Spiel

Thanks everyone it was indeed a long winter for me and it felt good to get out and do a little fishing. Machette, well it would definitely be required Mike but useless against the skitters. The noise of struggling your way to the creek once the under growth is full would be like sirens going off to the trout. I've got a couple of weeks to make the best of it and then that'll be it till next opener. In time Bill, in time. I knew exactly where this trout was and I've thrown countless casts to him in the last few years and only now did I hit pay dirt. Funny creatures these browns and mostly nocturnal once the reach a significant size. I hope so Joey, just need a grey drizzley evening and I'll be back. These are definitely marginal waters, with them high and cool the specks are spread out and in many cases hard to even get a line at. As the levels drop and warm they'll stack up in the few deep pools that have riffles in order to take advantage of the higher disolved oxygen thus making it easier to locate them. In this type of situtation I find they also become very competitive over the food supply thus making it relatively easy to catch them. To long Wayne, far to long! I'd have never thought you'd be out "chasing oily fish" Brian. Took me totally by surprise. When the waters up it's time to chase browns.

It's been a few yerars but man O man does this ever look familiar. The speckies do as well but I'm sure that's just me. Nicely done Bill.

I'm still gunning for a speck of that stature, man they are all beauties! I did note however that your cousins fish (perhaps all of them) are from stock as seen in the absence of an adipose fin.

Well opener has come and gone and like I've done the last decade give or take a few years I hooked up with a buddy to fish a small creek for Specks. This creek is outstanding in that it produces healthy specks with an average size of 13 to 18 inches, like this one. This year though failed to produce even one specky. I believe this small creek may be in trouble and though I have suspicions as to why only time will tell. Admittedly though if the opening weekend water is high and cold like this year the fishing is generally tough. I hope to get back a few more times over the next week or two as the water warms to see if I can't get me a few big fat specks! Now stream conditions aside this is one tough stream to fish, it's literally choked with tag alder and cedars and log jams and almost impossible to wade so getting a bait to where the fish are is tough, extremely tough but not as tough as getting it back out again. Though as I said no specks were caught I didn't go fishless, in fact I caught my PB brown from this stream to date, not the biggest I've hooked there and certainly not the biggest I've seen by a long shot but a respectable fish none the less. I've had glimpses of this fish in the past as he raced for cover of an over hanging tree and figured it for a brown because of the size. It's a tough approach and the only way to get a drift to him his from atop a bridge making it easy for him to see you! As I carefully approached my position the refelction of the morning sun blinded me from glimpsing into the water and naturally leaving me easily visible. As quietly as I could I drifted a big fat dewy back under the tree to no avail. Thinking the fish had made my presence I was about to abandon my attepmts in favour of an easier pool when I decided to offer up a 3" Berkely Gulp minnow in watermelon pearl, one drift and "BAM" fish on! High res. image Was I happy, oh yeah. After he was quickly released and rightly so, took me two years to coax him out and it just wouldn't be right to kill 'em, besides he'll be bigger the next time we meet. A few more hours and lotsa walking produced no more fish but I did see another one make for cover in this tangled mess as I carefully approached.... I'll be back trying to coax 'em out soon, just for a photo op of course and then back into the water. Back in his garage over looking the creek valley we ended our annual event talking bout past years and the mornings venture over a few cold ones. What a great day!

As a father of three myself I gotta say "CONGRATULATIONS" and if you don't stop at three we'll soon be calling you Marty....LOL

I've done the marriage vows twice myself, mind you it was with two different women and combined the two were less than half your 27 years....LOL Congratulations.

Excellent!

Brian out trout fishing. I think I'm going to wait for the alarm to wake me up cause I must be dreaming.

Very, very nice indeed. I'd hoped for a few like that myself yesterday but alas it wasn't to be.

I just P'd myself....

Indeed an amazing score Mike and yes I can tell you're stoked. Congratulations, I know it'll see plenty of use.

I could post Youtube links of musky fishing all day long, what's the point?

