Category: freshwater fishing

Posted on

Fresh Water Fishing Spring Reel Cleaning

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!

Posted on

Freshwater Fishing and The Environment

The NSF (National Science Foundation) just released an article about how we freshwater fishermen are helping to spread viruses to amphibians! You can read it here:
Spring Fishing Season Arrives … And With It, Amphibian Diseases

I’m not sure about you, but I can safely say that I’m NOT helping to spread viruses to amphibians! I rarely use live bait when I fish, and I’ve never used a live or dead waterdog as bait. I prefer to use the plastic or rubber worm type lures whenever I fish. However, this article makes a good point that I was talking about with my sons as we came back from our first fishing excusion this past weekend.

We are responsible for our environment. As a boy scout, I was taught to leave a place just as clean or better than it was when I found it. I’ve tried to always accomplish this in my life and fishing is no exception. I hate seeing trash on the ground when I’m fishing. So I’ll usually pick it up and make certain that I don’t add more pollution to the environment, no matter what I’m doing.

Along that same point – we saw 2 young girls walking towards the creek with a catfish in a plastic bag. It looked like one from a “pet store” and I asked them if they had caught it. One girl replied “No – it’s my pet”. I could only guess why she was carrying it toward the creek! So I explained to my sons how important it was to NOT introduce fish into waters where they don’t belong. I used the snakehead fish as an example. I explained how it came from China and was introduced into the Potomac and is now killing off our native fish species – all because of some careless human beings.

Which brings me to another thing – when I was a child back in the late fifties and sixties, every morning I’d go outside and there would be dead toads in the street. Fresh road kill from the automobiles passing during the night. We used to catch toads and frogs all the time – every day! But now, I’m lucky if I see one toad the whole summer season. Scientists aren’t sure why the frog and toad populations are dying off, but their numbers are declining and here’s one possible explanation:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96282292
So for the sake of having a few less weeds on our properties, we’re causing the extinction of frogs and toads?!? If you’d like more info on frogs in general, here’s a great resource site I found: http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/resources/leaping/science.html

OK – this post is getting too long, but as freshwater fishermen, let’s be more conscious of our actions and the effect they will have on nature and the environment. And for goodness sake, stop using virus infected waterdogs!

Catch you later.

Posted on

Does anyone want to share their favorite spring bass fishing techniques and tips?

I am a fan of soft plastic tubes and worms. Can you give me some of your favorite techniques?

North shore of the lakes will warm up faster due to getting more sun shine and the prevailing southerly winds. Fish those banks, outside bends in the channel, drop offs near there, with craw fish imitators….either crank baits or jig w/ trailer.
Start when the water reaches 50 deg. Big females spawn first.
If you lake has a shore with black shale or black clay fish them hard….especially if there is a drop off of more than 5 ft. like from 15 to 20 or more. This has worked for me for a long time now.
Tubes will work under the same conditions sense they imitate a craw. Tube colors I like are Road Kill / Chartreuse tips, Brown cold, green flake / orange tips, of course Black blue tips as well. I do not use worms until the water gets in the upper 50's or after spawn.
Spinner Baits also work well this time of year as do crank baits worked slow….remember I am talking "early spring" pre-spawn, when the bass are starting to stage off their spawning grounds.

** Added ** Float N Fly is a real good technique when the water is below 50 degrees. Works great from around Dec. – late Feb, early March. I use it during this time for Small Mouth Bass in S. Central Ky, and Tn.

powered by Yahoo Answers

Posted on

My Son’s New Freshwater Fishing Rig

We went to the store a few weeks ago to get some new cleats for my son so he could play soccer. While there, I happened to notice the fishing section of the store and decided to go check it out. Of course my young son wanted to come along with me!

They were running a pre-season sale on most of the fishing gear and I noticed a nice Zebco 11 freshwater fishing rod and reel. It was an ultralight combo (spin casting) and the reel had a trigger that you use to hold the line until you’re ready to let it go when casting. It looked perfect for my 5 year old. Here’s a picture of the reel:

The rod it was attached to was a six footer and would nicely replace the “spiderman” rod/reel combo he used last year! 🙂 (The “spiderman” rod was about 3 feet long and we had problems when fishing the local creek last year because his rod wouldn’t reach out over the weeds and shrubs on the bank of the creek.) So I showed it to him and asked if he wanted it – his response was a shriek of delight and then “oh yeah Dad”!

We bought the “Zebco 11” combo and hopefully we’ll get to try it this or next weekend! I’ll let you know if we were successful.

Catch you later.

Posted on

Freshwater Fishing Contest In New Jersey

Hey – I was reading through the news from the Press of Atlantic City.com and found out about a fishing contest for salt as well as fresh water fishing! Here’s a quote from their article:

Bent Rods Contest

The Press Bent Rods Fishing Contest opens Wednesday with cash prizes of $50 and a trophy for the winners in Freshwater, Other Than Boat (surf, pier, jetty, banks), Boat Bay/Inshore (inside three miles), Offshore (outside three miles), Youth Saltwater (under 15), Youth Freshwater (under 15), Women, Senior (65 and older), Most Unusual Catch, Flounder, Striped Bass, Bluefish, Weakfish, Kingfish.

