disease forced the amputation of his left leg above the knee Monday, his friends said. His body also went into Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome, which causes blood pressure to drop rapidly and all major organs to fail, they said.

This man thought he had merely come down with the flu:

Last Tuesday, Ed Kopfman thought he'd come down with the flu. On Friday, he went to the doctor. By Sunday, the 47-year-old Kirkland father of two was taken to Harborview Medical Center and died that same day.
For those who knew Kopfman, the cause of death was even more shocking: necrotizing fasciitis, a rare condition also known as "flesh-eating bacteria."
"It's so unreal," his wife, Peggy Kopfman, said Wednesday. "We're all still in so much shock."
The bacterial infection took the lives of five King County residents from January to March 15 this year, and eight more in 2005, according to Public Health — Seattle & King County, citing data from the county Medical Examiner's Office.

The fact is, there are a number of bad infections that can come from exposing a cut or abrasion to the waters we love so much. This is just one of the worst. This article isn’t meant to scare you out of the water, but to encourage you to be extra-careful.

Something that each of us should have is a small first aid kit somewhere handy. I keep a decent kit in the glove compartment of my car, and a smaller version in both of my vests. Have the basics like antibiotic ointment, antiseptic wipes, bandages, sterile needles and tweezers for removing splinters, stingers, thorns and other “ouches”, aspirin or other pain-killer, a small bottle of saline solution (for flushing dirty wounds and eyes), and frankly whatever else you can think of. Obviously you can’t carry all that in your vest or chest pack, but having it in the car is a major plus. It should be part of every vehicle emergency kit, and just like your car jack and spare tire, you hope you never need them but are very glad to have them if the need arises.

In my vest I just have the bare necessities like stick on bandages, antiseptic ointment (it’s great that this stuff forms a barrier to further entrance in the wound), headache pills and tweezers.

If you sustain a cut while fishing, clean it immediately. Don’t be a hero. If you sustain a cut that will be under the water, or the cut was sustained underwater, stop fishing and clean it out immediately. If, for example, you are wet wading (wading in a pair of shorts and sneakers instead of waders) and you should suffer a cut on your lower leg, STOP wading for the day! It isn’t worth the risk of infection by bacteria or any of the bugs that are naturally in the water. You don’t need some parasite entering your leg and causing you untold problems for the future.

Now I’m sure that some of you are going to take this as being overly-cautious. I just have to ask you, is really worth the risk? We’ve all done the he-man thing and kept fishing as blood ran down our hand or leg, and eaten our sandwiches with a hand covered in fish slime, but it only takes one infection to make us change our ways, and that only if we are given the chance to make that change.

There are a lot if “Urban Fishermen” these days. these men and women are fishing in the shadows of skyscrapers, and unfortunately that means they’re probably in water that gets regular contamination by sewage runoff. In an area know for sewage outlets, don’t fish during or after a prolonged, heavy rain. You might not smell the sewage, but it’s there. It gets on your waders, your hands, your legs, the fish, your equipment…and there’s no way of knowing how long it’ll live there. Picture your hand all covered front and back by someone’s bathroom leftovers and then you get jabbed with a hook.

My friend, you’ve just become a lab experiment.

Wild waters have their share of bacteria and parasites as well, so don’t assume just because you’re up in the mountains that you won’t get caught unawares. Infection can happen anywhere.

Every major urban fishing center has what we in Pittsburgh have come to call “Allegheny Whitefish”. Nobody wants to talk about that, and it isn’t spread over the entire watershed or even the entire river for that matter, but there are entry points on every major river in every industrialized city in the world where stuff that you don’t want to be standing in gets mixed with the water where our favorite quarry live.

What’s an “Allegheny Whitefish”? It’s a used condom, flushed from someone’s home and a part of the sewage that overflows in so many places.

Possible our biggest weapon against high bacterial levels in our water is to maintain a vigilant stand against illegal sewage overflows and fighting to upgrade legal ones where everybody knows…THAT shouldn’t be legal! Work with your local water departments to find out what it takes to improve the runoff system. Make sure that you aren’t adding to the problem yourself as well. For those pristine mountain streams and lakes, just remember that dirty waders, boots, tubes and boats carry a coating from one place to the next, and birds are yet another source of spreading contaminants.

I thought about going very in-depth on prevention, cure, vaccination and other aids, but I’d rather you get the information straight from the source. Linked below you’ll find all the information you need to be a better protected fisherman, ready to land that next lunker!

Tight lines and safe fishing everybody!


