Month: August 2009

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Cry-Babies and the “Me Generation” Or Freshwater Conservation Today

I was reading an article and the associated comments on that article about the zebra mussel infestation and how they’re dealing with it in Massachusetts.

Seems they’re requiring boaters to power wash their boats before being allowed to launch them into a large reservoir in order to help prevent the spread of the zebra mussels.

You can read the article here:
Rules on zebra mussel defenses protested

Having watched the devastation that we have brought to our native environment, I can hardly believe that fellow fishermen are crying like babies about having to take some precautions! As fishermen, we should be the first to take a pro-active stance when it comes to safe-guarding our natural resources.

Yes, there have been some acts of stupidity like the killer bees being brought over to South America and then letting them escape into the wild; the introduction of the snakehead fish into the Potomac river; or the many other foreign species now here and listed at InvasiveSpeciesInfo.gov but as a fisherman, I take pride in the natural resources available to me here in this great country of ours. Any opportunity to help make things better I’ll be happy to take. So my answer to those of you who are too lazy to do your part to keep our resources natural and native – go saltwater fishing instead! 😉

You won’t have to worry about spraying down your boat every time you want to launch it and you won’t have to worry too much about spreading invasive species. (Though if you read through the site I mentioned above, you’ll find that we’re even having problems with invasive species in our salt water resources now!)

So if you’re truly a freshwater fishing enthusiast, please take whatever action is necessary to help keep our natural resources as pristeen as possible – and please, whatever you do, don’t whine and complain about it!

Catch you later.

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New Fishing Hooks

All I can say is … Wow! I met Ron Baskett on Twitter and he told me he had some new hooks to try out.

So I gave him my e-mail and home address and Ron, being the generous guy he is, sent me some free hook samples as well as a free T-shirt and some free bait holder straps! What a nice guy! (Thank you Ron!)

What is so special about Ron’s new hook? Well it’s not really the hook so much as it’s how you “tie” your line to the hook. You actually don’t tie the hook onto your line – you kind of wrap the hook on. It’s fast and easy and the best part … you retain 98% of your line’s strength by “tying” it this way. Very nice!

The hooks are well made and have very sharp points, but the ease and simplicity of getting the hook on your line are almost unbelievable! He has a video on his site that shows you the hook and how easy it is to use. OK – So do yourself a favor and go check these out now!

http://www.outdoorspecialtyinnovations.com/index.php/hooks.html/

Tell him Mark at the FreshwaterFishingBlog.com sent you!

Catch you later!

-Mark

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Freshwater Fishing For Carp

Freshwater Fishing For Carp

I live close to the Mantua Creek in southern NJ and each year in early summer the carp would migrate up the creek from the Delaware river to spawn.

As a child and teenager, I lived right next to the creek. In fact, the creek ran through our property. I remember going out at night and hearing the carp splashing about having fun in their spawning rituals. This would last for a few weeks and then they’d go back down the creek and back to the river. A local reporter lived a few blocks away from us. His name was Ralph Knissel and he wrote a fishing column for the Gloucester County Times. Ralph had reported carp being caught a few hundred yards downstream from where we fished that went over thirty pounds!

We used to bottom fish as teenagers and would catch eels, catfish and occasionally a carp.

One particular instance stands out in my carp fishing times. We were using some homemade cornbread (and other sweet smelling additives) doughballs. I was using a medium action rod with 25 lb test on it. (I knew the carp were big!) As my friends and I were talking, my bait was taken and after waiting a few seconds, I set the hook.
The fish was big and my rod bent. After fighting to get him up to the surface and onto the creek bank, the fish broke my line and fell back into the creek. Talk about disappointed! We never saw the whole fish before the line broke, but boy was it large! Of course the stories and arguments began between the 4 of us fishing about just how large the fish was. Bottom line … the fish broke my 25 lb test line!

So why am I posting about large carp? Funny you should ask! 🙂 I was just reading an article from the UK about how they lost a local favorite carp. They even have names for their carp! You can check out the article here:

Benson the giant carp.

Hope you enjoy it!

I’ll catch you later.