New York State of Mind

Not represented in this photo are about 50 big smallmouths
caught and released on the same day!

As of a yesterday, a little past lunchtime, I thought I'd be home for the next few weeks, writing fish stories and doing only local fishing. Then opportunity arose, and it was one I just couldn't resist. Some time this weekend I'll point the Fiesta north and drive till I get to Lewiston, New York, on the banks of the Niagara River.

Lewiston ranks among my favorite fishing towns, and the annual media gathering I'll be joining is always fun and productive. Last year, it produced one of my favorite fishing days of the entire year in Capt. Frank Campbell's boat on the lower Niagara River. The 10-pound brown pictured above slammed a tube while we were smallmouth fishing, and was among about 50 smallmouths between about 3 pounds and 5-15. To cap the spectacular smallmouth action, which occurred in about four hours at the mouth of the Niagara River, we ran upriver to swifter water and managed to land a steelhead and a laker. Some kind of day, I'd have to say!


Potential opportunities from the same trip also include fishing Erie for big first-season smallmouths, fishing for trout and salmon and Lake Ontario and much more. I fished three days on last year's trip, and each was completely different from the other two. Erie was slower than normal, but one fish I caught weighed 5-11, which is the biggest smallmouth I've ever weighed. The variety of high-quality opportunities is in the Niagara River Region is really pretty astounding.

For now, I suppose I need to scramble to finish some writing, charge some batteries, clear some come cards, pack some junk...

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.

Personal Best Smallmouth & More

It's always fun to top a personal best for a kind of fish. To do so two days in a row is even better. The smallmouth pictured above, which I caught today on Lake Erie in Billy McDonald's boat, was the biggest one I've ever weighed (5-11). I can't say with absolute certainty that it's the biggest smallmouth I've ever caught because I've caught a handful in the 5 1/2 range that I didn't weigh. I really don't think any were bigger than that one, though.

Yesterday, while fishing the mouth of the Niagara River with Capt. Frank Campbell, I caught a 9-pound brown trout, which definitely was a personal best.

Of course, that shouldn't surprise me. I've also caught my biggest lake trout, steelhead and coho salmon while fishing with Frank Campbell in the Niagara River on past trips. That's five personal best fish from one region, and I've only fished up here a handful of times.

Just one of many reasons I love fishing in the Niagara River region!

Sandwich Smallmouths

No, this isn't about eating bass.

Instead, its about catching bass while trying to eat my lunch. I caught three chunky smallmouths today before I could finish a simple roast beef and provolone sandwich. More noteworthy than those particular fish, though, was what I learned from them.

Catching smallmouths wasn't a tough task today. Capt. Frank Campbell had us in the right spot, and the fish were pouncing on tubes. I got off to a slow start, though. In fact, I think Bob George of Buck Knives had five or six fish before I landed my first one, and he and Mike Kelley of Flambeau Outdoors were whacking them way faster than me in the morning. I was catching some bass, but at a far slower pace, through most of the day.

My catching pace picked up when I picked up my sandwich because it forced me to slow down. I thought I was working my bait fairly slowly already, but when I fished with a sandwich in one hand, I no longer had a reeling hand that could do any more than bump the handle a bit to pick up slack. So I pretty well moved the bait the speed the boat was drifting, which was quite slow, jiggling the tube place, pausing it and hopping it only when we'd moved far enough to do so without reeling.

That change of pace made all the difference, and I kept up with the other guys for the rest of the time we targeted smallmouths via that simple change of pace. They still outfished me for the full day, but only by a few fish, which said a lot after my slow start.

Thank you, sandwich.

Follow the Shore

Mike Kelley of Flambeau with a Lake Ontario
steelhead that hit a Yo-Zuri 3DB Minnow.

Follow the shore. That was our approach on Lake Ontario this morning. Actually we paralleled the shore a modest distance out, with Gregg LaMere keeping the boat over 7 to 9 feet of water. It's a food chain thing.That's where the midges are hatching, so that's where the smelt are. And where you find smelt, well... you know!

