Anglers in Taiwan caught a true monster that was 9 feet long and weighed an astounding 646 pounds!!! Used to be all you had to worry about was watching the kids and the animals so they were somewhat safe from the GIANT cats when you were all in the river---now you better be watching your own back as well!!!
3-10-10
Missing trout bites?
By Gordon McHenry
It was great to hear from the mountain anglers who used my Power Egg tip to catch some nice trout at Lake Arrowhead and Lake Gregory. I also heard from a Arrowhead angler who wanted to know why he and his wife were having problems hooking up when they were fishing moldable Power Bait.
While baits like Power Eggs work very well during the winter months because the cold water doesn’t effect them and hook point is exposed, moldable baits are a little different.. The caller mentioned they were getting bit and had the fish on for a moment or two and when they reeled back in, the grape-sized ball of bait they were using had teeth marks on it. They didn’t realize their bait was so hard from the cold water the treble hook couldn’t penetrate the bait.
If you have reeled in your Power Bait during the cold water months and found teeth marks on it all you have to do is mould a small chunk of bait (make sure your hands are human scent free!) on the hook while keeping at least one of the three treble hooks (I use #14 sized bronze Mustad trebles in winter) exposed. Just remember to let the fish nibble on the bait a little longer that you would during the warm water months.
I like to experiment with different plastic and moldable baits during winter. I’ve found the biodegradable Power Baits work well when you mould them on a #6 or #8 single bait hook in the shape of a small bait fish. Once you get the shape down you can experiment with the different Power Bait colors until you find the one the trout just can’t resist. I’ve had days when I couldn’t get bit until I switched to the green bait so remember to keep changing!
If you want to catch stripers, check out the bite at Silverwood. Anglers have been catching fish from 2 to 15+ pounds on everything from anchovies to the big trout pattern Z-Plugs and Storm swimbaits. The dock, Cleghorn Canyon, Millers Canyon and the intake have been the best spots to get bit. The lake was stocked again with trout and the bite has been pretty good. If you have a two rod stamp try fishing for trout and stripers at the same time! Good fishing.
2-25-10
Winter cats?
By Gordon McHenry
I got a call from an angler who wanted to know if you can catch catfish during the winter months here in Southern California. Not only can you catch ‘em, you have to be careful you don’t wind up with busted tackle and sore arms when you get hooked up with a giant, record-size fish this time of the year.
Last year in Febuary, two catfish lake records were broken here in Southern California, a 32.80 pounder at Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet and a 92.1 pounder at Lower Otay Lake in the San Diego area.
Steve Oudomsouk caught the new CA state record blue cat, a 113.4 pounder!!, in mid ’08, out of San Vicente Reservoir in San Diego and the former 101 pound California state record blue cat was caught by Roger Rohrbouck, Alliance, CA, during the winter months--March 12th, 2004, to be exact---also out of San Vicente, which, by the way is closed for several years for repair work, so no huge San V cats for quite a while!!!
From what I recall about Roger’s catch, he was fishing a jig for bass on 10 pound Vanish line when the monster hit. Being able to catch such a huge fish on such a light line is a real testament to his fishing skill and the strength of Berkley’s Vanish line.
Over the past ten years, more than ten giant blue cats over 100 pounds have been caught, all of them holding various state and world records during that time.
The Texas record (and onetime world record) blue catfish weighed 121.8 pounds, measured 5, yes, 5 feet long and was pulled out of Lake Texoma on January 16, 2004 by 27-year-old Cody Mullennix.
Earlier in the day Cody caught a 56-pound blue catfish but released it. Lucky for the 121 pounder, Mullennix is a catch-and-release fan. He kept the hardy fish alive and donated it to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, Texas, where it became a star attraction swimming around in a huge aquarium before it later died.
Tim Pruitt, 33, of Godfrey, Ill., while casting his line in the Mississippi River on Sunday, May 22, 2005, hauled up a 58-inch long, 44-inch around blue catfish that weighed a whopping 124-pounds.To get a sense of just how big that is, the Illinois state record holder was a mere 85 pounds and the world record holder at the time (see above) tipped the scales at 121 pounds, eight ounces.
