Brilliant Kayak Fishing Mods Especially the Gopro Mount

I saw this video a while back and loved how he mounted his gopro.  I had to share it with you all, I'll get plans to you as soon as I figure it out for my yak.

Michigan DNR Stock More Than4 Million Walley Fingerlings in Michigan Lakes

I received this in my email today and had to share it with you all.  Courtesy of Michigan DNR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 12, 2015

Contact: Ed Eisch, 231-325-4611 (ext. 14) or Elyse Walter, 517-284-5839

Partners help DNR stock more than 4 million walleye this year

The Department of Natural Resources today announced the totals from its annual walleye rearing pond harvest and stocking of walleye fingerlings. The DNR’s Fisheries Division and tribal partners stocked nearly 4.7 million walleye fingerlings in more than 110 water bodies located throughout Michigan this spring and summer.
Walleye ponds are a critical component of the DNR’s coolwater fisheries management and have been used extensively since the mid-1970s. More than 30 walleye ponds located throughout Michigan were used this year, and most rely heavily on the support of local sportsmen's organizations.  These groups assist with the ponds’ finances and supply volunteers to help with fertilization, pond maintenance and fish harvest.
Eggs were taken from adult walleye from the Muskegon River and Little Bay De Noc and then hatched at Thompson, Wolf Lake and Platte River state fish hatcheries. A few days after hatching, the larval walleyes were moved from the hatcheries to local walleye ponds. The fish were reared in these ponds for 50 to 60 days where they fed on tiny aquatic animals called zooplankton. The fingerlings were harvested when they reached 1 1/2 to 2 inches long and stocked in public waters. The walleye will grow to legal size within four to five years.
“The many local angling groups that join us in rearing and stocking walleye are extremely valuable,” said Ed Eisch, the DNR’s fish production manager. “These annual efforts allow us to greatly enhance the world-class fishing opportunities available in Michigan.”
Included in the 4.7 million fingerlings stocked were approximately one million fish reared by the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Alliance (CORA) and stocked in U.P. and northern Lower Peninsula waters. CORA operates walleye rearing ponds in the eastern U.P. Eggs for fish reared by CORA were collected from both Little Bay de Noc and the St. Mary’s River.
“For many years now, our partnership with CORA has consistently resulted in high-quality walleye fingerlings that benefit both tribal and non-tribal anglers,” said Eisch. “As it exists, our coolwater production capacity is not able to meet demand for walleye fingerlings, but CORA’s efforts get us closer to meeting that demand.”
To find out if walleye were stocked in your favorite fishing spot, visit the DNR’s fish-stocking database at michigandnr.com/fishstock/.

/Note to editors: An accompanying photo is available below for download. Suggested caption follows.

Walleye are a favorite target for many anglers and the recent stocking of more than 4 million fingerlings means there will be plenty more opportunity for them to fish across the state./

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The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is committed to the conservation, protection, management, use and enjoyment of the state’s natural and cultural resources for current and future generations. For more information, go to www.michigan.gov/dnr.

Match The Hatch: It's Hopper Time

I woke up this morning with the intention of heading into the garden to pick some weeds and harvest a few veggies. But, once I got out back, I  realized it was hopper time. You know that time of the year when grasshoppers seem to be everywhere?  Hopper time is a gardeners worst nightmare and a fisherman's dream. For those who garden, it's the time when a plague of grasshoppers decide your plants are just as tasty as you hope they'll be. I have a love/hate relationship with this annual event.  I hate seeing the damage they do to my vegetables,but I love that by using a simple butterfly net and a cricket cage, I'm ready for a few weeks of great pan fish fishing.

Before we talk tips, let's understand how the hatch actually works.  Grasshoppers tend to hatch from the ground in late spring and early summer. So the season  usually gets good around the beginning of July and last through late September or longer depending on the temperatures. Born wingless nymphs, the hoppers feed on tender leaves and vegetation until they're ready to molt, which they'll do a few times as they grow to adult size. As an adult, they grow wings. This is when they are big enough to harvest for bait.

