As long as it isn't frozen

So, with any luck, I wont become a fan of ice fishing. That would just really fill up my calander.

A couple weeks ago, I modified a pair opf gloves I have for use with fishing...by modify I mean a grabbed the razor out of the truck and cut the thumb off.

Out I go.

I tried to keep the kyak in the sun to stay warm. Actualy, I just hoped that the sun happened to be where I was fishing so I could be warm. It didnt always work out that way. I stuck with the late fall baits that I have been having decent success with still. Large top water lure and some large slow moving soft plastics.

The entire day was a bit uneventfull, except for a few strikes at the top water. For some reason just getting a strike on that thing is cool, even if the stupid fish doesnt get one the trebles. This one did grab the senko though.

Please take note of the thumb-less glove. He bit soft, but effectively

I have also been out to the damn fishing from shore. I have only broken the tips off of both new ultra-lite rods. So, instead of getting new lite rods, I simply have two that measure about 4'10". They still work right? I like using the tiny tackle at the damn because of the tight surroundings. Its tough to get a good toss out of a 6' or 7' rod when there are tree limbs in a 3' circumfrence. Anywho...I caught this big guy with a crafty little tube set-up.

I'm certain to go out tomorrow, new years day, and try my hand at freezing my ass off. And maybe catch a fish or 6. With that, I'll leave you with some other top water catches from the fall. Enjoy.... (by the way, I had forgot my pliers and had to get that lure out of the pickerel with my fingers, just call me 4 fingered pell).

F#@& Marsh Creek...sort of.

I think that, by now, we all know that I am not the biggest fan of Marsh Creek State Park. Somehow, I catch handfulls of fish in NJ, but barely a single bass (if any fish at all) on Marsh Creek Lake...everytime.

The water is large and much deeper than I am used to. I find myself throwing spinners and topwater minnows...things that I don't do often in my small backwater Jersey puddles. Nothing hits. The Bass are being pickey. By my accounts, they should be mid depth between the deep and shallow water. They should be trying to feed and chasing the local live forage across the top of the breakwater. It seems as though I am wrong in many more ways than one; if not all ways.

We (Mary Beth, Pop's, and I) resort to just tossing ol'faithfull at the shore line. The Lime and white laminate senko goes in. Pop's gets a decent bite, and the rest of us get a decent bit frustrated. As it turns out, persistance pays off in the end.

As we near the dock. I see Mary Beth literally running across the shore line to get in as many casts as he can before we have to start packing it in. You would have thought that there was $5 on the line. I know it is a frivolous attempt on his part. I just keep tossing the senko at the tall grass along the shore. Earlier we were focusing on the drop from shallow to deep...about 20 plus yards from shore. Now, I was really feeling the left over green reeds on the shore line. The grass was few and far between, but if I was a Bass, thats where I would be.

Sure enough, thats where I found him. Hardley feet off of the shore line, he just took the bait and started swimming off. All I had to do was set the hook with half-assed effort.

One of two fish caught that day. Speaking of which, here is a picture of the fish that Mike caught:

Right, no picture; because he didnt catch a single thing. I'm laughing, not just on the inside, on the outside too. Very loudly and with a lot of vigor.

J.T. Pell caught the other fish. It was a perch, and while I didnt get a photo of it, I happen to have sonme stock footage of a respectable perch:

Adam 'the hippie man' had no luck either. But he was in the same boat as J.T., literaly not figuratively, so I suppose he can share some of those perch points.

Like i've said before, even a slow day of fishing is a good day of fishing. I've had better but been through worse. As frustrating as the bad bite was, the weather was clear, somewhat calm and mild. We couldn't have asked for a better November day.

Lastly, sorry for being so rude to MB earlier. But trust me, he was asking for it.

Fish where they are.

This is the idea. Fish where the fish are. I have fished a decent number of different locations. Enough to know that knowledge of your surroundings makes up at least 50% of the overall catching experience. If you don't know where the fish hide, feed and loaf, your lure choice and persistant attitude won't go very far to help land you any greenbacks. (bass)

I get out on the water at least once a weekend. Worst case senerio, I walk across the street and fish the dam for a while. Needless to say, the 3 or so waters and places I fish, are begining to look an awefull lot like the back of my hand.



