Fast Cast Episodes #9

Video - Jigging Salamonie Crappies

Video - November Rain

Video - Pike on the Fly

Video - Lake Michigan Salmon and Steelhead

Video - White River Smallmouth

Fast Cast Episodes #8

11/5/17 November Rain

          Kelly and I went out on a terrible weather day to fish for some Pike. I was shocked when Kelly agreed to go fishing when the weather forecast was calling for a high of 42 degrees and rain. We didn't get on the water until after 3:30pm so we didn't have too long to find some fish. We were both throwing jerk baits and before long Kelly had several strikes with no hookups.
          The first fish of the day came after more than 30 minutes of casting. Kelly threw her X-Rap into an eddy and after a few moments a fish rocketed up and took her lure. The water was clear and I knew immediately it was not a Pike by the beautiful bronze color of the fish. It looked like a carp when it was first hooked, but before long I knew we were dealing with a Mammoth Smallmouth Bass! Once in the net I knew it was the biggest Smallmouth I have seen this year. It bumped at 19.75"! The pictures don't do it justice, it was a VERY nice fish!
          It was about this time that the rain decided to make it's first appearance. It down poured several times on us over the rest of the day. You'll notice some of the pictures got blotted out by the rain. It was nearly impossible to get the camera lens entirely clean to get good shots, but we did the best we could!
          Just a few minutes after releasing the monster Smallmouth it was my turn to hook up. I made a cast and within a few jerks my X-Rap got slammed and the battle was on! It turned out to be a very nice fish around 32" and before long I had him in hand and unhooked. The fish was absolutely beautiful with not a mark on it other than where I had hooked it. I let that fish go and within minutes I got my second fish of the day. This fish was also very nice. I love the way Pike hit lures and the first surge of energy you get from them once they are hooked! After that fish we went a while with no more action. We got rained on several more times before getting another fish. Suddenly, Kelly hooked up on a very nice fish. After a short but intense battle another Pike over 30" was in the boat.
          The action continued to be slow and before long we were heading back to the truck. We made it 95% of the way back before Kelly got her next fish. After a very nice battle our 4th and last Pike over 30" was in the boat. Really all in all the action was never fast and furious but we made the most of our opportunities. The average size of our fish was very good. I'm not sure how many more days we will have this year to fish open water Pike. I am hoping for at least a few more! I did get some good video of this trip and will try to get that edited and posted as soon as I can.

10/29/17 Mike's Pikes

Mike and I got out to do a little Muskie fishing on a cool October day. While the Muskies did not cooperate, Mike and I managed to get some nice Pike in the boat. Mike caught three very nice fish including his personal best Northern Pike of 34". I got to net and photograph his nicest Pike ever for him. Congrats on some great fish Mike!

10/28/17 First Fall Trout Trip

Kelly's cousin Kyle and I got out for a few hours to chase some Rainbow Trout on a beautiful Northern Indiana trout lake. The action was slow but we did still manage to grind out several nice trout for dinner! These were the first trout that Kyle has ever caught and he commented that they were the first fish he has caught that really fought back. The first time that I have targeted trout this fall/winter brings the fall trout count to 3.

10/21/17 Kelly Makes an Unexpected Catch

Kelly and I got out to fish for Pike on an absolutely beautiful late October day. Highs in the 70's and mostly sunny skies, are you kidding me?!?!? The fishing was pretty good and we boated 7 Pike in just a few hours of effort. The fish pictured below was absolutely beautiful. It had beautiful patterns and amazing coloration. I caught it on a first cast follow-up X-Rap after it just missed striking Kelly's spinner and refusing to come back for the spinner over several more casts. However, the real story of the day had not yet begun. As we were fishing down the back, I heard a bird chirping in brush along the river. Kelly all of a sudden perked up and said "I think I hear a kitten! Can we go back and check?" Me being the sucker I am turned the boat around and headed back upstream. After looking for a bit I spotted a tiny black and white kitten in the undergrowth. I paddled Kelly over to the shore and as she took her first step from the boat the kitten retreated into the brush. Kelly walked a little closer and the kitten ran further away into the woods. Kelly went into stealth mode and quietly crept up on the kitten. All of a sudden Kelly sprang and grabbed it! There was a flurry of tiny paws and claws and some hissing but Kelly had the kitten in her hands. Upon investigation there were no houses nearby and no signs of any other cats anywhere nearby. In Kelly's words "We can't just leave it!" So for the second time in my life I went on a fishing trip only to have it cut short and end up bringing a kitten home. We have a new family member!

