Spiel

Pflueger Arbor Combo Walks Away With Best Of Award At 2009 ICAST Showcase July 20, 2009 / www.great-lakes.org Designed to handle today's superlines, the Pflueger Arbor Combo has won the ICAST show Best Combo Award. With the introduction of the new Pflueger Arbor spinning reel, it became apparent the reel needed a special rod to benefit from the reel's oversized spool. Not just any spinning rod would do. The result is a perfectly matched and balanced rod and reel combination that takes advantage of the reel's design and purpose. "We designed this rod n' reel combo to fish the new generation superlines," said Andrew Wheeler, Pflueger Product Manager. "Whether an angler decides to throw the fluorocarbon or braided lines the Arbor's larger design is the perfect. The rod was custom built to take full advantage of the many benefits of the Pflueger Arbor." The Arbor reel is highlighted with an oversized, large arbor spool, which winds the line on to the reel in larger loops. With 7 stainless steel ball bearings, the reel is smooth on the retrieve. Made with a hybrid aluminum construction the reel is lightweight. An oversized carbon fiber washer manages the sealed drag system. Additional features include a graphite rotor, Sure-Click bail and solid aluminum bail wire. For the rod, Pflueger started with a one-piece IM-8 graphite blank for its lightweight and enhanced sensitivity. To complement the line coming off the reel's oversized spool, the Large Arbor Guide Concept system was developed. This includes a larger stripper guide that is reversed. This reduces line buildup before the front guide during casting. The remaining guides are also oversized to keep the line moving freely and are made from durable stainless steel. The cork handle split grip design provides a comfortable command of the combo and the graphite reel seat holds the Arbor reel securely to the rod. Two models are available; the Arbor 7430 reel is matched with the 6'6" Arbor medium-light action rod. The Arbor 7440 reel comes on the 7'0" Arbor medium action rod. MSRP for the Pflueger Arbor Combo is $99.95.

Berkley Trilene TransOptic Wins Best Line Award at 2009 ICAST New Product Showcase July 20, 2009 / www.great-lakes.org Berkley Trilene TransOptic has been awarded the Best Line Award on Wednesday at the 2009 ICAST show. After four years in development, Berkley has designed a nylon monofilament line that captures UV rays to physically change the line's color, making the line a hi-vis gold above the water and transparent below the surface where the UV rays are filtered out. The color-changing line benefits anglers that spend their days watching their line for the subtlest of bites. Anglers see the line, fish don't. "Four years ago we saw a need for a line that benefited anglers that needed a monofilament that could be watched," said Berkley Product Manager, Clay Norris. "Through efforts with our product innovation team, we were able to come up with the technology to harness UV rays to change the color of nylon monofilament above water. Our team has worked extremely hard to be the first to produce TransOptic." With superior knot strength, tough abrasion resistance and extra shock resistance, Berkley Trilene TransOptic is perfect for flipping, pitching, jigging and any application that calls for a hard hook set. Being a monofilament, the line is easily managed for a wide variety of baits and techniques.