Largemouth bass vulnerability to being caught by anglers a heritable trait April 21, 2009 / great-lakes.org URBANA - In an experiment spanning over 20 years, researchers at the University of Illinois have found that vulnerability to being caught by anglers is a heritable trait in largemouth bass. The study began in 1975 with the resident population of bass in Ridge Lake, an experimental study lake in Fox Ridge State Park in Charleston. The fishing was controlled. For example, anglers had to reserve times, and every fish that was caught was put into a live well on the boat. The fish were measured and tagged to keep track of how many times each fish had been caught. All fish were then released. "We kept track over four years of all of the angling that went on, and we have a total record – there were thousands of captures," said David Philipp, ecology and conservation researcher at U of I. "Many fish were caught more than once. One fish was caught three times in the first two days, and another was caught 16 times in one year." After four years, the pond was drained, and more than 1,700 fish were collected. "Interestingly, about 200 of those fish had never been caught, even though they had been in the lake the entire four years," Philipp said. Males and females from the group that had never been caught were designated Low Vulnerability (LV) parents. To produce a line of LV offspring, these parents were allowed to spawn with each other in university research ponds. Similarly, males and females that had been caught four or more times in the study were designated High Vulnerability (HV) parents that were spawned in different ponds to produce a line of HV offspring. The two lines were then marked and raised in common ponds until they were big enough to be fished. "Controlled fishing experiments clearly showed that the HV offspring were more vulnerable to angling than the LV offspring," said Philipp. This selection process was repeated for several generations over the course of the 20 year experiment. "As we had predicted, vulnerability was a heritable trait," he said. Philipp went on to explain that with each generation, the difference between lines in angling vulnerability grew even larger. "Most of the selection is occurring on the LV fish – that is, for the most part, the process is making that line of fish less vulnerable to angling. We actually saw only a small increase in angling vulnerability in the HV line," Philipp said. Male bass are the sole caregiver for the offspring. Females lay eggs and leave. The male guards the nest against brood predators for about three to four days before the eggs hatch and another eight to 10 days after they hatch, before they become free-swimming. Even after the baby bass start to swim, the dads stay with them for another three weeks while they feed and grow, protecting them from predators. Philipp explained that the experiment sped up what's actually happening in nature. "In the wild, the more vulnerable fish are being preferentially harvested, and as a result the bass population is being directionally selected to become less vulnerable. We selected over three generations, but in the wild the selection is occurring in every generation. "We've known for 50 years that commercial fishing exerts selection on wild populations," he said. "We take the biggest fish, and that has changed life histories and growth patterns in many populations of commercially harvested species. Because there is no commercial fishing for bass, we were assessing the evolutionary impacts of recreational fishing." Philipp explained that the perception among anglers is that catch-and-release has no negative impact on the population. During the spawning season, however, if bass are angled and held off of their nests for more than a few minutes, when they are returned to the lake, it's too late; other fish have found the nest and are quickly eating the babies. Philipp recommends that to preserve bass populations across North America, management agencies need to protect the nesting males during the spawning season. "There should be no harvesting bass during the reproductive period. That makes sense for all wildlife populations. You don't remove the adults during reproduction." "One of the big issues for concern is the explosion of tournaments. Lots of bass tournaments are held during the springtime because there are lots of big fish available. In tournaments you put fish into live wells, and yes, they're released, but they could be held for up to 8 hours first. They're brought back to the dock, miles from their nest. So, basically, if a fish is caught in a tournament and brought into the boat and put into a live well, his nest is destroyed." Philipp recommended that if fishing tournaments were held during the spawning season, then regulations should require that there be immediate catch-and-release, eliminating the use of tournament weigh-ins. Philipp urges management agencies to go even further and suggests that a portion of each lake could be set aside as a bass spawning sanctuary, where all fishing would be prohibited until after bass reproduction is complete. In the rest of the lake, mandatory catch-and-release regulations could be put into place during that same reproductive period. In Illinois, the bass reproduction period is from about April 1 through June 15. Philipp said that in that way, anglers could help protect the long-term future of the resource without completely restricting fishing. "The potential for angling to have long-term evolutionary impacts on bass populations is real. If we truly want to protect this valuable resource into the future, then we need to understand that and adjust our management strategies," Philipp said.

