Favorite Fishing Destinations Countdown: Honorable Mentions

A 9-2 largemouth from Mexico's Lake El Salto, fishing out of Anglers Inn International

Last week I noted that I would soon start a countdown of favorite fishing destinations. I've been mulling that one, and have my list mostly together, although it continues to shift in my mind, as I suppose it always will. Ten was the target, but I couldn't quite cut it that small, so I had to acknowledge a handful of honorable mentions before beginning the Top 10 listings. I'll hit these quickly in a single post and in no particular order. Top 10 will get individual posts and will count down to No. 1, although as I noted in last week's post, there isn't a lot of separation between any of the honorable mentions and the last ones I'll highlight in the countdown. I'm more than a little bit fond of all of them!

Lake El Salto - Given the spectacular fishing and scenery and the entire experience at Anglers Inn International, El Salto probably couldn't stay out of the Top 10, except that it's more accurately dubbed a place I "have fished" than one I "do fish." I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to fish their twice and of course I hope to return someday, but it's tough to say whether that will ever happen.

Big Pier 60 - Big Pier 60 in Clearwater Beach is similar, but very different. It's very accessible and I've spent dozens of days (and nights) fishing there. Most were more than three decades ago, though. It will forever remain one of my favorite places to fish, especially at night, under the lights, for speckled trout.

Reelfoot Lake - I've often likened Reelfoot to the world's largest farm pond, based on appearance and the way it fishes. I've gotten to spend some crazily fun days catching big bluegills, channel cats, crappie or bass from Tennessee's earthquake lake, and I always enjoy hanging out at Blue Bank Resort.

Buffalo River - Flowing freely for its entire 135 miles through Arkansas' Ozark Mountains, the Buffalo National River is quite simply a spectacular place to explore, whether by wading or floating. Great smallmouth opportunities are truly a bonus. The only downside from my standpoint is that the Buffalo is about a 15-hour drive from my house.

New River - Speaking of spectacular smallmouth rivers, the New is another of my absolute favorites, and I've had opportunities at times to fish sections spread from the relatively gentle upper reaches in Western North Carolina to the famous whitewater section of New River Gorge in West Virginia. Check out New River Outdoor Company in Virginia or Adventures On the Gorge in West Virginia if you want to discover this spectacular River for yourself.

A Dozen Delightful Days

Yesterday, I recapped half a dozen specific favorite fish from 2014, so today I thought I'd highlight a few of my favorite days on the water. When I looked back, though, I had a hard time narrowing it to a few. In fact, I picked a dozen, and I'd have a hard time ranking those, which only serves to remind me what a blessing it is to get to travel and fish and write fish stories for a living. And even with a dozen stellar days listed, I could have included several others. Listing is roughly in calendar order. Where a fuller post from the day exists, I've included "Blog Post" link.

Alabama Baitcaster Crappie - TJ Stallings and I spent a crazy fun day catching giant black crappie on Road Runner Rollin' Runners matched with 4-inch swimbaits, all on baitcasting gear with 14-pound test. Most weighed 2 pounds or more. Two broke the 3-pound mark. Blog Post

Bass Crazy Hobie Day - Nathaniel and I got to spend a couple of days with the Hobie Kayaks crew, trying out boats and taking photos, and enjoyed some seriously fast action bass fishing on private waters in South Alabama. In case you've ever wondered, fishing with your son, each in your own little Hobie Pro Angler, and catching more bass than you count, is seriously fun.

Wading the White - During last year's Gaston's trip, Nathaniel and I spent half a day fishing on our own, and as much as I always enjoy going out with the guides, there was something extra fun about wading shoals straight out from the resort, picking our own spots and catching a bunch of trout on Rebel Crawfish and Minnows and Ugly Bugs. Blog Post

Dry Run Farewell - No fishing for me on this outing. It was Nathaniel's final two-hour visit to his
favorite youth-only stream in Arkansas before he turned 16, and he managed to catch a huge and beautiful brown trout.

