The Fishing Thread

[Easy 6]

Searched around & only found the video fishing & BassMasters threads, i know their are plenty of outdoorsman here, so i figured it'd be cool to draw upon the Planets vast experience in all things fishing.

I only use spincast reels & fish mostly large/smallmouth bass & cats. My choice of reels is quite the source of derision from many people i know 'duffer gear', but i haul in my share of 6 pound bass & 10-20 pound cats on that gear no problem. With a little know-how you can use just about any technique you want to on 'duffer gear'.

Berkley Powerbaits are a big part of my trick bag, the difference between those & regular stuff is night & day. My best action last summer came on Mister Twister scented white curly tail grubs, on one day fishing from shore to a bridge pier, i caught smallies, bigmouths, perch & even 1 carp believe it or not... great day. But my bread & butter is a texas rigged Berkley worm, it'll wiggle through any kind of cover without getting hung up.

With cats i strictly bottom fish, no bobber & bait is just as basic... but its always in 2's to give'em a real treat... a shrimp/with a nightcrawler, liver/chunk of cheese etc. Cats are mostly for night sport to me, time to kick back a lil...

So thats me style, how do the rest of you guys get your fish on? What do you fish for, what do you use? IIRC Missouri's trout season just kicked off, anyone getting anything?

[Strongside]

No photos up yet, but I've had an incredible time fishing here in Wyoming since Saturday. We're staying in Jackson, and I've fished the Hobak, Flat Creek, the Snake River and a couple lakes, and have had excellent success at each location.

This morning we hiked into Flat Creek on the National Elk Refuge, where I caught several nice Cutthroat on Adams flies and then this evening we dodged a rainstorm to catch some nice Bows and Cutties on the snake with larger flies (I was throwing a Chubby Chernobyl).

Tomorrow we head to West Yellowstone. Still feeling out where to walk/wade there, but have a couple spots pinpointed for starters.

Crossing this beautiful country off the bucket list has been incredible!

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by Strongside

No photos up yet, but I've had an incredible time fishing here in Wyoming since Saturday. We're staying in Jackson, and I've fished the Hobak, Flat Creek, the Snake River and a couple lakes, and have had excellent success at each location.

This morning we hiked into Flat Creek on the National Elk Refuge, where I caught several nice Cutthroat on Adams flies and then this evening we dodged a rainstorm to catch some nice Bows and Cutties on the snake with larger flies (I was throwing a Chubby Chernobyl).

Tomorrow we head to West Yellowstone. Still feeling out where to walk/wade there, but have a couple spots pinpointed for starters.

Crossing this beautiful country off the bucket list has been incredible!

The Snake River is one of my favorites of the west. Fished it a few times for those beautiful cutthroats. Amazing country.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

These things are absolutely destroying the Illinois river, among many others... guys around here stand on top of bridges and bow hunt them, pulling out fish the size of dogs

Missed the redneck fishing tourny two years in a row now, a very good time with a street carnival atmosphere year before last it was canceled because of flooding, and this year because of the rona

http://www.redneckfishingtournament.com/

[frozenchief]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

My state is super paranoid about invasive species in the water. No live bait is allowed in any stream, lake or ocean fishery in this state. ADF&G banned felt waders several years ago because of the potential of importing eggs from some snail with no natural enemies so now I have to walk on slippery river rocks with rubber-soled wading boots. Part of the issue is that with lakes and rivers being frozen half the year, the fish are more susceptible to fishing pressure than in places with year-round open water and year-round food supplies.

A few decades ago, some idiots transplanted pike from rivers in central Alaska to southern Alaska so they could catch them without having to drive/boat so far. When pike go into a lake or to waters, they eat the salmon out and salmon are far more profitable than pike, both to commercial and sport fisheries. Depending on the water, they also will eat the grayling, trout and char. Sometimes pike get transferred into new water by flooding or rivers/lakes changing courses and boundaries, though.

