Whatcha catchn’?

[Ljohnsaw]

By no means a wader expert, but aren't you supposed to have an elastic belt around the top to prevent the waders from filling up if you fall?

Yeah, I would have been beaming if I had that fish in my hands!

[jb616]

On page 1 of this thread jb616 posted a photo of a nice mess of walleyes. I'm not sure, but the one at the bottom of the photo looks like it might be a sauger; any of you guys know about them? There are a couple places in Western New York where our DEC is trying to bolster the population of sauger.

No Sauger in the Detroit River that I know of....Anyone that wants to participate in a World Class Walleye fishery, head down to the Detroit river from the middle to the end of April....There are plenty of videos out there and probably the best are by Lance Valentine. Message me if you want any info. 

[firefighter ontheside]

He is wearing waders that were my mother's.  She doesnt wade fish anymore.  They are just a bit big around on him and the strap doesn't tighten enough to keep all water out.  As it was they didn't fill up, but there was probably 3 gallons of water in them.

It rained hard all night and the main section of the river was way, way high and could not be fished in.  The spring branch at the park does not flood and so it was fishable.  It was being fished by everyone at the park this morning.  We managed to catch 3 fish in the short time that it was not raining.  I got two and he got one.  Brought two home.  Gutted and headed them at the park and then finished filleting when we got home.  I've never filleted a trout before, but it was just like doing a walleye.  I never liked eating trout before, because they were always full of bones.  I may like these tonight.  I may be the only one who eats it at home.


 

[KEC]

jb616, thanks for the info. 

[SawyerTed]

I went in to detail in the other thread so this is short.   

The four days and thee nights to Dry Tortugas was productive followed by a half day of peacock bass fishing.  

Pictures below are groupers, king mackerel, mutton snapper, mahi, cero mackerel, yellowtail and others. 


 


 

[firefighter ontheside]

I bet those peacock bass are fun to catch.  From what I've seen watching it on tv it looks great.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I caught a few peacock bass in Ecuador in 2008 but I had medium tackle and 14 lb line and never landed one over about 3 lbs. Before I got my drag properly adjusted several broke the line on the strike. They are very fierce fighters.

[firefighter ontheside]

My son and I floated my newly rebuilt canoe on the local river this past week.  He caught a nice largemouth and I caught several nice smallmouth for this river.  The canoe did well.  His buddy came with us and was solo on his kayak.


 

 

 

 

[WV Sawmiller]

 

Nothing earth shattering but it has been a drizzly dreary few days around here and I decided to go catch a mess of bluegills to have with some catfish tomorrow. I used a couple of fiberglass crappie poles and home caught night crawlers. When I finished with that I pitched rubber legged ant on a fly rod and caught a couple more. I prefer surface bugs and this one was a slow sinker. 

[Ron Scott]

Nice catch!

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 

I got a leisurely start today to go catch a mess of bream. When I got to the lake I found we had a big mayfly (I think in Louisiana and such they call them willowflies) and the lake was so full of dead mayflies and shells you could hardly get a hook in the water. If you bumped any overhanging limb you'd get swarmed by them. Of course the fish were still popping the surface of the water eating them. I caught a few bluegills on my flyrod with a little rubber legged fuzzy ant. The problem was there were so many little ones it was hard to get an eating size fish. I got out my brim poles and used up the last 5-6 nightcrawlers I had left over. I caught one decent crappie on a piece of worm so I put a rubber minnow/grub on a pole and tried jigging it under low limbs and in brush piles hoping for more crappie. I did catch one nice bluegill doing that but no more crappies. I went up the river and tried another spot then my electric trolling motor died so I came home with these 10 which is plenty for lunch for the 2 of us. I guess about half of them had roe I saved.

 I saw one osprey in a tree and twice I saw what I am sure is the same adult bald eagle. The last time he flew off his perch carrying a fish. I saw several big blue herons, lots of geese, several anhingas, and one grumpy looking green heron on a log.

 It was windy at the landing and I was well pleased with the modifications to my side bunks on my trailer which forced the boat right into the center between the runners. That was time and material well spent.

 These guys above are in the skillet now so I better close.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Yuumm. We had fried fresh fish, tater tots, baked beans, cole slaw and nuked plantains. I think there are 3 pieces of fish left after we ate our fill so I had about the right amount.

   I took the trash with the old fish bones to the garbage then went to check on the trolling motor. I was afraid it was going to take major repairs or maybe a total replacement but once i turned the switch back to the On position it worked fine. I evidently bumped it while freeing my fuzzy ant fly from a piece of tie rope left on the boat and moved the switch to the off position. :

  I plugged my battery in to recharge and repaired a small landing net we use for crappie and such. I have a much bigger one for catfishing needs. Now I should be set for my next trip.

[firefighter ontheside]

Those were some nice gills.  We went out on the river a few days ago.  I caught a few small smallmouth and a bunch of small sunfish.

