The fishing thread

In reply to Scottah :

Everything about this is awesome!!!

In reply to mtn :

Great points!!! 

Until I try for redhorse suckers later this year, nothing we’re catching in there is over a pound or two anyway. It’s all native redeye bass (which only grow an inch per year) and varieties of “sunfish” (redbreast/bluegill/pumpkinseed) 

I’ll give the braided a shot!

I haven’t waded yet this year. *hoping* to get some of that action tomorrow. There are a couple nice honey-holes upstream that I haven’t hit since last fall. The “big” redeyes hang there. A 10+ inch fatty is a really big fish for the species.

I use braid in most situations, usually with a fluoro leader. I'll use a wire leader if I'm fishing for something with teeth (like pike when I go back up North).

Two exceptions to braid: 

1. Fishing in small streams with light tackle. I use 4 pound test mono with fluoro leaders for skittish freshwater trout or smallmouth. I use loop knots in the fluoro so the lures have better action.

2. Surf rods. I've found the sand will abrade the braid pretty quickly. I use heavier mono with fluoro leaders in the surf.

 

I like herons because they know where the fish are.

Prior to that, I got down to the coast and found a near infinite number of tiny croakers

and small bluefish.

The paddle back to Federal Point was pretty nice, though.

In reply to Brett_Murphy :

Nice! We’re headed to Folly Beach next month. I’m going to try not to suck as badly at surf fishing.

Every big fish I've hooked in the surf has managed to break my line or get off the hook.

With all of the news about rip currents this year, I'm hoping more people stay out of the water so I can set up next to a good rip and try again.

One of the best looking fish, IMO.

Alphonso Jackson broke a 36-year-old freshwater fish state record on June 10 after landing a 2-pound, 1-ounce redbreast sunfish from the Lumber River in Wagram.

Jackson, who is from Maxton, caught the sunfish using a cricket as bait. His catch breaks the previous record by 5 ounces. That fish, which weighed 1 pound, 12 ounces, was caught on May 29, 1983 by Ronald Stanley in Big Swamp in Bladen County.

Jackson, 43, is an avid fisherman, a passion he attributes to his father Johnny Jacobs who taught him how to fish when he was a small boy, and one that he has passed on to his children, ages 23, 18 and 17. They were with him the day he caught the massive sunfish.

“We started fishing in a pond but weren’t having any luck, so I said to my kids, ‘Let’s go back to where I learned how to fish’ and this is what we caught,” Jackson said. “I’d like to thank my daddy for teaching me how to catch fish and where to catch fish.”

"

Two pound sunfish! Impressive catch!

Went up North to visit the family, did a bit of fishing while I was there. I didn't get anything really big, but the locations were great.  I lost cell phone service on the way to get the brookies- it was way down a back road. I wasn't sad at all.

In reply to Brett_Murphy :

Great pics!

Today was a good day. 

My brother and dad and I—I’m the bearded one.

(I’m not doing the circle game or the white power thing there. That was just how my hand was when the picture happened. I didn’t know I was doing it, but I also didn’t know it was a “thing” until it was just pointed out to me that it’s a thing by an acquaintance who is offended by... well, everything, so not sure how much of a “thing” it is. )

In reply to mtn :

It became offensive because AS A JOKE, 4chan started a thing that it was a secret white power symbol to see if people would lose their E36 M3 about it and the PC/woke police jumped all over it. 

Nice looking haul though. I really need to get back on the water, haven't even wet a line in probably 2 years, maybe longer. 

I really miss fishing with my dad.

Hell, I forgot I had hair at one point.. Lake Erie, Bomber Charters, 2005 it looks like. 

Jamaica 2010

Quemahoning Resevoir 2006

Erie November 09

I need to get out to Erie at some point. Green Bay walleyes just don’t get that big. 

In reply to mtn :

I lost a lot of pictures through the years with harddrive failures, but that was a typical August trip for 10 years. My dad had been fishing with the same captain since the early 80's, I started going up around 2000, and at least with Tim, we crushed it every time, even when other boats were getting skunked on the radio. It was a regular occurrance to have rods going off before they were all even out on the planer boards, 2, 3 guys fighting on the back of the boat at a time. 

2010, they look even bigger then. Wound up being our last trip up. 

Everytime I fish Erie from the US side, in a big enough boat anyway, we fish Canadian waters, the 3 times I've fished it from the Canadian side, we fished American waters. Always made me chuckle. 

Caught the first little fatty of the year yesterday! (Redeye Bass) They don’t look like much, but they pack a punch! 

It was *tough* down at the coast this past week. Thunderstorms pretty much constant, and I was only able to slip out in between them.

I managed to catch the world's smallest mackerel.

A ladyfish

Then I got out in the kayak and got a mess of these guys. It seems I'm much better at catching fish from a kayak than I am from a motor boat.

I just discovered this thread... had no clue anything like this existed on grassroot so here are 2 of my personal records. 42inch red and an un known but my best gar

Sidebar...

I bought this reel years ago because  I was at Cabelas for one of their tent sales and it was basically 80% off.  I figured I would figure out what it was good for and go fish with it.  90% of my fishing is freshwater lakes and the other 10% is trout streams and inland salt for flounder, sea trout, and blues.  This reel is bigger than anything I've ever fished for.

Thunnus 16000F, baitrunner.  Shown with a tube of silicone and a lighter to give you an idea of size.  What would I use this for?  

To me, that looks about the right size to kayak baits off of the shore out into the surf 100 yards or so, knowing a fish like a king might rip another 100 yards out on the baitrunner function. You might also use that if you're fishing deep water, or using really heavy line.

Any trout or salmon on your freshwater lakes? How deep?

I'd personally probably use it for trolling - not a true trolling reel, but good enough.

In reply to Curtis :

We use them for river catfish and toothy critters from shore or anchored. 

mtn said:

Any trout or salmon on your freshwater lakes? How deep?

 

I'd personally probably use it for trolling - not a true trolling reel, but good enough.

No trout or salmon in the lakes I normally fish.  Usually walleye and small/largemouth bass with the occassional pike.  My primary lake maxes out at about 90' in one spot, so nothing nearly big enough to warrant a reel this big.  The biggest walleye I ever catch might be 28" which is really fun on a 6' medium/light rod and a 4000 size reel with 8lb braid.

Most of my salt is inland channels for flounder, blues, trout, and I use a large-ish Penn reel on a 7' stiff rod.  It is way overkill for a 16" flounder, but there is always the possibility of a sand or lemon shark or a big skate grabbing on to it.

I was thinking surf as well.  I have a really nice 9' surf rod but it is a baitcaster.  I could put new eyes on it for spinning, but I've already done surf fishing a fair bit and it's not really my jam, nor am I much of a kayaker.  I have done some jetty fishing, but again, I mostly catch stuff that could be handled with a medium duty rig.

I'm thinking this reel is good for something in between a Skate and a Bluefin.  What about Albacore, one of the bigger Snappers, Yellowtail, Mahi Mahi?

This whole thing is making me hungry for tuna.

RevRico said:

In reply to Curtis :

We use them for river catfish and toothy critters from shore or anchored. 

Thems must be big cats. 

In reply to Curtis :

4-8 ounces of weight plus live blue gill/barely legal trout for bait, everything is bigger. Won't eat anything out of the Allegheny river, but it sure is fun to fish. 

At the same time, I go pike, carp, and steel head fishing in streams with fly rods and ultra light reels. So maybe I'm not the most consistent fishermen when it comes to gear.