There are  two ways to catch grasshoppers.The first is to simply sneak up, grab them, and throw them into a bottle or bucket. But, I use a butterfly net. I brush the butterfly net across the tops of the grass and high standing garden plants. The hoppers will jump into the net in an attempt to escape. I move them promptly into a cricket cage for transport to the lake.

I use grasshoppers as pan fish bait. But, they are a versatile bait. Hoppers attract everything. I've caught bullhead catfish while fishing hoppers on the bottom as well as  bluegill, carp, trout, and large mouth bass while fishing hoppers on the surface.  I think this is because grasshoppers aren't particularly graceful when they land in the water and fish won't turn down such an easy meal.


Tips for fishing with grasshoppers:  
1. There are two simple ways of rigging grasshoppers. A. Hook the hopper just beneath the collar when fishing surface presentations.  B. When using subsurface presentations thread the hopper from head to tail.

2. Use light wire aberdeen hooks size #4 or #6 for rigging grasshoppers as the thinner hooks are easier to rig the hoppers with and the thinner wire doesn't damage hoppers as bad as thick wire hooks, thus keeping them alive longer.

3. Use light monofilament line when hopper fishing. This is true for live hoppers or imitations like Rebel's Crickhopper.  The monofilament floats which aids in keeping your hopper on the surface and 2 and 4lb test lines aid you in casting such light baits.

4. Cast your hoppers, imitation or real, close to shore where high weeds are abundant.  This is key as fish are used to seeing random hoppers landing in the water near high weeds.

5. Whether you're using hard hopper imitations like crickhoppers or fly fishing with foam or deer hair flies, present the baits with soft twitches or pops.With lures like the crickhopper popper, you'll be tempted to chug away at it like you would a minnow shaped bass popper to get the fish's attention.  But, if you've ever see a grasshopper fall in the water, it doesn't make huge splashes as it's trying to get out of the water so keep your popping short and literally popping.

Thanks for reading!

Ford Lake Carp Fishing With Bass Hooks

If you know me, then you know I love fishing under any circumstances, for any species.  So, when I get the call to go carp fishing during the spawn, I jump at the chance. Last night, that call came in a text, "Carp spawning... Let's go in the morning."  My reply, "See you at 7."   I quickly packed up my noodle rod, a Shakespeare outback rod I'm putting through the paces, a ziploc bag full of corn, and my terminal tackle for the morning.

This morning, I got up and set up rods for carp fishing.  My rig is a little different from what many people use for carp. In fact, I've been told several times that it wouldn't work for carp because they are line shy and shy of large hooks.  The rig I use is a slip rig tied on a 7+ foot noodle rod rigged with a 1/2 ounce egg sinker on 10lb monofilament and a 12 to 18 inch  8 or 10 lb flourocarbon leader tipped with a large worm hook or a Matzuo Rip-N Roll swivel hook.  I personally prefer the death roll hook because it has a swivel attached too it, which for me has resulted in less breaks at the tie in point.  In fact, it is the very same set up I use for large catfish (minus the noodle rod) which tend to barrel roll when being fought.   I cast my rods out and set the drag so it's pretty loose but just tight enough to keep constant tension on the line.  When the drags starts screaming, hang on and enjoy the ride.

I fished this morning for  about 2 hours with a couple of friends and we all had a blast. We ended up catching 12 fish.  We had a blast, especially my buddy who had never chased carp before.  Below are a few pictures from this morning and hopefully, the next carp fishing adventure you see from me will either be from a float tube or a kayak.

Thanks for reading! Tight lines...

Beautiful Day for Silver Bass

This morning was an absolutely beautiful day to get in some fishing for silver bass.  As you can see from the picture above the 6am sunrise was well worth waking up and driving to Elizabeth park at 5:30.  While the sunrise was well worth the drive that wasn't the reason why I was there so I started casting a basspro 2 inch XTS Vibrator in the tilapia color.  First cast and fish on, a decent sized silver bass but not quite the size I fish for.  This went on for two hours with me catching fish after fish totaling a little over 65 fish.  On the whole I only kept 12 white bass and released all of the rest.

