Tips for Cold Air Exposure for Anglers. And Fish!
Tips for Cold Air Exposure for Anglers. And Fish!
 |
Tips for Cold Air Exposure for Anglers. And Fish! |
For the Anglers
Start Warm. There is an old saying, “start warm, stay warm.” If you are already shivering in the truck, your patience will be lacking and so will the fun level.Layers. Dress in many layers. A couple pairs of wool socks, long-underwear, t-shirt, hooded sweat shirt, … that works. The air space between layers serves as more insulation and you can adjust your comfort level to prevent the hazard of sweating.
Shelter. On warm(ish) days, ice fishing can be accomplished exposed (accomplished or exposed?) to the elements. However, for serious cold and wind chill issues, a shanty or hut of some sort can make the ice fishing experience almost cozy. Almost.
Ashley Rae, year-round angler, writer, and TV host ice fishes in Canada in temperatures as cold as -20 degrees F. “When people say ice fishing is cold it's because they're not doing it right. Most of the time, I'm fishing in a portable shelter with a propane heater going. Jacket and gloves are off, I like to be comfortable!”
For the Fish
The colder it is, the faster you must work if releasing. Staying inside a heated shanty buys you a little more time. “On the very cold days,” Ashley shared, “I don't take fish outside of my shelter as not to risk freezing.”Have the right tools. Professional angler and muskie expert, Pete Maina, recommends having a pair of forceps, jaw spreaders, and standard long-nosed pliers handy if you are fishing a lake inhabited by toothy pike or muskellunge.
Keep the fish wet. A bit trickier when ice fishing, but neoprene gloves will help protect both you and the fish. Have a spare bucket or cooler of water ready to help get a safe photo of the two of you.
Freshwater Fishing: Fall Madness
Freshwater Fishing: Fall Madness
 |
Freshwater Fishing: Fall Madness |
I love freshwater fishing in the fall because in a lot of ways I am similar to the fish. I eat more in anticipation of the cold winter. Football was my #1 sport, and the cooler temperatures made me more aggressive. And there is a shot at catching a big fish, which resembles me after I pack on some extra pounds. Some fall fishing tips to catch more fish when the leaves start to change:
- Go big. Trout in rivers know they need extra calories, so they'll find them in high-fat bugs and in big mouthfuls. Hoppers along a field work well as do big streamers in a pool and big stoneflies around the rocks.
- Move around. Ponds and lakes are turning over so finding the right strata when fishing in the fall is critical to success. Probe the water column until you find their level. Knowing exactly where to fish in the fall takes practice so...start practicing.
- Rig up. Fall fish hit hard, so the same small diameter monofilament that you used during clear, low-water levels in the summer won't work now. You'll pop fish off, so increase your leader's strength to put more fish in the net.
- Bouncing barometers. Winds shift back and forth from the South to the North, and they can gust pretty good. When fishing in fall, match the wind and current directions to find the edges where the fish will hold.
- Noreasters bring rain, and they fill up the rivers that feed into ponds and lakes. After a good, soaking rain, head to the inflows and outflows to find concentrations of fish.
- Bring a camera. Fall fish change colors and they'll be among the prettiest of the year. A few pictures taken while fishing in the fall will carry you through the winter, and you can stare at them when you're in a shanty on the ice.
If you've had a tough time catching 'em this summer then get after it by fishing in fall. The fish will be less spooky and easier to catch, and you'll end your freshwater fall fishing season on a high note
5 Guidelines for Good Fly Fishing Etiquette
5 Guidelines for Good Fly Fishing Etiquette
 |
| 5 Guidelines for Good Fly Fishing Etiquette |
Are you wondering what it means to have good fly fishing etiquette? Fishing aside, your parents probably corrected your dining etiquette dozens of times when you were growing up. You know not to put your elbows on the dinner table or talk with your mouth full to this day, but if you're not sure what constitutes good fly fishing etiquette, keep reading.
While I'm no expert on this topic, I do have a few suggestions on how to practice good fly fishing etiquette based on my recent fly fishing adventures.
While I'm no expert on this topic, I do have a few suggestions on how to practice good fly fishing etiquette based on my recent fly fishing adventures.