The season-long contest runs to Nov. 30, and within that, seasonal segments offer three prizes each. They are April 5-June 21 for Freshwater, Youth, Striped Bass; June 22-Sept. 20 for Flounder, Offshore, Inshore; Sept. 21-Nov. 29 for Striped Bass, Bluefish, Weakfish. The winners of those each get $150 gift certificates at participating bait and tackle shops or marinas.

Anglers can enter and submit photos and details of their catch online at www.pressofatlanticcity.com/bentrods or by mail. There is no cost or pre-registration, but the fish must be entered at a certified weigh station. Entry forms are available at most area bait and tackle shops or marinas.

The entry list will be updated online all season long with every catch submitted, and it can be seen - along with Press Fishing Contest records, a list of weigh stations and Shep on Fishing columns - on the Web site. The Press Fishing Contest Leaderboard will appear in the Sports section every couple of weeks during the season.

I’m not a big contest fisherman – I do it because I like it and it’s fun! But if it gets more people involved, then I’m all for it. So go check out the contest and I wish you luck!

Catch you later!

Posted on

A Freshwater Fishing Weekend Bonus!

I went to Somerset, NJ this past weekend with my wife for the FLENJ conference. That’s the Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey – for those not in the know! 😉 I was looking forward to a nice relaxing time – spending quality time with my 5 year old son at the pool and jacuzzi!

I was surprised to see that the building next to where we were staying – the Garden State Exhibit Center was having a Saltwater Fishing Expo. Now, I’m not a big saltwater fishing fan, as you may have guessed by now, but I do like to go saltwater fishing ocassionally. So I looked up the event on the Internet and found that they were giving the kids a free Plano tackle box for the first 100 that showed up on Saturday. I asked my son if he wanted a new tackle box and sure enough he said yes!

So we went to the Expo and he got a new tacklebox. And even though it was a saltwater fishing expo, we were able to find some fresh water fishing lures and bobbers. The Nikon exhibitors even gave my son a new Nikon Frisbee!

In addition to all the exhibitors with rods, reels, lures and the other paraphenalia – there were large fishing power boats to be looked at and even kayaks for those with less offshore endeavors in mind! They also had casting contests for the kids and fish cooking sessions with other numerous instructional workshops. My son was getting tired after a while and we headed back to our hotel for some more swimming, but we had a very enjoyable time at the Expo.

We opened all the lures and put them in their “correct” spots (the way my son wanted them!) once we returned home and now he can hardly wait to go try them out! I’ll get my fishing license this week and hopefully we can start the new year off with a successful freshwater fishing trip next weekend.

Catch you later.

Posted on

What Are They Doing With All Those Fish?

I was reading through some articles today on freshwater fishing and found this one:

FOUR SOUTH CAROLINA ANGLERS ON HOOK, 1,268 FISH SEIZED

So what were 4 people going to do with 1268 freshwater fish? Maybe since these are hard economic times, they were going to clean them and save them in their freezer? Or maybe they were going to sell them to their friends and neighbors? They certainly couldn’t eat all of them at once!

Regardless, I had always wondered if the local game wardens ever did their job and cited folks for game law violations. Looks like the Florida wardens are doing their jobs! 🙂 The article mentions that Florida has an anonymous tip line that people can use to report violators – and that’s what led to these folks getting caught!

Does your state have an anonymous tip line? Have any of you ever seen your local game warden or know of anyone having a run-in with him/her? Just curious – personally, I’ve never seen our local game warden – ever! Some of my friends have – when he came to check their fishing licenses, but I’ve never been that lucky!

Have a good day and I’ll catch you later.

Posted on

Largest Fresh Water Fish Ever Caught

Reading through the news today I saw this article about the largest fresh water fish ever caught with a rod and reel. Actually I wouldn’t call it a fish, but that’s just a technicality I suppose!

It was a stingray! You know the kind that caused the “croc hunter” Steve Irwin’s death. This one was caught in Thailand. It weighed 55 stones, which converts to 770 pounds! Check out the article below:

World Record Fresh Water Fish

Maybe some day you or I will get that lucky!

Here’s to our success!

Catch you later.

PS – Markel Boat Insurance has sponsored this post!

Posted on

Freshwater Fishing Report for Maryland

I was reading through some reports on last year’s fishing and found a great summary for the state of Maryland.

Did you know that Maryland has muskies in it? I didn’t! I’ve always thought of maryland as a warmer southern state, but this report has shown me otherwise.

There are also some excellent pictures of anglers with their catches on the site. If you have a few minutes, go check this out! I’m sure you’ll enjoy this as much as I did!

Maryland State Fishing Report

Catch you later.

Posted on

Catfish Recipes Anyone?

I have to admint I always cringe when someone orders catfish when we’re at a restaurant. Being a freshwater fisherman in the north-eastern US, I’ve always looked at catfish as a sort of trash fish. Something that’s fun to catch but you’d never dream of cooking up and eating!

Perhaps it’s their ugly whiskers and tough gristly mouth – I’m not sure, but I know that lots of folks truly enjoy a good catfish meal. So being non-prejudicial in my blogging, I’ve found something while cruising the web that I thought I’d share with all of you who enjoy cooking up catfish. God bless you all! 🙂

Check out this post from the Mooresville Tribune:
Favorite Catfish Recipes

Hope you enjoy these and I’ll catch you later.