Tag: fresh water fishing

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Salmon Problems

I read an interesting article about a biological problem that the fresh water fishing Norwegians have been having. My sons love a good salmon dinner, so I found this a particularly interesting read. Oh and it also shows how misleading the press can be! Something to think about especially now when we are about to elect a new leader for our country!

I thought some of you might enjoy it, so I’m posting a link to it below:

http://www.fishandfly.com/articles/20081027

Please check it out and let me know what you think?

Catch you later – Mark

 

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Columbus Day Fishing – How to Find Worms

I had Columbus Day off from work and the boys wanted to go fishing. So I asked them where they’d like to go and off we headed to our local creek. It was a warm sunny day and the tide was high so I figured on a good day for fishing. I always use lures when fishing – I guess because I like the challenge associated with them as opposed to putting bait on a hook and waiting for a fish to come eat.

So on our way to go fresh water fishing, I asked my older son to get some worms for his brother and him. It turns out that we hadn’t had much rain lately and the worms were hard to find. Where he would normally find lots of worms (lifting old logs and looking under leaves) he found only 2 little scrawny worms. Not good for fishing bait! So he and my younger son tried their hands at lure fishing.

We had some hits, but no catches. Frustration for my 5 yeqr old was very high!  😉  So I asked my older son again to try and find some worms – to which he replied, “Dad, there aren’t any worms around here.” So I had to go get them myself!  He taunted me with “You’re wasting your time Dad.”  But within 3 minutes I had a container full of very large worms!  Of course my older son wanted to know how I did it. After telling him that old age usually means more wisdom ;-), I explained how to find worms when they weren’t in the obvious places.

Want to know what I did? OK – here goes. When I was younger, much younger, I remember from some of the different magazines I used to read that a company sold 2 electric prods that you stuck into the ground and the low current between the prods caused the earth worms to come out of the ground. My friend had bought one of these contraptions and swore by it. So I figured that a little elbow grease could do the same thing. Just poke a larger stick in the ground a few times and shake it. The vibrations cause the worms to come right out of the ground. It works very well!  Just ask my sons! Of course you wouldn’t try this in sand where there are obviously no worms around, but do this in the places where worms would normally be found. You’ll be pleasantly pleased with the results.

Here’s a picture of the first fish my older son caught after they started using the worms we found.

Oh … and the rest of the trip was very successful. We caught some largemouth bass, sunnies, as well as some roaches. Overall a fun afternoon for all.

Catch you later.

-Mark

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New Jersey Wildlife Heritage Festival – It Was Great!

If you read my previous post on this topic, you’ll know I was excited to go to the NJ Wildlife Heritage Festival. But unfortunately it was raining fairly hard when it was time to leave home. (It’s about a 2 hour drive to get to Pequest – the festival location.) After some discussion, we decided to go; after all – it’s a rain or shine event!

It rained most of the way there and was still raining as we arrived. The vendors and exhibitors looked wet but appeared excited as well. We visited the museum area, checked out all the real and stuffed animals, got some great free informative NJ fishing and wildlife pamphlets and afterwards decided to go get some lunch in town and come back. We happened on a real nice hot dog stand called “Hot Dog Johnny’s” just down the road in Buttzville, NJ. After some great dogs and drinks, we headed back and finally the rain stopped.

First stop was the shotgun and archery stands. It was the first time my older son shot a real shotgun. I kind of chuckled to myself because I knew he had no idea of the recoil involved. The instructor was patient and showed him how to safely handle the gun and finally he squeezed the trigger and boom! The instructor asked him if he wanted to try again, but he politely declined. I asked him why later, and he admitted that it scared him a little! 😉

Both my younger and older son had fun shooting arrows at the archery exhibit. Some good instructions were provided by the facilitators and they actually hit the targets! 

It started to lightly rain again so we moved on up to the exhibits that were under tents. My younger son bought a kite and decorated it while my older son went to the fresh water fishing pond and caught a nice rainbow trout (Catch and release only). Here’s a small picture of the group he was fishing with:

We finally made our way to the fishing pool for children under 8 years of age and my 5 year old caught his very first rainbow trout! He was really excited! (I’ll post a picture of his fish a little later.) And just as we were putting his fish back into the pool, Smokey the Bear showed up in a fire truck. Could you ask for anything more?