- Keep the noise level down. Whether you are fishing alone or with a group, remember to keep the noise level down. Many fish species that are targeted on fly, such as a brown trout in a freshwater stream or bonefish on a saltwater flat, have a tendency to be particularly skittish. By staying quiet, you are being respectful of other anglers in the area, and you can avoid scaring off a potential catch. Besides, most anglers go fishing not only to experience the joy of catching, but also for the solitude and relaxation in between bites.
- Know the fishing regulations and follow them. This guideline goes for any type of fishing. It's easy to find the fishing regulations for your state. Read the regulations and practice proper catch and release on any species that are not within the current regulations.
- When fly fishing on a stream or small river, work upstream while leaving plenty of water space between you and any other anglers. If you see another angler casting in a spot that you were hoping to fish, find another section of the waterway and start there. Before you make your first cast, make sure there is plenty of open space.
- Be conscious of splashing and shadows if you are wading. Splashing can make it much more difficult to sight-cast to feeding fish, and shadows can spook any fish in the area.
- Leave no litter behind. This is another etiquette guideline that applies to any type of fishing. Better yet, if you do see litter, pick it up and leave the waterway a little better than it was when you found it.
Mexico Bass Fishing Trip Planning Q & A with MLF Commissioner Don Rucks
Mexico Bass Fishing Trip Planning Q & A with MLF Commissioner Don Rucks
The U.S. is dotted with epic bass fishing destinations, but sometimes the grass is greener across the border; if bass fishing Mexico is on your bucket list, heed the advice from a man who has been there,
done that, and continues to go back
 |
| Mexico Bass Fishing Trip Planning Q & A with MLF Commissioner Don Rucks |
Starting many years ago with the fish-every-cast action found on storied Lake Guerrero, bass catching opportunities in Mexico have steadily expanded to include a number of fabled lakes offering mind-boggling numbers, double-digit weights, stunningly gorgeous waters, and the warm, delicious food and hospitality found south of the border.
Long a fan of the tremendous bass-catching action found in Mexico, Major League Fishing commissioner Don Rucks recently toured the region again and found the fishing to be as spectacular as ever.
MajorLeagueFishing.com: How many Mexico bass fishing trips have you been on over the years?
Commissioner Rucks: I’ve been really fortunate to have experienced the excellent bass fishing Mexico offers on at least a dozen different week-long trips over the last 20 years. My most recent trip took place in January 2016.
MajorLeagueFishing.com: With a number of good U.S. fisheries, why travel all the way to Mexico to go bass fishing?
Commissioner Rucks: Bass fishing just doesn’t get any better in the world than it is in Mexico. Period.
MajorLeagueFishing.com: What is the largest bass you have ever caught in Mexico?
Read the rest of the Q & A at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Texas Kicks off ShareLunker Season with 13.2-pound Largemouth
Lufkin angler catches ShareLunker 564 - thanks to a crappie - from Sam Rayburn Reservoir
 |
| Texas Kicks off ShareLunker Season with 13.2-pound Largemouth |
ATHENS, Texas — Roy Euper of Lufkin caught the first Toyota ShareLunker of the season from Sam Rayburn Reservoir Monday afternoon. The fish weighed 13.2 pounds, qualifying it to become ShareLunker 564.
Any angler who catches a 13-pound largemouth bass can be considered lucky, but Euper may be the luckiest of all. The official weight for the fish was taken at Jackson Hill Park Marina, an official Toyota ShareLunker weigh and holding station. After the fish arrived at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, it regurgitated a crappie that weighed 0.3 pounds.
Had the fish not eaten that crappie, or if it had spit it up before being weighed, it would not have weighed the 13 pounds necessary to qualify as a ShareLunker.
Euper was fishing in 30 feet of water with a crankbait when the fish bit about 3 p.m. The fish was 25.5 inches long and 22 inches in girth.
The catch moved Sam Rayburn into sole possession of second place among Texas lakes for number of ShareLunkers caught. Anglers have caught 26 largemouth bass weighing 13 pounds or more from the lake. Only Lake Fork, with 257 entries, has produced more. Lakes O.H. Ivie and Alan Henry have each produced 25.
Last season Sam Rayburn sent two ShareLunkers to Athens. Both were caught on the same day, March 7. More ShareLunkers are caught in March than in any other month. Euper’s fish is only the twelfth in the 30-year history of the ShareLunker program to be caught in November.
Anyone legally catching a 13-pound or bigger largemouth bass from Texas waters, public or private, between October 1 and April 30 may submit the fish to the Toyota ShareLunker program. Fish will be picked up by TPWD personnel within 12 hours.