Niagara Slam - I mentioned this day with Capt. Frank Campbell yesterday because it included a brown trout that was one of my favorite individual fish from 2014. We mostly fished for smallmouths, and I'd guess we caught 50-plus fish that range from about 3 pounds to a weighed 5-15. Then, we put a cap on the day by running up the river and adding a steelhead and a lake trout.

Deadwood Finale' - Simple and fun. Wading right through Deadwood, South Dakota with friends from Cabela's and then exploring the canyon just downstream of town and catching more than our share of beautiful brown trout. Blog Post

Smallmouths in Sight - Clear, shallow water in the Sturgeon Bay areas and loads of big smallmouths absolutely locked in. Let's just say that we put the new Ugly Stik Elite outfits to a really good test that day!

El Salto, El Grande - This is another one I mentioned yesterday because it included my biggest largemouth in several years. Often you have to choose to go after numbers or target big fish. Paul Davis of Abu Garcia and I didn't have to pick on day one of my trip to Angler's Inn, which yielded 70 fish, including my 9-2, before lunch! Blog Post

Splendid Sequatchie - One of my favorite kinds of fishing is wet wading a cool-water stream for multiple species with spinning tackle, and the day I spent with Pat Roberson was that style of fishing at it's very best. We both fished with a single lure all day, and we caught countless fish and nine different species. Blog Post

Big Snowbird Plan Change - Nathaniel and I thought our day was done before it started when a muddy dirt road prevented us from getting to the delayed harvest section of Big Snowbird Creek. We instead waded a downstream section that probably hadn't been stocked for a couple of months, but the fish were surprisingly plentiful and quite cooperative, and we had the stream to ourselves. Blog Post

Asher's Birthday Outing - Asher and I only caught 10 trout in a pretty full day, but it was his first North Carolina trout outing, and it was just plain fun spending the day together knee deep in a stream. We also were celebrating his 10th birthday, so catching 10 fish was kind of cool. Blog Post

Ice Season Start - Going back only a couple of weeks, I quickly forgot about my nine bonus hours in MSP airport after I got on the ice with Jeff Sundin and Jon Thelen of Lindy. The first crappie came moments after I dropped a line in a hole, and the crappie/sunfish action never let up. The weather was also mighty nice, for ice fishing, and it was just plain fun being back out there. Blog Post

6 Favorite Fish from 2014

Toward the end of the year I always like looking back at favorite fishing trips, days on the water and specific fish. For the moment, I'm going focus on specific fish and what made each a favorite. And I'll just go ahead and apologize now to any extra cool fish from this year that I'm not thinking about at the moment.

Northern Minnesota Tulibee - It was neither a trophy nor a kind of fish that most anglers even target. So why was it one of my favorites? Mostly, I suppose, because I'd never caught a tulibee, and being sort of a wannabe northern woodsman during the winter, I'm intrigued by all things ice. It also was a fun catch because I marked just inches beneath the ice when I was fishing near the bottom for bluegills, so I reeled up quickly and started jigging with a very short line. It hammered the bait and just about pulled the rod out of my hand.


Green Bay Smallmouth - We didn't have scales, so I can't assign an actual weight. I'm guessing high 5s, at least, though, and it may even have outweighed a 5-11 (my biggest weighed smallmouth) that I caught from Erie about a month later. This particular fish, which came from a small Green Bay tributary, was an extra prize and very satisfying because enduring winter weather made fishing unusual tough that week. I caught it on a Get Bit Baits Crawling Tube.

Lake Pactola Lake Trout - The cool thing abut the laker was how similar it was to another lake I caught a few years ago while ice fishing on the same lake. Both days I was fishing with Tyler French on days based out of Deadwood and we were jigging over deep points, and I caught both fish on minnow-tipped Lindy Watsit Grubs!

Niagara River Brown Trout - My biggest brown ever - right around 10 pounds - and I caught in the midst of catching a gazillion jumbo smallmouths on tubes at the mouth of the Niagara River with Capt. Frank Campbell. Again, it was a Get Bit Baits Crawling Tube that did the job. That day was actually one of my favorites from last year, but I suppose that's another story for another time.