OSU research finds trout are better models for cancer research than mice Monday July 20, 2009 Chris Spitzer / The Oregonian George Bailey helped build the world-class trout research facility at Oregon State University, and recently retired after his team completed a sensitive study of the carcinogen DBP. Doug Beghtel/The Oregonian A rainbow trout can inspire and inform. It can lead a young fisherman to a life-long career studying human health. It can reveal the risks of carcinogens, and help develop treatments to prevent cancer. It can become the centerpiece of a world-class research facility that may reshape how government agencies regulate environmental toxins. George Bailey knows all this and has plenty of fish stories. As a professor, he spent three decades studying disease with trout in his aquatic laboratory at Oregon State University. From outside, the building sits on a dusty lot just outside of Corvallis and doesn't look like much. Walk inside, and you'll find a bustling laboratory. The air is cool and the fishy smell is surprisingly slight. Eggs and fry swirl in large glass cylinders off to one side. Once they're big enough, the fish will graduate to the hundred gallon tanks that pack the huge central room, which covers a third of an acre. There is constant activity as the dozen staff members prepare cheesy fish food and systematically check the tanks. "What we have here is the only facility of its kind anywhere in the world," says Bailey, 68. "Completely unique." He officially retired six years ago, but continued to work at half pay to complete the capstone of his career, the most accurate study of the chemical DBP, an environmental carcinogen. The results, published in May, were surprising. "It was known to be a powerful agent," Bailey says, "but there wasn't much information." By using trout, Bailey measured risk of DBP at low exposures, and found reducing exposure by half meant less than half as much cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency calculates a proportionate risk level from high exposure data. In essence, the EPA guesses conservatively to compensate for lack of data. But Bailey's fish gave him low exposure data so he could pinpoint the risk. And for DBP, Bailey found that the EPA would overestimate the cancer risk by a factor of 1,000. David Williams, director of the Superfund Research Center at OSU, thinks the research could have a big impact. "A lot of people are going to sit up and take notice, because this is by far the best cancer data set in the world." Tiny amounts of DBP exist naturally in soil. But it's also concentrated in cigarette and coal smoke. It might seem odd that you can learn about people from trout, but in both animals, DBP causes stomach and liver cancer by attacking and damaging DNA, tiny strings of molecules that contain cell-building information. People are good at repairing DNA, but trout have more difficulty. Like a canary in a coal mine, fish tend to get sick before people. Rats and mice are canaries, too. Bailey points to two advantages of rainbow trout. First, when trout are fed a healthy diet and treated well, they have an inherently lower cancer rate. Only one in a thousand trout would get stomach cancer, compared with the rat rate of one in 20. That's why trouts' cancer risk to DBP can be measured at low levels. Then there's the matter of money for research. "We can do it at roughly 5 percent of the cost of doing the rodent study," Bailey says. Since each carcinogen acts differently, the results of Bailey's study applies only to DBP. Some chemicals might generate a cancer response that is proportional to the exposure, in which case the EPA's method would accurately determine risk. Bailey's OSU group is not proposing any specific regulations, but knows their finding should sharpen risk assessment. "We're not sure what the EPA will make of these results," Bailey says. Bailey's past trout studies have also led to effective treatments. Aflatoxin is a carcinogen present on foods like grains and nuts. In the United States, aflatoxin levels are carefully checked, but in developing areas, like parts of China, the levels are so high that one in 10 men dies of liver cancer by age 45. In an OSU study with trout a decade ago, scientists discovered chlorophyllin, a derivative of the stuff that makes plants green, renders aflatoxin harmless. "It should work in all species, including humans," Bailey discovered, and went on to develop a small green chlorophyllin pill effective in human trials. "We can reduce the cancer rate in those people for pennies a day, affecting millions of human lives, and this was discovered because of the rainbow trout," Bailey says. OSU's trout expertise may even help make animal studies obsolete. As scientists learn more about the basic biology of cancer, rodents and fish can be replaced by experiments that don't require any animals. Animal rights organizations, such as the Humane Society, say the government should prioritize ending all animal research as alternative methods can be developed. Bailey was first drawn to trout science by his passion for fishing in Berkeley in the 1960s, where he finished his doctoral work in less than four years. The trout followed him through positions in British Columbia and New Zealand before he landed at OSU in 1979, where he eventually took the reins of the program from Russ Sinnhuber, a pioneer in using trout to study human health. The trout facility is not Bailey's only legacy. He helped bring the Linus Pauling Institute to OSU from Palo Alto, Calif., in 1996, and recruited the current director. LPI does groundbreaking research in the link between disease and diet. Fish scientists have pretty big shoes to fill with Bailey's departure. As his OSU colleague Williams puts it, "He planted a lot of seeds, and was able to make them grow." Now that the DBP study is complete, Bailey has decided to spend more time enjoying retirement, though he occasionally consults for OSU. He spends many of his days at his home in central Oregon, where he rebuilds old pickups with his grandkids, picks the banjo, and, yes, fishes a little now and then. -- Chris Spitzer has a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in theoretical particle physics and is an intern at The Oregonian through the American Association for the Advancement of Science: 503-221-8272; [email protected]

Shhhhhhhhhhh...............where's the delete button?

Actually that has been changed. I believe there is still no trespassing but boat access is permitted. Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout and Pacific Salmon Extended Fall Season (4th Sat. in Apr. to Dec. 31) Bronte Creek - Town of Oakville from Hwy. 2 upstream to the south side of Hwy. 407 EXCEPTIONS TO ZONE 16 REGULATIONS Fish sanctuary - no fishing from Jan. 1 - Fri. before 4th Sat. in Apr. & Oct. 1 - Dec. 31. Bronte Creek - City of Burlington and Flamborough Twp., from the C.P.R. track in the Village of Progreston downstream to the south side of Hwy. 407, including part of Limestone Creek upstream to Steeles Avenue in the Town of Milton.

Never had one and never will. I've honed my filleting skills (be what they may) with a filleting knife.

Was this fish caught in Ontario?

Have a good'n, I hope you're spending it on the water.

So you had your shirt off Wayne.