Anglers entering fish into the Toyota ShareLunker program receive a free replica of their fish, a certificate and ShareLunker clothing and are recognized at a banquet at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens. The person who catches the season’s largest entry will be named Angler of the Year and will receive a prize package from G. Loomis of a top-of-the-line rod, Shimano reel, PowerPro line and G. Loomis hat. If the Angler of the Year is a Texas resident, that person will also receive a lifetime Texas fishing license.
ShareLunker catches can be reported 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the season, by calling (903) 681-0550. If poor cellphone service prevents use of the voice number, anglers can leave a phone number (including area code) at (888) 784-0600. That number is also monitored 24/7 during the season
Oklahoma Alligator Gar Record - Crushed!
Oklahoma Alligator Gar Record - Crushed!
 |
Oklahoma Alligator Gar Record - Crushed! |
Easley was using a Quantum reel on an Eagle Claw rod with 150-pound braided line.
The gar was weighed on certified scales at the Wildlife Department's South Central Region fisheries office near Durant, and then released alive.
The previous state-record alligator gar weighed 192 pounds 1 ounce, caught in January 2011 in the Red River.
10 Interesting Fishing Facts Sure to Astound You
 |
| 10 Interesting Fishing Facts Sure to Astound You |
Wherever anglers gather, there is likely to be talk about the extreme aspects of fishing. Someone will mention the biggest this or most expensive that, and suddenly the place is abuzz with discussion. Those with conflicting opinions may engage in light-hearted arguments, bets will probably be made, and, sooner or later, someone will access the Internet from their smartphone to settle the dispute.
To motivate such lively discourses, I present the following tidbits about fish and fishing that are sure to nurture your knowledge of our favorite sport and allow you to amaze your fishing friends with the amount of trivia that clogs your brain. These fascinating facts may also provide some new benchmarks the hardier among you can try to achieve.
Biggest Record Fish
So you think that marlin you had mounted for the wall was big, huh? Well, it probably was for its species, but chances are good it wasn’t a third the size of the heaviest fish in the record books.
On April 21, 1959, Alfred Dean of Irymple, Victoria caught a 2,664-pound great white shark off the coast of his native Australia. Amazingly, he subdued this monster—the heaviest record fish ever listed by the International Game Fish Association—in only 50 minutes on 130-pound line. Dean also caught great whites weighing 2,333 and 2,536 pounds.
A replica of Dean’s biggest catch can be seen at Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Grapevine, Texas.
Biggest Fish Ever Hooked and Landed
Another giant catch was described in Fishes and Fishing in Louisiana by James Gowanloch. In 1933, Captain Jay Gould of Hollywood, Florida captured a manta ray that measured 19 feet, 9 inches from wing-tip to wing-tip. The ray was hooked on a large shark hook on 1,200 feet of 1/2-inch rope, and when it had been subdued and towed back to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, the city’s 20-ton crane had to be used to lift the fish from the water, after the chain hoists on three smaller cranes were stripped while trying to bring it up. The manta ray’s weight was estimated at 5,500 pounds.
Oldest Fishing Record
The 22-pound, 4-ounce world-record largemouth bass caught by George Perry in Georgia’s Montgomery Lake was unmatched from June 2, 1932 until Manabu Kurita caught an equally big largemouth on July 2, 2009 in Japan’s Lake Biwa. That’s a long-standing record by anyone’s measure. But one fish record has stood almost twice as long and remains unbroken—a 4-pound, 3-ounce IGFA all-tackle record yellow perch caught in New Jersey by Dr. C.C. Abbot in May 1865, 150 years ago!
Biggest Bass Ever Caught and Released Twice
A largemouth bass nicknamed Dottie, perhaps the largest ever recorded, was caught at least twice by anglers fishing 72-acre Dixon Lake near Escondido, California. (The fish was recognizable because of a unique black mark on the underside of the right gill plate.) When Jed Dickerson caught it in 2003, it weighed an astounding 21 pounds. He released the fish healthy and alive. When Dickerson’s friend Mac Weakley caught it again in 2006, it weighed 25 pounds, 1 ounce on a hand-held digital scale, making it a potential new world record. Weakley decided to release the bass, however, because he had unintentionally foul-hooked it. The bucketmouth turned up dead in the lake two years later, never having been caught again.
