Fishing!

[fluketamer]

View attachment 875384View attachment 875385
A keeper at 19 inches.

nice! dinner!. the capt lou?

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Thanks, Captree Princess. You bet it was dinner! More shorts than keepers came over the rail, but it is a little early for biggies in the bay.

 

[AzOr]

No pics to share but this week I’ll have a chance to do some needed maintenance on my 16’ fishing boat. I’ll probably start the motors, give her a bath, check trailer bearings etc.
Many of the mountain lakes around here are still closed from the winter. Hopefully get a lot of Kokanee blood on the deck this summer.

 

[Shwagger]

American red snapper opens this weekend in the GoM. Busy weekend to be boating but the snapper are delicious.

 

[day_trippr]

Finally got out on the water today, weather was spectacular, water was almost up to 60°F, and the fish were cooperative. Caught one on my first cast but avoided the jinx with at least a dozen boated including a freakishly large crappie.

Reservoir was almost full which made launching and retrieval easy.

Just a killer day!

Gonna do it again tomorrow!

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Well! As has happened a few times in my life, today I quit fishing before the catching had stopped, the fish just totally wore me out. I lost count and stopped shooting pics after the first couple dozen and that was about halfway through the session.

Another spectacular day to be fishing!

I boated at least 6 smallies out of this one pocket. Definitely post-spawn, they were mostly protecting their beds.

Plenty of good size fish. If I had to guess they averaged around 3 pounds...

All on foam froggy poppers, three of which I beat into oblivion. Gonna have to find some more soon!

Cheers!

 

[Kent88]

today I quit fishing before the catching had stopped, the fish just totally wore me out.

Oh you poor thing, that just sounds awful.

 

[day_trippr]

Lol!

 

[Kent88]

Bumped into a retired Virginian yesterday at a dock and he was talking about a different variety of noodling that involved pool noodles and PVC pipe. Trying to look it up now, and it might also be known as jug fishing. Anyone here familiar with that method?

 

[fluketamer]

Well! As has happened a few times in my life, today I quit fishing before the catching had stopped, the fish just totally wore me out. I lost count and stopped shooting pics after the first couple dozen and that was about halfway through the session.

Another spectacular day to be fishing!
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I boated at least 6 smallies out of this one pocket. Definitely post-spawn, they were mostly protecting their beds.
View attachment 876607

Plenty of good size fish. If I had to guess they averaged around 3 pounds...
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View attachment 876609

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All on foam froggy poppers, three of which I beat into oblivion. Gonna have to find some more soon!

Cheers!

ive left them biting several times. usually when the fish are on here they are very aggressive and will feed til the bait is gone.
those are really nice smallies.

Bumped into a retired Virginian yesterday at a dock and he was talking about a different variety of noodling that involved pool noodles and PVC pipe. Trying to look it up now, and it might also be known as jug fishing. Anyone here familiar with that method?

a lot to unpack here.

noodling (in catfish terms) is fishing without rod, reel, or hook . its very scary. people (often young scantily clad southern women) attempt to jam there hand into a giant catfish mouth when it attempts to bite you after reaching into its hole. they then stick the hand through the gill to retrieve said fish from hole. usually in pitch black murky water. sometimes there partner pushes them under and holds them under the water. it seems very risky.



as an aside another type of hookless fishign is when you go yarning for eels. a ball of yarn is used to catch eels by getting them to bite it a get there teeth stuck on the yarn.


jug fishing otoh or dead line fishing or tree branch fishing or pool noodle fishing is where you dead stick baits in the water tied to a jug or tree branch or pool noodle then later go and retrieve the fish that commit suicide on the hooks. (not too sporty for me - but likely successful)

 

[Kent88]

noodling (in catfish terms) is fishing without rod, reel, or hook . its very scary. people (often young scantily clad southern women) attempt to jam there hand into a giant catfish mouth when it attempts to bite you after reaching into its hole. they then stick the hand through the gill to retrieve said fish from hole. usually in pitch black murky water. sometimes there partner pushes them under and holds them under the water. it seems very risky.

The man told me that this is not the type of noodling he was talking about.

 

[fluketamer]

i think he meant this:

 

[day_trippr]

Another lovely day on the water wrestling smallies eager to bite on poppers. I hardly needed to putt away from the boat launch because fish were everywhere I cast. Water temperature is an ideal 60°F so I expect the fishing to remain awesome for awhile.

I'm running out of my favorite poppers and haven't seen any in the usual places. Might have to make a run up to Kittery Trading Post for more...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

So I did make the pilgrimage to Kittery Trading Post this weekend to restock my favorite poppers before then heading over to our NH place. Got house projects done on Monday and Tuesday leaving today and tomorrow for fishing.

I got on the water early-ish this morning and the fish were cooperative all day West wind picked up around noon so I found sheltered stretches to work.

I used just two poppers all day and still have both. Actually snapped one off on a back cast due to a really worn knot but I just backed the boat up and retrieved it

This was a nice stretch out of the wind. Must've caught a dozen smallies in 50 yards of
river bank.