Recent F.E. bacteria cases here and

Streptococcus resource
More resources on Strep

First Aid Kit resources
Sewer runoff info
Naturally occurring bacteria
Water borne parasites

Musky fishing, Musky CATCHING, with the Lindners

The Lindner family is unquestionably the First Family of fishing, having been the heart behind everything "In-Fisherman" for many years and then leaving to launch Lindner's Angling Edge and other media projects.

They're real innovators in the game and interviewing Al Lindner for my radio show is one of the highlights of my broadcasting career. I had to laugh when another fishing show host shared with me that having Al and his brother Ron as guests on his show was a real learning experience and that they never, ever stand still. He said he'd never been around fishermen with such passion and energy!

So while I was checking out some Pike fishing videos, leading to Musky fishing videos and then finding this one featuring two more members of the Lindner family, I thought I'd share it with you. Watch it when you can't fish, it'll make you crazy!

Lake Arthur fishing report again!

I got back up to my favorite lake Saturday. It was a pretty nice day, windy but not as windy as the previous Saturday when I had to stop from time to time just to hold my hat on my head. I got a bit of a late start but that's ok when you know where to find the fish. It was warm too for mid-morning. I wondered what would happen to the mayonnaise on my ham and cheese sandwiches while I fished. As it turned out, warm mayo wasn't such a crime. Warm drinking water on the other hand, not so much fun (Note to self: put ice in cooler with food).

I faced a bit of construction traffic on 279N, but I knew they'd be there. Hey, on a Saturday going fishing and having the right music playing, I could've dealt with almost any traffic. :)

I arrived at the lake in good spirits, and set out with the hopes of finding a nice school of Crappie somewhere. Stop 1: Bear Run boat launch area. This area can really deliver at the right time of year. Unfortunately, this wasn't the time.



I always expect something to jump out of this tangle of tree roots and get me!

After 30 minutes I took off for area number 2: Secret Bay. I have a love/hate relationship with the road to Secret Bay. It's really long and dusty, parking is almost non-existent when I get there, but I see lots of different animals, plants and birds when I drive it. Secret Bay paid off but not with keeper sized fish. After an hour of this (and good company in the form of another fisherman wading out with me) I decided to go where I had every confidence that I'd find not only fish, but keepers.

Those of you who know me might be wondering right now why I was so intent on getting fish to keep, knowing that I almost always fish catch and release. To explain...early in the season I like to get a limit or two of panfish so that I can have fish in the freezer through the season whenever I want some, then I can fish the rest of the season mostly catch and release style. I have a freezer devoid of fish right now so I need to get some in there. Anyway, I got to spot number 3: that certain place.

There I had to deal with quite a bit of wind, quite a few people, but was able to finally get into the fish. It wasn't easy and they made me work for every bite, but the Case Worm did it's job and I ended the trip with exactly the same take I had last week. A handful of Bluegills, 2 Yellow Perch and 1 Crappie! Strange that I would get the same combination two trips in a row, but I ain't complainin'.

The oddity of the bunch was this Blonde Bluegill. I'm calling it that because it was a shade of gold when I caught it and I've never seen such a thing before. It even retained that color after death.



See you on the water!

My panfish go-to rig

When I want to use my spinning rod and artificial lures for panfish, when I really want to get into the panfish, there's one rig I reach for before any other. With this one rig I have all the confidence of using live bait but with the simplicity of plastic.

Charlie Case calls it his Trout Worm, but it has proven absolutely lethal on sunfish, Perch, Crappie, White Bass, Largemout Bass and even Channel Cats! There was a time when I wouldn't even dream of going after panfish and not bringing some live maggots with me. Now I'm at the point where I haven't used live bait for panfish in several years.

My favorite is White, but other colors may work for somebody, somewhere. It works so well for me that I have only sporadically been able to force myself to put other colors on to see how well they perform. So far, White has demonstrated a dramatic dominance in effectiveness (Howzat fer a sentence?).

The thing is, there is a very specific way to rig it that produces the most hits. I've worked this rigging in a variety of ways and there's no doubt that it makes a difference. Before I describe that one little twist to you, I'll offer the obvious: being only an inch and a half long the Case Trout Worm is best set up on light line. In general I tie it onto 4 pound test Trilene XT using a 1/64oz Gold jighead. Couple that with the smallest float possible and you're in good shape. This jig lends itself well to using a small weighted float so that you can cast this featherweight combination a distance. Sometimes if the fish aren't feeling particularly peckish for whatever reason, I'll downsize to 2 pound Trilene XL, a 1/100 oz jighead and a very tiny Thill float.