There is a plant-based toxin, rotenone, that will block fish from being able to absorb oxygen from the water. It is inert to humans so it apparently does no damage to humans but it kills every last fish. It also breaks down in fish flesh fairly quickly and is not as toxic to birds or wildlife, so there’s no bio-accumulation that would then kill birds and wildlife that eat rotenone-killed fish. Alaska F&G has used rotenone to kill pike (and any other fish) in lakes and rivers where pike have been introduced and pike have come to dominate the local food chain. Retenone settles to the bottom of the lake and, being plant-based, dissolves. After a bit of time, they re-introduce native fish. I think that they usually put the toxin down in fall and then re-introduce fish after ice out next summer but I could be wrong about that.

I don’t know if it is being used for Asian carp but given how wide-spread the carp seem to be, the quantities necessary to produce the desired results may be prohibitive for a variety of reasons. But it’s something to consider.

[MelGrif]

What a great topic! I'm pretty new here and I'm glad that I've found this discussion. I bought a motorboat this summer. Now I'm looking for a motor. Having looked through a review on https://trollingmotorsguide.com/best-saltwater-trolling-motor-reviews/, I decided that Minn Kota 1088337 Riptide Ulterra would be the best choice for me. When I finally buy and install it, I'm going fishing together with my family. Thanks for sharing your experience, guys!

[frozenchief]

This may be viewed as DC because the article tries to tie this to the President. That's not my point. My point is the decision made about Bristol Bay and the world's largest freshwater salmon hatchery. This really relates to fishing, particularly in my back yard and the fishing thread is here and not in DC but if mods think otherwise, feel free to delete this post.

That aside, I am super pleased to announce that Pebble Mine's application has been denied:

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2020...r-pebble-mine/

I lived in Bristol Bay for several years and I go back to go fishing every fall. Those are some hallowed waters: the Kvichak, Tularik, Copper, Battle Creek, Moraine, the American, the Gibraltar. I've watched the water boil from the red salmon runs. I've felt a hard bump when a 35+ lb king salmon runs into me. I've had to wait for bears to leave fishing holes. I've knocked ice out of my fly rod guides in late September. I've landed 30" wild rainbow trout. I've caught so many grayling on a dry fly that I literally cannot count them. It's a special place and I'm glad that Northern Dynasty with their horrible record and shitty proposal won't be allowed to screw it up.

[Rasputin]

Carp are stupid I hate carp. I can be fishing and no bites and think will ****. Then I hear a splash and get all excited and then maybe another splash and then i realize it's just stupid carp jumping in the water, bastards. When they are spawning you can go right up to them and pick them stupid ****s up right out of the water. Or just shoot them with a bow but they are stupid fish and they are stupid.

[ptlyon]

Carp r gud

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

Carp are stupid I hate carp. I can be fishing and no bites and think will ****. Then I hear a splash and get all excited and then maybe another splash and then i realize it's just stupid carp jumping in the water, bastards. When they are spawning you can go right up to them and pick them stupid ****s up right out of the water. Or just shoot them with a bow but they are stupid fish and they are stupid.

Yeah, I agree. Stupid carp make the water all muddy because they eat the vegetation

[ptlyon]

I prefer smart carp over stupid carp

[Rasputin]

Nice catch Hog

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

LOL! Awesome

[displacedinMN]

thought I would throw this in. good article

Corn. Herpes. An underwater conveyor belt. The most promising weapons against one of the most invasive and destructive fish in the United States are not exactly traditional.

Over the past decade, researchers at the University of Minnesota have tested a number of strange ideas to find a method to eradicate or at least cut down the number of common carp that have taken over and changed the makeup of lakes and wetlands throughout the state.

And they're starting to see results with these offbeat methods that cater to the fish's appetite, migrating patterns and diseases that kill them. In just a few days last spring, the U was able to pull more than a thousand carp out of Rice Creek near New Brighton using an electric fence and a conveyor belt.

"That was in a relatively small area just so we could see if it works," said Przemek Bajer, one of the lead researchers with the U's Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center. "This year we'll be more than doubling the area, so we think we'll get more of the fish to aggregate."