As far as how big catfish can really get, try visualizing fish that are big enough to eat people! That’s right, anglers in Taiwan caught a true monster (see pix above) that was 9 foot long and weighed an astounding 646 pounds!
Here in the So Cal mountains, all of our lakes---and even Deep Creek---hold cats. From 1 to 2 pound bullheads to the very tasty 5 to 10 pounders that are the perfect eating size, on up to 30 plus pounders, and maybe, just maybe, even bigger than that (I’ve hooked, just hooked, one and I‘ve even seen one even bigger!!) channel cats that you can catch---and enjoy eating!!---year round. Good fishing.
2-17-10
It's GIANT BASS time!!
By Gordon McHenry
It's that time of the year when only a few anglers, out the millions who claim to love it, will drive hundreds of miles to fish. They're out there braving the elements, day and night, just to hopefully, catch one fish. But it's not just any fish we're after. Our quarry is the most popular game fish in the country, and one that will go right back in the water once we've caught it!
With all the feedback I've received about my mention that this is big bass season, most of you know I've got to be talking about largemouth bass. But I'm not talking about just any old largemouths. The fish we're after are California’s Florida strain bass, the largest of their kind, fish that are direct decedents of the Florida bass that were first introduced to our California waters in 1959.
Since that time these great fish have spread, with the help of DFG biologists, and ‘others‘, from Upper Otay Lake in San Diego to practically all of our Southern California lakes and even overseas. (more on that below) So now, instead of only having them available in San Diego, we can fish for these behemoths at most all of our Southern California lakes.
To give you an idea of what happened because of the spread of Florida strain largemouth bass in Southern California, Crupi's 22.01 monster, was, at the time, the biggest bass the world had ever laid eyes on, Arujo's 21 pounder, Easley's 21, and Crupi's 21, to name just a few of the biggest, were all caught out of Los Angeles area lakes.
Recently, two other monsters, one the largest bass ever seen, a 25-pounder ---check our home page for a picture of this GIANT!!!--- was caught (accidentally snagged) and released by Mac Weakley, out of Dixon Lake near San Diego and Manabu Kurita tied George Perry’s world record 22.04 pound largemouth with his 22-pound, 5-ounce lunker caught out of Lake Biwa in Japan .
While most of these behemoths were caught more than a decade ago, the L.A. area big fish tradition continues with huge fish showing up every year. We've been catching and releasing some real nice ones over 10 pounds in January and February, but March really is prime time for anyone interested in catching a trophy bass. All of those So Cal monsters mentioned above were caught in March!
To catch a trophy bass over ten pounds, you have to know what you're doing. Slow cranking big lures, especially at night is one great way, but the real key is spending time on the water. I don't care if it's Castaic, Perris, Isabella, Casitas, Success, Clear, the San Diego lakes, Biwa or any other big bass lake, you gotta be there to catch 'em ! And you can't let a little "bad" weather stop you from going. Good fishing.
2-6-10
Break time!
By Gordon McHenry
Now that I’m taking a break from my newspaper fishing columns until early spring like I did last year when I took a break for the first time in more than twenty years, (that’s right, I wrote this column every week for more than twenty years without missing a deadline!!) I’ll have the time when the storm fronts start rolling through Southern California (like they are today, Sat Feb 6th---it's raining pretty hard here in the mountains!) to fish for the big browns and largemouth bass I’ve been dreaming about.
If you are going to fish for the big ones remember your 2009 fishing license expired on the Dec 31st so you’ll need your new license before you head out. The basic license costs $41.50, a real bargain when you consider all the fun you’ll have out on the water all year long. If you get a $12.85 second rod stamp, you can fish for two different species at once. Buy one (starting in March you won't to wear it!!!) on line at dfg.ca.gov/licensing/ols/intro.html or you can stop by the Cedar Glen Trading Post or Lake Drive Hardware in Crestline and pick one up.