My biggest Crappie ever came on this rig. I was using 2# line, a 1/100 oz jig, and the tiniest This float I have (it's in the picture). It was sitting still in the water until the float just barely wobbled, then nothing. I set the hook "just in case" and came up with a Crappie that weighed over a pound and a half. Sometimes that sensitive approach is better not just for big fish but for numbers of fish as well.

I have tried using the Worm without the float, casting and retrieving it, but that didn't produce quite as well. The next best approach is in moving water, to bounce it downstream on a gold hook with the least amount of split shot possible about a foot above the hook. This does do a very good job as a plastic lure for trout, unquestionably. In still water though, where most of my panfish hunting takes place, nothing beats putting one of these guys under a float on a gold jighead (why gold with white? I'm not sure, but it beats lead grey, silver, and a plain gold hook) and a small float, slowing only to find the proper depth.

Also, when I'm fishing at distance the weighted float has always been a better choice than a slip float. Adding any split shot to the line has cut the bite ratio every time. If I need distance I go with the weighted float and nothing between the float and the jig. Up close I use the smallest Thill float possible and again, nothing between the float and the jig and using those stick floats is the most sensitive way to monitor those bites. (Though I admit to not working much with those water filled floats; they might be really effective in soft-bite situations).

Now, what about that little twist I mentioned, that little twist that alters this jig from a good lure to a great one? It's all in where the knot sits on the jighead. If you take a moment to make sure your knot is on the backside of the jighead, so that the tail of the Worm sticks upward when you hang it from your hand to check it out, you'll get more bites, period. I can only guess that the tail action is more pronounced in this position.

That's actually what got me to buy these things inthe first place. I was at O'Donnell's in Portersville and the owner had set up a display to show the fluid movement of the worm in water. He set up a tall flexible piece of metal with a long spring coming horizontally out of the top. The end of that spring was over a tall glass vase filled with water. From the end of the spring a short piece of line dangled a Trout Worm in the vase. Being on the spring allowed you to touch it lightly and see how even the most gentle movement sends the tail wiggling.

That was all I needed to embed that image onto the backs of my corneas for the next month. See, I've learned to discipline myself against impulse buying in the bait store...usually. I just couldn't get that display out of my mind though, and soon bought my first pack. I haven't been without them since!

Lake Arthur fishing report

Oh yeah, it was a good day! I caught three more Largemouth this size and about a dozen that were slightly smaller. No dinks at all! This was really the best day of Largemouth Bass fishing I've ever had.

I was using 4 # line, a light-action rod and big Fathead minnows. The bass were eating aggressively, but weren't chasing aggressively.

I had to put the minnow on the bottom and crawl it slowly toward me, but once I figured that out the fishing was fantastic!

I love it when they're so big they won't fit into camera view! (c;

Pirates also affecting Fishing destinations

This report came in last weekfrom Tom Stevenson: "It turns out that The boat I was to board in Assumption Island, Seychelles on the 8th (April), was hijacked about 50 km from Assumption Island on Friday last; Taken to Somalia, where the crew (who had not been heard from since setting off from Assumption Island) were released, and called in on Wednesday; All remote islands in Seychelles have been evacuated of all boats, while the Seychelles government 'cleans up' the problem..."

Here's the blog post.

Bass/Pike/Musky flybox

Musky and Pike and Bass, oh my!

This box came about in response to an experience which almost caused the wetness to be on the wrong side of my chest waders.

It was a Saturday morning around 11 AM, but it was far from a typical Saturday. I was at one of my favorite lakes and had waded maybe 100, 120 yards out into the water. This really wasn't unusual for me despite my love/hate affair with water. You see, I have these moments while I am wading in murky water when near anxiety grips me as I suddenly wonder what's below. I have to actually stop and calm my nerves when this occurs. (Remind me someday to explain how I think this got started originally.) This is a factor which lent itself to making what would be a funny experience for some into a spine-tingling experience for me.

It was a comfortable spring morning with the temperature hovering around 72 degrees F., and the sun was shining brightly. The water was as still as glass because there was virtually no wind at all. Most fishermen I know hate "glass" water, but to me it just means alter my tactics. My opinion on bad conditions is that since the fish can't pack up and leave the lake, they're still there and it becomes my job to make them bite. Period.

