Roughfishing in Sugar River, WI

Sugar River will always be one of my favorite fishing spots, because I caught so many midwest roughfish species there for the first time.  After adding about five new lifers per year for the previous few years, in 2012 I decided to focus all of my fishing efforts towards finding new species.  As soon as the temperatures rose above freezing, I started scouting out river spots.  Sugar River was exactly what I was hoping for.

Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) - new hook & line species #35


I fished using half a nightcrawler on a small circle hook.  I expected to catch mostly carp and suckers, but brown trout ended up making a large percentage of my catches.  Trout season had not started yet, so I released all of the trout I caught.

Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) - new hook & line species #36


Even though I did not catch them myself, it was interesting to see what species other anglers were catching. A young kid next to me caught this big quillback. It didn't get treated particularly well, but at least it was put back in the water eventually.

Quillback (Carpiodes cyprinus)




The next time I showed up at this spot, I found this enormous bigmouth buffalo abandoned on the grass.  I picked it up, put it in the shallow water, took this photo, and then quickly got to work holding it upright in the current.  I didn't think it had a chance at recovering, but little by little it came back to life, and eventually it swam off into the river.  I hope it made it!

Bigmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus)


Another common catch using worms on the bottom was smallmouth bass.  They are especially dark colored in the muddy waters of Sugar River.

Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu)


As spring continued, I returned to my favorite spot again and again, and I continued catching new species.  Six new lifers (a carp, a trout, two redhorse, a sucker, and a bullhead) all from one spot is a species hunters dream!

Silver Redhorse (Moxostoma anisurum) - new hook & line species #38


Black Bullhead (Ameiurus melas) - new hook & line species #39


White Sucker (Catostomus commersonii) - new hook & line species #43


Golden Redhorse (Moxostoma erythrurum) - new hook & line species #44
 

Once summer was in full swing, I caught mostly black bullhead and common carp.  The suckers must head back downstream once they're done spawning.

San Diego saltwater fishing

I went fishing with a local from San Diego today. We launched in his small boat from Shelter Island (which is actually a peninsula) into San Diego bay, headed out around Point Loma (another large peninsula), and fished in the kelp beds off shore in about 50' of water.



We were using fairly heavy swimbaits with a bit of squid on the hook to give it some "smell". To fish in the kelp bed, you drop the lure down to the bottom, and then jig it up and down as you reel it back up slowly. Odds are you'll catch fish right off the bottom. The trip started off well, because Andrew hooked up with a nice kelp bass on his first cast. Off to a good start! I dropped my lure to the bottom, and immediately hooked into a bass as well. It was small, but oh well! A few casts later I caught another, and I think Andrew caught one as well.

Kelp Bass (Paralabrax clathratus) - new hook & line species #32


We planned to fish with live bait later on, so next we targeted jacksmelt. We each used a Sabiki rig with 5 small hooks spaced 8 inches apart with a small piece of squid on each hook. The smelt swim around in schools 10 to 15 feet down and swarm anything that looks like food, so they were easy to catch. The first one I caught was pretty big, and on the next cast I caught 2 at once. I ended up catching 7 all together, but 2 of them came off the hook, hit the boat edge, and flopped back into the water. Andrew caught 3 or 4.

Jacksmelt (Atherinopsis californiensis) - new hook & line species #33

With plenty of smelt in the live well, we switched to some umbrella lures that Andrew wanted to try. Each had 3 swimbaits and a silver spoon, which looked like a pretty convincing small school of fish. After a few casts, I hooked up with something that fought a lot harder than the kelp bass. When I got it to the surface my first thought was that it was a sculpin, but Andrew said it was something called a lingcod (which is not related to cod in any way). He said he was pretty jealous, because in all the years he's been fishing there he's never caught a lingcod. It was 21.5".

Lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus) - new hook & line species #34


Next we headed back to the bay to try for some sand bass, spotted bass, and halibut. We switched back and forth between swimbaits and the smelt. Andrew caught a sculpin, which was pretty cool looking. He threw it in the cooler to take home, because apparently sculpin are pretty tasty. I was hoping for a sculpin too, but when I pulled up my line to check on my smelt, there were 2 octopus stuck to it! They're notorious for stealing bait, and these two were going to town on my smelt. When we got them off the fish and threw them back in the water, they squirted brown ink everywhere and swam down out of sight. Unfortunately, that pretty much the end of the day. We fished around the bay for two more hours, mostly looking for sand bass in the shallow water (8' to 12' of water). Since we weren't catching anything, we called it a day and went back to the boat launch.

Three more fish for the life list, and a great contact in San Diego. Thanks Andrew!