Now, on to your questions. A couple of our mountain anglers have a friendly wager (the winner gets to fish anywhere he wants and the loser---this wager has no real loser!!! -- gets to pay for the trip) on the size of the trout I’m holding at the top of my column as seen in the papers and on the web sites. If you guessed 12 pounds 5 ounces, you are right on the money!! The bonus question is--- What did I catch it on? If you guessed a small 1” white and red tube bait AKA a crappie jig soaked in Berkley’s trout attractant you win!
Another question I get fairly often---Are those columns about hooking up---and losing--- a big Lake Arrowhead brown trout a fish story or did it really happen? They are for real!! Everything I write about in this column actually happened. Well, at least the things that happened to me. I know some of the fish stories I get are just that---fish stories. But that’s okay, fish stories are a part of the fun of fishing. Just don’t think we’ll believe all of them!
If you’ve called me at the paper recently, please call again since my messages have somehow disappeared into a voice mail black hole.
That’s it for now. It’s time to go fishing! I hope you can find the time to get out on water this winter. The lunkers will be biting and you can catch one big enough to quell any rumors about you actually catching it if you take your camera. See you out there! Good fishing.
2-6-10
Fishin the snow
By Gordon McHenry
The way the weather is looking here in the Southern California mountains as I write this, (Sat, Feb 6th) we could easily see a repeat of
the great Eastern Sierra style stream fishing we enjoyed when the flooding subsided after the radical El-Ninos of the early 90’s.
If you lived in the So Cal mountains back then, you probably remember when, like the late 60’s, Lake Arrowhead was flooding and the intersection of Hwy 173 and North Bay Road was under water where Willow Creek, the lake’s only overflow, crosses the road. With the incredible overflow, Willow Creek was getting stocked with some beautiful Arrowhead trout and the stream fishing was great from Willow Creek just below North Bay all the way down to Deep Creek.
Fishing on Willow Creek was so good that when I wrote about the hot trout bite I’d experienced after the water calmed down, several anglers called to say thanks for the info. I guess some of the experienced die-hard Eastern Sierra stream anglers didn’t believe it until they actually fished Willow Creek for the first time and caught their five fish limits, including some limits that were anchored by trout weighing over 5 pounds! It was incredible to watch something that’s not supposed to happen: a great trout fishery appearing, almost overnight, before my very eyes!!
If we see a repeat of that kind of flooding, be sure to check out Willow Creek and any of the other streams that carry the inflow (Silverwood’s Miller and Cleghorn creeks are good examples) to, or the overflow from our mountain lakes. You'll have a great time catching some big stream trout and, best of all, you won’t have to drive all the way to the Eastern Sierra to do it!
When the snow flies here on the mountain I’m often asked if we fish during 'bad' weather and if so, do the fish bite like they do during good weather. Well, thankfully, we can and do, often. Fish are always looking for an easy meal and could care less about snow and whether or not we are, at times, shivering so hard it gives our lures extra action during the retrieves.
Have you ever fished our mountain lakes during the winter? If you haven’t, you really are missing out on a truly great experience. It’s hard to beat fishing---catching is secondary--- during a snowfall. We’ve enjoyed some spectacular days on Lake Arrowhead over the past four decades fishing in the snow. One of the best trout fishing days I’ve ever experienced happened during a heavy snowfall. Don’t miss out on a great snow fishing opportunity!! Good fishing.
11-17-09
Crawler Drifting
By Gordon McHenry
One of hottest fall trout fishing techniques knowledgeable Lake Arrowhead anglers have been using is ‘crawler drifting. A plain nightcrawler or a ‘crawler covered with fish attractant as well as a crawler combined with red magnum Power Eggs on a bronze #8 Mustad bait holder hook have been catching some nice trout to 24 inches long.
