There is a dam on a predominantly sunfish and bass lake that dumps into a colder tributary stream. The tailwater is no more than 9 feet deep and quickly turns shallow with a rocky, sandy bottom. It's not frequented and leaves just enough space for a 5wt to be used. This is nothing compared to the huge browns that I see rising every hour.
Headed out of Biloxi Boardwalk Marina Saturday morning with 7 people on the boat. Pulled up to a shrimp boat and jigged behind it for cobia. Got something big on and thought we had a cobia. Thing fought really hard but when we got it to the top it was a jack. Caught 3 more of them, they were thick under the shrimp boats. Gave up on that and went to I think FH14 bottom dropping for snapper with pogey. Nothing doing. Went to some private coordinates. They were not touching it on the bottom. We chummed them up to the top and then free lined pogeys to them. About 5-8 of them would come up and it was on. You had to be right over the structure and chumming and each time you had about a 5-10 minute window. So after they disapeared we'd go back to the structure and do another pass, and just continued to do this in a cycle till we had 14/our limit. I caught the fish of the day which I think was a 35 inch and we didn't weigh it but probably 23 pound snapper. I thought I had a cobia on because I never felt a snapper fight that hard. It took me a solid 10-15 min to get it in. It went on some long runs and dives.
Went fly fishing on the Chattahoochee last Sunday, only saw a few small trout along the edges. Seems like people pressure pushed them away and we were off the water by 2. Walked in at Jones Bridge Thinking about walking down from Holcomb Bridge Park this weekend to stay away from people. Have my girl in Orvis 101 on Saturday and will ask then.
You guys having a mini season on Red Snapper right now? We went out of Canaveral about a month ago and hammered them, but weren't allowed to harvest.
we can catch them in state but not federal water right now. not sure when that season began and ended. it's confusing. i think we only have 9 days of federal snapper fishing i could be wrong on that
Christ we never find them within 3 miles of shore, we always have to go 20+. One of the perks of fishing in the gulf for sure.
it took us about 45 minutes to an hour at full speed in a 26 foot regulator with twin 250s to get to the snapper water. You can get to deeper water much quicker in Florida and Alabama.
dawgonit Have you fished at Island Ford on the Hooch? Thinking I might try it in the evening Wednesday or Thursday.
This was 2 weekends ago at an inshore reef. 13 keeper specks in about 2 hours. It was really fun. Some of them are good size too, 18-20 inches. This was last weekend. CAught a ton of short specks. That's a 14.5 inch flounder and a 20 inch redfish. Had another nice flounder up to the yak and he got off. That red had my rod so far bent over it was scaring me, I think he was running straight down underneath my yak in about 5 feet of water. He got all tied up around the fishing line and the anchor line, it was a mess. Was able to get net him though. Probably caught like 15 short specks and couldn't catch one freaking legal one. Lots of the good sized specs are in deeper water as the water temperature is so hot right now. I can't get to that deeper water in my yak. This is my yak setup.
RJF-GUMP what do you do with your bait bucket when paddling? last time i used one I tried to keep it in the water and it was like a wind sock.
I just let it hang out behind me in the water. It's definitely a drag and makes it much more difficult to paddle. At times I'll just stick it between my legs but you can only let the bait go without oxygen for so long. Thankfully the spot i usually fish at isn't far at all from the beach so i can just leave the bait bucket in the water attached to my kayak.
yeah we paddled 5 or 6 miles during the day to cover the water and get to the spot we wanted to fish. had to put the buckets in the floor of the canoe and stop every 10-15 minutes to give them a little fresh water. didn't know if there was a secret to keeping them wet and not fucking killing yourself.
I'm taking a trip with them for my birthday in October. Those are dinosaurs compared to the small guy I saw down the river.
I know of no secret. And whenever you do stop and anchor up I'm always having to plunge the bucket under and make sure it has enough water in it and its not just floating on the top of the water with no water in it with all the bait dying.
Yeah, Unicoi Outfitters has a private stretch of river they stock with these guys. It's like $50 a morning, same buddy who I'm doing the Chattahoochee trip wants to go up there.
$50? hell its $150 for the DRO private water and the Soque private stretch is quite a bit too. $50 is cheap.