Tomorrow should be warmer with much less wind...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Well the forecast was off, winds were up in the 20s all day, quartering between north and northwest which made finding quiet spots a bit harder but I was able to get plenty of exercise. Smoke was a bit more intense than yesterday, smelled like someone using pine in their barbecue

Fished the faithful froggy popper as pretty much always and it didn't let me down. These are a few of the better fishies.

Been watching for eagles on each outing but hadn't seen any until this youngster buzzed me today...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Been planning on fishing Profile Lake in Franconia Notch NH for awhile but the weather and chores had conspired against me until this morning. In the offing I performed a functional test of whether I can still heft my 12' Old Town Katahdin up on top of my Durango, especially at the end of the day, or if it was time to give the canoe to one of my boys. Hadn't tried it since my lumbar fusion a few years ago so this was indeed a test. Managed to get it on top with minimal fuss, so I guess I'm still good with it for awhile longer.

Fishing was fine, catching was meh. Caught a couple of small brookies early on using my 9' 3wt which makes a 12 incher feel like a hog Then the wind in the Notch picked up around 10 so I switched to my 9' 5wt to keep up. Caught 3 yellow perch towards the beginning of the afternoon, much to my consternation. Not good, those things reproduce like rats. Profile is more pond than lake and being up near the top of the Notch it offers precious little in the way of fish food and the trout don't need competition from perch. Gonna have to check into what the NH F&W folks are thinking. I could see them Rotenone the lake to wipe everything out then plant brookies again.

Lots of traffic flying north on the highway for the holiday weekend, got plenty of horn toots from passing fans...

Cheers!

[edit] Youngest son and I were comparing AI art-bots. He used Meta, I used Copilot.

Meta

Copilot

I favor Copilot on this one...

 

[day_trippr]

Some fish need all the help!

 

[day_trippr]

 

[Shwagger]

I'm bad at taking pictures but bay scallop season down here has been another good one. All we can handle and they taste excellent. Gag Grouper season opens soon and plan on doing some 400ft trips and some shallow trolling. Not sure what's more fun lol. But I'll try to remember pics.

 

[day_trippr]

I don't care if this is AI or an IRL build, either way it's nutso!

 

[day_trippr]

I'm up north at our New Hampshire house to do some electrical work mixed with some smallie fishing on the Connecticut River. Got to the Moore Reservoir boat launch this morning and discovered they drained it. Woof!

The actual ramp was unusable, but fortunately there was a viable path to the left and I got the boat in and out without trouble.

I guesstimate the water level was 20 feet below "full" leaving all of my usual haunts high and dry along with the ramp, and exposing a lot of bottom I'd never seen before.

So on a lovely morning I carefully made my way up river, marveling at all the "beach" along the way.

One of my favorite spots was back in that little cove.

The dried out background would normally hold northern pike hiding in reeds and lily pads.

7 miles upstream from the launch I ran out of river - about a half mile short of where I've always been able to reach. A pair of mature Baldies flew around me while laughing at me, I swear.

Fished my way back down river, finding a few spots that were worth working a foam popper, and picked up a few decent fish along the way.

I'll probably focus on the house work tomorrow and hope the hydro station takes a break to refill the res between now and Friday morning. Otherwise I'll have to come back after the region gets some serious rain.

Cheers!

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Did some fly fishing on kettle creek, potter County PA pulled in quite a few, only 1 pic.

 

[AzOr]

Did some fly fishing on kettle creek, potter County PA pulled in quite a few, only 1 pic.
View attachment 883811

Brook trout?

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Brook trout?

We caught brook and browns

 

[Shwagger]

We got a few out deep

 

[day_trippr]

The snappah factory is gonna have to put on a third shift!

 

[day_trippr]

Beautiful day on the water today, but not without challenges.

Every time I drag Das Boot up to our NH place and then over to the Moore Reservoir on the CT River the water level has dropped even more than the last time. I had to mess around today to find a spot for a viable launch and retrieve. Lots of mud to complicate things but I was able to get in and out ok.

Bony af but a lovely day.

I figured where the river ran out of water would be a good place to set up shop today. I was not wrong, but getting there was especially hairy as It's so shallow up there the river channels are moving.

That's ~20 feet of vertical on that bank.

Made it to the end o' the line, a couple hundred yards below where I reached two weeks ago. Broke out the flyrod and poppers and got to the catching. Picked off a half dozen smiallies, some nice ones closing in on 3 pounds, but most were under 2.

After awhile the smallies were talking a break, so I pulled out a mid-weight spinning rod and a big blond mid-depth swim bait and started swinging it across the stream below me. Did not take long to hit paydirt with northern pike. These two were the best of the bunch, this one was 29 inches long and really did not want to visit!

Big unit! 32" with huge teeth. It tried to bury the treble hooks in my arm (that's happened before). I need to pick up a "BoGo Grip" for these toothy head swinging beasts!

That last pike got caught around 4:30 and by that time I was gassed (I'm recovering from a two week cold) so it was time to hit the launch and head back to our house. Planning on doing another day up there.

Cheers!

 

[wepeeler]

My dad with a River Monster Muskie! 50 inches! Upstate NY. Grass River