When there is no wind or there is just a light breeze and the fish are up near the surface, fly lined (no weight) baits like puffed up (air injected) crawlers work well. It’s also a good time to use a bobber which also keeps the bait near the surface. If/when the wind kicks up, something we have to deal with on a regular basis, add more split shot sinkers to help control the drift..
Crawler drifting also works well this time of the year at Silverwood Lake. I seen several nice trout and some big crappie caught recently on fly lined or split shot plain crawlers, small jigs, and on the crawler Power Egg combo. If you fish the submerged trees around the shoreline with the 1” white crappie jigs and you’ll get hooked up.
We always do well in the fall fishing for trout at night using a bobber (for added casting weight) and puffed up crawlers combined with a Power Egg or a small chunk of Power Bait on a #16 bronze treble hook. It’s an easy and very productive method, one you can use while, (if you have a second rod stamp) you fish for something else.
The fall crappie bite has kicked in all over the mountain. Crappie are schooling up and you can really catch them now on bait and lures. The annual crappie bite at the Lake Arrowhead marina has coming on strong and the fishing has been great! Fish to 14 inches have been tearing up the white Atomic Teaser jigs.
One of the best methods to use is to cast out the jig and give it a little action by pulling the rod tip up slowly as it sinks. Once you’ve moved it about three feet, slowly lower the tip, keeping the line as tight as you can while still allowing it and the lure to sink, while you watch/feel the line for bites. You’ll find that a lot of the bites will come as the lure sinks. Try it. It’s a great way to catch a nice mess of these great eating fish. Good fishing.
11-3-09
Ready For Some Hot Night Fishing Action
By Gordon McHenry
If you've never fished our Southern California Mountain lakes at night, and I surprised by how many of you haven't, here's how we do it
While you can fish with just a flashlight when the moon's bright, good overall lighting is important if you want to have a good time. Nothing frustrates more than bad lighting when you have a big one on!
We use Coleman Dual Fuel lanterns because they are reliable, bright and they burn Coleman Fuel or easy to obtain unleaded gas. Just make sure the lanterns are tanked up before you leave and wash your hands very well afterwards to get rid of the fish repelling fuel smell.
We also use submersible fishing lights from Optronics. The Fish-N-Light and the 18" fluorescent green tube model work great for starting a food chain when used from a dock or a boat. Powering them is easy if you're in a boat, but carrying a heavy battery to a dock, or in from the highway at Silverwood, is another matter.
Tackle, bait, and lures are basically the same, day or night. We been using various colors of Gulp!, with great results. The nightcrawler/Power Egg combo, Vibrax spinners and Rapalas (use Berkley’s trout attractant on them to help the fish locate the lure at night) also work well.
We are lucky because we, unlike anglers in other parts of the state, can fish at night. We’ve fished Big Bear, Lake Arrowhead, and Silverwood at night for years and we always have a great time.
You can fish during the day and do okay on our mountain lakes, but when you're out on a quiet evening catching fish, there's really nothing quite like it. If you take lights, warm clothing, some food and drinks and, of course, family and friends night fishing, you'll see why so many anglers love to fish after dark.
For those of you who asked about seeing a picture of Sean Konrad’s 48-pound pending world record rainbow trout, check out our CAFishingShow.com web site. Just click Fish Stories and you’ll find it below another amazing picture, an 11 foot long sturgeon! One of the first things you should notice about the great pix of Sean holding his amazing catch is---are you ready? It was taken at night!!
If you want to see how to catch mountain trout at night, click on our Basic Trout Fishing video page while you‘re on our site. You won’t believe the action! And it’s only $15. post paid!! Good fishing.
Another GIANT Trout!!!
By Gordon McHenry
Not long after I told you about the new all-tackle world record 41 pound, 7.25 ounce brown trout, word came of a huge new potential world record rainbow trout. Both caught on Rapalas!
On Sept. 5, Sean Konrad of Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada, battled and boated a 48-pound rainbow trout, claiming the title of biggest 'bow ever caught!! He was fishing at night, slowly backtrolling an X-Rap Jointed Shad (XJS13) in Bonito (BTO) color pattern.
