Return to FL part 2 - FUNYET charter

On our first full day in the Keys, Ryan, Meghan, Ruoxi and I met up with Captain John Sahagian of FUNYET Charters. This was the first time Ruoxi and I had done a fishing charter, so we were looking forward to the new experience! We picked up ice and made the rounds to the traps that Captain John put out for pinfish to use as bait. We originally wanted to fish very deep water (700+ feet deep) for tilefish, but the waves were too high that day.



Instead, we trolled for pelagic species while we traveled between several wrecks to jig for fish near the bottom. Trolling was slow. We only got one hit and didn't hook up with the fish. We didn't mark any fish at the first wreck, so we continued on to the second. Fish showed up on the depth finder, so we set up there. We jigged with a chicken rig baited with squid, and everyone caught several vermilion snapper.

Vermilion Snapper (Rhomboplites aurorubens) - new hook & line species #246


We took turns catching fish, and on Meghan's turn the rod really bent over. She fought something big, making steady progress, and brought up the biggest fish of our trip, a greater amberjack!



Greater Amberjack (Seriola dumerili)


Late in the afternoon, we began to see sharks circling the boat. We were pretty excited! I wasn't targeting them specifically, but as I was reeling my bait up I felt a hit, and when the fish came into view, it turned out to be one of the sharks. We took it out of the water just long enough to get the hook out and then released it back into the water.

Silky Shark (Carcharhinus falciformis) - new hook & line species #247


Pretty soon Ruoxi hooked up with a shark as well. Like the one I caught it was too small to remove the hook with it in the water, so we brought it in the boat in order to remove the hook before releasing it.





Ryan hooked up with the biggest shark of the day. He brought it up to the boat, but before we could remove the hook, it bit through the line. He was bummed that his only photo of the shark is the one below, but I could still tell he was happy to have caught a shark.



At this point we were out of time and had to head back to shore. As we were motoring back, we saw a cluster of bait fish jumping out of the water, so Captain John quickly put out a line. It got a hit, and I reeled in the last fish of the day, a yellowtail snapper. It was not a species we were expecting to catch while trolling!



Yellowtail Snapper (Ocyurus chrysurus)


We arrived back at Captain John's dock, and while he cleaned our catches (one greater amberjack, one yellowtail, and six or seven vermilion snapper), we enjoyed saying hello to his friend Puffy. John's wife fed Puffy several blue crabs, which he happily crunched up.

Spotted Burrfish (Chilomycterus reticulatus)

Return to FL part 1 - duplex rental canal

The return to Florida! Last year's trip was such a success that we had to do a repeat this year. Unfortunately, Ken and Michael weren't able to make it this time, but my friend Terry and his girlfriend Kayla agreed to join Ruoxi and me on a roadtrip from the midwest to the sunshine state. The four of us packed in my Subaru and drove two days before arriving at the duplex we rented in Marathon. Ryan and Meghan, our friends from Tampa, checked in a day earlier and were waiting for us when we arrived. After unloading the car, I grabbed my light rod, put a piece of squid on a small hook, and dropped it in the canal behind the property. On my first drop I got a new lifer!

Gulf Toadfish (Opsanus beta) - new hook & line species #244


The next morning, before heading out on our charter, I checked the canal again to see if anything new showed up. The morning light was just right, and I could see the bottom clearly. A school of jacks swam by, and I quickly tossed my piece of bait in their path. One of the fish took it, and I reeled in my second fish and second lifer.

Horse-eye Jack (Caranx latus) - new hook & line species #245


While Ruoxi and I went off with Ryan and Meghan on our charter, Terry and Kayla spent the day relaxing at the duplex. They did pretty well catching fish and took some good photos.





Schoolmaster (Lutjanus apodus)

Photo credit Terry Timmons.

Gulf Toadfish (Opsanus beta)

Photo credit Terry Timmons.

Blue Runner (Caranx crysos)

Photo credit Terry Timmons.

For the rest of our stay we didn't get too much else exiting out of the canal. I caught a couple mangrove snapper and bluestriped grunts. Another gulf toadfish was the only other fish I took a photo of.