 

[K-Guy]

So far this year has been a real bummer for me. Most of the days I could go fishing, it was raining. When I do get out, the fishing is slow for everyone at the lake I chose. Then last week, I had a rock takeout a taillight,  a U-bolt holding one end a bunk broke coming back and I had to leave the boat a friend of the wife till I can get it fixed. The tail end of the boat is sitting on a trailer rail, so going further was out of the question. Not an expensive fix but due to it being 1 1/2 hours from my place, a pain in the butt.

The good part of this is that I have been able to get out on the water some and my worst day of fishing is still better than my best day at work.  ;D

[firefighter ontheside]

I'm going to go to Michigan next week to get a new to me canoe.  The White River is there and I'm going to stay a day and see if we can catch any brook trout.  My two boys and one of their friends are going with me.

[KEC]

Enjoy that time with the boys before you are reminded of the song "Cats in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin.

[beenthere]

Yes, a good song. Tough one to listen to in some ways, thinking back all that has happened since the first born was 1961. So many good times, yet so many missed opportunities.. too busy. 

Harry Chapin - Cat's In The Cradle with lyrics - Music & Lyrics - YouTube

[SawyerTed]

The Doc caught this speckled sea trout this afternoon.  She says she caught it but let me hold it, clean it and cook it.   :D

The fishing is beginning to pick up a bit. 



 

[firefighter ontheside]

Yeah, my oldest is 16, but can't borrow the car keys yet, because he hasn't taken his driving test yet.  Maybe i'm preventing him from doing that to delay his growing up.  No, not really.

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 


EDIT/ADDITION: You can just barely see the top of Abbie's head in this pix to help see how close we were to the young eagle.

Our #2 GD (15 Y/O) is spending a couple nights with us so I took her to the local lake this afternoon to try to teach her how to fly fish. I had her set up with a rubber legged cork bug with about a #12 hook. I showed her how to make a back cast and keep the line in the air and how to place the bug so it landed last. She made a few casts and was still a long way from the bank but with the recent mayfly hatch the fish are feeding further out under the trees hanging over the lake. Suddenly she looked up and said "There's a bird" and I saw a big swirl where her bug had been floating so I yelled at her she had a fish on. She did everything she could to lose him but it would have taken a proctologist to get the bug out of the bluegill so he wasn't going anywhere. I got him off and in the live well and got her line back out then looked up and she said "Look at the bird", I looked up and this young bald eagle was sitting on the dead tree just above the water level watching us and about 10-15 yards away. I snapped a couple of quick pictures and we eased away using the electric trolling motor. The eagle never moved. I don't know if it hatched in February or February of last year. I almost think last year because the feet are yellow and I think newly hatched eagles have black feet and beaks. It will be a couple more years before this guy starts to get a white head and tail and is the reason so many people around here do not recognize them as eagles and think they are a big hawk, a buzzard or sometimes they think they are golden eagles.

It was pretty windy and we had lots of boat traffic and Abbie was not enjoying the flyrod too much so I decided to move up the lake to a more secluded spot and fish with worms. I'd left home without my night crawlers so I stopped at a local bait shop and Greg saw me and immediately said "I owe you some money.' That is always good to hear. He sells plants and such and I'd left him a couple of raised bed planters and he sold them yesterday. He paid me and I bought a dozen night crawlers.

 We motored up the lake to a cut-off from the main river and fished a few hours. Most were too small to keep but we did catch and keep the 19 below which included one little catfish Abbie caught and even one small bass I kept. This will make 2-3 good feeds for us and I had a great time on the lake with my granddaughter. She caught most of these. We found one good spot by a fallen tree. I'd position the boat, she'd land a decent bluegill and we'd drift away while I removed it then I'd reposition us and she catch another and we'd repeat. I guess she caught 6-8 nice bluegills in that one spot. She was using a 10' fiberglass pole so even a hand sized bluegill felt like a monster.

[SawyerTed]

Caught 8 or 10 smaller gray trout aka weakfish this afternoon.  The limit is one 14" or longer.   This one counts!



 

[firefighter ontheside]

It was 100 deg today, but we went out on Lake Taneycomo today with my dad.  With the water temp being about 50deg it didn't feel like 100.  It still felt hot.  We caught a few, but not a lot.  Sean caught a big one on his second cast and then nothing else.  I caught this one and another not as big.  Dad had a really nice one on, but it went on a drag pulling run, jumped and threw the lure.  He caught a couple smaller ones.  


 

 

[YellowHammer]

 

>
Got this one today.  52 inches long, somewhere between 50lbs and 60 lbs.  Late August fishing starts to see schooling and heavily feeding fish, and today was a good day.  A bunch of topwater bass, a few deeper, and this beastie.  All were released to have as good a day as I had.

Here's a short 60 second video of me catching it, I filmed it with my iPhone in one hand while fighting the fish with the other.  So it's kind or jumpy.

Epic Catfish on Secret Bait at Guntersville Lake - YouTube

[Walnut Beast]

Wow! That looked fun!!!

[SawyerTed]

That's a line stretcher!  Nice catch!