Name that Fish!

in search of more white perch, i went back to the local pond yesterday evening, about an hour before sunset.  on the second cast, i caught my only keeper white perch.  it was about 11”.  (sorry, no pic here.  do you need to see another image of a white perch on the ground?)

while there was some topwater activity, the recent warmer weather had me expecting more.  at sunset, i caught my second, which was a tiny one at 6”.  about 10 minutes after sunset, the topwater activity really turned on and there was consistent and plentiful splashes even less than 5 feet from the bank.  the water was boiling everywhere!  in the next 20 minutes, i caught 3 more fish (including losing one).  two of them were white perch and they were about 8-9”, which is undersized.  the last fish was 17.5-18”, but i’m not exactly sure what species it was.  maybe you know?  please post a comment if you do.  my guess is that it is an American Shad, although the mouth shape throws me off.

this fish fought about 3x harder than a white perch, so i first thought it might be a baby striper, but then it jumped a few times in the air, and i knew it couldn't be.

anyways, my guess for why the activity turned on so late is that it was too dark for all the predator birds to hunt (hawks and ospreys have been hanging around), and the fish felt safe.  it's amazing how many factors you have to consider to increase the odds of fishing success.  what a sport!

Damn Midges!

recently, i've been to the local pond a handful of times to try for some white perch.  starting about an hour before sunset, there is a decent amount of topwater activity.  rarely, you'll see some minnows jump out of the water in the shallow areas, but most of the time, you can't see what the white perch are feeding on.

after about 6-10 total hours and 1000 casts, i've only caught 1 perch.  it was caught on a size 10, gold bead head white woolly bugger.  but for all the visible activity, i really haven't interested them in my flies.  i've tried clousers, buggers, and small shrimp flies.

my guesstimate is that they are feeding on midge emergers and adults.  how did i come to this conclusion?

here was one of a hundred on my car

yes, i've tried midge flies of all types and colors.  unfortunately, there seems to be too many around for them to notice my one fly.

2013 Goals: Get'm Done!

well, 2013 has started off pretty slowly, but at least i was able to end 2012 right.  in December, my goal was to catch some atlantic herring, so i could live line them and see if i could get a holdover striper.

i did a little research, and found out that most people use sabiki rigs to catch herring.  from what i've read, once you've found a school, they're pretty easy to catch.

i decided to tie up my own sabiki rig, seeing as how they didn't look that complicated, and i had all the necessary materials on hand.  i used 6' of 18 lb Rio Hard Mono Saltwater for the main leader line, from which i made 6 dropper loops, and then used about 4-6" of 12 lb Rio Hard Mono Saltwater for each dropper line.  i decided to use the Rio Hard Mono Saltwater mono here so that i could prevent as much tangling as possible.  for the weight, i used a 1 oz kastmaster without the treble hook.  most people use a bank sinker, but i thought the extra flash would help attract some fish.  then i tied 2 different flies, 3 of each.

Red Rocket Minnow
hook: Mustad 3366A - size: 8
thread: Danville 210 Denier Flat Waxed Nylon - red
tail: white feathers from sofa cushion, pearl krystal flash, Celebrate It Metallic Crinkly - iridescent

Simple Glow Shrimp
hook: Eagle Claw ML226N Octopus - size: 8
thread: Danville 210 Denier Flat Waxed Nylon - chartreuse
tail: glow in the dark fibers
body: pearl estaz

Red Rocket Minnow

Simple Glow Shrimp

from what i've heard through the grapevine, there are boat slips 2 minutes from my house that is usually a good place to catch herring this time of year.  when i arrived around sunrise, there were 5 other guys (mostly Russian, i think) already there, all fishing off the end of this slip, within 5 feet of each other.  as i joined the group, i realized these guys are braving the cold to bring food home, and less for sport.  i knew then that i wanted to try eating one.  forget the striper...after all, herring must taste good if people risk frostbite for them.

the technique: cast, let the rig sink until you hit bottom, then reel in slowly, dragging the weight across the bottom.  every few seconds i would twitch the rod a bit, then reel in the slack.  it was not rocket science.  i ended up catching 6 herring in 1 hour time (only one of the other guys was out fishing me).  the hit ratio was 2:1 in favor of the Red Rocket Minnow.

once i got home, i filleted them, and pickled them for 2 weeks.

toasted wheat bread, sour cream, pickled herring, diced onions, celery leaves, and lemon juice.

finally, without much ado, here is my 2013 fishing goals (in no particular order):

1. in the Spring, i want to catch more white perch on the fly, and eat them grilled.
2. i heard that the local reservoir has monster carp.  in the spring and summer, i want to hunt a few down with a fly, ideally using a crayfish pattern.  
3. in April and May, i hope to catch a striper on the flats, sight fishing from my kayak, and using a crab fly.
4. i want to catch from my kayak, black sea bass for the first time, and cook them whole.
5. i want to catch from my kayak, blackfish for the first time.
6. i want to catch from my kayak or from the shore, flounder/fluke and make fish tacos.
7. i want to catch lobster, and make an herby lobster roll.
8. i want to go clamming locally and use them to make linguini con le vongole, with red pepper flakes.w

they're not that ambitious, but very reasonable goals with one 17 month son and another due in the summer.  

