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