These are not fish easily fooled. They have lived for a long time and got bigger than any individual specimen ever caught by anybody, before eating a Rapala, because they were fooled by it.
The fish, possibly a record triploid (a strain of fish genetically altered for optimum growth), is pending certification, but is significantly larger than the existing world record... 43 pounds, 10 ounces, caught in 2007 by... get this... Sean's identical twin brother, Adam Konrad.
The twins are trophy trout seekers who also guide clients in their quest for the fish of a lifetime. Both world record rainbows came from Diefenbaker Lake, in Saskatchewan. These brothers live to fish, traveling often in search of good waters to ply.
Sean’s 42-inch long, 32-inch girth, 48 pound rainbow trout is a pending all tackle world record.
It’s an amazing fish considering the average length of a rainbow trout is 12-18 inches and a steelhead is 20-30 inches. A mature ocean run steelhead usually weighs 8-9 pounds but has been known to reach 36 pounds. These two forms of trout are vastly similar and the only major difference is that the steelhead is a sea-going fish (they can live in fresh water and have been stocked in our mountain lakes) and the rainbow inhabits fresh water.
The rainbow and steelhead are rated one of the top five sport fish in North America because of their hard fight and the great meals they provide.
The life expectancy of a trout can be as low as 3-4 years but generally a steelhead lives longer than a rainbow---usually 6 to 8 years. They first feed on plankton then insects and as they grow older, crustaceans and other fish. Our mountain waters are loaded with plankton which really helps get the little ones off to a great start. What our mountain trout need if they are going to fatten up is more baitfish!
The fall trout bite is kicking in here on the mountain. Use a chrome/blue Kastmaster or a Shad Rap and you’ll get hooked up! Good fishing
9-10-09
Lunker Fishing
By Gordon McHenry
Remember me writing about the small school of huge rainbows that were seen several times cruising Lake Gregory? Well, one of those huge fish, an 11.8 pounder, fell for a gold Super Duper this past week!
One of our better Southern California mountain anglers who loves to fish for trout has been chasing trophy (10+ pounds) trout all summer long and after coming close several times with some nice 7 to 9 pounders, he’s finally caught his trophy! The only problem is he can’t tell anyone about it because he skipped a few hours at work to catch it!!
He said he at first thought I was telling a fish story (What, a fish story in this column???) and the big cruisers were just that---a fish story. Then he saw
(polarized sun glasses and calm water) six of the huge trout at daybreak swimming slowly along near the dam and he got so excided he snapped off his big Kastmaster on his first cast.
As he stumbled along trying to keep the fish in sight, he managed to tie on a gold Super Duper and hastily cast it out in front of the school. A couple of seconds later a big one hit it and the twenty minute fight was on!! I know, I didn't believe it either until I saw the picture!
The fishing at Green Valley was great this past week. Quite a few full stringers of beautiful 1 lb to 4 lb trout stocked by Alpers and the Jess Ranch hatcheries were checked in. Three big rainbows were also checked in, a 9.3 pounder that went for a night crawler off the west shore, a 7.14 pound beauty that gulped a gob of peach/salmon Power Bait off the north shore and a 9.11 pound ‘bow that hit a gold Kastmaster off the west bank.
Arrowhead anglers are catching some nice trout on Shad Raps, Gulp! baits and the old standby, regular glitter Power Bait. Try North and Emerald bays and the dam area for fish up to 11 pounds.
The San Bernardino County Regional Parks Department is looking for volunteers to teach fishing to children during five Junior Fishing Workshops scheduled from December through April.
Twelve experienced and patient volunteers are needed to share their knowledge and love of fishing by teaching kids the fundamentals of shore fishing during the Junior Fishing Workshops. Volunteers must have a California fishing license.
If you are interested in helping our future anglers please call 909-387-2461 or e-mail:
parks@parks.sbcounty.gov for more information. Good fishing.