Nice fish Jaden. Great shot of your ole man TJ, did he manage to best Jaden....LOL

You didn't invent this move Brian but given time you could perfect it. Congrats on the boat.....zoom, zoom.

She probably would, you done the right thing....LOL Someday we'll get 'er done.

Have to say I'm skeptical on the coho identity. Chinooks have indeed been documented in Nipissing but I've not heard of any cohos. The source of course is Georgian Bay which I spend a great deal of time fishing salmonoids and cohos are rare, at 25 pounds there nearly non existant. I'm not saying it's impossible but a picture would be worth a thousand words.

With a little effort from all the good folks here we should be able to add a 1,000 votes or more everyday. Come on OFC'ers, it only takes a couple of minutes.

Good question, time to move on.

Geeeeez Mike, I think your post is about one picture away from crashing my computer. Now this pictures takes me back. From the late 70's to 1980 I had the same canoe. It was my first means of getting off shore and to this day I still regret selling it. Now the only thing I can think of in regards to the above quote, you're NUTS ! That aside all I can say is great post, thanks for taking the time to get it up.

That's a great looking brown Rich but I'll reserve comment on the flower.

If I may, with all due respect to eze76 I believe that the fish in his avatar is a Tri-colour Shark.

Big cat fish is no match for Jess Jul 15, 2009 JAMIE PYATT / thesun.co.uk TEENY schoolgirl angler Jessica Wanstall netted a new record when she hooked this monster 200lb fish — which was more than TWICE her own weight. Jessica, 11, was fishing for carp when a giant catfish took her bait and dragged her so violently towards the waters edge that her shocked dad had to grab her. The plucky youngster spent 20 minutes fighting the beast and needed a helping hand from dad Mark to finally heave it out of the water and on to the riverbank. At nearly NINE FEET long and weighing 13.7st the impressive specimen dwarfed shaking Jessica who stands at just 4ft 10ins and weighs only 5.7st. She now holds the record for the biggest freshwater fish caught by a child in Europe. Jessica, from Sittingbourne, Kent, who hooked the fish during a trip to Spain's River Ebro, said: "I didn't realise just how big it was until I saw the photos afterwards. "My dad thought it was going to be a small one and I told him it didn't feel small when I picked up the rod and then it just pulled so hard I thought I was going in. "My arms turned to jelly while I was trying to land it and I have never been so exhausted but luckily my dad was there and was able to lift it on to the riverbank. "It was massive and I felt tiny standing next to it!" The catfish tipped the scales at an impressive 193lbs. Jessica is normally used to catching "tiddlers" and it was 13 times bigger than her previous record of a 15lb carp. It was 150lbs bigger than her 13-year-old brother Spencer's best catch and 10lbs greater than her dad's best effort in forty years of fishing. Mark, a 49-year-old engineer, said: "Jessica normally catches tiddlers and she was fishing for carp although we knew there were catfish in the river as well. "Then she got a bite on her rod and she was off towards the water so I grabbed hold of her. "As the fish got near we could see how big it was and then its tail came out of the water and it looked like the Loch Ness Monster - everybody in the bank was gasping. "I'm so proud of her - it could have eaten her whole!" Mark, Jessica and family friend Gary Peet landed 51 catfish during their trip but Jessicas was by far the biggest. Their fishing guide Bodo Kunkel, who runs Bavarian Guiding Services on the River Ebro, said: "It was a large fish, much bigger than Jessica. "She couldn't close her mouth afterwards, she was, how do you say, over the moon. She is the only child to have caught a freshwater fish that big in Spain and probably Europe." Jessica was fishing with bait pellets for carp and returned the fish alive to the water after weighing it.

GOWGANDA AREA ANGLERS NET HEAVY FINES July 6, 2009 Three men have been fined $750 each for angling walleye during the closed season. In a separate incident, one man has been fined $1,500 for possessing an over limit of both walleye and smallmouth bass. Ivan Yarkie, George Dudgeon, and Cody Lessard, all of Englehart, Ontario, pleaded guilty to angling during the closed season. Court heard that the three men caught seven walleye on the evening of Friday, May 15, 2009, the day before the opening season for walleye in the Gowganda area. Returning to their camp, the anglers were apprehended by a conservation officer. Yarkie was also previously fined an additional $200 for operating a boat without personal floatation devices on board. Heinrich Nimz, of Washago, Ontario, pleaded guilty to possessing six walleye and four smallmouth bass over the legal limit. Court was told that Nimz was enroute home on Saturday, May 30, 2009, following an angling trip in the Gowganda area, when he encountered a Ministry of Natural Resources check station east of Elk Lake on Highway No. 65. When requested by conservation officers to inspect his fish, Nimz showed officers three walleye in a cooler. During an inspection of two other coolers in Nimz's vehicle, the conservation officers found seven additional walleye, 10 smallmouth bass and a quantity of whitefish. Anglers are reminded to review the 2008-2009 Recreational Fishing Regulations Summary for information regarding catch and possession limits, gear restrictions, open seasons and fish sanctuaries for the specific waters they plan to fish. Justice of the Peace James Bubba heard the case in the Ontario Court of Justice, City of Timiskaming Shores, on June 25, 2009. To report a natural resources violation call 1-877-TIPS-MNR (847-7667) toll free any time or contact your local ministry office during regular business hours. You can also call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). See all the latest MNR related charges here