I pass a person or two fishing the shore and see a couple other boaters now and then, but one in five has a rod with them. The point is, I feel like I own these places. And the bucket mouths get owned too.

I have been fishing with my dad and brother plenty of times. I can say that just one of those times was a sure fire fishing frenzy. I kept trying to tell them "seriously, come to my house, we'll go catch a lot of F-ing fish!". Period. Even from shore.



(last weekend)

Well, dad finaly showed. And so did the fish. He told me he got tired of taking pictures. We went to Kirby's Mill on Rancocas Creek. It has a nice slow current, plenty of shady trees and enough bass to burn out your camera finger.



Of course we also tore up the good ole Barton Run Lake. Dad really out caught me there. And we did stop for some nice cheesesteaks inbetween.



So, after dad told mike about what a time we had, there were no more excuses and the good Dr. was at my door faster than you can say "Frontline gave my dog gout!".



Man did we have a good time. We didn't catch as many as dad and I. But we would have brought a limit to the scales. Less one rod I lost. That was upsetting. But I confided in them both the agony that my life has become...doing this every weekend, and then being forced to wait an entire 5 days before getting to do it again. Poor me.



You had to be there. It looked bigger in real life.

End of story. If you want to be good at anything, you have to get obsessive. You can quote me on this, "obsession is the key to perfection".
In these few waters I know every stick, rock, swirl. I know where the water should be and what to so when it's high and when it's low. I can go out on these waters and catch at least one fish no questions asked.



Be that guy. Tell people, "If you want to catch a fish...we can make that happen". Find your local water and own it. Know it up and down, in and out. The structure, current and floor. Know where all types of fish are.

I have to laugh. I saw a guy on my lake fishing with his daughter. I had never seen him or his canoe before. I suggested that where he was fishing was a crappie spot. And, if you can believe it, this guy questions me right in front of his little girl. He said he saw a fish jump and it was definately a bass. I didn't argue. I just kept fishing the other shore line. I heard splahing and his daughter yelping. Then..."what kinda fish is that daddy?". "I'm not sure". he answers. I slowly turn and clue him in softly. "it's a black crappie".

Be that guy. Fish like that guy. Earn the title of that guy.



Know where the fish are so you can fish where they are.

:el

I had to do it.

Ok,

I have to write a blog about this one.

I was actualy out to buy moldings for my foyer floor, and told my wife I would be fishing here and there in between.
One stop was ye-olde lake dam. I fished all of my old faithfuls. The senko. The jerk (no offense Mary Beth). The creature.

I decided to try a small tube with a little bullet weight for good measure.

Second cast:



Bam! She didn't hit hard, but put up a great fight. I thought for sure I was going to break off at least a few times. I was shaking when I saw the water part as she crested once, then twice. I was surprised to be the recipient of good fortune as I landed her and got a lip under my thumb.


6lb test was enough for all 2lbs of this girl. I enjoyed it. No fight as I took a few photos as a parting gift.


I use my shoe as a unit of measure in many of my fish pictures. But she let me take this one and a few others before gentely swimming off, back into the lake where she belongs.







-- :el

By Popular Demand

Without further ado I provide you with fishing the fatties of Florida.

YesYes, it was not the most fun fishing I have ever had; however, it was fishing, and you know what they say:

"Fishing is like sex; when its good its great, and when its bad, its still pretty good".

(I just read all of my old posts to be sure I wasnt covering old ground)

Here it is my happy readers (Grant), the Florida strain hog fishing experience...in mid August.

This was the smallest of the few we caught. He was also one of two caught on artificial bait. Jen, my better half (as far as she knows) did not want anything to do with the minnows in the on-board live well. I caught this one on a texas wieghted Zoom Trick Worm. The guide was tossing nothing but... Unless you count his brand new lipless crank from Strike King in sexy shad color. Of course he had to try it.

I'm already getting lost. The point is, even in Florida it is tough to catch bass sometimes. Those times happen to be mid August, when I was there paying over $80 an hour to be on the lake practicing my casting skills.

After casting for a while and catching one very large snapping turtle, wich the guide was very carefull with, we started to toss live bait. Of course we did not tell my wife.

We werent the only ones interested in the live bait. The local birds know the fishing boats and sit on the edge of the live wells and eat their fill. Our guide suggested we brush off the bird before he became ill of eating.