more to come, so stay salty,

XXA

Close Call

on a string of moderate fishing success, i went out to the pond again to see if i can feed more white perch.  i went with low expectations, because weather/water temperatures have dropped about 5 degrees, and the wind had picked up to 21 mph.

i put on a chartreuse and white clouser, and within two minutes i snagged another minnow.  what are the chances of snagging a minnow?  but two in a week?  this time, it was a silverside.  it's amazing how pretty they are and how different they are in comparison.  i think the one on the left is a banded killifish.





after i 'released' the silverside, i caught a small striper.  i could tell immediately that it wasn't a white perch, just by how much pressure was being put on the line.  the striper's more streamlined body creates less drag in the water.  after that, the activity died down completely, so i decided to switch flies.  i put on a glow in the dark, size 8, clouser and managed to fool a white perch.

the wind had started to pick up considerably, so i decided to make one last cast.  on the back cast, a gust of wind flared and my fly flew straight into my right eye.  ouch!  wincing in pain, i tried to pull the fly out, but it was stuck. just touching the hook caused pain.  i started to freak out.  there was no one around, and the sun had already set.  i tried to remember if i had crushed the barb.  i thought about calling my wife, and then driving directly to the emergency room.  i managed to cut the leader and navigating with one eye, found my way back to the car. and then using the visor mirror, i inspected the damage.  i was lucky, the fly hook had not pierced anything, but was just trapped between my eye and eyelid.  i carefully removed the fly and drove home.  whew, what a close call!

during daylight, i usually wear sunglasses when i fish, partly to remove the glare but also for eye protection.  when there is little light, i don't wear anything on my eyes.  what do you guys do?  any suggestions?

Pepe Le Pew

channeling Penelope Pussycat, i finally gave Pepe Le Pew the finger, and caught my first fish of the year.  the skunk is gone.  i have been after the white perch in this local, brackish pond, and they have gotten the best of me in my first four outings.  i was rank with the stank of self disgust and failure...but no more!

per usual, i went to the pond around sundown the day before yesterday to get in an hour of fishing.  the fish were swirling less than 20 feet away and i was struggling to get a take.  switching flies, i tied on a What's Up Doc? fly by Daren Selznick of Ole Florida Fly Shop.  then bam!  i got my first bite...and then wham! i lost it.  then shazaam, i got another bite!  my first fish of the year was landed.

the best part of it all, was that i learned from it.  i knew the white perch were feeding off of tiny minnows, and i had a general idea how small they needed to be.

armed with that knowledge, i went to the pond again yesterday evening.  for some reason, the What's Up Doc just wasn't producing and i was left saying, "what the #$%* is up, fish?" 

as luck would have it, i ended up snagging a minnow that gave me an indication of the size of bait they were chasing.  anyone have any idea what kind of minnow this is?  pretty cool looking.

then i tied on a size 8 clouser minnow in chartreuse and white.  within 30 minutes, i had 5 bites, and landed two of them.  i also caught a small striper which was pure icing on the cake.

i'm sure i can think of some life lessons learned from all this, but ehhh, that just wouldn't be me.

stay salty,

XXA

Not So Perfect

so far this year, i've been out fishing 3 times, and still haven't caught my first fish.  i've been trying to fly fish for white perch, but those buggers are getting the best of me.  i start fishing about 30 minutes prior to sundown, and the timing is great because they really get going, starting to feed in shallow water.  the fish are nearly 'boiling' around me, with swirls less than 10 feet away.  yet, i can't get any bites.  i've tried a plethora of flies, including clousers (almost every color possible), shrimp flies, dry flies, woolly buggers, and even Prater's Hushpuppy nymph on a variety of setups, but i got hardly a nibble. i don't think they're on bait because i am not seeing the typical spray out of the water.  for some reason, i think they're eating the insects on top that have recently hatched, but i'm not sure.  any ideas?

however, i nearly caught one with the Hushpuppy, and had it almost in hand but it came off literally a foot away.  some people might say that it was a 'caught' fish, but unless i can take a picture of it, i don't count it.  the loss was completely angler error.  i didn't perform a good hook set, so i have only myself to blame.  i find myself not very good at strip setting the hook because half the time i'm surprised that i have something on the end of my line, so in a state of disbelief, i usually forget. 

anyways, i've heard reports that schoolie stripers are around, so i'm preparing to go inshore fishing.  i've been tying some leaders, but the one thing that pisses me off about not using store bought tapered leaders is that when i make a poor cast, and get the tailing loop...the leader gets tangled around my knots' tag ends.  then i spend about 15 minutes trying to untangle the leader only to find out that i made it worse because the leader was not in fact tangled or knotted, but only hung up on the tag ends.  argh.  am i the only one where this happens?

so i tried creating a whipped loop rather than using a perfection loop just to reduce the amount of tag ends, but it just doesn't work well on mono.  so i ended up thread wrapping my perfection loops in order to create smooth taper, and it seems decently strong.  they're ugly, not perfect, but strong.  we'll see.