The Mighty Angler » summer fish

Go Fishing with the Family

loulynch — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 03:08:18 +0000

Got out the the Rondout Reservoir earlier this week. I joined a local forum and have been watching as fisherman after fisherman were posting pics of the beautiful browns they have been pulling out of there lately. With each new post I was getting crankier and crankier about my inability to find the time to do a little fishing and started taking it out on the family. I guess it got to the point were my wife got tired of hearing me wine and decided to take some action. Being the great wife that she is, she took it upon her self to organize a last minute after-work fishing tip up to the reservoir. She sent me an email earlier in the day saying she was going to pick up our daughter early from school so that we can go up and finally get some bait in the water.

From that point on, my day immediately got better! I shot her back an email telling her to pick up some extra line for one of the extra poles and got right back to work. I became super efficient and mowed down the rest of my work load for the day, jumped in the truck and ran home to get the tackle ready. I arrived home to find my wife packing sandwiches and drinks. I grabbed the Gander Mountain bag with the new line off the table and quickly rigged the extra pole. We made it from Accord to the upper basin in about 23 minutes!

We got down to the shore and got setup pretty quickly. Chairs out, 3 poles in the water and had my sandwich half way unwrapped when I was reminded how much different it is fishing with the family then fishing with my buddies. “Honey can you unsnag me”, “Daddy can you untangle me”, “Daddy can you put some bait on for me”, “Can you go back up to the truck”. It is a lot of work being a fishing guide for two girls!

After we got settled down, my wife broke out the rest of the eats. The guys down shore from us have already pulled in two and my daughter is starting to become impatient (imagine that). No sooner did she get the last complaint out when WHAM! the pole goes over. My daughter quickly picked it up and started reeling like crazy until the fish began to fight and her reeling became irratic and hard-to-reel. “Daddy, help … I can’t reel it.” I grabbed the pole, reset the hook to make sure it was deep and bang … fish on!

As I got the fish close to shore I realized that I forgot one of the most important things a fisherman can forget … the net! Keeping the tip of the pole as close as I could to the water, I made sure the fish stayed in the water as long as I could as I reeled it to shore. Reaching past the tip of my pole with my hand I grabbed the line just above the fish and quickly (and as smoothly as possible) relocated the fish over dry land. The result: 19 inched 4 1/2 pound brown trout. Yum.

While fishing with the guys is fun, there is a huge amount of satisfaction that comes with having your family enjoy the outdoors with you. In a day and age where most kids are glued to their iPods, computers and video games, a shift in the way we perceive our new age culture can be accomplished by simply taking your kids fishing.

Lou Lynch is an avid sportsman and advocate for the conservation of the North American Whitetail Deer. For more information on the QDMA and how you can help your local deer herd visit www.HVQDMA.com .

Baitfish

Irlandes1 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:09:48 +0000

Okay, some more new stuff to talk about.

This year the DEC put out a baitfish publication. They have a list of baitfish that are allowed anywhere in New York State. This list is called the “green list”, if a baitfish is not on the green list, it either has a restricted use, or is no longer allowed.

Many anglers will notice immediately, as I did that Sawbellies are not on the green list. Don’t panic though; they can still be used in areas where they are necessary. When looking through the brochure just remember that a Sawbelly is a small species of Herring and you’ll find it listed under its real name “Alewife”

For the convenience of the Mighty Angler users I have tracked down and installed a copy of the brochure here.
It is in PDF format just like our maps, so if you do not already have Adobe Reader you can get it here.

Shake² Jig Head

Irlandes1 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:14:27 +0000

Okay, this is my first post from the Northeast Sports Show. I purchased these new jig heads while I was there, and once fishing season roles around, I will give a review of their performance. They look like they will be great in a drop shot situation, I can’t wait to bounce these things off the bottom of a few of my favorite Bass spots. The name is pronounced ( shake E ), they come in a few different sizes and as you can see from the video below this jig head will stand your artificial bait on end, keeping it in the view of the fish rather than allowing it to sink out of site to the bottom.

Fishing in August

Irlandes1 — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:52:34 +0000

We are headed to the final full month of summer and the fish will be biting all over the northeast. Maybe it’s that we lose a lot of those fly by night fisherman who have lost interest and are going to spend the rest of their summer drinking beer and playing horse shoes or cornhole.

Or maybe it is that the water temps have reached the peak of perfection causing feeding frenzies before the months ahead bring on the ice.

Well whatever it is August has always been good to me and many other anglers. I find hitting your favorite spot early in the morning before the sun gets too high in the sky is peek time for summer trout.

Bass on the other hand will attack all day long as long as you cast where they are. Hint: usually in the shade or under a canopy of some sort (trees, rock out croppings). Just lure them out away from obstacles and you will be catching fish nobody else is finding.

So no matter what your plan is for August, don’t give up on your favorite fishing spot yet. Because there is plenty of time to still catch that trophy.

If you would like to read more on August fishing I found a good article on nyfisherman with some solid evidence of great fish caught in August.

Until next time Fish On!