Speaking of fatties...once we began approaching the time limit on our charter, the guide had enough and pointed our vessel in the direction of lunker town. We rigged up multiple rods with live bait and met the bird at our next stop. There was no questioning the fact that our guide had been here before and knew we would catch some fish. And we did. Ok, Jen doesnt like live bait because it is nasty, I dont like it because it feels like cheating; whatever he reason, it was mute when we started catching pig after pig.

I was happy with a few of these but would have preffered to catch them on artificials. So, after fishing Florida in July, the moral of the story is:

You can fish Florida in the summer, and you can catch a decent fish or two, but....well...but nothing, thats it.

I came back to Jersey the following weekend and outfished that Florida F&@$ in an hour. The next post will describe my severe New Jersey Bass winings in detail, and contain many many pictures of some of the most talented Fisherman who have the last name of Pell in the Tri-State area of Philadelphia. (yes you math wizz, ther are only three of us). Which just reduces the amount of typing I have to do!

Thanks for taking the time.

:el

Friendly reminder

It is 3:30 am right now. This is just a little reminder that I will be fishing for Florida Bass in Walt Disney World in less than 12 hours.

-- :el

The magic of Bass.

So, do you know where the most magical place on Earth is?I do, Disney World.

They also have stuff like theme parks and cartoon characters.

Of course I'm talking about the world class Florida strain bass fishing. Most of the greatest BASS Pro 'atheletes' have been caught fishing there.

My anniversary is getting close and my lovely wife has gone above and beyond this time. We leave Friday for Walt Disney World. And we're not going so we can stroll the parks and hob-nob with the local cartoon actors. We are going for fishing.




She has reserved us a private charter guided by a bass pro to fish the hawgs of Orlando. She has even promised to cast a few herself. There are so many exciting features of the guided excursion that I won't even bother to name them now. I'll save that for after.

My wife told me not to bother packing my gear. "They have poles you can rent." she said. Right. That's like suggesting I don't bring my own underwear and simply rent a pair once we get there. Do you think I speant the winter building a rod travel case just because the lake was frozen? No. It had a purpose, and this is it.



Not only are we fishing the charter but also casting from shore every spare second. According to my sources at the resort, fishing is allowed from the banks anywhere in the resort (before 11am and after 5pm). I've never seen anyone doing this before, so I'm sure it's low pressure fishing at it's finest. What are you going to do between those hours Andrew? Good question. The Fort Wilderness campground is less than a mile away and has many lakes that were designed specificaly for fishing and can be angled all day.

Everyone be patient. I know how excited you are. As soon as we get in from the first round I'll be sure to let you in on the spleandor that is Florida strain hawg ranglin'.


-- :el

Some things I already knew, but I had to learn them all.

In the everlasting words of an infamous mathametician, "I have finaly figured out what I'm doing wrong."

It seems I'm constantly figuring out my mistakes. Just when I think I've got everything sorted out, I make more mistakes. However I do relish the opportunity to learn at first hand.

I have been fishing many times in the past few weeks and thought I had nothing special to post on my blog. I thought a bit harder and longer, and, before I hurt myself, I decided that the constant tackle changes, color choices and location adjustments I was making lately had more intent behind them. I used to just drift and cast aimlessly, yet lately have become more deliberate in my methods.



I have also been catching many fish and more fish of larger size than in the past.




I have decided to dedicate my success to the many difficult hours I have spent watching bass master classics and my son's favorite, Bill Dance. It is very tough to put my life on hold and keep my son from his business to watch multiple hours of fishing every weekend. But we manage.
I'm not going to share all of my current secrets with you, but I will tell you that, as dumb as it sounds, if you want to catch the fish, you have to think like the fish. If you were hungry where would you go and how would you find/stalk your prey? If you were spooked by a boat or lure, where would you hide?
I have also spent a lot of time studying my baits and choosing them more carefully. Not only does this mean carefully choosings colors and lures for conditions, but also thinking ahead to where I will be casting; shallow, deep, thick, rocks or maybe under brides or limbs. This means choosing a bait that the fish will not only hit, but I also have to be able to present it with my mediocre casting abilities.

Check out how hard this bait got bitten. I've never seen such a bite before. There is about an inch of bait missing here.


Each time I have gone out, I find myself make fewer casts and catching more fish.
I have finaly figured it out. Present a bait that the fish will bite in a place they will bite it.



