Personalization

I thought I would just put this up for fun. I personalized my new fly gear!

I did this via woodburning. You basically burn a design into wood, or in my case, cork. The fish there is a brown trout, because they're one of my favorite fish. They fight hard, are absolutely beautiful, and taste great. Also, they kinda were responsible for the whole fly fishing thing, so I thought I'd give them credit. :)

Trying Out My Fly Gear

Hooray! Yesterday I got my fly gear in the mail, and it wasn't an hour before it was ready to hit the water.

My set up is a 5/6 wt combo from Wild Water Fly Fishing. It isn't Sage or Orvis, but at $104, it's a high quality rod and reel at a price that can't be beat. So I rigged it up with a panfish popper and headed off to the local golf course. I attempted to catch fish and practice casting (my skills are pretty low), and in a couple hours, I only got strikes from about 10 fish. I only hooked 3 and landed 2, all bluegills. 20% fish landed is pitifully low. 

A nice bluegill

The second fish

Same fish, different angle

It was nice to get a feel of my new rod. I'm new to fly fishing, and I guess practice makes perfect. I will be fly fishing at an acceptable level at some point in my life! [hopefully  ;)  ]

Creek Bait Fishing

My sister, Carina and I recently headed over to the local creeks for some chubs and sunfish. We caught crawfish from the creek, then cut them up for bait. The action was fast! These fish are super aggressive.

I love creek chubs. They fight surprisingly hard, make great bait, live or cut, and eat almost anything. Besides, they aren't to bad looking, either. I've noticed that they seem to prefer bait on or near the bottom, although they will take baits higher in the water column.

We also caught a bunch of redbreast sunfish. The pictures do no justice whatsoever of their colors.

These little creek fish are super fun on super-ultra light tackle with 2 lb test flourocarbon. We also sighted a few suckers, but they obviously don't like cut crawfish.

Bass Fishing on the Delaware and Raritan Canal

Yesterday my family went canoeing with some family friends on the D&R canal. I, of course brought my fishing rod. I didn't get much fishing in (ever tried fishing from a canoe while others are paddling?), but I managed quite a nice day on the water. Truthfully, I rarely fish the canal, because all I catch are tiny sunnies. Today was different. I caught two very nice bass with a YUM Dinger, and my new PB redbreast sunfish!

The first bass of the day. 

It seemed like dead weight at first and then it started slow, deep head shakes. The same sequence happened with the second bass. Perhaps a fighting style for this particular body of water... At the golf course the fish are usually feisty and acrobatic. Both styles, however, put up a great fight.

A chunky canal bass

Same fish, different angle

PB redbreast sunfish!

I caught this colorful guy on a mealworm under a float. This fish is gorgeous! I earlier had red flashes pecking at my 5 inch YUM dinger while bass fishing. I've figured out the culprit now! Overall a great day on the water.

Back at home

The day after I returned from camping, I decided to return to my golf course pond for an hour and see what I could catch. It was a rather slow day, being the hottest time. I managed two small bass, all on Senkos.

The first bass

The second bass

Using wacky rigged Senkos, I've developed a trick to make them last longer, because Senkos are like bubbles; when a bass hits it, it falls apart. Loop a rubber band or fishing line around the Senko where the hook enters. Then hook the hook through the Senko and the reinforcement. I've found that this method lasts up to 3x longer, ultimately saving money. 

Camp

I've recently done a lot of fishing, but I've also been a bit lazy with my posts. I recently returned from a camping trip with my friends. It was mostly about having fun, and we didn't really fish a lot, but the fishing was great nonetheless. The lake was loaded with largemouth. The visibility of it was about 5 feet, and in a rowboat, I could see schools of 20-50 6 inch largemouth bass. The lake name shall remain hidden, but it was somewhere in the Delaware Water Gap area. The fishing was amazing! I caught 12 bass in 2 hours, some small, but mostly nice sized.

Me with four nice bass (please excuse my fuzzy hair)

A teeny bass

All of the fish were caught on soft plastics rigged weedless. We kept 3 the first day and 6 the next.  I know a lot of people who say bass taste crappy, but 24 fillets breaded up and fried was one of the best fish frys I've ever had. Definitely a great experience I can't wait to relive.