Common carp have been so prevalent throughout Minnesota and much of the U.S. over the past century that they are often overlooked. But while newer invasive threats such as zebra mussels and the big head and silver carp working their way up the Mississippi River grab much of the attention, common carp have been steadily and quietly wreaking havoc on local ecosystems.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) lists the fish as perhaps the most damaging invasive species to ever hit the state's waters, particularly in shallow lakes and wetlands.

They were purposefully released in the state as a game fish by European immigrants in the 1880s and have been multiplying almost unchecked ever since. As bottom feeders, they nose under lake beds searching for food, uprooting plants and vegetation like feral hogs. That muddies the water, killing native plants and fish. It also releases phosphorus and nitrates that had been safely sequestered at the bottom of the lake, causing algae blooms.

Those blooms can turn toxic, deplete a shallow lake's oxygen supply and leave native fish and waterfowl with little to eat. When those animals die or move on, the carp rule the muddy, nutrient-rich and predator-free waters that are ideal for their offspring.

The species does, however, have a handful of weaknesses that can be exploited if scientists can find methods that are cheap and easy enough, Bajer said.

One of those weaknesses? Carp migrate together by the tens of thousands each spring to the shallow waters and marshes where they lay their eggs.

"That does half the work for us because it gives us a nice pinch point," he said.

Bajer and his team have tested electric fences during the migration, guiding the fish into a pen. Gaps in the fence are large enough for most native fish to swim through, while the larger carp are stuck. Once they're corralled, an electric shock slightly stuns them over the conveyor belt, which scoops them up one by one; any native fish that are incidentally captured can be safely released.

The system is largely automated and can be run by just two people on and off for about a month each spring during the migration. The project received $300,000 in funding from the state's Environment and Natural Resource Trust Fund.

If an estimated 20,000 carp migrate through Rice Creek each year, and the conveyor belt can take out several thousand a year, native plants may start returning and native fish may start rebounding, Bajer said.

"It would take time, but you could fish down that carp population," he said.

Another vulnerability for carp is how much they love corn.

No native fish species eat corn, but carp will feast on it, Bajer said.

The research center has been using the crop as bait. The carp swarm it in large numbers, scaring away native fish that have no interest in fighting over a grain. Nets surrounding the corn are simply pulled up and the carp are captured with very few — less than 1 in 100 — native fish incidentally taken in the nets.

"We tried this with six nets, and we pulled up almost 7,000 carp in just two days," Bajer said.

Carp are also killed by a herpes virus that seems to only infect them and other koi fish.

While researchers with the U say they never plan to release the virus to fight carp, they are looking for ways to make the fish more vulnerable to succumbing to the disease when there are outbreaks.

They've been testing the virus — Koi Herpes Virus or KHV — on native minnows and fish in the lab to see if it could potentially harm or infect other species. Trials are showing that the virus doesn't seem to infect any fish other than koi, said Isaiah Tolo, a researcher with the U.

It's unclear exactly how long the virus has been infecting carp in Minnesota. It was first found in the early 2000s, but it's possible it has been present for as long as the carp have been here, Tolo said.

The virus has caused several large carp die-offs, including one 2018 case where about 10,000 died at once in a western Minnesota lake — about a third of the lake's total carp population.

The denser the population, when more carp are crowded together, the more vulnerable they are to the virus, Tolo said. Researchers don't know yet if the fish can be manipulated in ways that will help the virus kill them off.

"Right now we're really trying to learn everything we can about the virus, and really make sure it's safe," he said.

Greg Stanley • 612-673-4882

[Easy 6]

Check this out from one of my favorite youtubers, Richard Gene the Fishing Machine... a 61 pound blue cat on 10 pound line, its in the first 9 minutes



Yeeeah buddy, this warm weather has the fishing bug hitting hard, and my crew are going to be working roughly half this spring and summer on jobs at Lake of The Ozarks... I'm about to experience the best fishing of my life