I have finaly figured out what I'm doing wrong.

-- :el


Next time. It's not the knot. It's the line and the hook.

Insert noise from the radar guy in Spaceballs...

You know, the beeps, the bleeps and the creeps...

If you haven't heard, I am getting a bit weired about my Kayak (yes I know I capitalized it).

In hopes of continuing my success with the blogging, I have decided to document my latest upgrade. I also hope this is the most severe upgrade.

At the advice of my wife I went to the local dicks store and purchased a humminbird fishfinder. I'm not blaming her, just stating the facts. She told me to get one, and in the same breath asked if that was cheating.







So there she is. The new toy along with some of the tools and equipment required for installation and opperation. Some necessary additional purchases include the portable 6 or 12 amp battery along with online fuses. I wouldn't normally bother with safety features like a fuse, but I don't like the idea of sitting in a plastic bathtub with an ATV battery next to me. I also went to the hardware store for some epoxy and wire ties.

First came the dry set up. I found appropriate locations for all of the components and got in and out of the boat many times to be sure everything was in the perfect spot. Because the transducer (sonar) was goin inside the bow, I wanted to make sure I wouldn't kick it.






I also wanted to be sure the display unit wouldn't impeed my paddling or casting. It went in my line of site directly opposite the rod holder on the port side. This also included some consideration of how the cables woul be rub inside the boat.







The battery is nice and small. It doesn't wiegh too much either. I was surprised at how serious it was. I actualy had to poor the acid into the cells and verify the post charge specific gravity (no I did not do that, I just eyeballed it). I located the battery just behind me in the stern compartment and used some small angle brackets and foam to keep it from sliding around.













Now the entire unit is plug and play after securing the wires out of harms way. Before I finish, let me take a moment to tell you about the only problem I encountered. The instalation directions for inside hull mounting suggest a slow curing two part epoxy. The directions warned that inside hull mounting of the transducer was reccomended only for hulls that are solid fiberglass and less than an inch and a half thick. The kayak is about a quarter in thick, so I should be fine right? The issue arose because the plastic hull is so thin that it actualy has a good amount of flex to it. When transporting it and getting in and out the bottom of the boat can flex so much that it actualy becomes inverted. Because of this, I only got about 3 real trips in before the epoxy holding the transducer cracked and seperated from the hull makin it useless. I replaced that epoxy with a slow cure two part semi rigid boding agent from 3M. Yes, it is for automotive repair and I consulted with my local 3M rep before using it.

Everything should be 100% now. The finder has already helpe me identify bottom make up and structure as well as provide me with clues as to the suspended depth of the fish. I am very happy with it.





I would also like to add that the battery has powered the display for over 6 hours without showing signs of slowing.

Additionaly, during the test run I tossed my ultra lite around with 4lb test to catch a few pan fish and a big silly carp decided to eat my white micro tube. I got nervous while he dragged me back and forth across the lake and got a quick glimps of his over 2.5ft length before he snapped the line. I think I still shaking a bit from that.

Cooper River on Saturday

I don't know what to say. I suppose I was more than a little let down.

Maybe I amped myself up a bit too much before actually hitting the waters. I was out pretty early, even for myself. I decided on an iced coffee at WaWa because, even this early, it was still already getting pretty warm. I was nervous that it may have been a sign of weather rolling in. I set up as far out on the make-shift pier as I could without falling through. Two spinning set ups. One for soft plastics with a loose bullet weight, and one reserved for sitching out hard plastic cranks. I knew the water would be deep, and moving slighty with what little tide was there; however, I wasn't sure how dee (wink wink, more about that later).

Once out on the water, I decided to head up current a bit first, then let the water take me down the banks. After settling in for about 3 seconds and making my first cast, I was more than spooked by a fish breaching the water right next to my boat. I threw at him with both rods, but nothing. Then another fish on the other side, a bit further out, nothing again. It only took about 20 minutes of this game before I decided that reverse phsycology was the answer, and ignored the flopping jerks. I began to fish my intended destination, a large bridge with a funnel type wall structure on either side.

Nothing still, even in this seamingly prime location. I drifted around the bend and into a corner that appeared to be a pooling locatiojn for other drifting dead weight such as myself. Nothing even resembling a bite there either.

