9/18/14 Steelhead from the kayak

Well I finally did it. I caught my first Steelhead from the kayak! This bruiser measured out right at 34''. I had fished for a few hours and had only seen a few fish. I was casting a fluorescent orange spinner to a submerged tree and whamo! This fish came out from under the tree and absolutely hammered my spinner. When I set the hook, the fish immediately went air born. The fish then peeled off about 40 yards of line heading upstream as fast as I have ever seen. With a little pressure the fish took another big jump and raced straight back to me. I had to reel in line as fast as I could to keep tension on him! After that was a 5 minute game of tug of war before he finally decided enough was enough and came to the net. This fish had extremely broad shoulders and was fairly chunky for a summer run fish. These things are insane and 1 fish made this trip well worth my time. With the cold water, this Skamania released well and will certainly live to fight another day!

9/9/14 Fall is upon us!

Kelly and I got out to Salamonie Lake in Huntington County for a little late summer/early fall scouting mission. We only had about 2 hours on the water so we had to make the best use of our time. We tried trolling and casting with slip floats. We caught a few crappies casting slip floats around standing timber. Most were still pretty small. It shouldn't be long before the mother load comes in to feed for the winter. While trolling, we caught a lot of small white bass. I caught two decent ones right at dark. Kelly came up with the big fish of the night! While trolling behind her, I saw a bass start to jump about 50 feet behind her boat. She started scrabbling and I knew she had it on. The fish absolutely inhaled the flicker shad Kelly was trolling. So much so, that I had a difficult time removing the hooks. After some finagling the fish came unhooked and swam away in good shape. The weather was absolutely stunning for the second trip in a row. 75 with light and variable winds made for a comfortable and enjoyable evening. The view of the moon while we were leaving was amazing.

Ready for trout fishing? I know I am!

Took a trip to the Curtis Creek Trout Rearing Station. This facility current houses approximately 60,000 small trout that will be raised through the winter for release next spring into Indiana lakes and streams. This is areally neat place and certainly worth a look if you are in the area. It is open to the public from 8am - 4pm daily. It is neat to see all these fish and if any staff members are present, you can ask them any of your trout questions.

Thousands of tiny trout that will be ready for release next spring.

"Brood Stock" at Curtis Creek. These guys are much bigger and more impressive than they look in the
picture. These guys probably average 2 1/2 feet long.

I updated the "Trout" section of the website with some tips and tricks for catching these excellent fighters. 

9/5/14 Wonderful evening on the River

Kelly and I got onto a northern Indiana river this after noon for a little fishing and kayaking. I was fishing a popper fly the majority of the day and caught a few decent smallmouth and quite a few rock bass. We swapped kayaks for a while and kelly got a feel for just how easy it is to stand, paddle, and fish from the Predator MX. She even caught a small pike while standing and fishing. She ended up dropping the fish back into the water before I could get a shot of it. Saw a ton of wildlife including a few sandhill cranes. Tons of birds around and it was a glorious evening to be on the water. The great scenery made for some excellent shots. Enjoy!