Finally! The fishing season!

[Scleropages]

Got a chance to do some fishing at my friend's private lake up in rural CT. It's stocked with largemouth bass and sunfish (Bluegills, Pumpkinseeds, and maybe another species as well). Here's a pic of one of the larger Largemouth Bass(Micropterus salmoides) that I caught. The water bottle is 9" long.


Here is a pic of the lake viewed through my polarized sunglass lens--you can see the plants underwater with the polarization:

[apistomaster]

@scleropages
I shot all the river and trout photos through my polarized sunglasses too.
It's the only way to remove most of the glare so you can see under the water.

[Firestorming]

Has anyone here done any swoffing?
I have had a crack and only ever come up with so so catches of some of our more temperate species.
This:
http://www.nafa.com.au/content/show/Fis ... 0June.html
is what I really want to have a crack at.

[Scleropages]

Swoffing = salt water fly fishing, yes?

My cousin, who lives in south FL, goes fly fishing for tarpon in May and June. He says it's insane--they put up a great fight on the hook. Too bad they're not good eating.

Here's an example:

This is pretty funny (too bad it's not a 4'+ TL tarpon):

[Firestorming]

Yep swoffing is saltwater flyfishing, well it is to me anyway.

I have watched some guys here do insane things swoffing including tuna, dolphin fish (mahi mahi) and young bull sharks, best I have had was a 3ft long tom which acted like a mini-marlin, tail walking and backflipping all the way to the kayak.

[bigamefish]

I can`t wait for an oprotunity to go saltwater fishing! It looks like a great time!

[apistomaster]

Made my first outing to a nearby trout pond last night.
A size 14 Elk Hair Caddis given a twitch every few seconds did the trick.
I only caught 3 Rainbows of about 11 inches but they appear to be a different strain than what was stocked in the past. The fish were more slender and I suspect they were catchable Steelhead plants. They fought twice as well as the usual type of Rainbows they used to stock making it seem the fish were twice as large as they actually are. I thought at first I had hooked one of the few brood fish they stock. I have caught a few of those over the years and they ran about 18 inches.
First fish hooked was foul hooked just below the dorsal. That one felt like a much bigger fish until I got it in and saw how I hooked it.
These are good for a pan fried trout.
The important thing for me was that they were my first fish of the season and great fun from a 4 acre pond connected to the main river by 3 culverts and only about a 5 minute drive from home. This keeps the water fresher and cooler than it would be otherwise.
It is always nice to break the ice on the first outing and it gave me a chance to do an inventory so I know what I needed to buy and flies to tie for more outings.
I used my 9 ft, 5 wt, Sage VT2 Graphite rod and Scientific Anglers #2 456 reel.

[Scleropages]

Sweet. It's always nice to catch a few on the first trout outing. I'm hoping to get out to the Rockaway River WMA (wildlife management area) soon to do some trout fishing this season. Pan fried sounds good.

Not sure if anyone is in the area, but the Hackettstown Hatchery is having a public open house (first time in forever!) this weekend: http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/hacktown100.htm
I might try to make it out there this afternoon or tomorrow.

[bigamefish]

Well i finally caught a

Ictalurus punctatus

! He was 28" and 10-15lbs!

[Scleropages]

Attaboy! It's about time one of us caught a catfish. I know there are

Ameiurus nebulosus

in a local lake. I will have to go with my garlic scented crayfish lures and some hotdogs--one or the other should do the trick. What type of bait/lure did you catch the channel cat with?

[bigamefish]

Thanks! I got to try out my new catfish/bigger fish setup! It consits of- Rod: Quantum energy pt 6'10" heavy action.
Reel: Daiwa millionaire classic 250 (soon going to be replaced with a shimano calcutta or abu garcia c3 or c4 series reel)
Mainline: Sufix 832 advanced super line 65lbs braid
It sure worked like a charm!
And for bait i used beef liver, an absolutly aweful smelling bait! but if you are after bullheads i have caught them on salted frozen minnows on a pickrel rig! But if you can get your hands on some fresh frogs you should be in for some fun! They work amazingly well! ( for me anyway) Good old hot dogs should work good too! Good luck and catch some good ones!!!

