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!