As I walked through the lake this day, the only sound was the water I was displacing as even the birds were strangely quiet. There were no people fishing this popular spot on a beautiful Saturday morning and that itself should've put my nerves on edge, but it didn't. There's a highway just over a mile from where I was and even the traffic that morning was surprisingly still. Put all these factors together: It's a sunny Saturday morning at about 11 on a popular fishing spot and no one was there, the birds aren't singing, the wind isn't blowing, the water is absolutely still and the only noise comes from me touching the water. Got it?

I don't know what you do on those days...some pray, some think out problems...others just watch the water. On this day I hadn't realized it but my mind had just emptied. I was lulled not into thoughtful contemplation, but just nothingness with not a thought in my head. I barely noticed as I repeatedly cast my size 10 Zug Bug, hooked and released Bluegills with such repitition that it didn't require me to pay much attention.

BOY what a mistake.

I didn't see a wake, I didn't see a shadow, I saw nothing until a Musky at least 36 inches in length (I've caught several of that size and I'm familiar with the length) and very heavy in the belly leapt into the air, completely clearing the water no more than four feet away from me and just to my right, splashing back into the water with the sound of a thunderous handclap!

I'll describe my reaction as this: delicately freaked out. With my heart pounding and my hands trembling I managed to bite off the Zug Bug and tie on a large popper in hopes of getting the toothy predator to hit, but after managing a few measly casts and a few pops I had to make my way to shore in order to let the nerves in my legs settle a bit.

I got in a bit more fishing that day but my embarassment pushed me to tie flies with which I could hopefully someday gain a measure of revenge. These were those first flies.



Left side left to right:

• 2 flies I came up with in desiring a large but relatively lightweight fly to throw. They are Body Fur and Big Fly Fiber (with the idea this, like rope in a Gar fly, would help grab the teeth of the fish) with eyes added and Krystal Flash through the body. The brown one patterned to look like a Sucker, the other simply olive over white and they're tied on #2 streamer hooks
• 2 Bucktail Golden Shiners also on #2 streamer hooks
• 1 Bucktail and Peacock Shad also on #2 streamer hook
• 2 Flatwing Alewives, tied on 2/0 saltwater hooks

Right side left to right
Top Row

• 4 Polar Aire streamers, chartreuse over white with rainbow flash Angel Hair, tied on #2 4xL streamer hooks
• 5 "Bassworms" made from hackle, rubber legs and rabbit hair, tied on #2 4xL streamer hooks

Bottom Row
A bunch of Polar Hair streamers in Alewife, Shad and Shiner patterns (with one Black Nosed Dace for variety:) ) all tied on a size 4 offset point, curved nymph hook because that's supposed to minimize fouling of the wing around the hook. Maybe it's my casting but they foul more than the streamers tied on the #2 streamer hooks.

Bass/Pike fly box 1

Gather 'round kids, 'cause uncle Mark is about to show you how to be ready for when the big one is lurkin' just beyond that patch of grass, that one over there, near the sunken log. He's got a big ol' scar down his side from where sumthin' tried ta eat 'im, but he was just too tough.

Today that big boy is just starin' at you and darin' you to toss anything his way, anything at all. Not only do you have to get through the weeds but you've gotta get 'round the wood, then you've gotta offer him a meal worth comin' outta that nice, shady, comfy ambush spot from where he just opens up and snaps down any creature not big enough to eat him first, which means almost everything in the water around him is fair game.

He's gonna laugh at your little nymphs and dry flies. Your precious 4 weight fly rod will become his toothpick. You need not only to bring a rod with enough backbone to haul a brick up the side of a building, but flies that old boy sees as temptin' as you see that 18 oz sirloin gettin' char marks over maple wood charcoal in your grill right now.

These are those flies, all tied by me except where noted.
Left side, left to right from top to bottom:

• 2 divers I made using half a foam cutout designed for floating Clousers with white hackle and red Krystal Flash attached to 2/0 bass stinger hooks
• 10 rabbit hair Pike flies of various color combinations on 2/0 saltwater hooks
• 4 Morrish Mice made with hackle instead of deer hair because like so many, I can't leave well enough alone, tied on size 6 streamer hooks
• 2 large leech flies sent to me by my friend Ray (letumgo) from Fly Tying Forum.

