haha go juggin’
go even more redneck and go noodlin’
I’ve been hooked now for one year as of this month.
I got into fly fishing because a few friends of mine own a supply company and they lured me into it.
I’ve since started tying a lot of nymphs and streamers and built my own rod this spring.
I catch an occasional fish too.
heres a whopper-
[quote]Dirty Tiger wrote:
Has anyone ever gone snagging for salmon?
[/quote]
In Maine we troll for salmon… very slow with sewn on bait.
During “ice out” on the river we do snag for smelt-- great to eat or use for bait.
Zep-- Where I live on Kennebec, I’m about 6 miles down river of the head of tide, then another 13 miles to the first damn. This is world class Andromous fish territory–
Just about anything that comes into fresh water to spawn. The smelt come in under the ice, alewives and shad (herring) come early spring, Striped Bass and sea run browns follow them in. Elvers (small eels) are catadromous and are going the other way at the same time the herring is coming in so a lot of bait in the water. The stripers pin up against the dam all summer spawning and waiting for the herring fry to come down river, then follow it out in the fall.
In the winter it fishing through a small hole through 16" of ice on the lake (pike, trout, bass, etc).
That’s why I live here… 
[quote]marlboroman wrote:
circle hooks
who likes 'em ?[/quote]
Love 'em. They’re actually hard for a lot of folks to get used to because their instinct is to ‘set the hook’ when they get a hit.
Those things set themselves-- especially with fish that are subtle or picky like carp.
[quote]marlboroman wrote:
NO PIC
NO CATCH[/quote]
Check out my profile-- the fish pic… That striper was landed on a 10wt fly rod with a Deceiver drifting in the shallows (location in first pic below).
Please ignore my fat ass. That was just before I dropped 70#…
Here is a pic of that morning on the Kennebec:
Here is about 15 miles up river where I live (about 1 mile from here):
Another 5 miles up river:
[quote]DickBag wrote:
look at this beast[/quote]
Is that Lake St. Claire? Looks Like Detroit in the background.
I’m a diehard bass guy, this is me 70lbs ago, check out this agressive little shit, I’m not sure what he thought he was doing, I must have pulled 10 out just like it. Good times.
[quote]Dirty Tiger wrote:
Has anyone ever gone snagging for salmon?
It’s evil fun! I did some up in Alaska, it’s so easy it’s stupid.
You just cast out with a weighted quad hook and yank back while you reel in.
You get your limit in about 30 minutes.[/quote]
I used to as a kid, but they have strict limits on it now. You can no longer use the weighted treble hooks.
Anyone here tried sucker fishing? Very fun, 4-5 lb. fish in a 5 knot current, one after another.
Grew up in west Michigan fishing the piers, creeks and rivers for salmon, trout and perch. I have caught hundreds of suckers while steelheading. Like carp, they are a lot of fun to catch and fill the time when the trout and salmon are not cooperating. Fished the ponds and lakes for bass (LM & SM), crappie and bluegills.
Spent many a spring jigging and trolling for walleyes with my Father in Ontario. Best walleye bait ever is a twister tail jig tipped with a small minnow. Caught countless pike too. A few bruisers, but mostly “hammer handles”.
Spent the last fifteen years in central Illinois chasing bass, bluegill and catfish. I have some property with a three acre pond that is full of bass and channel cats. I am in the process of thinning out the cats and bass so that the 'gills (ie- food) can get back on their feet. Caught 14 bass that were over 14" long in just under an hour last Sunday evening. My neighbor’s grandson caught 17 channel cats that were all around the five pound mark last Saturday evening. Few thing better than watching a little kid wrestle a nice catfish.
Some memorable fish for me include a 30 pound king off of the Muskegon pier, a 16" crappie and a 45 pound flathead catfish. Ironically, I caught the crappie and the flathead while bass fishing.
If I could only catch one fish, it would have to be the bluegill. I can spend all day dropping crickets on the edge of lilly pads and in flats littered with ‘gill beds. As far as gear/equipment goes, there is nothing better than catching bluegills and red ears on a cane pole with crickets. Perhaps maybe a 9’ fly rod with a spinning reel and a black beetle spin. Pure bluegill magic. Plus, fresh Bluegills dusted in cornmeal and dropped in hot oil will make you slap your granny.