El Salto Largemouth - It was my first trip to Angler's Inn at Mexico's Lake El Salto in about15 years, and the 9-2 largemouth I caught on the first full day of the trip might have been my biggest bass since last time I was there. I've caught a few big pond bass that I haven't weighed, so I'm not sure about that, but it was sure one of the biggest in quite a few years. It was a classic El Salto fish that hit a big Power Worm fished through flooded trees. My first trip to El Salto, by the way, yielded a 10 1/2, which remains the biggest bass I've ever weighed.

Red Lake Walleye -The best walleye from my most recent trip wasn't a genuine trophy by Minnesota walleye standards -- just a good quality fish. However, I caught it from the first sleeper ice house I've ever spent a night in, and I caught just moments after arriving. I probably hadn't been fishing two minutes when the fish hit, and I was surprised to bring up a thick-bodied walleye that landed right in the middle of the Red Lake slot and therefore went right back down into the hole almost as quickly as it came out.

Fish Stories

"writes fish stories"

That's my unofficial job description, and while I don't suppose it's quite complete it's a decent summary of how I get to earn my living. I'm thinking about that on this Thanksgiving because I'm immensely thankful that God allows me to use something that I enjoy so much to put food on my family's dinner table.

The big picture probably isn't quite what many folks paint it when they see my basement full of gear or track the places I get to travel and folks I get to fish with. I don't just get paid to go fishing. That said, I do get spend a fair amount of my work time playing with friends in wonderful places. As importantly, beyond my obvious fondness for fishing, I really enjoy the writing and photography parts of my job.

I'm also very thankful that my work allows me to be self-employed, meaning I can work from home, picks the trips that suit my business and my family and control my own schedule, as long as the work gets done. Although I do travel quite a bit, I believe working from home, with my wife also at home and our children home-schooled, allows me more time with my children than many dads get to enjoy.

Of course I'm thankful for the cool places I get to visit as I gather photos and story material. This year's trips have taken me from New York's Niagara River to South Dakota's Black Hills to Mexico's El Salto.

I don't know what next year (or next week) will bring, but for now I'm happy to be writing fish stories and thankful for each opportunity.

I've Fished Everywhere, Man. I've Fished Everywhere

Deadwood, South Dakota; Buffalo, New York; El Salto, Mexico, Bartow, Florida...

OK. I haven't fished everywhere. It sort of feels like it, though. I've been running a lot since the first of the year, especially for the past few months, and have gotten to fish in a huge variety of settings for  many different kinds of fish. Best I can recall, I've caught fish in 13 U.S. states, plus Mexico, so far this year. The current species tally stands at 23.

Excepting a trip to South Carolina to cover the Forrest Wood Cup in a couple of weeks, I have no travel plans through the end of August. That could change, but it's OK with me as it doesn't. As much as I enjoy fishing other places, I sure miss being home when the trips come one after another. Plus, I don't get to spend much time fishing around here. If plans stay as they are, I'll likely slip out several days to fish trout waters in Georgia or the Carolinas, local ponds and maybe a big lake or two with a local fisherman.

Plans change quickly when opportunities arise, though, so I won't make any bold statements about where I will or won't be fishing over the next few weeks.

Loaded for Pigs

I'm packed light for El Salto -- but in a heavy sort of way. With a tropical climate and daily laundry service, clothes needed for a visit to Angler's Inn are minimal. In truth, once I get to the lodge, there really isn't much that I will need. The bulk of my stuff is fishing gear, including reels, hard baits, soft plastics and terminal tackle. But even that isn't terribly extensive because time has shown what the fish like to eat there. They like giant Power Worms, and swimbaits, Fat Free Shad crankbaits, topwater lures, spinnerbaits and big jigs. That's the stuff that gets it done, so I didn't try to get fancy with other stuff.

