Everything Fresh Water Fishing
fishing for bass is tricky, they are sly and they jump and turn to get off your line. use a light line for example 6lb. test and keep your line tight. bass like cover and will be in weeds, around stumps, and around lillly pads to.
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I was reading an interesting article about quagga mussels and how they’re affecting the Great Lakes and their run-off rivers and creeks. It seems they’re also affecting many lakes in California too! Here’s the article I read:
http://www.record-bee.com/sports/ci_12456316
So I was curious and did a look-up of these quagga mussels on wikipedia:
Quagga Mussels on Wikipedia
There’s even a map on wikipedia to show you how bad the spread of the mussels has become throughout the US. Pennsylvania has 2 known locations; none in New Jersey or Maryland yet.
These mussels are VERY prolific and just one mussel can take over a whole lake within a short amount of time. Seems they clean the water by siphoning off the plankton, but this in turn takes away the food that young freshwater fish need. So the fish population is definitely affected by these non-native intruders.
There is one hope though, it seems that yellow perch have developed a liking to these things and may help in the effort in trying to get them under control.
This is just another example of how mankind’s carelessness can cause great devastation on our environment. Let’s all try to be more conscious of our actions and their effect on our environment – what do you say?
Hope you have a great week and I’ll catch you later.
Fishing Secret methods of Reading Water Techniques. This fishing video covers Riffles, Seams, Undercuts, Tail Outs, Slots, and Log Jams. These are the bodies of freshwater fishing to locate holding species of Salmon, Steelhead, Trout, and Bass.
Duration : 0:2:14
Continue reading “Fishing Secrets to Reading Water: Seams, Slots, Tailouts, Undercuts, and Logjams”
I could use some tips on bass fishing. Thanks = )
What size hook works the best?
What type of bait works best?
Best place to fish in a pound/lake
Bass are fun fish to catch – they fight well, but they aren't terribly smart compared to other sportfish. To catch a bass you need only to introduce an item to it that looks like it might possibly be a good meal, and not startle it in the process. Luckily for you, bass are voracious eaters, so a good meal is usually a smaller fish.
Bass congregate around underwater structure, and will seek out the best spots in their body of water for ambushing prey. This means that in a relatively small lake, the biggest pile of limbs on the bottom is usually where all of the good bass are. Larger lakes offer many different spots to look for bass, but they still prefer whatever structure they can find. Junked-out automobiles, or the remains of an old pier are excellent places to try. Finding some of these spots requires a fish-finder radar onboard your boat, but a well-trained eye and attention to detail – as well as experience on the lake – will help those of us who can't afford or prefer not to use a fish-finder catch fish too.
As for the weather, slightly warm is usually best. If the water becomes too hot, there is not enough oxygen for the fish and they are sluggish. At the same time, colder waters decrease the metabolism of the fish and they are also sluggish. I most prefer to fish when it is between 70 and 80 degrees outside, with a minimum of cloud cover and low wind. This makes for a pleasant day, and the water conditions are favorable for catching fish all afternoon.
Hook-size is based entirely on what size and sort of bass you are look for. Try to find out what species of bass you will encounter, and then determine the average size of this type of fish. Considering how big the mouth is, you can usually eyeball the size fairly well. There is not a hard standard for the sizing of hooks between manufacturer's, so you will need to think in a relative sense. As far as the type of hook, the factors to consider are 1.) what bait you will be using on the hook , and 2.) how big of a fighter your species of fish is. Bass have a lot of fight, so I usually opt for a deep bend and a large barb. Eagle Claw makes excellent hooks for bass, and you can get pre-rigged Eagle Claw leaders at Academy for pretty cheap.
The best thing that you can do for yourself is have a well-stocked tackle box. Depending on water conditions, you may need to use a drab color (clear water) or a bright color (muddy water) of any given lure in order to succeed. Be prepared to fish many different "tiers" of the water until you find the fish. Often, bass are most active during the cool of early morning, and move to deeper and deeper waters as the sun comes up and begins heating the lake. If you take along enough gear to pick from, chances are very good that you will have the correct lure on any given day.
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After working some OT yesterday, I came home to my younger son asking to go fishing! So of course I was only too happy to oblige!
I decided that we would go to our local lake and try fishing there for a change – rather than going to the creek which is right around the corner.
The usual access to the lake was blocked as the folks who own property adjacent to the lake were doing some construction, so we took the long way around and fished in the coves. My son was using worms for bait and he had his first success using the worms. He caught a nice pumpkin seed sunfish.
After a while, he tried a grub for bait. (We had dug up some worms before we left home and also found three grubs which we threw in for the heck of it.) It was like throwing steak into the middle of a hungry pack of wolves! The bait hardly hit the water before he hooked a nice Roach! (picture below) Another grub on the hook and bam – a nice sun fish. He had a bad cast over some bushes and lost his last grub, but my son’s really excited about using grubs for bait now. Here’s his Roach.
Being the curious 5 year old that he is, he asked me why the fish liked the grubs so much. I showed him how the grubs oozed some of their insides when they went on the hook and explained that the fish could smell that. I asked him if he liked the smell of a nice fresh grilled hamburger? He said “sure Dad”. And I explained that the grub’s oozings smelled like that to the fish! He seemed OK with that explanation and talked about getting more grubs for our next trip. 🙂
After a while, he got tired of fishing and decided he’d sit and watch Dad fish for a bit. So I tried on my old trusty rubber worm and caught a nice Calico Bass – or as southerners call them – a “Crappie”. Here’s a picture:
I tried another cove and had a couple of hits from a large pickerel, but was unsuccessful in setting the hook. (It can very very hard setting a hook with all those teeth in a pickerel!) It was dinner time by then and we headed back home after having a nice successful time freshwater fishing at the lake!