Gulf Toadfish (Opsanus beta)

Muskellunge

Yesterday was a good day of fishing.  Ruoxi and I headed down to a popular lake south of Peoria (I won't say the name to be courteous to the guy who suggested we go there), we cast lures from a dock for a couple hours, and I caught my first muskie.

We started off fishing a shallow weedy part of the lake.  Ruoxi was using a shad-like swimbait and I was using an orange and silver spinner.  After about 45 minutes without any bites, we moved to a dock where the water is deeper and less weedy.  Ruoxi switched to a worm on a small hook and caught about half a dozen bluegill, and I kept throwing the spoon.  The guy next to us was throwing extra large muskie lures and mentioned that he had a few follows.  A minute or two after he said that, I was doing a slow intermittent retrieve, when I felt weight on the line.  At first I thought it might just be a tree branch, but then I felt a head shake.  I checked to make sure my drag was moderately loose and started reeling in.  Honestly, the fight wasn't that long.  After a couple minutes we could see the fish.  Muskie!  The guy next to us grabbed his net, and a minute or two later we landed the muskie without any issues.

Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) - new hook & line species #243

This is a species I've wanted for a long time.  I remember watching them stack up at Wingra Dam in Madison to spawn back in 2008.  Took me long enough to finally catch one!

Huge thanks to Eric for helping out with the net!  Eric caught his own muskie about half an hour after mine.  It was pretty cool to see two big fish in such a short amount of time.

Thanks to Jared for suggesting the spot.  Glad you got to make it out later in the day so we could meet in person.  It was good to meet your son and brother as well.  And of course thanks to Ruoxi for being a good sport even though it was a little cold and windy. :)

Open water burbot in Wisconsin

Burbot are one of the tougher northern species to track down. Most people who catch them do so through the ice, but my only experiences with them have been during the fall when the water is still open. Two years ago, my friend Josh sent me a message saying if I wanted burbot for my lifelist, I'd better come up near him because they were biting at the lake near his town. What a great friend! :)

Josh was busy and couldn't fish that weekend, but my friend Terry was free, so we made the drive up. The temperature was right around freezing, and there was a decent wind coming across the lake, so needless to say, we were pretty cold. We put out fresh shad on circle hooks and set our rods in rod holders. The first hour and a half we got zero bites, but eventually the burbot showed up. The bite was pretty consistent the rest of the night.

Burbot (Lota lota) - new hook & line species #88




I underestimated how hard it is to get a good photograph with these fish, so I ended up going with the second photo for my lifelist.

It's pretty hard to get Terry to smile in photos, but burbot did the trick! We ended up taking 15 of them home, giving us a pretty decent supply of burbot fillets for our freezers.



Fast forward two years. I had the itch to catch the freshwater cod of Wisconsin again, so Ruoxi, Terry, and Terry's girlfriend Kayla and I met at the same spot. We didn't have any fresh shad this time, so we put out rigs baited with nightcrawlers and vaccum sealed shad instead. While we waited, Ruoxi and I took turns casting swim baits for white bass. We each caught a decent one, and Ruoxi's was extra exciting because it was her first!

White Bass (Morone chrysops)


The only fish biting the baits were bullhead and one random rock bass, and they were all caught with nightcrawlers. The vacuum sealed shad from the store weren't working. There was a dead shad on the rocks, maybe 12 inches long, that had been sitting there for several days. Terry had the bright idea of cutting off pieces of it to use as bait. The rest of us thought it was pretty gross. To our surprise though, Terry and Kayla started to catch burbot!  I swapped out my baits for stinky old shad pieces, and after a while Ruoxi and I each pulled in burbot as well. Success!



Shad (not the vacuum sealed ones from the store) were definitely the key to catching burbot.  The only other important variable was the time of night.  Both in 2012 and 2014, the shad didn't bite until it was completely dark out.  Can't wait to fish for them again someday!

