The fishing thread

[JimG.]

My big summertime activity is fishing. Once I hang up the skis, the waders come out for spring trout fishing. I'm lucky to have a gold medal trout steam that runs right through my property, but I also love to move around my area (foothills of the Catskills) and fishing on rarely fished streams. I'm not fussy...I'll fly fish when I can but have no problems picking up an ultralight spinning rig to bag a few nice browns or brookies.

In late spring I move onto the NYC watershed for lake trout. This is when the rowboat starts to see alot of use. Great exercise and alot of fun. Relaxing too. Then it is the transition to bass season in late June. This is my favorite freshwater fish. I especially love to catch smallmouth bass, pound for pound the best fighting freshwater fish there is. I'll fish for bass until early fall and then transition back to trout for the rest of the season.



Although I have been on several awesome bluefishing trips, my saltwater fishing resume is weak. I'd especially like to charter a boat for an overnight striped bass or yellowfin tuna trip.

I'd love to hear your fishing tales and especially any thoughts about saltwater fishing.

[Grassi21]

I get out a few times each Summer on my buddies boat. He is docked in South Norwalk. We primarily go for striped bass which is a $hit load of fun. He is a lifelong fisherman so he even nets his own bunker for bait. He posted up some pictures yesterday from the South Shore of LI where they were shark fishing. They pulled and release a few blue sharks. Hoping to get out with him a bit more this Summer.

[deadheadskier]

Agreed on Smallies. By far my favorite fresh water fish to go after.

Mentioned this place in my thread about camping, but if you like smallie fishing, no better place I've found anywhere than Green River Reservoir. Catch it on a good night and you can easily reel in a dozen 3+ pounders in the couple of hours around sunset. Biggest I ever pulled out of there was 5.5.

http://www.vtstateparks.com/htm/grriver.htm

[Ski Stef]

I definitely love to get out in the boat in the evenings to fish during the summer..I haven't done much trout fishing and only a little fly fishing when I was out in Colorado...


My favorite fish to catch are pike and large mouth bass. I'm on the trophy board for this 6.5 large out of Lake Bomoseen. It must have been right before she spawned...





Now a fishy tale...
My first time I ever went ice fishing my boyfriend set up all of his tip ups (I am THEE MASTERbaiter ) and he was letting us go one for one each time a flag went up. He had caught a couple of fish in the morning and I had missed everyone. Around 2:45 one of his tip ups went off in the way corner and I was up. I sprinted to the hole and the line was spinning like crazy... I grabbed the line and let it roll through my fingers for a second before I yanked it up to set the hook. Immediately the fish took off again and I let it take some line before I started to reel it back in.. It took off a couple more times but eventually started swimming towards me.. when I got the fish to the hole all I saw was this GIANT fish head that took up the entire 8-inch drilled hole, It got a little hectic at this point in time when we realized it was a pretty big fish. None the less I landed it... 11 lb Pike. first fish out of the ice!

[bigbog]

So have you strategically moved any boulders to create some holes for the hog Browns to move in...just off your property yet JimG!!???...

I'm more of a hiker/wildlife-watcher, late-boomer explorer(LOL) ie mountain hunter for earning turns now when solo....but a planned day or more with a few others...then the OC-1...or flatwater canoe, and possibly flyrod gear comes along, but in a few streams/rivers one can surf solo and get enough out of just it without running downstream. I can do a little front/side surfing anytime! Also love the pt-2nd(or is it 3rd..?) job of doing a little water/wetland testing = has to do with troutwater usually, thus I enjoy it.....
A flyrod/trout addict I was..and I tend to think that although flyfishing's priority has slipped a bit, it never leaves us totally, especially when nice mayfly, caddis and sometimes stonefly hatches still inhabit . Most of Maine is made up of various levels of remoteness so it's just a matter of what waters will be right given the weather. Still lots of waters have decent-to-great hatches.. which along with terrestrials...are fun to fish.
Brooktrout predominate with Landlock Salmon and Browns inhabiting a handful of streams/rivers/lakes. Luckily I know enough waters with nice populations of native Brookies 12"+ so the hunt doesn't have to take that much time, just in getting there(but its tons of fun to visit the real remote stuff if you're prepared for it)..BFG's KM2 tire really performs well on my Xterra...
I haven't had the motivation to spend the time hunting down the habitats of the bigger Browns up here...but I know where the larger Brooktrout hang...so that's cool enough for me,
Certainly a nice year for paddling and/or fishing = water levels...although it has started slow up here...

