4/22/17 Catch of the Day

I got out for a few hours to fish for Wipers again. I did manage to boat 3 with the biggest being only about 14" long. I had one nicer fish right to the boat before it made a few more last ditch runs and ended up coming off the hook. Mike was fishing as well and after catching two fish decided to call it a day shortly before dark. I decided to stay and cast a rattle trap after dark hoping to tie into a bigger fish. Just after the sun went down, I felt my lure get heavy about halfway through my retrieve. I set the hook and realized that I did not have a fish. There was weight on my line but it was not fighting back. I pulled my lure in not sure quite what to expect. I pulled it out of the water to find another lure hooked onto it. This is a pretty odd occurrence since I was just blind casting in open water. I unhooked the scatter rap from my rattle trap and started pulling line attached to the lure into the kayak. I thought that I would just pull in the remaining line and throw it all away when I got home. This is when things got interesting. All of a sudden the line started to get heavy and before I knew it I had pulled an entire rod and reel combination up off of the bottom of the lake! It looked fairly new and seemed like it had not been on the bottom of the lake for very long. I stuck it in my rod holder and took a picture that I then sent to Mike. I titled the picture "catch of the day!" before I sent it to him. About 15 minutes later I got a phone call. It was Mike. I answered the phone and he told me that the combination that I had found actually belonged to him! He had somehow dropped it into the lake on his trip the week before. He could describe the exact rod and reel and even lure so I knew he wasn't lying about it! Pretty crazy that not only did I manage to snag a rod and reel off the bottom of a 400 acre lake but it happened to belong to my friend. I don't know what the odds of this happening are but I can't imagine that they are very high!

4/15/17 Another One Bites the Dust!

Saturday was a brutal day. The wind was incredible. The lake was white capping and most of the other boats had long since given up for the day. I was still toughing it out with one goal in mind: catching a new species of fish. I had finally located schools of shad and big marks hanging out near them on my indicator. After several hours finally, mercifully it happened. I hooked and landed my first ever Wiper, a hybrid between a White Bass and Striped Bass. These fish were stocked by the Indiana DNR with a dual purpose in mind. One, to eat the shad that infest the lake and two, to provide angling opportunities. It seems like they are delivering on both fronts. What a neat looking fish! I can't wait to catch a big one, but for now I am content with having knocked another fish off my list. Other species still on the list, you are not safe. I'm coming for you!

Video - Indiana Spring Brown Trout

4/8/17 Why I Use Fluorocarbon Leaders

I see a lot of people using steel or wire leaders when fishing for Pike and Muskie. I think this is a mistake and I think that for the vast majority of cases you should be using Fluorocarbon. Here's why: This past weekend I was on a lake fishing for Pike. I was throwing a large Rapala X-Rap. I threw a cast and my lure got absolutely slammed. I thought for sure that I had a Pike. The fish came to the surface and started rolling. I just figured I had hooked a small Pike. The fish got closer to the boat and I realized that I did not have a Pike at all, it was a very nice sized Rainbow Trout! Now there is absolutely no way that a Trout would have hit a lure with a steel or wire leader. Even in the clear water of the lake I was fishing, the 80lb Fluorocarbon I was using disappeared enough to fool a Trout. I strongly believe that I would have never caught that trout with a steel or wire leader. I also believe that in the summer, Fluorocarbon leaders help me catch more and bigger Smallmouth Bass. Heavy Fluorocarbon leaders will help you catch more leader shy fish and they will keep you protected from Pike and Muskie bite offs.