Working hard for an Illinois lifer

It's been bugging me that I've only caught one new lifer from Illinois in 2014.  I've been slacking in my home state.  Last week we had warm weather and no rain, so I knew I had to hit the road. My first stop was Crane Creek in Mason County.  I was surprised to find the water higher than the day I visited about the same time last year.   I microfished for a while, but after getting no bites I got out the dip net so I could see a few fish.  As expected I found pirate perch, banded darter, Johnny darter, spotfin shiner, and tadpole madtom.  No ironcolor shiners this time, but I did catch a nice grass pickerel. I wanted a photo of the pickerel, but he shot like a rocket out of my hand right as I turned on the camera!

Tapole Madtom (Noturus gyrinus)


After Crane Creek I picked up my older brother in Springfield, and we went kayaking at Lake Sangchris. I had read reports of striped bass and gizzard shad being caught there, so that's what I was hoping for. More importantly though, I was just happy to be out with my brother. We paddled around throwing swimbaits that looked like shad. We tried the deep part of the lake and a few of the shallow bays, but we didn't get any bites. We switched to small hooks and nightcrawlers and caught a few bluebill and a small largemouth bass, so we didn't go home skunked.

The next morning I hit the road again to meet up with Lance Merry, another Illinois fish enthusiast. Lance was interested in seeing mountain madtoms from the Embarras River in Coles County, and I had quite a few targets there as well - eastern sand darter, dusky darter, slenderhead darter, bullhead minnow, and brindled madtom. We weren't able to find any mountain madtoms, but the brindled madtoms were plentiful and happy to eat a small piece of nightcrawler. Finally, a new lifer!

Brindled Madtom (Noturus miurus) - new hook & line species #242


The brindled madtoms had a lot of variation in terms of color and patterning.  Some were dark, some were pale, and others were yellow.  They were fun to catch.







With the net we caught the other fish I was hoping to see, as well as a freckled madtom, a species I hadn't seen before.  I was particularly happy to see eastern sand darters up close.

Eastern Sand Darter (Ammocrypta pellucida)


Our final stop was the Salt Fork Creek in Champaign County.  The Salt Fork and its tributary, the Saline Branch, have been improving over the years and have quite a long list of fish species established in them.  We caught some neat fish - rainbow darters, greenside darters, and stonecats, but the species we were really excited to see were bluebreast darters, which were sampled in Champaign County for the first time a year or two ago.  We took a few photos and then released them back into the riffle where we found them.

Bluebreast Darter (Etheostoma camurum)

Hopefully I'll have one or two more posts before it gets cold.  Stay tuned!

Northeast Illinois in a day

Last Sunday Ruoxi and I had another fishing double date, this time with our friends Miciah and Carly.  We microfished the Des Plaines River at a couple spots below the Brandon Rd Lock & Dam, hoping to catch the invasive oriental weatherfish, but all we could find were bluntnose minnows, mosquitofish, round gobies, one Johnny darter, and one tadpole madtom.  Cutting our losses, we threw out some worms and caught a few bass (and more gobies) before moving on.

Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu)


Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides)


Next we fished the Kankakee River below the Wilmington Dam.  The public park here was really nice with plenty of shore access.  After losing several rigs to the rocks, Ruoxi and I gave up trying to fish for bigger fish and switched to microfishing.  Ruoxi picked up a couple easy lifers this way.

Logperch (Percina caprodes) - new lifer for Ruoxi


Spotfin Shiner (Cyprinella spiloptera) - new lifer for Ruoxi


Blackstripe Topminnow (Fundulus notatus) - new lifer for Ruoxi


Miciah and Carly had to get back to Michigan, and Ruoxi had to get back to Wisconsin, so we parted ways after having dinner at a little diner in town.  On my drive back to Peoria, I stopped at the Mazon River to take advantage of the evening bite.  I set up under a bridge with two rods rigged with small circle hooks and redworms and waited.  The bite was fairly steady, and I was pleased to see so many different species without switching spots or techniques.  I wish the Mazon was a little closer to home!

Northern Sunfish (Lepomis peltastes)


Orangespotted Sunfish (Lepomis humilis)


Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)


Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris) - 8 inches


Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)


Freshwater Drum (Aplodinotus grunniens)


Logperch (Percina caprodes)

Shorthead Redhorse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum)


Awesome colors on this guy!



Golden Redhorse (Moxostoma erythrurum)