Fastest Fish
It’s difficult to determine how fast some fish can swim, but some anglers at Florida’s Long Key Fishing Camp came up with a simple method for accurately measuring a fish’s swimming speed. A fish is hooked. It makes a run. You measure how much line the fish took off the spool in a certain number of seconds, and you can calculate the fish’s speed. The fastest fish in these speed trials, perhaps the fastest fish in the world, was a sailfish that took out 300 feet of line in three seconds, a velocity of 68 mph. That’s zero to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds!
Fastest-traveling Fish
A tagged great white shark became the quickest recorded oceanic traveler after it swam from South Africa to Australia and back in under a year. The female shark was tagged with a data transmitter off South Africa in November 2003. The unit detached automatically and was recovered off western Australia four months later, but that wasn’t the end of the story. In August 2004, five months after the transmitter bobbed to the surface, project research scientists spotted the shark—identifiable by a pattern of notches in its dorsal fin—back in its old haunt off South Africa. It had completed a round trip of some 12,500 miles in just nine months.
Biggest Fly Rod and Reel
On June 12, 1999, Tiney Mitchell of Port Isabel, Texas, finished constructing the world’s largest fly fishing rod and reel. The rod is a whopping 71 feet, 4.5 inches long. The reel measures 4 feet in diameter and 10 inches in width. You can see it at the end of Maxan Street in Port Isabel.
Oldest Fish
For many years, the oldest fish on record was female European eel named Putte. She was kept in an aquarium all her adult life, and when she died at Hälsingborg Museum, Sweden in 1948, that slimy ol’ gal was reported to be 88 years old.
That record is old news, though. A 32-inch-long rougheye rockfish caught in Alaska was determined by scientists to be an amazing 205 years old. Biologists used growth rings in the fish’s ear bone to estimate the age of the fish that started life 50 years before the Civil War! Researchers are studying the genetic code of rockfish, but it’s unclear for now why the rougheye, which matures and reproduces late in life, lives so long.
Priciest Lure Ever Made
If you’re like me, you find it pretty upsetting when you snag a $5 or $10 fishing lure and lose it. But a loss like that is nothing compared to the chance one would take fishing with the Million Dollar Lure from MacDaddy Fishing Lures. This 12-inch trolling lure, designed to catch marlin, was crafted with just over 3 pounds of glimmering gold and platinum, and encrusted with 100 carats of diamonds and rubies (4,753 stones to be exact). Cost? Just as the name says—a cool $1 million.
According to Sport Fishing magazine, the lure’s owner insured it through Lloyd’s of London and actually trolled it behind a boat inside the bay at Cabo San Lucas using 130-pound-test mono and a 500-pound steel leader. Fortunately for him, perhaps, the sparkly bait didn’t draw any strikes.
Most Consecutive Casts
So you thought you made a lot of casts during the last tournament you fished, huh? Check this out. In July 1999, Brent Olgers of Macon, Georgia established a world record for the longest period of consecutive casting. Using a Zebco 33 Classic reel, Olgers cast 6,501 times in just over 24 hours, averaging 270 casts per hour. Each cast had to be at least 45 feet in length. Amazing!
Hitting Stripers with the Livetarget Yearling
Hitting Stripers with the Livetarget Yearling
 |
| Hitting Stripers with the Livetarget Yearling |
Pickups in Stickups and Other Ways to Score on Transition Bass
Pickups in Stickups and Other Ways to Score on Transition Bass
 |
| Pickups in Stickups and Other Ways to Score on Transition Bass |
In autumn, anglers have a chance to catch their biggest largemouth bass of the year, maybe a lifetime. Veteran bassers look forward to this season, but many weekend anglers dread it because they haven’t yet learned how to locate and catch bass that may be deep one day and shallow the next.
If you’re in this latter group, the following facts could help alleviate autumn anxiety.
Things to Try as Autumn Begins
Changing weather conditions as autumn begins trigger good fall fishing. You should especially watch for cold fronts that drive temperatures in the shallows back down into the 70s. This “shakes up” water conditions, and bass that refused to feed during the monotonously hot weather of late summer may take on a much more positive attitude to food and lures. Bass still stay close to deep summer haunts, but now, with much better water conditions, they’ll begin making forays to the shallows for at least a few hours each day.
Fish near dawn and dusk if you can, as action tends to be better then during the early part of the season. Remain flexible in your tactics. On a 100-acre lake, there could be 10 bass patterns going on at the same time; in a large reservoir, even more. Keep moving, casting and experimenting until you find at least one pattern that works for you.
