So yesterday I get an email alert from AZ Game and Fish that my credit card has been charged $265.00, they only tag in AZ that is $265.00 is big horn sheep and there are 6 tags in the unit. Fuck me I can't wait until December, I still can't believe it I am numb. This is a once every 20 year tag.
I've been fishing a lot of smaller ponds lately for catfish. Is it just me or does anyone else want to smash the fucking turtles who eat your bait constantly? Damn these bastards are annoying.
The ponds on my grandpa's farm are full of catfish and bass, and snapping turtles. We just bring them all to a neighbor that eats 'em. They can be very annoying, especially when you are jug fishing.
Went to a local fishing area to try for some specs or redfish a couple days ago. I ran into an older man who gave me some tips on how to fish the lake. I ended up with a flounder early in the day and caught the redfish as I was floating back towards the launch. The second trip I took was at a nearby bayou to look for some redfish/specs/flounder. This was my first time to this particular location, so I expected it to be a paddle around and see the lay of the land. I headed into the marsh to get out of the more open areas because the wind was starting to pick up. I was throwing a 3" white/chartreuse gulp shrimp into the mouth of a cut and ended up catching a nice flounder to start the day. I ended up with 3 flounder and nothing else in the boat. I was happy with the trip and it was a pretty nice day to be on the water.
Spoiler for large picture. Got out to the Cove around 6:30 and headed into the marsh. Didn't have much luck for a couple hours. Found a nice spot with running water and shrimp popping everywhere. I had tried a lot of different plastics at this point and decided to throw out a vudu to see what would happen. I hooked into something that sent my reel screaming. I pulled up my anchor and set off on the exciting ride. I saw the fish go towards the bank and I saw a large gray fish. I thought I had hooked either a catfish or a black drum. When I got it near the boat I realized I had caught a very large spec! Fast forward a bit and I was drifting around when I saw a wake heading my way. I quickly reeled in my line to position the gulp in front of its path. My line started dragging and I ended up with a decent redfish. Other than those fish not much exciting want on, but I did end up getting a Slam by picking up a flounder on the ride in.
Nice bugs and nice dolphin. I was fishing down in the keys earlier this week, but it was a little too rough to go out much past the first set of grass lines so we didn't have too much success. Did get some lobsters so dinner wasn't a total bust. And as soon as we hit the dock we took the first two bugs and made a nice lobster ceviche to boot.
I got a fly tying kit from a friend recently so I had some fun the other night dressing some treble hooks with bucktails. It was a lot easier than I expected and fun. I mainly used squirrel tail fur and pheasant feathers I saved for this purpose, plus some other random feathers. They will get a lot of use on a canoeing trip I am doing in October. Spoiler I am excited to use these spinners in particular. There was a random spinner attachment in my tackle box and I realized a nearby .300 Savage case was about the same length, so we'll see how this goes.
How do those Raps run now that you've added the tails? A lot of times, adding flashabou or hair will mess with the bouyancy or action. Next time you tie it, try tying it to the split ring instead of the hook. That will allow for the hook to hang down and it will keep it's original bouyancy. Allowing the hook to hang down will also keep the hook closer to the body of the lure and you'll get more hook ups.
That is on my mind and I haven't got them wet yet, so we'll find out. One of those is a floater (the jointed Rap) and the other suspends- I had enough squirrel hair left to do a couple more tails so I figured why the hell not. I keep spare treble hooks on hand so if they indeed mess with the lure I can switch them out. Some of them seem a bit long too so I might have to clip them back (unless they just get torn up the fun way). How would you tie a bucktail to the split ring?
Sorry, not the split ring. I meant the eye that the connects the split ring to the body of the lure. When I do this to my muskie lures, I just take some flashabou and run it through the eye and double it up, tie it, and then glue it. It then sticks straight out the back and allows the rear hook to hang freely in the strike zone. It also doesn't mess with the balance or action of the lure that way.
Makes sense, thanks. Would cutting the hook portion off an old treble and dressing the bare shank with a bucktail work too? I'm just thinking of something reversible. My roommate and I made tentative plans to go kayak fishing tonight so we'll see what happens.
Not sure. I haven't seen it done before, so who knows. Give it a try. If it doesn't work out, you've only lost an old treble and some hair.
We only caught some small bass and bluegill last night. The only lure that didn't work with the bucktails was the spoons. I tried trolling with one and it just stayed on the surface. Otherwise everything else did pretty well, except catching northerns like I wanted to.
Opening day of early goose was solid. 17 birds down, and if my gun hadn't shit the bed in the middle of the honker apocalypse, we would have had a lot more.