Right side, left to right from top to bottom:

• 2 rows of Calcasieu Pig Boats, in colors for whatever occasion, tied on 1/0 and 2/0 Bass stinger hooks, and yes altered from the original (Mine's pretty much Wooly Buggers with extra long hackle and rubber legs)
  
• 2 sliders of this pattern (4th picture down) which I bought at International Angler
• 4 Burblers that are inserted in the box tail to tail for space and on size 8 bass stinger hooks
• 2 Hot Clown pattern Dahlberg Divers on size 2 streamer hooks
• 2 generic mice on 1/0 bass stinger hooks

You don't stuff a box with flies like this and expect it to close easy...even a Bugger Barn. It sits open like this 'til I force it shut, which I don't do less I'm carryin' it in my vest. Don't wanna squash all the goods.
That'd be like smashin' the juice out of a hamburger to make it cook faster. What?

You do what?

*sigh* I have a lot to teach you.

The Beetle Spin

The Beetle Spin and its many imitations...often overlooked, always effective!

Little more than a pint-sized safety pin spinnerbait, this lure is one that I forget lives in my tackle bag just long enough to forget how well it catches fish. This has a bright side however, because every time I tie one on I get to relive the amazement I feel when I am reacquainted with its fish catching ability.

If you've ever used the full-sized safety pin style spinnerbaits (so named because they resemble an opened safety pin with a hunk of rubber or plastic on one end and a shiny, spinning blade on the other) to catch Largemouth or Smallmouth bass you know why this style of lure is in every serious bass fishermans' armory. The strobing flash and water moving thump-thump-thump of that spinning blade calls fish from a distance with the tease of an easy meal involving an injured minnow. When the fish gets close enough it sees something near the flash that looks like an even bigger meal than the blade promised.

It's an extremely versatile lure. You can burn it in at the waters surface fast enough to create a foam, swim it just beneath the surface to create a bulge, swim it well below the surface either in a steady or variable speed retrieve, and you can let it drop to the bottom and basically drag it back to you over the rocks and through the grass and wood. Each approach has its time and place and some enterprising fishermen have created even more tactical uses for the safety pin spinnerbait.
It's a great choice for introducing a fisherman to using lures because it is so easy to work, combining the features of the best all around lure, the plastic jig, with the second (or to some third) best lure the spinnerbait.

That brings us to one of my favorite lures, the Beetle Spin. That was the name brand which popularized the mini safety pin spinner, but other brand companies make this happy little fish catcher. One of the most popular other brands is named Uncle Buck's Panfish Creatures. You can also make your own (shhhh... don't let the companies know I said that) by buying the blade and arm assembly from any well-stocked bait store, big box retailer or online distributor. It has a clip release similar to the one on most fishing license holders and you can put that through the eye of a jig, then you tie on at the "elbow" of the spinner arm.

This lure in 1/8 and 1/16 ounce sizes catches panfish, bass, walleyes, trout and I'm sure somebody out there has caught fish on it that aren't on that list. The blade at that weight is about the size of a mans' fingernail, and the plastic body that provides the illusion of a meal on the hook is kinda like a swimming octopus that has only two legs. Bulbous on one end tapering to two thin legs on the other. It often has a big dot on the "head" end, suggesting perhaps one big eye. I don't believe the legs offer a great deal of action, but they offer enough to get the interest of even an inactive fish.

A plus to this tiny titan is the ability to remove the provided plastic body and replace it with another of your choice, live bait or even to tie a fly on the jig hook. This lure goes a long way for the adventurous fisherman.

I was recently given a Bass Pro gift certificate by a friend and picked up a bunch of these spinnerbaits to use this season, and this time I intend to put them to work!

Carp

Ghost of the Flats and Golden Bone are two of its very appropriate nicknames… Golden Bone being a comparison to the well-known and highly sought after saltwater Bonefish. Some of its proper names include Mirror, Grass and Leather… in Poland it’s Karp dziki a. sazan, in Greece Kyprínos, in India Soneri masha, in Hawaii and Japan, Koi. In America, we usually just call it Carp. It’ll break your heart given half a chance.

They're fished by a variety of methods...doughball, boilies, corn, jugs, flies...but don't think that makes the big ones easy to catch, or even the small ones in clear water.

As a species Carp originated in Asia, where the culturing of Carp dates back to around 7 B.C., but in addition to natural dispersal they were brought to Europe as a food fish hundreds of years ago by the Romans, and in the mid to late 1800’s were introduced to North America where they spread quickly. Carp can now be found on every continent and in around 59 countries. Although primarily a warm water fish, Carp can be found in cool trout streams as well as lakes, ponds and rivers throughout any area in which they occur. They are omnivorous feeders, which explain why they are more often found in areas with weeds, mud or a combination of these than in bare bottomed stretches. However, Carp will school to sift large soft flats for food, alert to the slightest shadow or movement overhead. They are geared for bottom-feeding with an under slung mouth, but can often be seen sipping seeds or bugs from the surface. Their diet includes the proverbial “anything they can fit in their mouths”, so often said of more predacious species, but more accurately applied to the scrounging types. Berries, nymphs, crayfish, vegetation, seeds, worms, minnows, snails and more form their common diet.