One tactic that may help you pinpoint bass is fishing gradually sloping, stickup-covered flats in 10-20 feet of water near channel breaks. These areas provide largemouths the security of deep water nearby, and when the fish want to hang around in mid-depths, as they often do this time of year, they can still move vertically in the water column while relating to the woody cover. On some days, they’ll suspend; other times, they’ll be near the top of a stickup, or closer to its bottom. One day they’ll be closer to the channel break; the next might find them on the flat’s shallowest edge. Whatever the case, you’ve narrowed the scope of your search somewhat, and by working various portions of the flat using lures most suited to the depth you’re searching at a given moment, you should eventually get some “pickups in the stickups.”
Use sonar to pinpoint the outer channel first, then work stickups on the edge by casting jigs or vibrating crankbaits and working them at different depths with different retrieves. Next, move to mid-portions of the flat and work the water column top to bottom with shallow-diving, suspending and deep-diving crankbaits. Bass on the flat’s shallow side often hit plastic worms/lizards crawled across the bottom, or spinnerbaits allowed to “helicopter” down beside timber. Be patient, and work the flat methodically, and you’ll eventually get “pickups in the stickups” that make the effort worthwhile.
Tips for Turnover Time
Turnover time occurs in mid- to late fall, depending on the latitude, when previously stratified water “mixes” and the temperature evens out top to bottom. It’s caused in part by cooling winds that pound waves against shorelines and chill surface waters to make them heavier. (Water is heaviest at 39.2 degrees.) When surface waters heavy up, they sink beneath the warmer, lighter waters below, which rise to the surface and replace the entire upper realm. Thus the logical term “turnover.”
Big bass sense this oncoming annual period and instinctively respond. Seasoned lunkers sense that food soon will be scarce, so they eat and lay on extra fat to tide them over the period of lean rations ahead. They also must conserve energy, however, so exertions are held to a minimum.
Catching these bass requires the angler to develop two mind-sets. First, imagine cruising bass looking for a school of oversize minnows or shad. Then picture bass in seclusion after getting a belly full of prey.
For cruising bass, think deep. Look for dark drop-offs around old creek channels, bluffs, steep points, cliffs and bridge pilings. This calls for lures designed to work at deepest depths. Probe dark shores with deep-running crankbaits, covering a lot of territory to cross paths with feasting hawgs. That failing, try weighted sinking lures such as jigheads with various soft plastic or hair bodies. Walk them down steep shorelines, nudging bottom all the way to your boat. Also, bring them in at all levels to see if bass are hanging at certain depths for reasons known only to them.
Look for secluded bass in dense weeds, lily pads, brush or other heavy cover abutting dark water, and think “s-l-o-w.” This calls for lures with “do-nothing” appeal because a bass with its belly full won’t chase them. Try vertical jigging. Rig a soft-plastic crawfish body on a 1/2-ounce jighead. Move quietly along deep shoreline covers with a vertical line suspending the lure. Lift and lower it gently, s-l-o-w-l-y, temptingly, to trigger instinctive slurps from inactive lunkers. Keep your eyes on the line where it kisses the surface, and at the slightest change in tension, loose or taut, set the hook.
Late Fall
When water temperatures dip below 55 degrees, bass take to deep water. You’ll notice them moving farther from shore with each degree drop in water temperature. Fall’s frenzied feeding slows now, and the fish’s instinctually move to deeper haunts where they’ll settle in for the winter.
Your best bet now may be working the mid- to deep levels beside rocks bluffs and steep points toward the lake’s deeper end. The points, in particular, may offer one last chance to win the “lunker lottery.” Just about the time everybody thinks the fishing has gone to pot, a school of big bass often moves up for one more crack at food. Likely as not, they’ll come up on a steep point directly adjacent to some of the deepest water in the lake. They normally move up no deeper than the middle depths, and your lure—a long-billed crankbait bounced across the bottom, or perhaps a jig-and-pig or lipless vibrator like the Cordell Spot—must be worked painfully slow to entice them.
Cold weather is the norm when late fall arrives, and it may take the constitution of a polar bear to be out there when strikes are typically few and far between. This is probably your best chance, however, to hang a real trophy before next spring’s thaw
الاشتراك في:
التعليقات (Atom)