Dickbag - If you are ever in the States during the winter, you should try ice fishing for pike. I have wasted many a winter day in a shanty peering over a hole in the ice. I actually prefer fishing the hard water over sitting in a boat. Lots of fun and fresh fish in January is pretty hard to beat. If you really want to have a good time, hire a guide to take you spearing pike/muskies. That will make memories for a lifetime.
My specialty even though I haven’t had a chance this spring and summer to get after em are Wipers. They are a hybrid between a white bass and a striped bass and are incredibly strong! I like to think of them as bass on steroids due to their insane strength. You catch a three pounder and you’d think you had a ten pound fish on the line. You catch a ten pounder and you better have good line and know how to play it. You catch a fifteen to twenty pounder and may Allah be with you to get that bastard in.
I like to fish at night for these using thirty pound strength Spider Wire line using a sliding egg sinker and with a three to four foot leader and a size one or two hook and a big three to four inch shiner live minnow for bait. Cast that rig out take a seat crack open a beer and wait. It might be ten minutes or two or more hours, but at some point that pole will slam down and it’s on. When a Wiper hits it’s usually with authority and your pole is banging and line is screaming from the bail. You may also latch onto a big ten to twenty pound cat fishing this way or if using worms a big twenty or more pound carp sometimes a walleye.
It’s a helluva lot of fun when you latch onto a big one and all but the carp are good eating. Just gotta watch for the chulupa cabras as they have been spotted up here and it’s at night when they hunt so pack a sidearm.
D
[quote]SteelyD wrote:
Dirty Tiger wrote:
Has anyone ever gone snagging for salmon?
In Maine we troll for salmon… very slow with sewn on bait.
During “ice out” on the river we do snag for smelt-- great to eat or use for bait.
Zep-- Where I live on Kennebec, I’m about 6 miles down river of the head of tide, then another 13 miles to the first damn. This is world class Andromous fish territory–
Just about anything that comes into fresh water to spawn. The smelt come in under the ice, alewives and shad (herring) come early spring, Striped Bass and sea run browns follow them in. Elvers (small eels) are catadromous and are going the other way at the same time the herring is coming in so a lot of bait in the water. The stripers pin up against the dam all summer spawning and waiting for the herring fry to come down river, then follow it out in the fall.
In the winter it fishing through a small hole through 16" of ice on the lake (pike, trout, bass, etc).
That’s why I live here…
[/quote]
The more I hear about Maine the more I like it.
I need to check it out someday.
For Dickbag…
Here in Illinois, most ponds are fed from either a spring or run-off from rain and snow melt. Almost all ponds will have a dam of some sort and an overflow/drain tube to keep the dam from washing out during heavy rains. My pond is one of the best in my county, as it has a huge watershed feeding it. It is 25’ deep at the dam and rarely gets low during the summer dry periods. Whoever built it knew what they were doing.
I note that the pig of a pike you posted was caught on Lake St. Claire (north and west of Detroit, MI). That body of water is legendary for its musky and pike. Good walleye fishery too. It is not uncommon to catch a dozen (or more) muskies in one day.
The pic that I posted is a pike checking out a decoy (from a guide service in Wisconsin). The decoys do not have hooks and are usually jigged on a short rod with some stout line. When the pike comes in to take a look-see, you throw your spear into the back of his neck. I have not gigged pike since I was a teenager in Michigan. I miss it, as it is pretty cool watching a hole in the ice and seeing a snout the size of a canoe paddle appear from an edge of the ice. When you drop the boom on them, all hell breaks loose.
There is no spearing in IL (no pike for that matter), so now I spend the bulk of my ice time chasing big bluegills and crappie. My rods are typically about a foot long and we jig super small lures on two-pound line. We have a very sensitive spring arm on the rod that acts as an “indicator”. On a good morning, three of us can fill a five-gallon bucket with palm-sized bluegills. I note that I have big hands.
[quote]DickBag wrote:
i read an article about alaska one time, that someone illegally introduced pike into the water system, and now the salmon figures are down 30000 after a year i think. i dont know why but i laughed, because its such a mischeivious thing to.
[/quote]
That is true in my area as well. They’ve taken over a couple lakes and the landlocked salmon, lake trout (splake, togue) and other species are being pressured out.
Ditto with small/largemouth bass-- they’re spreading into waters that still have nice populations of native brook trout.
It’s pretty sweet pulling one of those (pike) through the ice, though!
[quote]DickBag wrote:
and heres an average sized pike a caught a while ago.
i realise its not half as cool as any of the massive ones posted earlier.
