Category: freshwater fishing

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The Secret Improves Freshwater Fishing Results

Your Attitude Can Affect Your Fishing results!

With all this talk about “The Secret” and calling positive energy into your life, it reminded me of an article I read years ago on how to improve your catch while fishing. I believe it was an article in “Field and Stream” but I’m not 100 percent certain of that.

Anyway, what I remember from the article was that the writer was talking about his friend and how he approached fishing. His friend didn’t really act like he was going to catch anything when they went fishing together and most often, he wouldn’t. He didn’t expect to catch anything, though he had high hopes of doing so.

The author went on to explain that since his friend didn’t expect to catch anything, each time he would get a strike, he would miss setting the hook and would ultimately miss catching the fish. The author then extolled the virtues of expecting to catch a fish – how you would cast a certain way and how when you got a strike, you’d be ready to set the hook and this would improve your chances of catching a fish. He also said to envision that a fish was following your lure and was about to strike at any moment.

I was young at the time I read it but I thought about it and put that piece of advice into practice. It has proven itself time and time again! I would almost always out-fish anyone I happened to be with and usually caught the biggest fish when a group of us would go fishing! Was it this “secret’ that caused me to be more successful? I can’t say for sure, but I can certainly tell you that it didn’t hurt!

Think about it – seriously – and it should make sense to you. If you’re ready to catch a fish, you’re more likely to do just that!

I had occasion to share this article’s idea with my sons when we went fishing over this summer. It was a hot sunny day and my older son was saying “there’s no fish here – we won’t catch anything!” I explained to the two of them how your attitude can affect many things in your life … including fishing! I then told them about the article and it helped my older son turn around his thinking.

Did we catch any fish that day? Sure we did! And I’ll bet that our attitudes had something to do with that!

Here’s hoping your attitude helps you catch more fish as well!

Catch you later.

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Connecticut Has A Bad Case Of Crabs!

Connecticut Has A Bad Case Of Crabs!

It’s true! I was reading a story about these new intrusive freshwater crabs that are showing up in Connecticut – the Chinese Mitten Crabs. Seems we’ve gotten another import that is ruining our natural resources – AGAIN!

In all fairness though it’s not just Connecticut that has these crabs. They’ve been showing up in the Hudson Bay area, The Delaware Bay area and the Chesapeake Bay area as well. The first sighting of one of these crabs in the Eastern US was approximately 2005.

You can read more about these little invaders at: The Advocate

A quick synopsis: Chinese mitten crabs may be found in both freshwater and salt water. They are walking crabs that can emerge from the water to move upstream of barriers and are capable of moving several hundred miles upstream from saltwater. They spend most of their lives in freshwater rivers, migrating to brackish or salt water to reproduce. The young move upstream, sometimes spending 2 to 5 years in freshwater.

These crabs are very aggressive and may compete with our popular native blue crab in the Sound. Their burrowing habits may also threaten stream banks and earthen dam stability. These losses will promote erosion and habitat loss.

Here’s a picture of the crab and how to identify it: Picture of the Chinese Mitten Crab **Credit goes to the Oregon Dept of Fish And Wildlife for the photo.**

So if you happen to see any of these little buggers while your out and about freshwater fishing, be sure to get rid of it. You also might want to let your local fish and game official know where you found it as well.

Preserve our natural resources!

Catch you later.

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What To Wear When Freshwater Fishing?

Have you given much thought as to what you should wear when you go freshwater fishing?

OK – so I got an e-mail from Joseph at Ap3xpr3dator.com asking me to review his line of products for him. Joseph seems like a nice guy and has made a few comments at the blog so I agree to a review (plus I get to keep the “product” – good deal, huh?)

So what does Ap3xPr3dator have to offer – why fishing shirts and other fishing related clothing of course. Hence the topic for this post.

I don’t know about you, but when I go freshwater fishing I like to wear darker colored clothing so that when fishing from the shoreline, my clothing won’t scare any potential catches from taking my offering. Of course if you’re fishing in a very deep lake, the color won’t matter much, but instead you’ll want something to protect you from the sun.