Boaters beware: Electronic fish barrier could kill April 15, 2009 CAROLE SHARWARKO / suburbanchicagonews.com ROMEOVILLE -- Homer Simpson once got shocked when he went fishing with a bug zapper. But if you reached into a certain spot in one local waterway, you wouldn't find the jolt so funny. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week switched on a new electronic barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal designed to irritate pesky invasive Asian carp. But if boaters don't watch out, the charge coursing through the water could kill them. "Serious injury or death could occur in the worst-case scenario," said barrier project manager Chuck Shea. "But if you're passing through the area, there's no real risk. What we don't want is people lingering in the area, fooling around." One electrified barrier already was in place in the Romeoville area, just north of Lockport. The Army Corps of Engineers studied the effectiveness of that field, installed in 2002, and decided to go ahead with a second barrier. Shea said a third barrier is planned, and should go active by early 2011. All three are near one another, acting as fail-safes. The barrier spans the width of the canal, about 160 feet. Running across the canal floor is a series of steel bar electrodes, which emit a one-volt-per-inch pulse of electricity. The system is about 130 feet long. Shea said it's the only one of its kind in the world, as far as he knows. 'Like a 'Star Wars' fence' After considering several deterrent options, a group of agencies decided the electrified barrier was the best choice to keep the fish out but allow normal water traffic to continue. "People think of it as a fence, but it's more of a field," said Pam Thiel, manager of fisheries for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service "It's like a 'Star Wars' fence." As fish swim into the electrical field, they become "uncomfortable" and turn around, Thiel said. It doesn't kill the fish, just forces them back, not allowing them to enter the Great Lakes system. No migratory fish are in the area, so it's not disrupting any life cycles. For a human, though, falling in could be deadly. Because they have a larger surface area than fish, people may receive a larger dose of electricity. And it's a continuous shock. At four to five shocks per second, a person in the field for seven minutes would get zapped about 2,000 times. The Navy Experimental Diving Unit studied the field's potential effects on humans, and reported "the electric field may lead to paralysis of the muscles, and/or ventricular fibrillation potentially resulting in death after several minutes of exposure to the electric field." Boaters need to know It seems boaters take the threat seriously. The U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit patrols those waters. Lt. Erick Johnson said the unit passed out about 1,500 fliers to every boat shop and marina in recent weeks to warn people about the new barrier. "Every person we've approached is alarmed by how serious it is," Johnson said. "There's a real danger." Land area near the barrier is fenced. The Army Corps of Engineers placed flashing signs in several spots upstream and downstream, letting boaters know they're pulling into the electrified area. To stay safe, boaters should go in the cabin, if possible, or stay near the middle of the boat. They also should keep children and pets away from the sides of the boat. Just don't touch the water. The Coast Guard also issued a new life jacket requirement for the area, making all boaters wear a type 1 flotation device -- one that encircles the neck, Johnson said. "If you go unconscious, your head stays above the water so that you can keep breathing," he said. Boats may not pass one another in the barrier area, which takes about two minutes to maneuver, Johnson added. Also, they're not allowed to stop there. "Red flag" barges, those with flammable or explosive material, have to be guided through. Not much recreational boat traffic moves through the area, Johnson said. It's mostly people bringing their crafts up to Lake Michigan from southern marinas in spring, and floating them back at the end of the season. Shea reminded that the canal isn't for human recreation. It's a not-so-clean channel for commercial ships and waste water. "You don't want your children in that water anyway," he said. "That waterway is not approved for human contact."

Whatever happened to . . . zebra mussels in Lake Erie Monday, April 20, 2009 JOHN L. RUSSELL / ASSOCIATED PRESS The destructive zebra mussels that had invaded Lake Erie and caused great concern for lake creatures are gone for now. The mollusks' larger cousin, the Quagga, pushed the zebra out. Whatever happened to the zebra mussels, the foreign invader blamed, in part, for the "dead zone" in Lake Erie? They're gone. If you spot a zebra mussel in Lake Erie this year, it's a case of mistaken identity. The destructive mollusk's larger, look-alike cousin, the Quagga, has finally pushed the zebra out, said Fred Snyder of Ohio State University's Sea Grant program. The zebra and the Quagga have been battling for turf in Lake Erie since the mid-1990s. Quagga won because they can live in deeper, colder water, Snyder said. The zebra mussel, named for its distinctive brown stripes, is a native of Europe. It first showed up in American waters in the mid-1990s and has since been blamed for everything from clogging water intake pipes of power plants to the destruction of freshwater unionid clams in the western basin of Lake Erie. The Quagga hails from Russia and showed up in Lake Erie in the mid-1990s. Although it is a bit bigger than the zebra, its impact on the lake is the same. Quagga or zebra, it really doesn't matter, Snyder said. Both mussels eat minuscule animals and algae that once supplied food for tiny fish and other creatures. And each spews phosphate into the lake, causing larger-than-normal algae blooms. Dead zones form when algae die and suck most of the oxygen out of the water. "Lake Erie has already adapted and we're never going to get rid of the mussels," Snyder said.

:D :D :D :D

Remember Ryan it's not the size that matters, it's the quality. Perhaps today will be the day.

Cabelas wouldn't ship two part epoxy rod finish over the border, something about bombs and explosives! Oddly enough though their component kits have the epoxy prepackaged and it gets through.

It'll be brookies and browns in the morning for me then perhaps off to the Musky Odyssey in the afternoon.

Hmmmmmm, well I never.......

Oh yeah it was Dave, I was right beside him while he was yammering with you. Dave feels that it's a one sided relationship.

Hey I was standing in that very spot on Friday. Alas I have no fish to report. Good to see you guys made out better than I.

LOL.....Fishing rods.....right? As for that hot dog, mmmmmm that does look good!

I did see you only I didn't know it was you....LOL If you saw this boat it was me and the van was in the lot with Loomis decals on the windows and an OFC decal on the back. To bad I missed yous, would love to have spent a few moments yacking.

Those that missed it missed plenty. Great show put on by great people and the chance to spend time chatting over a few cold ones with TJ and Monique as well has old and new friends from OFC and of course the hosts of the Facts of Fishing seminars and their generous friends at Subway was well the the price of admission....FREE I know I'm glad I changed my mind and went!