Freshwater and saltwater microfishing in Japan

I'm writing this post 6 years after the fact, but I've changed the date of the blog post so it will show August of 2008 instead of August of 2014. I've been microfishing pretty seriously for several years now, and I'd like to write this post to celebrate my first introduction to microfishing, which in hindsight was an incredible way to be introduced to the sport obsession.

In 2008 I visited Japan for the third time, but it was the first time travelling there since I became interested in fishing, especially fishing for new species. My lifelist was only in the low teens, but I was determined to add to it! I didn't do any research before the trip, so I had to depend on my Japanese friends and advice from the owner of the tackle shop we stopped in. The shop owner set us up with gear that was new to me - extremely long flexible rods, incredibly small hooks, incredibly small floats, and an assortment of artificial and live bait options. We packed up the car and headed up into the mountains near the city of Okayama. We found a good spot to park the car next to the creek flowing adjacent to the road. The scenery was great.



We saw plenty of small fish in the pool, so we got to work setting up our gear.





Despite our lack of skill, the fish were eager biters and we started catching a few. We ended up catching two species, but I remember seeing quite a few others. If only I could go back! What's really cool about my first microfishing catch was that it was a species of Tanago, a name you'll recognize if you use the microfishing hooks with the same name.

Oily Bitterling / アブラボテ (Tanakia limbata) - new hook & line species


Dark Chub / カワムツ (Nipponocypris temminckii) - new hook & line species


A few days later, another friend and I joined up with a semi-professional bass fisherman at the Asahi River dam in Okayama Prefecture. His name is Nagase, and his blog (Japanese only) is at the link below.

http://yaplog.jp/bigoneokayama/

Nagase took us out in his boat, and we fished the reservoir above the Asahi River dam. I knew largemouth bass were our priority, but secretly I hoped for a few native species as well. As it turns out, the introduced largemouth bass has done an excellent job devastating the populations of native species in the reservoir. The only other fish we saw were a couple of (also introduced) bluegill. Fishing was tough that day due to there being a tournament on the reservoir the day before, but we managed a few fish.

Largemouth Bass / オオクチバス (Micropterus salmoides)






We had one more excursion, a weekend trip to Shiraishi Island, which is a 30 min ferry ride from the town of Kasaoka. Getting the opportunity to microfish in saltwater in the same week as my first freshwater microfishing experience is something I'll never forget. What a great opportunity! A small shop on the island sold frozen shrimp for bait and rented microfishing tackle for a very low price.





Fishing was best as the tide was rising because the fish came in among the rocks to feed. We caught dozens of each of the following species.

Multicolorfin Rainbowfish / キュウセン (Parajulis poecilepterus) - new hook & line species

Grass Puffer / クサフグ (Takifugu alboplumbeus) - new hook & line species


Japanese Whiting / シロギス (Sillago japonica) - new hook & line species

I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to visit Japan again, but if the opportunity arises I will definitely plan more fishing excursions. Those mountain creeks in particular are a place I'd love to see again. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the historical post!

Yahara River in Madison, WI

One of my favorite fishing spots in Madison is the Yahara River, especially the stretch on the isthmus connecting Lake Mendota to Lake Monona. I caught a lot of species for the first time while fishing there, as well as some nice specimens of species I'd previously caught. This river is where I began hunting for new species.  I remember every time I'd go fishing there, I'd keep track of how many species I could catch during the trip, and I was always shooting for a PR (which got up to around 9 or 10).  Here are a few of my favorite photos.

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)


Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus)


Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides)


Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus)


Black Crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus)


White Bass (Morone chrysops)


Freshwater Drum (Aplodinotus grunniens)


Walleye (Sander vitreus)


Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris)


Yellow Bullhead (Ameiurus natalis)

Subdivision ponds in Champaign, IL

After high school I didn't fish for about three years. During college essentially all I did was study and work, but I started to get the itch during the fall of my junior year. My roommates wanted to fish as well, so we packed up some gear and headed over to a subdivision pond that my aunt and uncle were renting a house next to.



This pond was so loaded with fish that were willing to bite anything that I didn't really develop any fishing skills. If I remember correctly, I used a Rapala crankbait for the bass, crappie, and bluegill and chicken livers on a treble hook for the catfish. I never changed it up because I always got fish. I had a rude awakening when I moved to Wisconsin and discovered that not all fishing was that easy!

White Crappie (Pomoxis annularis)


Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)


Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides)


Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)


Hope you enjoy these old photos! I had a lot less facial hair back then. Those were the days when my wardrobe consisted of white t-shirts and grey hoodies... and not much else.