Salmon On My Mind

Briefly blogging from my hotel in Vancouver. I am overlooking a boat basin right downtown in the beautiful city. Tomorrow morning, I am taking my first ever trip for Pacific salmon, or salmon of any sort for that matter. Can't wait. Hopefully I'll have photos and some good results to post. FYI, this is my guide's home page, and his boat is within walking distance of my hotel.

PERSONALITIES: The 11-year-old girl who outfishes the big boys. And, apparently, she eats fish hearts.

NEWS: Out of shape? Go fishing.

PENNSYLVANIA: Fishing for long nosed gar.

OBIT: The passing of a tackle innovator.

ILLINOIS: A place for Chicagoans to get their trout on.

PERSONALITIES: A profile of Stu Apte on Midcurrent.com.

TRAVEL: Getting Nile Perch in unexpected ways.

JAWS 2: More on the mega mako caught off Long Island.

Blue Morning

My brother and I took the SeaStrike around from the south shore back to Long Island Sound yesterday, and along the way stopped to fish several bluefish boils off the beach. We couldn't fish long before other boats showed up and made the fish skittish, but we managed to catch some on eat-me flies. The fish weren't big but gave spirited fights and a few bass jumps to make it worthwhile.

SHARKS: Wouldn't you know it, but some guy caught a near record mako in the exact same spot where we fished Monday. Cruel fate, why do you mock me?

PERSONALITIES: Fishing and rap: Wetting a line with D12's Bizarre.
Money quote: ''I'm really a laid-back guy named Rufus that likes to pop Vicodin and go fishin'.''

Waiting for the shark bite...

MICHIGAN: The right baits for bass around Detroit.

NEWS: When high gas prices affect your fishing plans.

PERSONALITIES: From this week's Sports Illustrated, Chicago Bears wide receiver Mushin Muhammad, "I love to fish: fly-fishing, ice fishing. I took my kids salmon fishing the other day. I also hunt turkey and deer."

LONG ISLAND: This weekend is the Greatest Bluefish Tournament on Earth. I agree with the author, bluefish are just awesome fighters and a blast on light tackle.

WISCONSIN: Fly rodder lands world record muskie.

(Editor's note: If only my buddy had thought to certify his...)

FISH STORY: When fishing leads to gunplay.

CONSERVATION: Why you should be careful with your discarded fishing line.

The President Goes Fishing

(From AP story, link above.)

NEW YORK: Phenomenal fishing on the Salmon River.

EVEN MORE BASS: The business of bass.

PERSONALITIES: The bachelor bass guy.

BASS: The real top angler.

NEWS: Selling fly fishing to the tech generation.

Offshore Adventure

I had an offshore trip with colleagues yesterday. We ran the SeaStrike about 20 miles off the south shore of Long Island for mako sharks, fishing in tandem with a second boat. The conditions seemed favorable but we couldn't buy a bite. My colleague Kevin, on the other boat, hooked a baby mako about two feet long. He also had an 18-foot great white shark circle his boat. Wild stuff.
A fairly large wahoo worked its way through our chum slick and my colleague Dan managed to hook it by ripping a tin lure through the depths. But we didn't have a large enough wire leader on the spinner we hastily rigged for it, and it broke off. We ran into some false albecore blitzing along the beaches on the way in, but couldn't catch up to them.

NORTHERN PIKE: Oh, man, do I want to go to Saskatchewan. I truly love targeted pike on the fly, and this sounds like to northerns what the Bahamas is to bonefish.
Money Quote: "That's what I like to see in a fish—a head like a German shepherd..."

(Link via Midcurrent.)

ONTARIO: 60 years of fishing the Madawaska River.

ECONOMICS: The price of high fuel prices.

FLORIDA: Red tide hurting guides, charter captains.

MARLIN: The Brisbee Black & Blue Jackpot Tournament.

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: Red tide and "dead zone" haven't completely killed fishing. I was boating on Tampa Bay yesterday and we saw spanish macks busting all over the place. No rod, though, unfortunately.

MICHIGAN: Another area decides to kill off some cormorants.

LONG ISLAND: The fishing report for my local waters.

TECHNIQUE: Wading the flats.

TROUT: Picking up the trash streamside anglers leave behind.

CALIFORNIA: The most productive bass lake in the West.