Carp spawn when the waters warm in the spring, and some small ponds are kept continuously muddy by the amorous roiling of trios of fish, a female followed by two males through the shallows. The number of eggs laid varies with the size of the female, but a large adult can lay up to 2 million, which hatch in 3 to 6 days depending on the temperature. Small Carp are preyed upon by other fishes, but grow rapidly to a size which keeps them safe from most piscine predators. (Though I’ve heard that at two to three pounds they are excellent bait for Muskellunge and Flathead catfish.)

The group of Carp which most anglers picture when the name “Carp” is mentioned include the Common, Mirror and Leather Carp, all variations of Cyprinus carpio. Even the lovely and often quite expensive (up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for top show specimens and breeders) Koi is just another variation on carpio. Cyprinus carpio can be found at 10 pounds quite commonly, making it an excellent target for the inland fly fisher who wants to tangle with a big fish. In fact, the odds are good that if you can regularly find 10 pounders in your body of water, 20 pounders are in there too. Common carp may live in excess of 47 years and weigh over 75 pounds.

The all-tackle world record was landed in 1987 from Lac de St. Cassien, France, and weighed in at 75 pounds 11 ounces. [url="http://www.carphunters.com/Artikler/thaicarp.htm"]The Cambodian Giant Barb[/url] is considered the world’s largest Carp species, reputed to reach some 300 pounds! There are many other species of Carp, including the Asian Big-Headed and Silver Carps, currently causing serious concern as they head steadily toward the Great Lakes of North America after escaping rearing ponds along the Mississippi River during flooding. As evidenced by their worldwide distribution, Carp are survivors!

These are tremendously wary fish. Have you ever approached a muddy shoreline, only to see huge wakes rocketing away by the time you get to within 15 feet? Most likely they were Carp, alerted by your vibrations. In clear water, their excellent eyesight combined with their sensitivity to movement and vibration means you must practice moving very slowly and softly to get close. Normally, standing quietly on a muddy or sandy bottom between shore and the inside weed line for a few moments will allow the fish to resume normal behavior, rooting their way through looking for a meal. When standing completely still, I’ve had them literally go through my legs! A faster way to begin fishing for them is to find an active group and begin casting very lightly toward the fish that is closest to you. There has been some discussion as to which is quicker to strike, a cruising Carp or a sitting fish. In my experience, fish that are just hanging there are sometimes nearly impossible to get a positive reaction from, while the cruisers are looking for a bite, and more readily respond to your fly.

In general, due to the sensitivity and wariness of the fish, you’ll need to lead a cruiser by several yards to keep from spooking it. If you have picked out your target fish, which you should do for your best chance at hooking one, check out its path and respond accordingly. If it is following the edge of the weeds in 2 feet of water, cast 10 yards ahead to give your fly time to settle. (This is in reference to bottom fishing.) As the fish approaches within about 3 feet or so, give it the slightest of twitches. The Carp will see it, and if it looks good, will take. You’ll get takes in murky water too, so don’t bypass the chance just because of cloudiness. However, sight fishing for them is a real adrenaline rush. That’s hard part number one: getting the take. Hard part number two? Getting a good hookset. Carp have tough, rubbery mouths that require either a very sharp hook, a very solid hookset (maybe two or three) or both.

I have literally lost more Carp than I’ve landed due to a bad hookset or dull hook. It is really frustrating to have 30 yards peeled off only to have the hook come out, and I am far too acquainted with the feeling. Keep your hooks sharp! That should be a given with any fisherman of any type of approach, but few of us take it as seriously as we should, including me. Once you spook that Carp, it will probably spook the whole school in its fright, and even if they don’t all leave, you shouldn’t expect another hit for a while.

Hard part number 3 is just landing the beast! Fighting big Carp on a fly rod especially the first couple of runs, is similar to fighting someone standing there with a hand on the end of your rod trying to jerk it out of your hand. I have seen many bait fishers lose their rod by not paying attention while Carping when the fish hits and yanks the rod into the water! I almost lost one this way myself, but was able to chase the rod and grab it just before it hit the water, at which point the line snapped instantly. I’ve done fine with my 6 weight, but if you are specifically out for Carp I recommend an 8 with a leader based on the water you’re fishing, keeping in mind the suddenness of the first run. On average a 6 pound 4 or 5x tippet should do you fine unless there’s cover for it to use against you.