What's funny is while I was fishing I noticed the other anglers were catching a few fish but not the numbers I was catching. I think it's because the bass have been getting fished pretty hard over the last few weeks and they've gotten used to seeing white and chartreuse jigs with twister tails and have become a bit skittish on non-moving minnows.

At one point I had a gentleman walk up to fish along side me but he wasn't getting any bites either. So I offered to let him use my other lipless crankbait but he refused and only ended up with two fish in the time he was there with me.

My setup today was pretty simple.  I used a shakespeare outback spinning rod with a quantum triax reel spooled with 10lb monofilament baited with  basspro 2 1/2 inch XTS Vibrator.  As well I fished with a berkley cherrywood ultralight spooled with 4lb monofilament baited with a 2 1/2 inch Rebel Red Eye Minnow  The red eye minnow didn't produce as well as the lipless crankbait mostly because the fish were holding close to the bottom and the bait couldn't quite get deep enough consistently.

Here are the fish I kept.

Product Review: Strike King Bitsy Bug

Company Description:  The Bitsy Bug Jig has a snagless/weedless head design that helps to prevent the jig from getting wedged in the rocky bottom. The Bitsy Bug also features an inverted line tie on top of the jig head to protect your line from getting chewed up by rocks and other obstructions.

• Premium silicone skirt gives more action than a soft plastic body. 
• Fiber weedguard helps prevent line from being cut like it can on wire guards.
• Inverted line tie on the upper part of head helps keep line from being frayed on rocks. 
• Snagless/weedless head design helps prevent jig from getting wedged in rocks. 
• Quality construction and premium hooks 

Review:  The Bitsy Bug is one of those baits that I keep in my tackle bag.  I have them in every color and multiples in every size.  I've been lucky enough to catch so many fish on them that They've proven their worth to me in a big way.  The fact that they're very pretty snagless is what made me
start using them a few springs ago. But what I learned that made me keep buying them is that as the bass beat them up making them look less uniform the more bites I get.  The hooks are stout and sharp as a result they don't require you to set the hook with extreme force in order to catch a fish.  I personally don't even use any special equipment when using bitsy bugs.  My preference is just an 6 foot ugly stick (because I'm usually fishing from a float tube or kayak) paired with a low gear ratio spinning reel.

Pros: Comes in weights ranging from 1/16 oz to 1/4 oz as well as having a decent range of colors.  The best thing about this jig is the price.  

Cons: None

Price: 1.99

Finally Got Out To Fish A Bit

Finally, I got a chance to get out and do some fishing today.  After having the itch for the last few weeks I was able to sneak out for a bit after work today.  The day started with me throwing a couple rods in the car and grabbing a light tray of baits before I headed in for work this morning with the intention of sneaking in some fishing directly after work.  With rods and bait box packed I went to work trying to keep as busy as possible so quitting time would come as soon as possible.

Unfortunately as it always does quitting time took forever to arrive but when it did I disappeared

without a goodbye to the coworker bees and headed to Newburgh lake to harass whatever would be willing to bite. Less than ten minutes after getting off and I'm at the lake slow rolling spinner baits  hoping for a hungry bass or pike.  20 minutes in and I've caught nothing but a wet jacket because of the in and out rain we had today. Neither the spinnerbait nor the bitsy bug looked very enticing to the resident bass so I decided to switch out for a basspro XTS-Vibrator lipless crankbait in the tilapia.  Just two quick cast later and "Smack" fish on.  of course my assumption is this has to be a nice 17 inch bass or better because of how aggressive the bite was but low and behold the first bass of the year and it's a twelve incher with Napoleonic Disorder

Overall the fishing was a bit slow with me only catching 3 more bass and losing 2 closer to the bank, all of which were  pretty small ranging between 12 and 14 inches.  But all in all it was a great trip out.