**BIG Bass Ski_Stef!

[JimG.]

I get out a few times each Summer on my buddies boat. He is docked in South Norwalk. We primarily go for striped bass which is a $hit load of fun. He is a lifelong fisherman so he even nets his own bunker for bait. He posted up some pictures yesterday from the South Shore of LI where they were shark fishing. They pulled and release a few blue sharks. Hoping to get out with him a bit more this Summer.

I'd be interested in tagging along if possible one day. Keep me in mind.

[JimG.]

Agreed on Smallies. By far my favorite fresh water fish to go after.

Mentioned this place in my thread about camping, but if you like smallie fishing, no better place I've found anywhere than Green River Reservoir. Catch it on a good night and you can easily reel in a dozen 3+ pounders in the couple of hours around sunset. Biggest I ever pulled out of there was 5.5.

http://www.vtstateparks.com/htm/grriver.htm

Love the smallmouths. I fish mostly in the East Branch reservoir about 20 minutes from my house. It's a small impoundment, but it is very deep in spots and has incredible underwater structure. Many very rocky areas, alot of old roadbeds from colonial settlements, and plenty of shallower sandy areas perfect for spawning.

The fish population sounds alot like Green River. On a good day you can catch plenty of 2 1/2+ pound fish. There are also plenty of "pigs" as we call them, baby and juvenile fish 3-6" long, an excellent indicator of a healthy population. My biggest to date was 6 lbs which is an estimate since I am very much a catch and release fisherman. All I could do was measure it and at 24" it was the longest smallie I ever landed. I've caught several in the 20-22" class and the one that was 22" weighed a little over 5 lbs. based on the reading from a hand held scale.

[deadheadskier]

Green River is actually quite shallow, but cold. Lots of lilly pad areas. I used to fish it pretty much with top water lures like Jitter Bugs and Torpedoes. Pretty much just Smallies and some MONSTER pickerel. So big, you'd swear they were northern Pike. On days when the Smallies weren't biting, I'd go after pickerel with shiners. Other than, Perch and panfish.

[JimG.]

I definitely love to get out in the boat in the evenings to fish during the summer..I haven't done much trout fishing and only a little fly fishing when I was out in Colorado...


My favorite fish to catch are pike and large mouth bass. I'm on the trophy board for this 6.5 large out of Lake Bomoseen. It must have been right before she spawned...





Now a fishy tale...
My first time I ever went ice fishing my boyfriend set up all of his tip ups (I am THEE MASTERbaiter ) and he was letting us go one for one each time a flag went up. He had caught a couple of fish in the morning and I had missed everyone. Around 2:45 one of his tip ups went off in the way corner and I was up. I sprinted to the hole and the line was spinning like crazy... I grabbed the line and let it roll through my fingers for a second before I yanked it up to set the hook. Immediately the fish took off again and I let it take some line before I started to reel it back in.. It took off a couple more times but eventually started swimming towards me.. when I got the fish to the hole all I saw was this GIANT fish head that took up the entire 8-inch drilled hole, It got a little hectic at this point in time when we realized it was a pretty big fish. None the less I landed it... 11 lb Pike. first fish out of the ice!

Very nice Stef! Hope your boyfriend appreciates having a fishergirlfriend. I can see you are experienced just by the way you are holding that fish, upright and with support in the belly area.