8-24-09
A New Bait from Stubby Steve
By Gordon McHenry
I found a new bait recently with a funny name that the trout seem to really like.
Stubby Steve’s makes a biodegradable artificial fish food lure that is an exact replica of a fish food pellet. It is the same size, shape, color and odor.......(and it's not just for stocked fish!)
Why? Because each year billions of fish are stocked in millions of ponds and public waterways in the United States alone. The vast majority of these fish are raised on fish food pellets. They never lose their desire for this treat. Stubby Steve]s has created a lure to satisfy the food the fish are craving. It is also safe for our environment.
During their testing, the folks at Stubby Steve’s were continuously surprised at the variety of fish that love the lure even though they have never eaten fish food before! It has to be the odor! It was originally developed and tested to be used alone for trout and it works great that way.
Stubby Steve (yes, there really is a Stubby Steve) says it would have been easy to make an environmentally unfriendly plastic lure that looked like fish food and it would have worked. Instead, it took years to make a lure that satisfied his goals
Stubby Steve's bait smells more like fish food than an actual piece of fish food. It's the same size, shape and color as a fish food pellet. The bait stays on the hook, even on a fly rod and it is biodegradable and eco-friendly. And since the vast majority of fish food sold is floating type, the bait also floats.
I’ve been testing the bait along side the usual trout baits I fish with and have been doing very well with it. Even though trout will hit some very loud bait colors, the trout seen to ignore the bright baits and attack the Stubby Steve's bait as soon as they see it.
Stubby Steve's baits costs $4.99 for a package of 20. You can check them out at stubbysteve.com.
Saturday, September 7th is the date for the next Crestline Chamber of Commerce trout derby. The event will feature some nice prizes. You can check the derby rules at the boathouse. Derby hours: 7:30 am - 4:30 pm. Ticket price: $10.00 each. A fishing license is required for anglers 16 and older. All State fishing regulations will be in effect at all times. For information call Lake Gregory Regional Park at 909 338.2233. Good fishing.
8-10-09
Mountain crappie fishing
By Gordon McHenry
I got a call recently from an angler who wanted to catch some of those crappie he‘s been hearing about. If you want to catch a hard fighting, very tasty fish, you should be fishing for crappie .
When fishing our mountain lakes for crappie you should first check drop-offs or break lines where the water changes from shallow to deep. A break line is the point in the drop-off where the depth changes most drastically. Check for them near drop-offs, weed lines, stumps, boulders and brush. Crappie like to feed around these structures. Lake Arrowhead anglers should be sure to check out the area around the launch ramp for the huge schools of big crappie that tend to congregate there in the fall. The bite can be phenomenal!
Small white crappie jigs like the Trout Traps or Atomic Tubes work well now. Take along a variety of other colors to experiment with until you find the best all around color.
Proper jig presentation is as important as jig color. Adding Power Bait crappie attractant to your jig and twitching or moving it only a couple inches or so at a time works well. Keep moving the jig at different speeds until you find which one works best. Just don’t overdo it and jerk the jig several feet at a time. If you make the movement as natural as possible, you will get more bites.
Feeding patterns often change during the day, sometimes from hour to hour. Some crappie anglers prefer only jigs, but you should be prepared with live baits like red worms or small nightcrawlers. A good angler has to learn to adapt to what the fish want at any particular time of the day.
The great crappie fishing here on the mountain often lasts well into winter when the weather is mild, so you might want to consider going as often as possible before the harsh winter weather finally arrives. Once you’re out there on one of our quiet mountain lakes catching fish, you’ll wonder why it took you so long to start crappie fishing!!
If you are going trout fishing, the DFG stocked (check our web site for the latest stocking info) Silverwood, Big Bear, Lake Gregory and Green Valley Lake recently and those fish along with some big holdover trout are on the bite! Good fishing!