We matched the smelt with Yo-Zuri 3DB Minnows, trolled about 100 feet back with a couple of the lines spread out on each side with planer boards. The simple approach definitely did the job. Although winds kicked up ahead of an approaching storm and chased us away around mid-day, we still caught about a dozen fish, which included roughly an equal mix of brown trout and steelheads, plus a single smallmouth bass.

I caught a couple of browns and a couple of steelheads, and while neither steelie was particularly large, I was extra glad to catch them because that's a new addition to this year's species list, and a kind of fish that's far from a given on any given year's catch list.

Something else cool about today was that while I've fished the Niagara River region on three previous trips (each for two or three days) the fishing we did today was unlike anything else I have done. The diversity of the fishery and the types of angling opportunities in this area continue to amaze me.

A Few Days Early

Dan Elsner of Get Bit Baits shows the sort
of fish the waters around Sturgeon Bay normally
produce by the dozens early in the season.

The spring wake-up showed signs of getting going yesterday in Little Sturgeon Bay, and word we heard suggested that it was happening throughout the area. No crazy catch numbers, but fish caught and spotted in normal early areas. Plentiful sun on Sunday and yesterday clearly has fish moving up into the bays and within a couple of days the fishing should be absolutely off the hook. Unfortunately, I won't get to see it because I fly out of town today.

Virtually every spring, the best Sturgeon Bay fishing of the entire year occurs on the first few days after Wisconsin's bass season opens. This year was the exception. The ice only broke up a few days before the season, and the water just wasn't warm enough, soon enough, for the fish to start moving up into the bays. In fact, the ice still isn't completely gone. There are still a couple of  huge sheets of ice out floating in the main bay, and we could see one of them near the horizon from Little Surgeon Bay while we fished yesterday.

Fishing was tough, and I know that was hard for Dan Elsner of Get Bit Baits, who was eager to show off the spectacular smallmouth fishery just outside of his back yard. I still enjoyed learning about the area and getting out there, and I'm confident that we did all the right stuff to try to find the fish. It was just a weird opener, and we were a few days early.

I don't fly home today. Instead, I fly to Buffalo for another round of Great Lakes fishing. The ice lingered for a long time in Lake Erie, too, so it will be interesting to see what I find at that end. I suspect if Erie is way behind as well we might focus most efforts on trout and salmon in the lower Niagara River. I'll get plenty of reports after I get to town tonight, I'm sure.

Tour De Bronze 2014

Well, my big bronze trip begins tomorrow, when I board a plane to fly from Atlanta to Green Bay. Travel actually includes two trips in one. After arriving in Green Bay, I'll spend three days fishing Sturgeon Bay and the other bays that bound Door County, Wisconsin. From Green Bay, I fly directly to Buffalo, to fish for more big smallmouths in Lake Erie's eastern basin and to fish for a mix of species (including smallmouths) in the Lower Niagara River and Lake Ontario.

The Sturgeon Bay area, the Buffalo area of Erie and the mouth of the Niagara clearly rank among the finest trophy smallmouth waters in the world, and the first days after they open typically are among the very best for catching the most and the biggest fish. Fishing is still fishing, so it may not happen, but if the weather allows us good approaches to the best waters, chances of tangling with seriously big smallmouth bass are about as good as I could ask for.

At Sturgeon Bay, I think we'll be fishing with Tubes and other Get Bit Baits soft-plastic offerings, plus some hair jigs custom tied specifically for the early-season bite. At Erie, tubes, live shiners and jerkbaits could all play a role.

Of course this trip isn't all about bronze. I'll also be spending time on the Lower Niagara River fishing for steelhead, salmon and lakers, But maybe that's another story for another time.

Ice Out?

