Erik's fishing rants

Did some more fishing today, ive been pretty much stuck in ultra light fishing land since thats all thats in the lake I take the kids to swim at. But I swapped out my normal snap bean micro crank bait for a under spin grub. Didnt get any bites on the under spin so I switched it out for a crickhopper. Holy hell that thing is a fish catching machine! Going to order a bunch more of them and the crawfish version too.

Something else, I have noticed that my ultra light gets line twist super bad, so I have put a swivel and clip on there that I will try to clear up the twist.

 

I took the boat out on the lake here yesterday afternoon for a couple hrs. Was too frigging hot to stay out for long. It was 100 degrees. Even the water temps were quite different from a week ago. Caught one 16'' brown, and a mess of rock bass. Had a school of small yellow perch chasing my crank baits. They'd just come up to it and nip it.
You want to see some action, get a rebel cricket and do some casting for blue gills. They can't resist hitting it. Last year i pulling up a blue gill on every cast.

 

The crickhopper is the one made by rebel. I have had it sitting in my box for awhile, but never used it till yesterday. That thing is crazy, I got a few pretty big green sunfish.

 

Just about all those rebel crank baits work well as long as you match the color the fish are use to feeding on. Got some of these yakami mag lips in the 2.0 and 2.5 sizes and various colors. Their the deadliest of all the crank baits i use.

 

Went and fished for about 3 hours today, I was so under prepared for what I was going into. I went to the river, I am setup for bass, trout and sunfish.... the river was full of child sized bowfin, carp and catfish.... I got several really really hard strikes, but no hook ups. Im thinking the strikes were bowfin as I have never felt hits like that before, they were just straight folding my medium rod and ripping out the drag that normally has no issue with decent sized bass.

Im going to go back in 2 weeks when I get back from vacation and bring my heavy rods and some bait designed to actually catch these monsters.

 

Just finished making some new rigs for the next time I hit the power plant cooling pond where all these monsters are at. Its a 3 way swivel, 30lb flouro to a big circle hook, then 6lb XT line to a small sinker. I made 2 of them and tied one onto my 7f heavy rod. Trying to decide if I should tie on the other one to my 7f baitcaster rod (medium) or if I should just bag it for if I need to replace the one I have tied on now at anytime. If the sinker gets stuck, the 6lb line will snap and I can get back most of the rig. If the hook gets stuck, none of its coming back.

 

I used the same rig fishing in 25-30' of water for walleye in quebec during the late summer months. Found jigging with sinking rapalas effective also.

 

Getting ready for my big fishing trip at the end of this week. I am flying into FL on friday for a 10 day fishing trip (and spend time with my family). My parents live on a island with a river on one side and the ocean on the other side, so I will be doing all sorts of fishing off their dock, then maybe some deep sea fishing on their boat.

Since I have no clue what to use as bait, Im going to see if the neighbor kid (he is like 10 years old, but spends every day on my parents dock fishing) wants to come with me to the tackle shop and pick out what will work best. My dad has a few new rods he got last year, but I'll probably want to go pick up some things like leaders, hooks, and swivels.

 

I visited friends years ago in tampa while attending some motocross races. We went fishing for pompano, and smoked them. They were delicious.

 

Spent a week in FL at my parents house, they live right off the Matanzas river in Saint Augustine. So we got to spend every night fishing. We mostly got Gafftopsail catfish, but we also caught a eel of some kind, this random other fish that we think was a trout or something, and then I got a sting ray too. My dads fishing gear was pretty limited, so we just used jig heads and some cut up squid for everything. Next year I will be ordering a few hundred bucks worth of nice ocean fishing gear and shipping it all down there.

 

The first pic looks nearly like a cod fish...last ones just a regular ray....caught zillions of them here in the long island sound. We use blood worms, clam strips, and squid to catch just about everything from cod to black fish. One thing about that type of ocean fishing near shore, you don't need to spend a zillion bucks to catch fish. It can get costly when you go further off shore for the big game fish. Was surprised you didn't catch any of the puffer fish. Seems everyone i know has caught one including me when i was fishing the gulf down there.

 

First one was a atlantic croaker. We didnt have much for tackle, so we caught what ever would bite. I dont think there were any puffers in the area, its the outlet of a river, so its brackish water.

 

Nice! Hoping to get some river fishing in in coming weeks. After this warm spell in PA catfish-Gar will be slamming.

 

Been wanting to go fishing, but its so friggin hot here the last few days....108 degrees on the thermometer by my dock yesterday, it hurts just to breathe. Looks like a good shot getting out there on friday.

 

Im going out friday evening too. Should only be around 80 degrees here. Got a half day on friday, so Im going to go buy some cut shad while my friend works, then go get some bowfin and catfish after dinner.

 

If the water is still high enough i can make to the other lake here. I know one single spot in the entire lake where there is a small hornpout population. They are better eating than the trout.

 

Just happened to stumble across this looks like a great time with the family for sure.

 

Got a couple toys this week. 2 for me and 1 for the wife. I got a pair of holsters that hold fishing rods, they are made by a gun holster company so they know how to make a holster. Then my wife got her very own fishing rod, she got a pflueger lady trion, its a 6.6 medium combo in powder blue. Going to get it all lined tonight with some 8lb line (if I have enough). Then I need to teach her how to cast.... she has been doing two hands, she would swing the rod and open the bail at the same time... Im not sure how she figured out how to cast like that, or how it even worked, but we need to fix that real quick.

https://pine9holsters.com/product/pine-9-fishing-rod-holster/

 

Count yourself a lucky guy having a wife that likes to fish. I can't even get friends of mine that have wives that fish to coax my wife into fishing. She thinks its disgusting catching fish on hooks....that i'm causing sever pain to them. Oh well, at least theres no complaint when i grill their fillets.

 

See my wife has issue with the hook hurting the fish, and when the fish flops out of my hands and hits the ground.... I usually just tell her to get over it, fish is fine.

If the fish is hooked badly (swallowed, or eye hooked) I dont show her and just toss it back into the water right away.