7-29-09
Slip bobber fishing
By Gordon McHenry
When some anglers see bobbers being used they think only inexperienced anglers fish with them to help detect strikes. They don’t know that the most accomplished anglers in the world still use bobbers. If you want to catch more fish you really need to use bobbers, especially slip-bobbers.
Floats or bobbers, specifically slip-bobbers, do more than indicate when a fish has taken your bait. When used correctly, bobbers will help you get more bites.
Slip-bobbers are different than the fixed-position bobbers you used as a kid. Those clunky round red and white bobbers you clipped to your line did a good job keeping your bait off the bottom and letting you know when a fish bit, but they were hard to work with.
Slip-bobbers slide on your line and you can set a tiny bobber stop (the stops come with the bobber) at the depth you want to suspend the bait. If you want the bait twenty five feet below the surface, you set the bobber stop twenty five feet above the bait. Bobber stops are small enough to reel through the rod guides and even onto the spool of your reel, so casting and reeling fish in is much easier.
You’ll want to set the bobber stop so your bait will be at or a little above the depth the fish are cruising in. Here in the So Cal mountains the trout can always be found during the summer months hanging below the 25 foot depth range. At that depth the water is always ten to twelve degrees cooler than the seventy two to seventy four degree surface water, which makes conditions perfect for the sixty two degree water temperatures the trout love.
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It you don’t know how deep the fish are, it pays to experiment with how deep or shallow you’re setting the bobber. An adjustment of just a foot or two can make a lot of difference. Trout, for example, always feed looking up so you need to hold your bait or lure just above their average summertime depth.
Slip-bobbers have been producing some nice catches here on the mountain so far this summer. The best bait set up is still a magnum Power Egg combined with an inflated night crawler on a # 8 bait holder hook. Trout to 9 pounds are hitting Gulp! Baits, Power Bait (especially the green) Rapalas, Kastmasters and Super Dupers at Green Valley, Arrowhead, Gregory and Silverwood. Don’t miss the hot bite! Good fishing.
7-14-09
Low Light Fishing
By Gordon McHenry
A new angler asked me recently if I could tell him the best time to go fishing. The standard answer to that question is---drum roll here---Anytime you can! Right now, if I had to pick, I’d go during the low light hours.
One of the best ways to improve your catch during summer is to fish during the low light hours. From the first crack of dawn, to the last hour or so of daylight you’ll be fishing some of the best hours of the day.
The only time the trout fishing gets any better during the hot summer months is at night. If you’ve never tried night fishing you are missing out on a bite that often yields double and even triple hookups!
If you are going to fish the hot nighttime summer trout bite remember that once the thermocline sets up the fish will be cruising in the cooler water below the 25 to 30 depth range. Once you dial them in, the fishing can be amazing! We have enjoyed this great evening bite for several decades and we’ve caught-- -and most often released--- so many trout we’ve lost count.
If you are thinking about fishing the low light trout bite, you‘ll need a few things to make your piscatorial pursuit a whole lot easier. One of the most important thing you’ll need is a good light. We always take reliable flashlights and a couple Coleman lanterns. You don’t want to be stumbling around in the dark!
You’ll also want to take something to drink and eat, some chairs and, just in case, some bug repellant . Don’t worry about needing any more tackle than you already have. The rods and reels you normally use will be fine. All you need in the bait department is selection of Gulp!, a couple jars of original Power Bait and some crawlers.
Once you bait up, just drop the rig down 25 to 30 feet, (try puling six feet of line off the reel five times) just below the temperature break and hang on. No matter if you are fishing from a boat, a dock or from shore, if you keep the bait below the temperature break, the trout will find it!
Arrowhead, Green Valley, Silverwood and Gregory anglers have been using everything from Rapalas to Gulp! baits to catch some very nice trout limits. Among their limits were a few real nice fish that weighed more than 5 pounds! Good fishing.
2-24-09
Get the net!!!
By Gordon McHenry
Where have we heard this before?? After a wild fight with a big fish, a very excited angler yells---GET THE NET!!! ---and watches in horror
as his fishing partner stumbles around in the boat, stabbing at the huge fish, trying to get the tiny net under it until the monster makes one last surge, breaks the line and swims away!!!