FLY FISHING: A woman's introduction to the sport.
Money quote: "The appeal of fly fishing is much more apparent - the skill involved in casting the line by flicking the rod to and fro in quick succession like an aquatic Zorro - is mesmerising and dare I say it, even rather sexy." (Editor's note: I knew it!)

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: Time to target snook.

TECHNIQUE: Fishing the salmon fly.

HUMOR: One angler's account of his harrowing descent into fishing addiction.

STUDY: Family fishing promotes harmony. But does it when you accidentally wake up your wife at 4am while sneaking out to fish?

PERSONALITIES: Eric Clapton, the angler. (Short blurb on Heartland Outdoorsman.)
Money quote--"The Chinese say that every day spent fishing is another added on to your life, which is nice to know."

BOOKS: A new one on Frank Mundus.

EDUCATION: If you want to study fly fishing in school, move to Alaska.

CONNECTICUT: An article on Mike and Stefan's favorite rivers.

Finally Home...

...only to turn an fly out again Wednesday. I should be able to post all week, though. And to steal a line from the great football writer Peter King, here's my enjoyable/aggravating travel note of the week: I can't manage to ever fly Northwest Airlines without getting screwed over in the process. Both legs of my trip to Kansas City via Michigan got fouled up and I spent two unessesary nights in airport hotels. And now I'm home 24 hours behind schedule. On to fishing stuff...

CARP: Catching a 30-pounder. The article also mentions the St. Lawrence River, one of my "home" fishing waters, as the place to target trophy carp.

(Link via Midcurrent.)

FLORIDA: Where to catch some largemouth bass.

MARYLAND: An article about the famous White Marlin Open.

CALIFORNIA: A guide to fishing guides.

PERSONALITIES: A retiree writes about his angling loves.

Quick Blog From Kansas City

Man, does traffic take a hit when you don't post something on a daily basis. I'm in Kansas City for a cousin's wedding and having a blast. I went fishing twice last week in northern Michigan. The first, a warmwater fly fishing trip on some remote waters--I'll post more when I get home. The unusually high temperatures made the fishing slow. My brother in law and I managed some small largemouth bass on popppers as well as a few assorted panfish. Popper fishing is always a blast, but we could have stood to catch a few lunkers in the mix. Later, on a small river, my brother-in-law caught a nice smallmouth and trolled up a pike. Slow fishing but our guide worked hard and was a cool guy. I'll post his name and info when I get back home.
We also took my nephews worm fishing on Lake Charlevoix, and they pulled up enough large perch to have a fish fry. A blast to see the kids get into it. We added a few decent smallmouth into the mix for good measure.

NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND REPORTS: From Kittery Trading Post

Updated Weekly on Mondays

MORE KAYAKING: Tournament Kayak Fishing

Just trying to make a post or two in Dr. Jones' absence

Off the Grid Again

I won't be able to blog for the next few days, but hopefully will be able to fish. If the other guys don't get the chance to post either, take the time to visit some of the links under "Fishy Sites."

Thanks again for continuing to visit Fishing Jones.

PERSONALITIES: Meet the professional kayak angler.

NEWS: Fishing as big time sport, and business.

MICHIGAN: The salmon fishing's good here, too.

TECHNIQUE: How to fish a crankbait.

CARP: One angler's growing appreciation.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST: Salmon fishing on the upswing.

Quote of the Day

I've published this before but...

"There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot."
--Steven Wright

BASS: Ten things you may not know about Bassmaster champ Kevin VanDam.

MICHIGAN: If you want to catch trout, check out the small streams.

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: Another red tide is screwing up the fishing.

NEWFOUNDLAND: Angler's spend the day "protest" fishing for cod.

PERSONALITIES: What do you do after you've officially retired from being the greatest golfer of all time? Go fishing in Iceland.

Night Time is the Right Time

I took the boat out at dusk today to see if I could rustle something up after dark. I did. As soon as the sun set, I started connecting with schoolie stripers along my favorite shoreline casting places. I used a fast sink line with a black clouser on a strip-pause retrieve and finally got some striped bass in the boat. None were keepers, but all had little bellies and fought admirably, fooling me every time into thinking I had a fish with some shoulders.

FLY FISHING: Feed the addiction.