It started to rain pretty hard, so after visiting a few more exhibits, we decided to head back home. Both boys as well as my wife and I had a very nice time. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for something to share with your friends and family next year. Hopefully it won’t rain on you!

Catch you later.

-Mark

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New York State’s Fresh Water Fishing Regulations Guide

If you live in New York or plan to go fresh water fishing in New York state, you’d do well to get yourself a copy of their fresh water fishing regulations guide. It is not yet available online, but you may request a copy of the current regulations by sending an email to:

[email protected]

The guide is free and contains the most recent regulatory changes affecting the fresh water fishing in New York. And of course, it’s free!

I found another publication that IS available online at the New York Department of Environmental Conservation site and is really quite good. It’s a beginner’s guide to fishing called “fishing basics” and is a nice guide to have your children read through or for yourself if you’re just a beginning fisherman. It even includes instructions on how to tie a clinch knot!

You can check it out at the DEC site here:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/fishingbasics.pdf

If you’d like to check out some of New York’s other fresh water fishing guides available online, just go to:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/4787.html

Hope this helps you!

Catch you later.

 

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Fresh Water Fishing Rules Change In New York State

I just ran across an article by Dave Henderson which gives a quick review of the changes in the fresh water fishing regulations recently passed by the state of New York. These changes will go into effect on October 1st of this year – that’s 2 weeks folks!

Dave does a nice job of summarizing the changes and how it will affect most local anglers.

If you’d like to check out Dave’s article, you can find it here:

http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080914/COLUMNISTS16/809140301/1005/OPINION

If you’d like to read the full legislation concerning the new fishing regulations, then you should go here:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/34113.html

Hope this helps you!

Catch you later.

 

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New Jersey Wildlife Heritage Festival – Fresh Water Fishing Included

I just wanted to make a quick post for those of you who live close to New Jersey.  September 27th and 28th will be the New Jersey Wildlfie Heritage Festival. This event is tailored for the whole family including the children. There are lots of events to participate in throughout the 2 days. They even have some trout fishing for the children up to age 16. I plan on attending with my boys and wife!  Directions to the event are included on their web page. Check out the event by clicking here! Come learn about fresh water fishing in New Jersey as well as other wildlife in the state.

Catch you later.

-Mark

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Labor Day Fresh Water Fishing Fun

As most folks do in the USA, I had labor day off. (That’s Monday September the 1st for those not in the US.) So what did the boys want to do for the day? “Let’s go fishing!”

Since we had a successful day the last time we went to the creek, we decided we’d head back there to see what we could catch.

The day was completely different from our last outing – it was a bright warm sunny day and we were heading out at 9:30 am. This compared to last time which was cloudy, overcast and slightly cooler.

So I warned my sons that the fishing would be completely different for the day and gave them the “bright sunny day” bass fishing tips! The boys wanted to head straight to the hole that was so successful for us the last time there. After fishing for an hour and seeing bass and sufish, we had no success. A few other fishermen showed up so I suggested to the boys that we try moving to another spot.

We couldn’t see too many fish at the new spot, but it was deeper and the current was moving a little faster here. We weren’t there very long before we all had some fish on! I caught the first one – a nice 14-15 inch largemouth bass. (See the rubber worm?) 😉

My younger son caught the next fish and at first we thought it was a roach. (See image below.) But after closer examination we believe it was a white perch. Can any one verify that for us?

The next fish caught was a yellow perch by my older son. Both of these types of fish were never caught in this creek before by anyone I know. So we were all surprised to see them! See my older son’s catch below.

We caught some more largemouth bass and sunfish and my older son won the prize for catching the largest fish of the day – he caught a largemouth bass that was an inch or two larger than the one I caught! All in all it was a successful fresh water fishing day!

Make sure your fishing trips are just as successful as ours. Get the 100 Best Freshwater Fishing Tips book shown above and your success is assured!

Catch you later!