I fished the Snake for two years, albeit mostly the Henry's Fork but this is still almost unbelievable to me. Possible brown trout hybrid?
Kinda, it helped at first but went way overboard, mostly due to bad science. I can only really speak for Alabama waters. In the early to mid 90s the snapper populations were low, at the same time Alabama started a huge artificial reef program. The natural bottom of Alabama is mostly flat sand and doesn't naturally hold a ton of snapper. The artificial reefs created a huge boom in the amount habitat for reef fish resulting in the huge amounts of snapper we have now. Mississippi and other states then followed creating their own artificial reef programs. For some reason NOAA only counts the snapper on natural bottom, making it seem we are catching a much larger % of the population.
This explains what he is talking about http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/01/kingpins_of_the_gulf_make_mill.html
Love the results from a sustainability standpoint but what it did to smaller fisherman is real shitty
i didn't think they were close enough to hybridize. are there any fish stocked there where a larger variety of cutthroat like the lahontan could have made it into the river?
This is anecdotal, but I feel like snapper are now (1) tiny and (2) overpopulated. You pull in 10 snapper to 1 grouper bottom fishing these days.
As stated, they only count snapper on the sandy bottom, where very few live. My friend fought two trout fishing last year, so they're obviously everywhere. The Feds don't know anything about snapper nor can they get a handle on things from a desk in Washington - where the people working know stats and very little about cigar minnows. They should let the states handle it. Most people that fish for them are concerned abut the population of all fish - it's the commercial fisherman that kill numbers these days.
Company's annual trip to Islamorada coming up soon, I don't go out to the blue water anymore but I am taking a half day back country charter for the first time. Any of y'all done one of those down there before?
I swear nothing went as planned today. what should've been a good 5 hours on the water ended up being 1.
I think they really did a disservice with that picture. 28" 8-10 lbs is absurd but I guess believable. The picture makes it look 36" and about 20 lbs.
Had my best day at Boulder Creek yesterday with 20 browns over a four hour period. 14 ended up coming in one hour, and they were absolutely hammering a dark blue kebari. I've started tying my own flies, and I love the opportunity to try out different flies without worrying about throwing them into tight spaces under foliage/around logs. Started out with a bright pink, grizzly hackled fly that brought in three fish. Spoiler Switched over to a neon yellow with pheasant hackle that also got three. Spoiler Finally went with a dark blue and grizzly hackle that got 14 fish. Spoiler
I have a really noob question. Im headed to New Mexico at the end of the month. Im not a huge fisherman but i have some equipment. My question is when fishing for trout in those streams do you have to use a fly rod? Cause i have no idea how. Or can i just toss out a line with salmon eggs or whatever and catch something? My goal is just to catch a couple and cook them for dinner one night
you're probably going to have to contact a fly shop or guide service in the area. it's probably going to vary from stream to stream. also just to make sure you aren't planning to fish in areas that are under catch and release regulations or ban treble hooks on spin gear.
It depends on the stream. If it's too wide, you're not going to do very well with a casting rod. You'll need the fly rod to get out to the places where the fish are without spooking them. Around here, a casting rod with a small Mepps Aglia is a great producer. Cast upstream and reel downstream. Other places, you can just toss out some salmon eggs and let them float downstream. Like HOOSINSC said, contact a local bait shop and find out the best approach for the gear you have and if there are any special regs. If they are particular to flies on a fly rod, you can always look for a larger river and soak some crawlers or stink bait for cats.
Thanks for the input guys. I never would have even thought that some areas are catch and release only. The lodge were staying at advertises tons of trout in their streams. I just assumed we could cook em. Im gonna give them a call and ask.
you have the Rio Grande Cutthroat in some of the streams. it's highly protected so I assume some of the rivers are catch and release only. if you're staying at a lodge it's probably not a concern, but calling around for tips might be good anyways. heads up though, a "fly only" shop is probably going to be snobby if you ask about lures and spinning tackle. Lot's of info and links on this site. http://loeflyfishing.com/Fishing_Spots/Rivers_Streams/
lhprop1 A few buddies and I are trying to plan a trip to next February's eelpout festival. Have you ever been? Any tips or advice on where to stay?