10/14/17 Troy in on the Esox Action

Troy and I got out for a whole day of Pike fishing! The fish were very cooperative and we landed about 20 fish between the 2 of us over the course of the day. We fished a stretch of river that I have only visited once previously. This stretch is absolutely full of log jams so we had to spend quite a bit of time navigating through all of that. The fishing however was absolutely incredible and made it well worth the effort. Unfortunately about an hour before we got off of the water it started to rain and we were soaked by the time we hit the truck. All in all it was a pretty great day and a really memorable one.

9/30/2017 &10/1/2017 Back in the Swing

This year I've started doing something new: I've been building spinner baits for Pike fishing. The baits that you can buy in stores and even from most custom dealers are made of thin wire that with use and abuse will end up breaking at some point. I've had quite a few baits fall apart on me while in use. Luckily I've never had a fish break one on me. My biggest fear is to have a nice fish hit a spinner and for it to break and result in a lost fish. With that in mind I've been buying components and building lures from much heavier wire. I've gone through a few iterations with a picture of my latest build below. I've learned quite a bit along the way and have had to make some modifications along the way to make the lure work better without fouling up. I've been very happy with the results thus far and Kelly would agree as she had an awesome weekend of fishing using these baits! I'm not going to give you the play by play on our weekend of fishing, but Kelly and I fished both Saturday and Sunday and boated well over 20 Pike in the process. I had a good day of fly fishing, boating 4 fish in about an hour. Kelly was gracious enough to paddle for me and let me get some great fishing time in with the fly rod. I caught the first fish pictured below on a fly rod but missed getting it on camera as I forgot to hit record after we had eaten lunch on the water. The second fish was a 30" beauty caught by Kelly towards the end of the day Saturday. The last picture is of a nice 30" fish Kelly caught on Sunday. The fish missed Kelly's bait on the first cast but came charging in hard on the second cast. It followed al the way to the boat and Kelly executed a beautiful L-turn at the boat that extended the chase long enough to get the fish to strike. We had an awesome weekend! It  feels good to be back in the swing of fall fishing and get some great time on the water with my new wife!

9/29/2017 Another First for Me?

I got a very exciting chance to get out fishing with Frank of Twizted Fishing TV on YouTube. Frank specializes in fishing for catfish which is something that I do not usually fish for at all. I knew I wanted to get out with him to specifically target Flathead Catfish as that is one of only a handful of game fish species in Indiana that I have not yet caught. Eventually we settled on a date and location and it was game time. I got out of work and headed for home as quickly as I could to grab the canoe. Frank brought the tackle and equipment as well as some awesome live bait that he caught from a creek on the way to the put in. We bounced around in the canoe for a while before finally finding a deep hole on a river bend to set up on. We got our rods out and before log the rods were bouncing with the telltale tap-tap-tap of a catfish testing our baits. All in all we caught 8 Flatheads over the course of the evening including the first 3 Flatheads I have ever caught and a beautiful 22 pound beast that Frank pulled in. On the paddle out Frank had a spotlight in the front of the boat. He looked like a kid in a candy store seeing all of the fish as we paddled by them. I was shocked by how much life was in the river! We passed tons of game fish including a Flathead that was bigger than any fish we had managed to land. I learned an absolute ton about catfish fishing and had a blast while doing it! I may have to get into the catfish scene as the thought of landing a goliath Flathead is the stuff that dreams are made of! Definitely check out Frank's YouTube channel. I've included a video of our trip from Franks channel. Enjoy!