Photo dump from this summer. Methow Valley, WA Spoiler Cutbow? Spoiler Real eerie fishing where a forest fire has opened up an entire valley. Excellent fishing in this little creek. 21 fish in 42 minutes. Browns, brookies, and westslope cutties Spoiler westslope cutthroat Spoiler Colorado Spoiler
Girl caught a 16 inch cutthroat and I got 3 8-10 inchers on the Snake today, bucket list item checked and pics when I get back to legit wifi. Trip lived up to every hope and expectation.
Finally I must have reached my 10,000th cast. The tiger was 44" and taken on a depth raider in perch. Didn't get a chance to measure the other fish, but caught on a white bondy bait. All from the St. Clair river, just north of Lake St. Clair.
Beauty of a paint job on that tiger! I could tell right away from that 2nd pic that they came from St Clair. No other fresh water in North America has that color.
Been trying to get my first cobia (without a guide) for the past few months on the flats near my house. Usually find a couple following the manatees but only got a couple casts at each before the boat spooked the manatees into the deeper channels. I was fishing alone so having to drive, find them, cast etc is my excuse! Well, manatees are mostly gone now so just figured I'd fish for trout with shrimp. Guy at bait store recommended chubs as well. Caught a bunch of small trout all under 12" and then a cobia showed up. The one time in last 3 months I'm not targeting them. Well, I was able to get it to bite anyway. 28" so threw it back. Think they have to be 33" to keep.
FWP: Parasite caused whitefish kill, Yellowstone River closed State officials announced Friday morning that a parasite-caused disease killed thousands of whitefish in the Yellowstone River. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in a press release that the cause for the kill is proliferative kidney disease, which it said is “one of the most serious diseases to impact whitefish and trout.” The disease is caused by a microscopic parasite. It has been documented in Montana two other times in the past 20 years. Recent research has shown the disease has the potential to cause 20 percent to 100 percent mortality in trout, FWP said. In response, FWP has decided to immediately close the Yellowstone River to all recreational activity from the border of Yellowstone National Park to the Highway 212 bridge in Laurel. The press release says that the closure includes all tributaries to the river and all forms of recreation — floating, fishing, tubing and more. FWP said that the closure will help prevent the spread of the parasite to other river systems through boats, waders and other human contact. The parasite poses no risk to humans. This all started when the state began receiving reports of a large-scale whitefish kill in the river. FWP staff confirmed that more than 2,000 whitefish had been killed. FWP said in the press release that it is also starting to receive reports of dead rainbow and Yellowstone Cutthroat trout. The disease is exacerbated by poor river conditions like high temperatures and low flows. FWP spokeswoman Andrea Jones said earlier this week that they assumed they were only seeing a tenth of the impact. http://www.bozemandailychronicle.co...7e.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
That's awesome, caught my first cobe about 6 weeks ago down in Naples. They're a blast. Supposed to head out Sunday for Kings, Cobia, and hopefully a tripletail or two
cobia are bruisers and fun to catch. great eating as well. very curious fish often swimming in packs and will come right up to the boat. the fall cobia season is about to be on, hanging out around buoys and rigs etc instead of off the barrier islands around here.
Yeah, my friend that I fish with said he caught all of his cobia earlier this week within 4 miles from port. Good to see them back because we didn't get many last run
Cob-a-mania Biggest was 42 pounds. Missed a bunch, had manta rays jumping everywhere. Also fought a 70ish lbs sailfish for about 2 minutes on my inshore rod (medium action, 15 lbs test). Never had one on the line put on an aerial show, probably the coolest part of the day. Thing pulled about 150 yards in 8 seconds. Finally coughed the hook after an aerial headshake. Sucks but was still the coolest fishing experience I've had.
Don't remember who in here posted their thoughts on the underwater fish light for me about a year ago - but I got it, and it's awesome. I spent about an hour on my dock last weekend watching a ton of bream swim around, quite a few shad shooting through, and some big bass just hanging out. A few of the bass were very big 5lb + if I had to guess.
They are great. Mine is in saltwater so watch the snook circling it and all the glass minnows all the time.
really low water. need to find or make some gar flies. they were hitting everything I threw today. got a few nice largemouth and a few smallies