Best way to quickly gut a trout

Yeah I know, I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to the blog, but school and looking for a new job has kept me crazy busy! With warm weather upon us here in the US, I thought this video would be helpful in showing a really quick and simple way to gut those trout I know you're catching!

What is a "Community Tank" of fish?

Here's some very good advice from our newest link pal, The Skeptical Aquarist on assembling a true community fish tank.

The results generally don't rise above a harmless menagerie, but they will normally lack any ecological significance. Cichlid tanks especially seem to be assembled on the basis of "Can this new one hold its own?" An increasingly tense mosh pit is added to, one new arrival at a time — "Can I fit one more in?" — until finally mayhem breaks out.

High water, no problem

A lot of guys find that high water blows them right out of their game. Some won't even fish in high water. Listen, it's not like the fish can go check into the nearest Howard Johnson's for a vacation. They are there, it's your job to find them.

Check the current seams. You will find slack water and that's where the fish will stack in order to avoid swimming hard against the current all day. I remember fishing Neshannock Creek once years ago when the water was so high the dam in Volant was not noticeable. I'd driven a long way so I had to try something. You know that abutment on the side of the dam that people climb on? the water was that high, so I found a little eddy that had formed in it, tied on a heavy bead-head Pheasant tail nymph, and caught 3 fish in it!

Don't give up, just fish smarter. :)

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.

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. :)

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!
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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.

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!

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!

Now that's flycasting!

One of the toughest challenges in learning to fly fish is getting off a good cast. I'm really grateful to Bob Shuey, owner of Neshannock Creek Fly Shop who reassured me that any cast which gets the fly where it should go and doesn't spook the fish is a good cast. That calmed my nerves enough to continue learning.

A well-done cast goes farther, easier and does more than any bad cast. Keeping that in mind here are a couple of ladies showing you how it's done. First, the amazing Spey casting of Jeong Park:



This one's of the "First Lady of fly fishing" Joan Wulff:


Taking the time to perfect your casting is a really valuable thing to do, because you'll find an amazing variety of specialty casts that will help you in any situation. Here's more with Joan Wulff demonstrating basic casts.

I've gotta go work on my roll cast! Lemme know how you do. :)

A wise fisherman pays attention

If you fish for Striped Bass or the hybrid "Wiper" (a cross between White Bass and Striped Bass), and you've never visited "Striper Moon", you're a bit behind where you could be.

Ken Abrames knows Striper fishing, and is a pretty good writer too.

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.

Check out his newest article "Overlooking the obvious", at Striper Moon. Have a great weekend!