After another hour and a half of going with the flow, and passing fishlessly through my secondary objective, I fished aimlessly in a backwater tangent of the river. Another strike out. I was begining to become more than very frustrated. I had thrown out everything in my boat (after tying it to the line of course) and fished it all every way I know how; but nothing happend.

I cruised across to the other shore line and spotted what I can only describe as a "poo-pipe" (bonus points for whoever can tell where I got that phrase). One cast on the down current side of this bad boy got me the first of several smaller sized bass. I continued to fish this side by paddling past the structure, and then drifting back down through it while tossing out the black power worm and slowing hopping it back to the boat.

I only had enough time for a few of these short runs, and only caught about 4 more fish. Even though I wasnt impressed with any of them, it was enough to keep me from intentionaly heaving any of my gear in the water. On the down side, when I was pulling the kayak out of the water, I bent down and ooops...there go my pliers and snips....I tried to drag a lure across the bottom to find them, but it seems I only get snagged when I dont want to.

Thanks for the support everyone.

Coming up this week:
-How the accidental fisherman hooked his biggest fish ever and,
-Electronics, the ignorant do-it-yourselfers guide.

Probably saturday.

Looking at the weather for the weekend, it feels like Saturday will be where it's at. I am already mapping out some fresh kayaking destinations. I recently secured a re-print of my NJ fishing license. I had lost it many weeks earlier in PA of all places. Why did I have my NJ license in PA you ask? Don't worry, I lost my PA tag too.

Anyway, I can now fish without fear of the invisible fish and game department. I have only ever seen them once. I was in Rancocas State Park along Rancocas Creek. A mile of rough dirt road brought me to the banks of the creek which was 30 yards away...through deadly-thick mud. Lucky for me, the local warden's were there lecturing a guy who had been teaching his son to shoot a bow. Evidently you can't just toss those arrows anywhere. They directed me to another unfishable spot and never even asked to see my license, then hassled the father son duo some more.

Getting back on track. Last year I made a few trips to Cooper River, a tributary of the Delaware. I caught only a few fish every now and then, but saw some really good looking holes that I just couldn't reach. I figure that now that I am fully mobile I can get to these spots and find the big fat pigs that I know are there. ( I just know, ok).



So here is the spot. The docks leading out into the water are merely floating boxes made out of something that looks similar to the cardboard in egg cartons...and I don't trust it under my feet. In the upper left area, or north western quadrant as I call it, is a great deep pool that runs into a drain or tunnel. I can only get so close to it on foot and at wait to really get in there. Of course the larger bridge in the, eh hem, south eastern quadrant flows tithe west and opens to very steep drop offs on either side. I love the idea of a fat pig bass waiting off
Of the slopes for some unsuspecting bait fish to come lolly-gagging through, only to find that this baitfish is carrying a series of razor sharp treble hooks. All day sucker.

I'll be sure to take some nice pics of the lunkers I snag.

Oh, by the way, these are the same waters that Mike Iaconelli fishes. Or pretty close at least.





-- :el

Barton Run

So, in my backyard is a creek. This creek runs a bit through the woods, shallow at times, and into Barton Run lake. My second best fishery to date.

Sure, I have to shift my weight to get over sunken logs and go through a scary dark tunnel, but it's all worth it.







I have caught a few of my largest fish in this lake. Ok, the pictures aren't that great. But for a few seconds of prep time, a few hours of fishing and a few decent bass right out the back door, it can't be beat. I'm sure that many of my future posts will include fish caught on this lake.


-- :el

Sun lake

Test blog from quick visit to sun lake. Or as it turns out, sun lake pond. The lake was closed due to construction next door. I was forced to walk around the park pond. Signs warning me to "not fish before the contest" convinced me there are fish in the pond. I saw many beds of sand through the undergrowth populated by decent sized blue gill. Lots of turtles, and possibly a few tiny large mouths. I watched the baitfish play and the turtles bob just a bit before heading home. The trip did nothing more than provoke my interest in next weekends weather.


-- :el

The accidental fisherman

Wow look at me. One year in, and already I'm blogging, fishing uncontrolably, making my own lures and dreaming about hook sets.

I will be trying to get this moving pretty quickly. Seeing as I get out every weekend I should have plenty to blog about.

I'm not too sure about how all of this works, but if anyone can add to my posts, please do so. I would love to get some educated banter happening in here.

thanks.

:el