Fishing Blog

Fishing For Bait: A Flyfisher’s Resolve

by Ben Vaz on February 5, 2012


We are pleased to bring you our first guest post here on the AnglerGang fishing blog. This post is brought to us by the always funny, trout junkie Owl Jones! You can check out more of his fishing antics at OwlJones.com

“This site is lousy with pike anglers!” I shouted to my wife, who was in the kitchen banging around pots and pans and windchimes from the sound of it. She didn’t answer back. I clicked the page labeled “pictures.” There, in photo after photo there was one grand fish after another. Pike, bass, salmon, steelhead and one really cool tattoo.

“I’m not sure I’m really worthy to be Guest Blogging on a site like this” I said. Clank. Clink. Bang. I clicked the tab marked “Blog” and began to read. The only problem was that I couldn’t read because of all the great pictures of incredible fish. “I mean, does everyone that writes something here have a photo with a massive fish?” Clink, bang, plunk.

It would be a romantic notion to say that every time we fished our mountain streams here in the Southeast that all we caught were beautiful little brook trout. But the truth is that every once in a while, we do get a monster fish – at least by Southern trout fishing standards, and I do have a couple of nice photos. “I might be able to get this past those guys at Angler Gang after all!”

“What are you going on about in there?” my wife asks. I mumble something about writing and the need for a little quiet. Wham! Thud! Bang-rang-blang-bam! I dig my head deeper into the glow of a warm, humming laptop and search for the photo of a nice brook trout I caught and released several years ago.

Ah,…there it is. This one is almost worthy. It will have to do. The colors aren’t as bright as they were in person, and there’s an unflattering glare from the sun..but it will have to do. It is a brook trout, after all, and it looks as if no one at Angler Gang has ever seen one before. Sure, they have your giant salmon, monster pike and big fat yellow perch…but not a brook trout.

“Are you looking at LOLCats in there?” my wife yells from the back guest room. I’m giggling now, thinking about the big brookie and that day. My friend and I each got one as big, and several that were a little smaller. All like brook trout colored footballs. But I disect. Regress. whatever….

And so, I present this fish to you – the Angler Gang faithful.A very respectable brook trout by Southern standards and a fish that makes our wild trout look like a can of opened up, dried up, year old sardines. This massive brookie isn’t the fish we’re normally after as we sit at our fly tying desks into the wee hours of the morning lashing feathers and tinsel to bare hooks….but he’ll do. He will certainly do.

Brook Trout

It’s photos like this one that remind me of all those little five and six inch trout that more often find my fly – the little jewels of the Blue Ridge Mountains that we’re destined to catch, and that I’m resolved to forever love. That is, until I finally take a trip for steelhead or salmon. “Honey, come look at these giant fish!”

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Lake Ontario Chinook Salmon Fishing

Lake Ontario Salmon

Saturday morning I woke up early for some salmon fishing. I had plans to hook up with my now friend Kevin who runs a fishing charter on Lake Ontario. I got to the marina about 6:20am a little late as usual and we got straight to business.

In no time we were trolling lures in 100 feet of water in a fully outfitted rig.  It was a slow start, we spent an hour or more “rinsing lures” and we were due for some action.

Bang a strike on one of the rods, Game on! I lifted the rod out of the holder and connected to the fish. Right away I knew this was no small fish.  It felt like I was hooked into a Volkswagen compared to the fish I catch on the regular.
I was pumped but I was quiet and focused, I didn’t want to lose this fish. He was on one of the rods with light line and way out there. keeping the pressure on him, we had a good battle and I eventually brought the great chinook salmon to the boat. Wow what a thrill! We didn’t weigh it but my guide was experienced enough to say it was at least twenty pounds.

chinook salmon fishing

Chinook Salmon

Trolling along in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere I reeled in a couple smaller chinook salmon and had one decent one get off right at the boat.
We were now literally talking about pulling our baits out of the water and heading back when a rod off the side of the boat bent over.

We got up excited for another big one, I pulled the rod from its holder and connected up.  This one was bigger then the first and I had it on a rod with roller guides and some serious line. I muscled the fish to the boat more confidant then the first and it was a monster chinook salmon my guide said this one was a good twenty five pounds.

 

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The Pike Saga Continues

by Ben on August 30, 2011


The gang and I have trolled every area of the lake now and have caught countless pike.  Sad part is they are all in the 24″ size range and under. While they are quite strong at this size, we want one that could pick his teeth with these ones. Saturday we ganged up and headed out, Myself and Marten in one boat and Big John and Tips in the other. Fishing was slow for the first couple hours, the sun was out and it was hot.  We started out trolling, searching for pike to no avail.  John and Tips found themselves a weedy corner and we saw them hooking into some pan fish, which they seemed quite happy in doing after a couple hours without fish.

Angler Gang Fishing Island Lake

Marten and I were staying on the move trying to find the big pike we have been looking for. Just around the bend after leaving the boys we had some action, Marten caught a twenty incher and moments later I got an aggressive hit and hooked into a fish very briefly. He ran hard two or three times taking line fast.  Could it be the pike we have been looking for?  I thought as I fumbled to kill the motor. He ran hard once more and was off as quick as he was on. After a few curse words we decided to stay in this section and cast for a while. We managed a couple more pike each and called it a day. I guess the hunt will continue next trip. Enjoy the Fishing Blog

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Pike Fishing

by Ben on August 20, 2011


Pike Fishing

Angler Gang Small Pike

After a few of my friends ended up having to work  and couldn’t make it pike fishing the next morning.  I gave an old friend a shout and he was down. I woke to his text message and  I was straight out the door as I geared up the night before. An hour drive in some on and off light rain and we were at the lake.

We got right to it and decided to target bass seeing it was still morning and seemed like a good idea.  We headed for the weedy bay where I have known them to hang.  We set up shop there.  When a new guy comes out fishing,  you want to produce fish and make sure he has a good time.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t happening.  Well over an hour had past casting frogs and my friend Marten throwing  everything in his tackle box at them.

We gave up and switched our target species to the pike, they also lurk in these waters.  Ten minutes out of the unproductive bass territory I was into a small pike it was a relief to finally have a fish on my line.  Spirits were up and the rain holding off left us with pretty sweet weather conditions.  We were now on the troll after some fish.  My friend gets his first one on and look who it is…?  A decent largemouth bass.  Yeah, the same fish we were after in the bay showed himself after hitting a big spinner bait on the troll.

We were on a roll and hooking up fairly often.  Lots of pike all around the same size and a few more bucket mouths. We spent every second after the first fish trolling the small lake for a pike that would eat the ones we were catching but he was no where to be found.

If you liked this post you may like  Fishing For Pike The Saga Continues

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