I always wanted to go, but I followed through with it. Now I'm too old to be getting that drunk with 10,000 other people out in the middle of a frozen lake. It's a hell of a time that you'll never forget (if you can remember it). I do know that a lot of people bring campers out there and just sleep right on the ice. Hell, some people even bring a lumber truck out and build their own little house right there on the ice. Accommodations can be tough, so you want to start calling around now. Most of the resorts that are right on Leech Lake will already be booked, but there are probably some hotels still in town with vacancy. One thing I do know through first hand experience is not to drive if you've been drinking. The Walker PD is on high alert during the festival weekends there and if you get busted, you'll get to spend the night in jail with a bunch of large, angry Indians. If the rest of you have never heard of the Eel Pout Festival in Walker, MN, you really need to check it out. Do some google-fu and watch some vids or look at some pictures. It's insane.
yeah white trout/sand trout. We went to this reef where ppl were pulling them up every cast, we couldn't get close enough to it but we picked up 7 of them. They were tiny. There is no catch limit or size limit on them. But I'm going to impose a 10 inch limit because fileting 7 inch trout is dumb as i found out. Caught that 23 inch redfish from my kayak saturday afternoon. Fought like a beast
Took a couple of friends surf fishing yesterday. They started out throwing shrimp on pompano rigs and I was throwing yo zuris. First 3 casts, 3 bluefish. Then they wanted to throw the same thing. They both caught 3 or 4 each. Not good eating, but fun to fight. One of them also caught a ladyfish so I chunked it and threw it on a steel leader hoping for a shark. Ended up catching a big blue.
White bass are running in the Detroit river. Missed out on walleyes and yeah I guess they're a garbage fish, but it's still a blast when you can reel in a fish on almost every cast.
all I am looking forward to is going out monkey box and heading for bird island . yummy blue channel cat , shell crackers , and slab spec . straight poles . on a pontoon boat . big one . see it all . wuv me some rim cannal too .
are we talking like white bass ( strippers ) by remmel damn ? the good shit like german brown trout in heeber springs and rainbow trout in Malvern .
there is a short stretch of water on the last part of rim , maybe a half a mile stretch and the blue channel cat hit shinners like crazy , they hit hard and fast so the cayman don't get them . once out in the lake you can head either to the duck hunting grounds for big bass or bird island for specs monkey box for shell crackers , ect , ect , ect .
I've been wanting to go kayak fishing for a while now - don't have a kayak and don't want to spend the money on one until I know I like it. Found a few guided trips for $150-200 / person - can't wait to give one of these a try. Just need a friend to not be a poor and agree to go with me.
No stripers but related. They call em silver bass up here. Look like this: Could be that they just piss the walleye anglers off here because it's harder to catch walleye when they're in thick.
IN DALLAS TX BY SAN RAYBURN THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE REAL BIG . I caught those size on arky river . u like the meat ? just had some real good halibut and grouper . and just went to dinner at the catfish place in st . cloud . fingerlings ya know ? before I was talking about the big lake in moorehaven or Clewiston .
sorry for the miss-spell . and of all places to eat . the catfish place does gator-tail the right way . just real good . fried okra and apple dumpling ?
Weird bite yesterday. Saw a ton of fish but not many ate. Landed a couple big ones late though, both 31".
heavy female red right there. bad bad fish. you're tampa bay area right?PolkChops nice snook but he'll be 5 lbs fatter in a month.
The red was strong. Took my brother a few extra mins to get in. I was always just under or over the slot with snook in April. Figures I'd land one right in the middle a few weeks late. That was between the Gandy and Howard Franklin on the St Pete side.