[/quote]
DickBag, have you heard of Tiger Muskies? There a hybrid they stock here in the states a cross between a Muskellunge and a Northern Pike. They have pulled some big ones forty to fifty inchers from some lakes here in Colorado. I’ve seen em when I’ve been night fishing cruising the shoreline with their mouths above water like some damn alligator. Caught one once that easily broke my line.
D
[quote]DickBag wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:
DickBag wrote:
Score. i was waiting for a thread like this.
I like pike fishing.
The methods i use are deabaiting, sink and draw, jerkbaiting, and general lure/spinning.
Sometimes i catch some perch when targeting pike, which is welcomed. Perch are cool fish as well
i have caught a 4.5 brown trouth recently on a wobbled smelt deadbait. i have a pic some where of the beast i will post it tomorrow. when i was 14 i caught a 6 pound salmon but it was a grilse and i had to put it back in the river, because 1. its not mature enough and 2. i didnt have a fishing permit.
some old guy wasnt too impressed with me and said im lucky i didnt get caught by any of the guys in charge of the club.
I used to do alot of fly fishing on a trout/ salmon river near my house but lately i stick to pike because i want to catch massive brutes of fish.
eventually i would love to go to some scandinavien countries and do some ice fishing for pike, that is meant to be bad assthhh… i hear the musky in america and canada are ridiculously big
i would love to do some lure fishing for bass as well. bass are kick assth
http://www.jjphoto.dk/fish_archive/freshwater/esox_reichertii.htm
If you ever go on a trip, and catch one of these. Be sure to post it. Also, in the US we have chain pickerel, and two smaller species the grass and redfin pickerel. Catching each of the 3 species might be difficult without moving around the country due to the range of the fish, but it’d be worth it.
If you really love pike, and want an aquarium sized pike. grass/redfin pickerel are great they max out at 8-12" and can be kept in a 40long + gallon tank.
that is oen wierd looking pike alright. i thought they were only got in russia or north china?
as for aquarium, that would be cool alright but i would nearly go a few steps farther and put a large deep ponde in the back yard then fill it with pike spawn.
that would be fun. i would have to know what im doing though, and find a way to get fresh water into the ponde.
[/quote]
YOu said you wanted to take atrip to east europe? There are supposedly a lake somewhere in the US that some of them escaped into when brought here. THere probably aren’t any pure ones left but there is supposed to be amur/northern pike hybrids. I’ll try to find where I read that.
here:
You might be able to find this hybrid in Glendale Lake, PA. They were stocked there by the State.
The fish came from a trade with Russia in 1968 (Striped Bass & Steelhead for Amur Pike).
Some of the fish escaped in to Spring Creek from the hatchery in 1975. Then they lost all the Amur Pike broodstock in 1976.
There is some debate on weather any pure Amur Pike still exest in this country. Most don’t think so.
But Glendale Lake can say it had every species in the Pike famaly at one time.
Zep -
Yes, Glendale has Hybrid Striped Bass. The fishery is big in PA, NJ, MD, VA impoundments, especially the Susquehana watershed.
Funny you mention Glendale-- I had sent a PM to Szkykzy about carp I caught there when I lived in that area of PA.
Are you from that area?
[quote]SteelyD wrote:
Zep -
Yes, Glendale has Hybrid Striped Bass. The fishery is big in PA, NJ, MD, VA impoundments, especially the Susquehana watershed.
Funny you mention Glendale-- I had sent a PM to Szkykzy about carp I caught there when I lived in that area of PA.
Are you from that area?[/quote]
nope, I’ve always lived in wisconsin. I plan on trying to catch som eof the hybrids in that lake though when I’ve got the money saved/old enough to go on the trip.
OK, that’s it… I’m going fishing tonight…
Will take pics, fish or no fish…
Funny pike story–
When I was in college, a few students and our advisor went on a trip through Ontario visiting mines and mining towns (Sudbury Big Nickel, Kid Creek, Cobalt, etc)-- geology majors…
So me and another guy were equipped with fishing gear, so many nights we had fish for dinner… In one of the parks we were staying the warden was talking to us giving us some tips and he told us they recently had a newsworthy event about illegal fishing.
They came across a guy who was pike fishing with live bait… KITTENS! Apparently he had a litter of small kittens that he somehow rigged to a line and was tossing them overboard…
I’ve seen bass hit toads and even small chipmunks, but kittens!!! Points for originality, but a deductions for not bein’ right…