9/19/2017 Kelly Catches a Fish of a Lifetime

Wow it has been a busy year! I have really been slacking lately on posts for the blog and putting up new videos on YouTube. The past 2 months have been a blur. Work has been busier than ever, Kelly and I have been preparing for a wedding and honeymoon, then we got married, and then went on our 2 week honeymoon. The wedding and honeymoon were both absolutely fantastic, but for the sake of keeping this post shorter I will stick to the fish story from the trip. A few weeks before the trip started, I contacted a fly fishing guide on the Salmon River in New York to inquire about a guided trip. I set up a date with him that worked into our schedule for the trip. The day of the trip, the weather was not looking promising. Forecasts were calling for 80+ degrees and bright, sunny skies. Not ideal Salmon fishing weather by any stretch of the imagination. Despite the conditions, Jay (the guide) said that there were plenty of fish in the river and that would could still potentially have a good day. So with high hopes we met up early on the Salmon River to start our day. Jay gave us some great casting instruction. We were using 12' Switch Rods and swinging wooly buggers to deeper runs looking for fish. Before long both Kelly and I were making decent casts and making good drifts and swings. Unfortunately not much else was happening. There were clearly fish in the river though as we could see fish rolling and occasionally you would see someone else hook up. After a few hours Jay decided that we should take a stroll and look for somewhere else to fish and hopefully come across some active fish willing to take a fly. After a good, long walk he decided on fishing a run and Kelly and I quickly got to work swinging flies. The guide was standing with me working on my casting technique when all of a sudden from just upstream Kelly says "There's one!" Sure enough she had finally got a solid hook up! The guide quickly made his way upstream and began coaching Kelly through the fight. The fish took a run upstream, forcing Kelly and the guide to chase it or risk losing it. They successfully made their way upstream and got the fish turned around and headed back downstream. After about 5 minutes the fish settled into a run about 25 feet from the bank and held it's ground. The guide slowly instructed Kelly to put more and more side pressure on the fish to try to get it moving, but the fish was happy where it was and would not budge. After several minutes of an absolute stalemate, Jay told Kelly that he was "going to go into the river and either net the fish right there or when he got in the river the fish would run and Kelly should just let it run and she could battle it back in again." The fish was still holding steady. Even though it was relatively close, you could not see it as it was obscured by the riffle and the reflection of the sun. Jay entered the river and said "Oh! I can see what the problem is!" With a worried look on her face Kelly said something to the effect of "What's wrong?" Jay relied "This fish is huge! I think that it has U.S. Navy printed on the side of it!" Before long, the fish turned to run but ran straight into Jay's waiting net! Once we had it in the net Kelly and I, and event the guide to some extent, were shocked by how big the fish was! It was truly massive and the pictures truly do not do this fish justice. Jay weighed the fish in the net using a hand scale. As he strained to hold the fish high enough to weigh, his scale showed and unbelievable 38.5 pounds! It's tail was more than a foot wide from top to bottom, it was thicker than my hand spread wide across it's back, and it's girth was just absolutely incredible. It was a big female and I'm guessing was absolutely bursting at the seams with eggs. Jay struggled to hold the fish up for a few photos and then returned the fish to the river. He said that Salmon was the biggest that any client had ever caught with him in 25 years of guiding! Neither Kelly or I are likely to ever top that fish! the only disappointing part of the day is that we did not succeed it catching any other fish. We both had several additional hookups that unfortunately resulted in throw hooks or broken line. Still, that one fish definitely made the trip worthwhile and Kelly is still VERY excited about having caught it! Truly a Salmon of a lifetime!

8/27/17 Mixed Bag

I got out for just a few hours after work last week. Fishing was pretty decent. I landed a few bass and one nice Northern Pike. I missed one Pike and then caught one on a Whopper Plopper. If you've never caught a Pike on a top water lure you are missing out!

Fast Cast Episodes #7

8/13/17 A New Pike Paradise?

My dad and I fished a new section of my favorite Pike River. I was honestly not sure how it was going to go but I was hoping to run into enough fish to make it worth coming back and exploring more in the future. Within minutes of hitting the water, I landed two nice Pike back to back on a buzz bait. The buzz bait was hot all day long. I never even considered swapping it with a different lure because I was getting almost constant action. My dad was fishing a spinner bait the majority of the day and while he got off to a slow start he eventually got into them really well and ended up landing more fish on the day than I did. At one point he even landed two nearly identically sized 30" Pike on back to back casts! I also did some fly fishing in an attempt to get more video of Pike on the fly. It was slow going and I only managed to put one small fish in the boat on the fly. My dad was gracious enough to have patience and keep the boat steady while I attempted to get a few fish on the fly. I had a few spectacular misses where fish would go airborne in an attempt to eat my fly. I got one of them on video and I will hopefully get that posted soon. As always, when I get to spend the day with my dad I always enjoy it! All in all it was a fantastic day and between my dad and I we agreed that we probably boated somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 Pike. We didn't catch any huge fish but we had plenty of action all day to keep us busy. 25-30 fish in one day is definitely my best numbers day ever. Are there bigger fish in there? I'll definitely have to go again to give it a try. 