I told Joseph that I preferred darker colors when fishing and he sent me 2 very nice shirts to try out. My favorite and my wife’s favorite also, was a black short sleeved shirt with a cool big mouth bass on the back. You can see the design here: Cool Bass Design

I also received a dark maroon shirt with a trout slayer design on the back – very unique! And since I like wearing shirts with unique designs, I even wore it to a band practice that night! Lots of nice comments on the shirt from the guys!

I waited until I washed the shirts before doing a review, because so many shirt’s designs crack and peel after going through the washer and dryer, but not these. These are nice high quality shirts – no problems with cracking, fading or peeling.

So I’m very impressed with the overall quality and wearability of the Ap3xPr3dator line of shirts. I also noticed as I browsing Joseph’s site that he has lighter weight long sleeve shirts available to help give maximum uv protection while we’re out having fun catching fish.

So if you’re looking for some nice quality shirts for fishing, go check out the shirts at Ap3xPr3dator.com – I’m sure you’ll find something that you’ll like as well.

PS – the prices are good too! $12 – $19 with free shipping if you buy 2 or more!

Catch you later!

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Can Texas Produce A New World Record Largemouth Bass?

With the recent entry of a possible tie for the world record largemouth bass from Japan, there has been specualtion form many fishermen that the new world record largemouth bass will probably come from Japan or California.

Lots of opinions have been put forth, but still the old record holds!

With that in mind, I read with interest something that the Texans have been doing the past 23 years. They have a “ShareLunker” program where largemouth bass that are caught weighing 13 pounds or more are kept alive and given to the state for breeding purposes. Very nice idea!

Toyota is the main sponsor of the program this year and the revenue the program generates from advertising helps to ofset the operating costs.

With all those big fish being kept for breeding, Texas will surely have close to a world record sometime in the future – don’t you think so?

I found this article in the “Tyler Paper”. If you’d like to read more about this whole program, just go to:

Texas Sharelunker Program

There’s even a contest for catcing the largest fish where the winners can get some special clothing and the grand prize is a lifetime fishing license.

Wouldn’t it be nice if all the states had something like this?

Until next time … I’ll catch you later.

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Freshwater Fishing and Conservation

If you’ve read some of my posts here, you’ll know that I am a conservationist at heart! I love the outdoors and try to help keep it preserved whenever I can. So as I was reading through some online news headlines, one caught my eye that warranted further attention:

“Fishing line recyclers located in Marshall”

So I decided to click and read what this was all about. It seems that down in Alabama, the group PALS (People Against a Littered State) has placed recycling containers in appropriate places so that fishermen can deposit their “bird’s nests” and other un-usable monofilament line. Very cool idea! Especially when you consider the fact that the monofilament line can last for hundreds of years and isn’t biodegradable.

Check out the article here:

Monofilament Recycling

Have a great day and I’ll catch you later!

-Mark

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Cry-Babies and the “Me Generation” Or Freshwater Conservation Today

I was reading an article and the associated comments on that article about the zebra mussel infestation and how they’re dealing with it in Massachusetts.

Seems they’re requiring boaters to power wash their boats before being allowed to launch them into a large reservoir in order to help prevent the spread of the zebra mussels.

You can read the article here:
Rules on zebra mussel defenses protested

Having watched the devastation that we have brought to our native environment, I can hardly believe that fellow fishermen are crying like babies about having to take some precautions! As fishermen, we should be the first to take a pro-active stance when it comes to safe-guarding our natural resources.

Yes, there have been some acts of stupidity like the killer bees being brought over to South America and then letting them escape into the wild; the introduction of the snakehead fish into the Potomac river; or the many other foreign species now here and listed at InvasiveSpeciesInfo.gov but as a fisherman, I take pride in the natural resources available to me here in this great country of ours. Any opportunity to help make things better I’ll be happy to take. So my answer to those of you who are too lazy to do your part to keep our resources natural and native – go saltwater fishing instead! 😉

You won’t have to worry about spraying down your boat every time you want to launch it and you won’t have to worry too much about spreading invasive species. (Though if you read through the site I mentioned above, you’ll find that we’re even having problems with invasive species in our salt water resources now!)