When a Carp takes your fly, you are already a step ahead because the rod is in your hand already, but don’t take that for granted. I saw one guy get his rod pulled from his hand by a Carp that he didn’t know had taken his nymph. He was able to grab it from the water though. After you set your hook, just let it run if you don’t have snags to worry about. Have your drag set correctly before you catch the first fish and don’t play with it during the fight unless you really need to. Set the hook and hold on. Let it run and when it pauses you can start trying to turn it. With smaller fish you will be able to move it, but once it hits 10 pounds or so, all you’ll accomplish is sending it blistering into a second attempt to reach the next time zone. This may happen several times before you get to see the fish, but after you’ve tired it out, your best bet is to try and beach it. Carp are very slippery, and even if you can hoist it up in your hand, you’ll probably drop it while removing the hook.

You also don’t want to try and lip a Carp because if you go too far into its mouth you’ll reach the crushing plates it uses to smash up clams and crayfish and such. I once did this with a fish of about 4 pounds, and while I didn’t lose a finger or anything, it was startling enough to put me on guard from that day forward. A larger fish could probably have done some real damage. If it’s a small fish you can pick up in one hand, you can probably unhook it without a problem. This is one of the biggest reasons I smash the barbs on my hooks: easy release. I don’t have to remove the fish from the water at all to get the hook out no matter what the size.

When you see Carp slurping at the surface, look closely to see what they are feeding on. You can often get them to take on the surface just by giving them what they are already feeding on. Floating seeds, floating bugs, bread pieces, they are all fair game. Toss an adult dragonfly imitation in the midst (lightly!) of some surface feeders and if you don’t spook them, you’ll find that more than Bass and Bluegills will smash a dragon. When Mulberries are ripe, you will always find a Carp or 2 (or a dozen) parked beneath a Mulberry bush that overhangs the water. They love those staining berries and I don’t blame them! I like to grab a handful for myself while I’m out there! When you find this situation, a fly tied to look like a mulberry is a killer. While this next method does brings some controversy, tossing bits of White bread to Carp in order to get them feeding on it, then casting a Bread fly is another great way to get them at the surface. Carp are an amazing fish, not given their respect widely in America probably due to their abundance.

However, in the UK Carp top the list of game fish, and rightfully so. They are hard to sneak up on, harder not to spook with a cast, fight like a Pit Bull dog, and according to many taste very good when taken from clean water or bought in the market. In addition, they present the best chance for an inland fisher in America to regularly catch fish on the fly rod that weigh 5, 10 even 20 pounds! Test yourself fly fisher… chase the “Golden Bone.”

Good flies include:

Hare's Ear Nymph

Dragonfly nymph

Crayfish

Wooly Bugger

Rubber-legged anything

Bread fly (Deer hair packed and trimmed square or piece of yarn)

Mulberry (think waterproofed Sucker Spawn in Grape and/or Red)

Cottonwood Seed fly (A cdc feather or waterproofed marabou with a bit of Black dubbing at the end works!)

You can definitely catch Carp on lures too, particularly plastic jigs. Work a Crappie jig slowly across the bottom near feeding Carp and they will take note.

Carpin'

Check out Carpecarpio and some big fish!

Lotsa species of Carp

On the Fly

Common Carp

Mirror Carp(named for their reflective scales)

Leather Carp (Check out the skin)

Grass Carp

The above pictures courtesy this fine Carp site.

Asian Big Head Carp

Beware the Big Head!

Jumping from the water

They get BIG!

You may think that only a few ethnic groups of the world value Carp as a meal, but try some of these recipes and you may join that group of Carp connoisseurs!

P.S. I thought I'd add my favorite Carp story. It was about 45 degrees out, very windy and raining. I was fishing a small city pond for bass, tossing a 4" Blue and Silver Rapala floater. I was just about to duck out of the cold when something broke water and created a White water wake from about 3 feet away from my lure! It was a wake more violent than any Musky, Pike or bass I've ever seen. It hit the Rapala and when I set the hook buried itself deep in the weeds. It too ka godd 7 or 8 minutes to get it to come out of the weeds, and after two more hard runs, I reeled in...