If you like pike fishing, the Adirondack lakes have good populations. I've caught a few 10 pounders up in Loon Lake. Used to be a great bass lake but the acid rain kind of screwed those populations pretty good. Also great pike fishing in the Thousand Islands area of the St. Lawrence river, and Wellesley Island has great camping areas. If you really want BIG pike, travel up to northern Quebec and stay at an outfitters cabin up there. My fishing partners and I spent a week up there and the pike and walleye fishing was completely off the hook, pun intended. The smaller pike are 10 lbs and we caught several that were 25. The first few I hooked just wrecked my lure or broke my line. I finally realized that they were so aggressive I could use a steel leader which stymied the tackle wreckers.

I'd also suggest a trip to Eagle County Wisconsin to fish for Muskie. Known as the "fish of 1000 casts", Muskies tend to hang out in thick weedbeds and often are 4' long and longer and can grow to 50 lbs. and even heavier. As wary as they are, many are hooked by moving a lure in a figure 8 pattern right next to the boat. I landed a 25 pounder that way and almost fell out of the boat when that fish hit the lure.

My ice fishing resume is even weaker than my saltwater resume, but that's because I'm skiing when there is ice so I'm just fine with that.

[JimG.]

So have you strategically moved any boulders to create some holes for the hog Browns to move in...just off your property yet JimG!!???...

I'm more of a hiker/wildlife-watcher, late-boomer explorer(LOL) ie mountain hunter for earning turns now when solo....but a planned day or more with a few others...then the OC-1...or flatwater canoe, and possibly flyrod gear comes along, but in a few streams/rivers one can surf solo and get enough out of just it without running downstream. I can do a little front/side surfing anytime! Also love the pt-2nd(or is it 3rd..?) job of doing a little water/wetland testing = has to do with troutwater usually, thus I enjoy it.....
A flyrod/trout addict I was..and I tend to think that although flyfishing's priority has slipped a bit, it never leaves us totally, especially when nice mayfly, caddis and sometimes stonefly hatches still inhabit . Most of Maine is made up of various levels of remoteness so it's just a matter of what waters will be right given the weather. Still lots of waters have decent-to-great hatches.. which along with terrestrials...are fun to fish.
Brooktrout predominate with Landlock Salmon and Browns inhabiting a handful of streams/rivers/lakes. Luckily I know enough waters with nice populations of native Brookies 12"+ so the hunt doesn't have to take that much time, just in getting there(but its tons of fun to visit the real remote stuff if you're prepared for it)..BFG's KM2 tire really performs well on my Xterra...
I haven't had the motivation to spend the time hunting down the habitats of the bigger Browns up here...but I know where the larger Brooktrout hang...so that's cool enough for me,
Certainly a nice year for paddling and/or fishing = water levels...although it has started slow up here...

**BIG Bass Ski_Stef!

I knew I would get a response from you bigbog! I indeed did clean out my stretch of the creek (got rid of a few brush piles that had built up during floods and one truck wheel I found semi-buried in there) and built several rockpiles for the bigger browns to hang out in. I didn't have any big boulders on my property so I had to resort to rockpiles, but they have held up well during the high water periods in the spring. I also built underwater rock bridges across the creek both at the head and tail of the pool on my property to aerate the water and create riffles.

Over time the rockpiles did create holes and I did catch several 14" browns this spring in there, pretty much as big as they are going to get in that creek.

I've never fished up in Maine, then again I've only been in Maine once in my life and that was in the Winter. I believe that fishing for brookies out of a canoe with a buddy with flyrods is my favorite all around fishing trip. Just alot of fun and brookies may be the most beautiful freshwater fish there is. We have several streams near me with 12+" brook trout (actually a member of the char family) populations, but I've been to Quebec to fish for brookies (called speckled trout or specks up there) and up there they can grow to 5 lbs. and bigger.