So if you’re truly a freshwater fishing enthusiast, please take whatever action is necessary to help keep our natural resources as pristeen as possible – and please, whatever you do, don’t whine and complain about it!

Catch you later.

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New Fishing Hooks

All I can say is … Wow! I met Ron Baskett on Twitter and he told me he had some new hooks to try out.

So I gave him my e-mail and home address and Ron, being the generous guy he is, sent me some free hook samples as well as a free T-shirt and some free bait holder straps! What a nice guy! (Thank you Ron!)

What is so special about Ron’s new hook? Well it’s not really the hook so much as it’s how you “tie” your line to the hook. You actually don’t tie the hook onto your line – you kind of wrap the hook on. It’s fast and easy and the best part … you retain 98% of your line’s strength by “tying” it this way. Very nice!

The hooks are well made and have very sharp points, but the ease and simplicity of getting the hook on your line are almost unbelievable! He has a video on his site that shows you the hook and how easy it is to use. OK – So do yourself a favor and go check these out now!

http://www.outdoorspecialtyinnovations.com/index.php/hooks.html/

Tell him Mark at the FreshwaterFishingBlog.com sent you!

Catch you later!

-Mark

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Freshwater Fishing For Carp

Freshwater Fishing For Carp

I live close to the Mantua Creek in southern NJ and each year in early summer the carp would migrate up the creek from the Delaware river to spawn.

As a child and teenager, I lived right next to the creek. In fact, the creek ran through our property. I remember going out at night and hearing the carp splashing about having fun in their spawning rituals. This would last for a few weeks and then they’d go back down the creek and back to the river. A local reporter lived a few blocks away from us. His name was Ralph Knissel and he wrote a fishing column for the Gloucester County Times. Ralph had reported carp being caught a few hundred yards downstream from where we fished that went over thirty pounds!

We used to bottom fish as teenagers and would catch eels, catfish and occasionally a carp.

One particular instance stands out in my carp fishing times. We were using some homemade cornbread (and other sweet smelling additives) doughballs. I was using a medium action rod with 25 lb test on it. (I knew the carp were big!) As my friends and I were talking, my bait was taken and after waiting a few seconds, I set the hook.
The fish was big and my rod bent. After fighting to get him up to the surface and onto the creek bank, the fish broke my line and fell back into the creek. Talk about disappointed! We never saw the whole fish before the line broke, but boy was it large! Of course the stories and arguments began between the 4 of us fishing about just how large the fish was. Bottom line … the fish broke my 25 lb test line!

So why am I posting about large carp? Funny you should ask! 🙂 I was just reading an article from the UK about how they lost a local favorite carp. They even have names for their carp! You can check out the article here:

Benson the giant carp.

Hope you enjoy it!

I’ll catch you later.

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The Bass Krusher Rig

Watch This video to learn my secret rig for catching largemouth bass when I go freshwater fishing.

I previously posted about my favorite way to rig a rubber worm when I go bass fishing. You can read it here:

Bass Krusher Rig

The video below will show you exactly how I rig my worms!

Try rigging a few of your worms this way and just watch the bass come running!

Hope that helps you.

Catch you later.

-Mark

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So What’s The NJ Freshwater Fishing Record

So What’s The NJ Freshwater Fishing Record

I was reading through some fishing posts today and became curious as to what the state records were for freshwater fish in NJ. So I did some quick research and found a website which lists all of the NJ state records for fresh water fish.

Want to see it? Then go here:

http://www.funnj.com/water/ffish/frecord.htm

It’s interesting to see that the New Jersey largemouth bass state record is only 10lbs, 14 oz. That sounds breakable to me – how about you?

I enjoy fishing – it’s relaxing, fun, thrilling and exciting … all rolled into one!

What about you? What is it that makes you like fishing? Post some thoughts here for me?

‘Til next time – catch you later.