 

7/15/17 White River Smallmouth Madness



I've been slacking on posting reports recently. I haven't been out this summer nearly as much as I have been the last several years. With that said, when I have gotten out to fish, the fishing has been fantastic. Last month I got a chance to head South and fish the White River for Smallmouth Bass. Troy and I met in the afternoon to fish until dark. The first thing you're going to notice about the pictures is that there are no pictures of me. It seemed like every nice fish that I hooked would manage to come unhooked at some point during the fight. While that was disappointing, as I lost several very nice fish, I still managed to put plenty of average sized fish in the boat. Troy on the other hand was on fire from the opening minutes of the day until the closing minutes just before dark. He boated I don't know how many fish over the course of the day including both Smallmouth Bass, Rock Bass, and a surprising number of Largemouth Bass. For the majority of the afternoon we were both throwing crayfish imitations. Troy was throwing a crayfish colored crank bait and I was throwing a crayfish fly. Towards the end of the day, we both switched to top water lures. I only managed a few small fish on a popper but troy kept catching fish like he had the rest of the day. One of the last fish of the day was a complete shock to us. Troy hooked up with a nice fish. When it jumped the size of it head had us both thinking that it was an absolute monster Smallmouth. Once it was to the net though, we realized that it was a big, fat river Largemouth! This Largemouth was the biggest I have ever seen come out of this section of river. We were both giddy and excited. It was quite the day of fishing. I got plenty of awesome video that I hope to get edited and posted sometime soon.



Video - Unpredictable Pike

2018 Three Rivers Fly Fishers Fly Fishing / Fly Tying Show Flyer

It's never too early to post a flyer for a fly fishing and fly tying show. Below you can find all of the details for the Three Rivers Fly Fishers 2018 Show! I will be giving a presentation on Pike fishing at noon. Come out and see me! Mark your calendars now!

Video - What is a Muskie Worth?

7/3/17 Working for Every Opportunity

On Monday I finally got the opportunity to fish my favorite Northern Indiana Pike river. I was also able to take my friend Paul with me which is always a plus. We started the day by floating a section of river that I have fished numerous times in the past and know pretty well. The river was still relatively high and moving fast. Finding eddies to fish was the name of the game. We did manage to find some nice in fish in some backwater areas. Paul also managed to catch a nice 18"+ Smallmouth in a fast section. Overall we really had to work hard for our chances but we got some nice fish in the boat. It was great to spend a day on the water with some new people and lead them to at least a few nice fish.

Video - High Water Smallmouth

Fast Cast Episodes #6

6/11/17 River Smallmouth Action

I finally got the chance to take my friend Troy on a canoe trip down the White River. Troy moved to Anderson a few years ago and it was only a matter of time before I got him out for this trip. The predicted high temperature on Sunday was a balmy 91 degrees. With that in mind we planned an early trip and got on the river shortly after 7am. The river was clear but not too clear. All indicators pointed to us having a good day. Troy threw a crank bait the majority of the day and absolutely tore up the Smallmouth Bass! He caught 3 fish from the first run and never looked back. Troy described the day as "the single best day of Smallmouth fishing he has ever had". It's hard to say how many fish he caught but if I had to guess I would say at minimum he brought 30 fish to hand. I on the other hand didn't catch a fish for a couple of hours. The fly rod and crayfish fly was just not getting it done. I was starting to regret only bringing the fly rod and leaving my box of streamer flies in the truck. Finally, I got on the board and managed to pick away at the fish for the next couple of hours and ended up catching around 15 fish total. All in all I'd say we landed a dozen or so fish in the 14-17" range and who knows how many fish from 10-13". Troy lost a VERY nice fish right at the boat. He threw a bomb cast across the river, took two turns on the handle, and immediately his lure got absolutely demolished! Most Smallies go airborne when they get hooked but this fish just stayed deep and headed for deeper water. Telltale sign of a big fish. It was definitely in the 18-20" range and once it made it to the boat, it took a few jumps and runs before coming unbuttoned just before it could be netted. The one that got away. I bet Troy is looking forward to getting back and having another crack at that fish. We had a beautiful day on the water and it was great to catch up with a good friend.

Video - Incredible Esox Adventure

Video - Pike on the Fly

Video - Spring Wipers

5/11/17 The Hunt Continues

Mike and I made an evening trip to Indiana's deepest natural lake. Target: Muskies. Although neither of us caught any Muskies we did both land Pike and Mike managed a couple of Largemouth Bass. I did have 1 follow over the course of a few hours. the fish never did seem that interested even though it was following my lure. Hope you enjoy the pictures and the video of the nicer of the two Pike that I landed.

5/6/17 First Walleyes of the Year

It took longer than I wanted it to but I finally caught my first couple of Walleyes in 2017. I caught these fish trolling along rip rap shorelines. I explain the technique and setup in the video below. I hope you guys enjoy it!