...a 9 pound Common Carp! Most amazingly of all, it had swallowed the Rapala completely. I picked up the fish, and when viewed from the side, the lure could not be seen, it was that deep in the fish's mouth! It took awhile to get that one loose, but it swam away strongly afterward. Carp rock!

My coffeefolia flowered!

So there I was happily watching television, enjoying the evening when I glanced over at my aquarium and thought "that Anubias looks very different tonight. I think I'll take a picture." So that's then I took this:


(The fish are Cardinal Tetras with an Albino Bristlenose catfish beneath)

A little less than 30 minutes later I looked again to see this:


I was excited because though this plant flowers often, for some reason the flowers never bloomed and just rotted at the stem after a couple of weeks at full height. This is the first time that a flower has actually opened on this plant in the 4 years I've had it. Much to my surprise it looked like this only an hour later:


I've never seen a flower open so quickly! 'Course, I can't say as I've ever watched from beginning to end so maybe I'm just last to the part here, but I thought it was really cool. Anubias barteri 'coffeefolia' is a great plant, very hardy and does well under minimal light. I have a single full length fluorescent over the tank (leaning toward Red spectrum 'cause it makes the Cardinal Tetras and the albino Bristlenose cats look really cool) and the substrate is flourite.

How much is enough?

As I go through the winter doldrums,ice keeping me from doing the wading I hold so vital to enjoying my fishing, I pacify myself as you probably do: cleaning, stocking and rearranging my tackle.

I find the usual mess, hastily stowed gear as I switch on the water from one lure to another, plastic worms and grubs melted to the boxes they reside in, carefully sorted hooks all mixed together, rock-hard Powerbait still on the hook, flies in the pockets of my vest instead of in their box, old used band aids and so much more gunk that it makes me swear (like I do every winter) that this year will be the year I put everything back in it's place every single time.

(Ya-hunh. Right.)

I did manage this time to transfer all my bass spinnerbaits from hard boxes to soft packs, same thing with a lot of my plastics. This is to allow me to carry them in my vest which never seems to have enough pockets, yet gives me backache when I carry too much.

I moved my inline spinners (Roostertails mostly) to a new, vest-friendly box, refilled my terminal tackle supply boxes (sinkers, hooks and bobbers), filled a small box with small crankbaits designed to catch panfish, refilled my Case's Jack's Worm box (oh yeah, they get their own box!), relocated a ton of flies to different boxes to fit the vest I bought and to my dismay realized it had smaller pockets than the old vest and won't hold my Bugger box or bass fly box, and basically just had fun playing with everything.

After a few hours I came to that old familiar realization that for some reason has yet to propel me to solve it's presence: I have lures that are still in the box which I bought years ago! I have bird skins that I bought in my first couple of years of fly tying! In a nutshell:

I have way too much stuff that I don't use, seeing this every year has not pushed me to do anything about it, and that's just gotta change.

I know why it happens. That's no mystery. I have a selection of flies and lures that work very well for me and I start to fear branching out because I might not catch fish. That and the fact that I have particular methods I enjoy most. I like throwing particular lures and I like throwing particular flies. Still, a pile of unused stuff like this is just downright sinful and I've gotta do something about it.

Seems like there are two really obvious options: either start using it or get it into the hands of someone who will. I already do this with the flies I tie. I tie far more than I fly fish so pretty much every year I end up giving away a couple hundred flies just so that they don't go to waste. I could sell some of the lures I guess, but I really do like catching fish with different approaches at different times. There's a real thrill to the particular slam that comes only when a fish stops a Roostertail cold in the water. The violence of of a crankbait strike near the surface can take your breath away.

I've got plastics I haven't touched yet they are proven fish getters! I have no problem giving stuff away, especially since I ain't using it anyway. However, I think that with much of it I need to go ahead and put it to use to keep my all-around fishing skills from atrophy.

I'd hate to forget how to put together a decent Carolina Rig! (You remember those doncha?)

Great White Shark necropsy online!

Since we're talking about Great White Sharks anyway, here's news for you future vets, med students and lovers of all things stinky and gushy...

A penguin, a seal, or even a human hand – what would you expect to find in the stomach of a great white shark?

Scientists in New Zealand are about to discover just that when they perform a necropsy on a 10ft great white shark –believed to be the first of its kind, conducted in front of about 1,000 members of the public and streamed live online.

The shark will be dissected and its organs investigated during the necropsy at Auckland Museum this Thursday where scientists hope the operation will help add to their limited knowledge of one of the ocean’s least known about animals.