Earlier this year I was watching weather in the North, pulling for serious cold to lock up good ice for my January trip western Pennsylvania. A few months later I'm thinking about northern weather and ice again, but this time I'm pulling for the opposite. On Friday, I fly to Green Bay to fish for giant smallmouths in the legendary waters that bound Door County with the folks from Get Bit Baits, but as of a couple of days ago, a couple of the bays we would most likely fish still had ice on them. They are starting to break up. so hopefully by the time we're ready to fish...

The good news is that some bays are open and -- worst case -- we could fish in rivers that supposedly are loaded with 3- to 5-pound smallmouths!

From Green Bay I fly Buffalo to fish Erie and the Niagara River and apparently Erie's Eastern Basin still has ice on it, too, but those waters have a few more days to thaw before I arrive, so I feel pretty confident that we'll be in good shape there. And if we could only fish the river, which is full of brown trout, steelhead, lake trout and salmon, that wouldn't be the worst thing that's ever happened.

There's nothing I can do about any of that anyway, so I'll just pack plenty of warm clothes and be prepared for whatever happens!

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!

Two Tremendous Days on the Niagara

I'm not sure how many hundreds of pounds of fish were caught and released in Frank Campbell's boat yesterday and today, but I do know that when we were not running from spot to spot or stopped to take pictures, at least one of us was usually battling a fish. Add the unseasonably mild weather and Campbell's great company, and you just can't ask for much better "work days."

Top techniques today included pulling Lindy River Rockers on three-ways and Shadlings on flat lines, hopping Fuzz-E Grubs off the bottom and dragging minnows on Lindy Jigs and on three-way rigs with Lindy Beads in front of our hooks. Yesterday we combined Lindy Beads with eggs for steelhead.

The Lower Niagara has become one of my favorite fishing destinations in the nation, in large part due to the tremendous variety of quality fish that you can catch any given day. We caught steelhead, brown trout and lake trout, but any given fish that grabbed a lure could have turned out to have been a coho or king salmon or even a big smallmouth bass.

Adding appeal is the delightful riverside town of Lewiston, with its shops and restaurants all walking distance from the Riverside Motel. Town seemed nicer than ever this week because of the Christmas lights and the open-air family skating rink, which is run by the town and free.

I've only been out of town for about seven hours, and I'm already looking forward to my next visit to the Niagara River -- whenever that might turn out to be.

Water & Ice

Today begins a two-legged northern fishing trip, which will include both open-water fishing and ice fishing. Stop No. 1 is in Lewiston, New York, where I'll spend two days with Capt. Frank Campbell on the Niagara River targeting big and beautiful steelhead and brown trout. Stop No. 2 is Northern Minnesota, where the lakes are well frozen. There, I'll ice-fish primarily for panfish, but you never know for sure what you will pull up through a hole in the ice!

December!

It's sort of hard for me to believe that the calendar page turned to December this morning. Of course, a few things have reminded recently that winter has arrived. Most notably, I suppose, we had some sleet a couple of days ago. Another good clue should be that I'll be ice fishing in about two weeks and that one fisherman friend I spoke with just this week was sitting atop the ice catching walleyes! I'm also looking at my family's Christmas tree as I write this, and we've been doing Advent readings around the table every evening this week.

I'm looking forward to a couple of ice trips this winter. The first is to Northern Minnesota, with assorted panfish being the main objective. The second (in mid-January) is to Devils Lake, North Dakota, where I'll fish for walleyes, yellow perch and northern pike. I took three separate ice trips last year and really enjoyed the experience. I also got a lot of good story material and photos and have had fun learning about and writing about ice fishing.

Next stop, though, is the Niagara River, where I get to spend a couple of days with Frank Campbell. Steelhead are tops on the list, but it's hard to fish the Niagara with Frank without catching a variety of fish. Winter is an exciting time because the steelhead and trout pour into the river from Lake Ontario. It can be seriously cold, but the fishing can be fabulous.

It seems like I should learn to find trips that begin in an airplane pointed SOUTH this time of year, but I really am looking forward to this winter's great northern adventures.