[apistomaster]

Big Channel Cat. I finally broke down and bought a spinning rod and reel up to the job of fishing our large rivers. They have plenty of Channel Cats, Small Mouth Bass and Steelhead in season. First spinning gear I have had since I was a kid.
Meanwhile I've been hitting the trout pond on the edge of town catching my limit(5) each trip using dry flies. I only have a couple weeks left before it turns hot and the fish go deep so I am making the most of it. Dry flies usually have limited use in still waters so I am enjoying it while it lasts. The fish are pan sized although I have caught a few brood stock they plant that are about 20 inches but not often.

[Scleropages]

You're killing me, man. I haven't had a chance to go trout fishing this year yet. I NEED a reason to plug in my big freezer in my garage and a bunch of fresh-caught trout sounds like a good one. Oh yeah, welcome to the world of spinning reels. Feels funny to say to a fly-fisherman.

BTW, if anyone has plans for catching and keeping black crappie in an aquarium, be prepared to supply a lot of live food. So far, the specimens I have refuse to eat freeze dried or frozen food--they bite at it when it first hits the water, but then they quickly lose interest.

Thankfully, a pet store close to work carries fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas). Those crappies will take them out of my hand if I hold them an inch above the water. Very voracious feeders. However, their social behavior reminds me of Uarus... they get big, but they like to hang out in schools of their own kind. And so much for that.

[bigamefish]

Hey is anybody gonna be in minnesota in the 2nd week of july? Im going fishing for 5 days in the brainerd area! I would be delighted to fish with another fishing fanatic/planetcatfisher. Just thought i`d ask!

[Scleropages]

I finally got out for four hours of trout fishing on the Rockaway River this morning and... nothing. My friend caught a couple sunnies and a couple chub. We saw a few trout, but they were not biting on anything. My friend told me that, a month ago, they were biting like crazy. Oh well. We're going to try a different river soon and see if our luck is any different somewhere else. Of course, the other rivers that are nearby have a good amount of polution and I don't think I'll be keeping any trout caught in them.

[apistomaster]

It will be about a month before the trout rivers in my area drop to fishable levels.Even then the water will still be pretty high which can make access difficult to the best places. It may have been a mild winter but our mountains received a normal snow pack unlike many other areas so it is just a typical year. I like to fish wet wading when it is hot. So it is now becoming a bit warm for good lowland lake fishing and still too soon for rivers.

[bigamefish]

Well i`m off to Brainerd Minnesota tomorrow! Can`t wait for the fishing! If we have internet connection i will post any pictures of fish that i catch!

[bigamefish]

Well im back! Miss me?

I caught many fish! And had a brillant time! I do love catching fish that i can`t get around here.
I could use some IDs on all the sunfish excluding the bluegill and of course bass! Here are the pics!

[bigamefish]

more

[bigamefish]

and more

[bigamefish]

And more

[bigamefish]

They aren`t in order, my computer messed them up.

[bigamefish]

just a little more!

[bigamefish]

...

[bigamefish]

Last one

[jp11biod]

you have a couple of rock bass in there (Ambloplites rupestris or Ambloplites constellatus)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_bass

and the sunfish with the yellowish fins with the cream-colored border are green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_sunfish

and maybe a warmouth too-- (Lepomis gulcosus)

JS

[jp11biod]

what I thought were green sunfish may be pumpkinseeds too

and many of the sunfish hybridize pretty readily

JS

[bigamefish]

Thanks js! I knew about the rock bass but not about the others! I had no idea about what the others were!

[bigamefish]

Well im going to stay in gimli and fish on lake winnipeg for the weekend! So i`ll see how that works and i`ll put some pics up! The lake treated me pretty nicely last year so im crossing my fingers its a good fishing weekend this time too!

[Scleropages]

Last night, I caught the biggest bass I've hooked this summer. I had to tighten the drag on my reel just to get the fish in--another first for this summer. It had already gotten dark and it was hard to get a good picture of it next to my water bottle (for reference). The water bottle, including the spigot, is 9.5" tall. The fish must have weighed at least 2 lbs. I didn't have a scale in my tackle box. Gotta get one of those if I plan on going back to that lake.

Here are a few shots of it: Micropterus salmoides