Hope your fishing trip was successful as well!
Catch you later.
I like to think that I’m environmentally concscious. But this report I just read is making me re-think my favorite lure!
You can read the reort here:
Study: Soft plastic lures harm trout, salmon
I ocassionally lose a rubber worm in the water, but I’ll try everything I can to get it back. (I hate to lose lures!) Still, there are times that I lose them. I’ve never given much thought to what happens with those lost lures, but this report has made me re-think how and whether I’ll continue to use them.
It certainly makes a stronger case for using natural bait as opposed to rubber/plastic lures!
My hope is that with today’s technology, the lure manufacturers can come up with a new improved rubber worm that will dissolve in the fish’s stomach after coming into contact with the fish’s stomach acid.
I know that may sound a little utopic in light of all the problems our world faces today, but hey … I’m an optomist at heart!
So what do you think about this latest revelation? Still think we should use rubber/plastic worms for fishing?
Catch you later.
I’ve seen this question being asked in some of the forums I’m in. So I was wondering what I would say is the best lure for springtime freshwater fishing?
If you’ve read some of my earlier posts, you know I like spinners for spring fishing. I also like floating minnow imitation lures like the ones that Rapala and Rebel make. And of course, being the rubber worm lover that I am, I’ll always try one no matter what the time of year. But overall, I think I get the most success and action with spinners in the spring.
In my previous post, I talked about a spinning lure that I use to catch catfish. And in the post before that, you can see part of the actual spinning lure I was using to catch that unknown fish! Both of those were the same lure. So what is this lure that I use? It’s an old Hildebrandt flicker spinner lure! Here’s a picture:
Sorry about the quality of the picture – it was taken with my cell phone! You probably can’t tell, but I have a number 1 and a number 2 weight lure that I use. They are very light, which goes along with my ultra-light spinning outfit. I use 4 lb test monofilament and I can cast these a good 50 – 70 feet. (You can always add a little split shot if you need a little more weight.)
So here’s a better “store” picture of the lure:
Are these good lures? Well remember, I bought mine back around 1970 and I’m still using it! And as you can see, the fish still love it!
So if I had to pick just one lure for freshwater fishing in the spring, it would have to be the Hildebrandt flicker spinner lure!
How about you? What’s you’re “best” lure for springtime freshwater fishing? Please post a comment and share with us?
Catch you later!
It seems that wherever fishermen are, there will always be a debate as to which is better for consistently catching fish – lures or bait.
My brother and I used to fish together very frequently when we were younger. He was a bait fisherman much more so than I. We found a great little freshwater fishing stream close to our house which was crammed full of catfish. We enjoyed fishing there and would even get up early on Sunday mornings, before Sunday School, and go fishing for an hour or more.
He would use a bobber and live worms and I would use my secret spinner (the one I used to catch that mysterious fish in my last post!) Being true Americans, we would always be competing to see who could catch the most fish! It was always very close. Some days he would win, other days I would. We would always catch more than 1 too – never kept them – strictly catch and release.
No one I talked to ever used a spinner to catch catfish and they all looked at me as if I was a little crazy for even thinking about it! 😉 In our area, catfish were considered bait only fish! But trust me, my spinner was deadly for catfishing! I would cast it out, let it sink to the bottom and then slowly reel it in, twitching it every once in a while. The catfish loved it!
So which was better? Our conclusion was that neither was better. It came down to a preference on the fisherman’s part. I still prefer lures over bait. But I’ll use bait when I don’t have what I consider to be an appropriate lure for the type of fish I’m after.
How about you? Which do you prefer, lure or bait? Leave a comment and let me know?
Catch you later!
With the weather warming up, I grabbed my sons and we did some freshwater fishing on Thursday afternoon. We only had about an hour so we ran down to our local creek. It was high tide, so I had high hopes for the afternoon.
After getting my younger son set-up with some worms, I started using a lure that is about 37 years old! It’s an old spinning lure with a single hook and some flopping silver pieces. I usually only use this for spring fishing and decided to give it a try. After my first few casts, I had a hit and eventually caught a fish. But it was one of those fish we’re just not 100% sure of what type it is!
Here’s a photo of it:
So if you think you know what it is, please post a comment here?!?
As it turned out, it was the only fish that we caught in the short amount of time we had. But we had fun and the boys are ready to go again – so maybe this weekend?
Have a great weekend and I’ll catch you later!
Taking a break from taxes, I thought I’d share some knowledge I learned last weekend. We went fishing (my sons and I) last weekend and I brought my reel out from the garage. It was hard to crank and I wondered what it was that was causing this. We were short on time so I went with the reel the way it was and had a nice few hours.
After coming home, I pulled the reel off of my rod and started to disassemble it. It was then that I remembered that the last time I had cleaned the reel, I ran out of my good ole Garcia-Mitchell grease that I’d had for years! Wanting to go fishing the next day, I used some lithium grease that I had out in the garage. BIG mistake! The grease had become very stiff and had turned some of the inner reel parts a greenish color – not what I wanted to see!
So I took the reel completely apart – including removing the ball bearings from the reel spindle shaft. Did you know that there are 17 ball bearings on each side of the shaft. (That makes 34 ball bearings total.) And these ball bearings are just a tad bit bigger than a pin head! Fortunately I had bought some Southbend reel grease over the winter and used that to clean and lubricate everything – and I mean everything! After putting it all back together, it works much more smoothly and fluently.
So take a lesson from me – always use quality reel grease when cleaning and lubricating your freshwater fishing reel!
Want to see the quality grease I used? Here it is:
Catch you later!