I say light in a heavy duty sort of way because pretty much everything is on the big end. Big worms, big hooks, big crankbaits, big swimbaits. Fish in El Salto are used to eating tilapia, overgrown crawfish and other large forage, so they favor big baits. Plus, a big part of why I'm traveling so far from home to fish for bass is that I'm hoping to catch a giant, and while small baits produce occasional big fish, even at El Salto, usually it's the oversized offerings that get the job done.

Highlighting the heavy duty stuff is Abu Garcia's new Revo Beast, a brute of a reel with lots of power, a big cranking handle and oversized grips. It was designed for throwing jumbo swimbaits and the like and for handling the fish that attack those kinds of baits. The Beast is ready to be unleashed, and I'm eager to match it up against an El Salto Hawg.

North & South

Sturgeon Bay in Door County, Wisconsin

A Delta notification on my phone tells me that I can check in for my flight any time. I guess that means the next trip is getting close. I'll actually drive to Atlanta early tomorrow morning to get on a plane and will do the same thing next week at about the same time. Both are fishing trips that promise great action, the chance to field test some cool gear, and many opportunities to gather photos and story material, but that's where the similarities end.

Tomorrow's travels point me north. I'm flying to Minneapolis and then connecting to Green Bay, where I'll spend three days fishing the spectacular bays that bound Door County, which is located on the peninsula between the Green Bay and Lake Michigan. We'll fish cool, clear, rocky water and target smallmouth bass, walleyes and salmon, and I suspect it will be sweatshirt weather.

Next week's air travel take me south -- way south -- with the first flight going to Dallas and the connecting flight taking me to Mazatlan, Mexico. From Mazatlan, we'll travel by van to Lake El Salto, where big largemouth bass will be the lone target. We'll work timber and vegetation with big lures, and light fishing clothes will be the order of the day. I'll go with sleeves and long pants, but only for the sake of sun protection.

Today's work is a mixed bag of wrapping up writing projects, packing, banking, charging batteries, clearing memory cards and doing the other stuff that will make me ready for travel. Hopefully I'll get to bed at a good time, because the 2:30 a.m. alarm is going to seem pretty early!

Fishy Days Ahead

Eli Moscul hoists a beautiful Niagara River brown trout caught
with Capt. Frank Campbell a couple of days ago. Photo courtesy
of Niagara Region Charter Service.

 

I caught myself daydreaming about fishy days ahead, so I figured I might as well blog about upcoming fishing travel and make the daydreaming at least sort of productive.

Capt. Frank Campbell is largely to blame for my straying thoughts. He sent a note about an upcoming trip to the Niagara River and included the photo at the top of this page. One of his clients caught that brown trout only a couple of days ago. I'll be up there in early May, fishing Lake Erie out of Buffalo for giant smallmouth bass and the Lower Niagara River for brown trout, steelhead, lake trout and whatever else wants to bite. It is one of my absolute favorite places to visit.

I'd better not get too far ahead of myself with a New York state of mind, though, because before I get to the Niagara, I'll be fishing on Norfork Lake in Arkansas for stripers, largemouths, crappie and whatever else wants to bite, floating Arkansas' Spring River for smallmouths, rainbows, browns, rock bass and more and then flying to Green Bay to fish the legendary waters of Door County (Sturgeon Bay area) for jumbo smallmouth bass, jumbo smallmouth bass and jumbo smallmouth bass.

As if that weren't enough to distract me sufficiently, spring and early summer travels will also take me to Deadwood, South Dakota to fish Black Hills rivers and lakes, mostly for trout; back to Green Bay for a big-water mix of smallmouths, walleyes and salmon; and finally South of the Border to Anglers Inn on Lake El Salto, where I hope to lock horns with some seriously big largemouths.

What all that tells me -- beyond the notion that I should enjoy some wonderful days fishing over the next few months -- is that I'd better quit daydreaming and get back to the business of writing fish stories so I'm ahead of the game when I point the truck toward Arkansas next week!