This catfish had eyes larger than its stomach July 10, 2009 Steve Pollick / toledoblade.com A decomposing 20-inch bass was too much for the 38-inch, 40-pound catfish rescued from the Maumee River at Waterville. This is a fish story to gag over — sorry — but imagine almost choking to death while trying to swallow a 20-inch smallmouth bass. That is exactly what was happening to a 38-inch, 40-pound flathead catfish in the Maumee River above Waterville when Eric Renzhofer, of Whitehouse, and his wife, Chelle, happened along. “My wife and I were near the river across from Indian Island when she spotted a ‘dog???’ swimming in the water about 200 yards out,” Renzhofer begins. The creature appeared to be in distress so Renzhofer and a buddy who was along, Mark Thompson, of Pemberville, hopped in a rowboat with rescue in mind. “We quickly rowed out and found a huge catfish struggling to submerge but couldn’t,” Renzhofer said. This was about 1,000 yards below Weirs Rapids. “We got him into the boat after five minutes and went ashore. The upriver rowing killed us. The cat smelled awful and I thought it was dying because it gave no fight at all. “We took him on shore and opened his mouth to see what the problem was. We noticed his stomach was full of air and huge. We found a tail protruding from his throat. A pair of Vise Grips was used to pull the fish out. It was a 20-inch smallmouth bass, partially decomposed — the ‘smell.’ It was lodged in his throat. “After removing the fish, the cat’s stomach was smaller and he was relieved. I immediately put him back in the water and off he went.” Renzhofer and Thompson did take time to measure the fish and photograph the victim-cat and culprit-bass, side by side in the sand. As for the big cat, he added, “I can gladly say he is now back in the river, and I’m sure he is rethinking the size of fish he will be swallowing. He bit off more than he could chew.” As for Renzhofer’s buddy, Thompson, “he was dead when we got back; he rowed like a crazy man.” Reflecting on the incident, it actually is amazing how big a prey a predator fish will swallow. Witness the annual Canada fishing-trip tales of guys finding a 20-pound northern pike that choked to death trying to swallow an 8- or 10-pounder. It also raises an eyebrow about where some of the Maumee River’s trophy smallmouth have gone. Which certainly is not to lay all the blame on big flatheads; fishermen, of course, can take their share credit or shame for that. On the other hand, the Renzhofers and Thompson surely know the fate of one 20-inch Fish Ohio-size smallie. It tried to choke a big flathead and lost. Nicole Jiminez shows off the 18¼-inch, 4-pound pacu she took from Maumee Bay off Edgewater Drive in Point Place. Another unusual fish take surfaced this week, this time in Point Place, this one an escapee, or reject, from someone’s pet aquarium. It was a 4-pound, 18¼-inch pacu, a vegetarian cousin of the ferocious meat-eating piranha of South American rivers. It was taken by Nicole Jimenez, who shore-fishes regularly on Maumee Bay off Edgewater Drive, according to Dave Ray at Edgewater Bait and Tackle. “It took her 20 minutes to land it.” Jimenez caught it on a nightcrawler rig. Ray said the teeth in the fish’s lower jaw almost looked human, but its uppers were sharp and pointed. That is perfect for feeding on fruits, nuts, and other vegetation in its native waters. Pacu can reach 60 pounds in the wild and in home aquariums can quickly outgrow their welcome, which apparently was the case with the one taken by Jimenez. Someone appartently dumped it in the bay. Ray rightly wondered whether it would have lasted the winter. By the way, it says here that dumping of unwanted pets — from tropical fish to dogs and cats — is about as irresponsible and unethical as it gets, and that is putting it as mildly as newspaper decorum allows.

We stayed at a camp on the south shore as you head west out of South Bay, the name of the camp escapes me. We fished exclusively from the camp to the extreme west end, never wet a line in South Bay.

It was a good week. The brookies actually came from the lake.

I believe we have a winner.

My thoughts are with you today.