If you have been lucky enough, the GET THE NET!!! nightmare hasn’t happened to you---at least not yet. If you remember the following tips, you can avoid having it happen to you.
Long-handled nets are used for boat, shore and dock fishing. The size of the net depends on the size of the fish you plan to catch. The bigger long handled models with large hoops are for big fish like stripers and catfish while the smaller short-handled models have soft netting for catch and release fishing for smaller fish like trout.
To net a fish, you must first have the fish under control as much as possible. Have your fishing partner place the net quietly in the water and you can lead the fish into it head first. If it tries to escape, it will just swim further into the net. Once the fish is all the way in, raise the net by the handle. If you've hooked a heavy fish, you also have to grab the rim of the hoop to prevent the handle from bending or breaking.
If you don’t have a net and you are fishing from shore, beaching fish is another way to land them. To beach a fish, lead it into increasingly shallower water each time it surges, gradually sliding the fish on its side onto dry land. This method, however, should only be used if you plan to keep and eat the fish because beaching it will harm the slime coat on its body
Another way to land a big fish is to grab it with wet hands firmly by the tail while slipping a hand under its belly near the front fins so you can gain complete control over the fish. We’ve landed stripers over 40 pounds using this method. Just be sure to let the fish calm down once it's in the boat before you try to remove the lure or hold it up for pictures. I've seen anxious anglers get so excited the first time they caught a big one that they forgot all about those huge treble hooks and wound up in the emergency room! Don't let it happen to you!!
To handle a fish with sharp teeth, like a brown trout, wet your hands to keep from harming its slime coat and carefully hold it gently upside down in the water. Holding the fish upside down calms it down so it won’t thrash around as much which makes it a lot easier to unhook and release the fish.
If you and your fishing partners practice these simple techniques you won't have to worry about another big one getting away the next time you holler GET THE NET!!! Good fishing.
2-18-09Get The Stink Off !
By Gordon McHenry
In between the power outages during the recent snow storms here in the Southern California mountains I spent some of my down time online checking out the fishing sites.
Think fishing is popular on the web? Google fishing and you will come up with 254,000,000,--that’s right, 254 MILLION!! hits. Google bass, America’s favorite game fish, and you come up with almost the same number, 253,000,000! Interested in trout fishing? Google came up with more than 32 million trout hits, enough to keep you busy for years!!
So when a couple Lake Arrowhead anglers I’ve been sharing some hot winter trout fishing tips with recently wanted to know which one I would pick as “My number one most important tip to help novice trout anglers,” I went online before I shared my #1 tip with them to check if anyone out there in cyberspace had a better “most important tip to help novice trout anglers”
After checking a lot of sites, my number one trout tip was still---are you ready??--- Fishing with clean, or good smelling--to the trout, hands!! No stinky hands!! I know it sounds kind of strange---you expect to have stinky hands when you are fishing. But, believe it or not, stinky smells on your hands can and will transfer onto the bait and the fish can actually detect them.. If you have even a tiny bit of something like gasoline or suntan lotion on your hands when you bait up, the fish will detect it and shy away from your bait. Trout sense of smell and taste is very keen---down to parts per billion!!!--and if they detect something unnatural on your bait they just won't bite.
We’ve all seen trout anglers who seem to catch the majority of the fish even though their fishing buddies were fishing the same exact way they were. If you know about stinky hands, you know the real reason why!
Besides all the man made chemical scents and tastes you can have on your hands there is also something called L-serene, a natural human protein that repels fish, and it WILL stink up your bait. You can rub your hands in the dirt or grass and rinse them thoroughly with snow or lake water before baiting up to help you get rid of any unnatural odors. I use a dab of Berkley’s Trout Attractant on my hands before I start fishing. Once you have baited up and handled a few fish, your hands should be smelling a lot better---at least to the trout!! Good fishing.
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