The Robo Pope

Carp fishing is a rather rewarding activity since these fish are rather intelligent and often suspicious of anything put in front of them. However, with some trickery, you can lure the fish and dupe them into being hooked. What follows are just a few tips to help you when carp fishing:-

• Bring boilies based on fishmeal in the finer weather (summer and autumn), and try 50/50 mixes or even bird food types of bait in the winter and spring seasons
• In the winter when the water is cold, try casting your rigs more often, and aim at different areas so you can set a hook bait close to the carp. Cold water slows down the movements of carp therefore there’s less chance for the carp to swim to your bait. During summertime, you can lay traps in likely patrolling locations and wait for the carp to find the bait.
• Utilise diverse particles or sizes of pellets in the spod mix. This really “throws” the carp (confuses them), and gives you the option to use contrasting sizes of bait.
• Whenever you can, try not to use round shaped bait. So many fishing lines feature rounded bait, you should feature something different. Try to square up the hook bait with scissors.
• Lastly, make sure you have the right fishing gear with you. Research what you should bring online. You can find all kinds of things online, such as carp rod pods - and ensure you enjoy the time you spend by the river!

Comments Off

A great means to relax is to get a reel, a rod, some fishing bait, and go fishing, and here we introduce the different styles of angling in the United Kingdom. It’s a wonderful way to get outdoors, and there’s a burgeoning angling society in Great Britain with many clubs and contests attended by a large number of fishing enthusiasts.

So how to fish? You just require a fishing rod, a fishing reel, some fishing bait, and a lot of patience! Depending on where you love in the UK will influence the sort of fishing you’ll be involved in. There’s coarse fishing which can occur in lakes, rivers and on the coast, and there’s game fishing which requires hooking bigger fish, often within competitions. It’s best to take up the sort of fishing that doesn’t involve you travelling great distances - best to have a stream or lake nearby that you can get to at a in just minutes - as the beauty of fishing is that it’s a location you can go to slow down.

Coarse fishing is a term used for angling types of fresh water fish other than game fish. It’s particularly popular in the UK and mainland Europe. The kinds of fish you can expect to find on the end of your line when coarse fishing can be pike, dace, roach, tench and bream among many other species of fish. When coarse fishing, you just need a normal a reel, a rod, perhaps a fishing tripod (to balance the rod), some fishing groundbait, some fishing keepnets and fishing landing nets.

Game fishing is a type of recreational angling, pinpointing large fish celebrated for their sporting qualities, like tuna. Having said all that, game fishing can also include salmon and trout.

Fishing tackle is an important part of fishing. Bait is applied to entice fish to the sneaky hook. Normally, nightcrawlers, insects, and smaller fish have been used for this function. Fishermen have also begun fake plastic tackle and even electronic lures, to attract fish. Studies show that natural fishing tackle like worms are more recognized by the fish and consequently more successful.

Fishing is especially popular in the warmer months when the temperature is warmer and the days longer, and nighttime fishing isn’t so perishingly chilly. Fishing can be as cheap as you want it to be. Just get a a fishing rod, a fishing reel, some fishing tackle, a fishing license, and you have a new past-time.

Comments Off

Saltwater fly fishing is all the rage these days. This excitement is quite understandable because there’s hardly anything more thrilling to a saltwater fly rodder than a bluefish blitz, a tailing red drum off the coast of NC, or a bonefish battle on the flats of south Florida waters.

If you are just getting started in saltwater fly-fishing, there are a few tips that will make your conversion from freshwater easier and more productive.

Get some gear just for fishing saltwater
You’re best bet is to get another fly rod and reel for your saltwater fishing adventures. Your freshwater gear is undoubtedly going to be lighter than may be necessary to deliver that big fly in a stiff offshore breeze, and you’re better off leaving your high-dollar equipment out of the punishing salt air.

Get a good 10 weight rod
There are a number of reasons you need to use heavier tackle. One is because you will need to make longer casts with larger flies in typically windy conditions. Another is because when you see that fish you need to deliver the fly IMMEDIATELY. Doing that will be considerably easier with heavier equipment.

Put your money in the rod
If you have to make a choice between spending money on rod or reel, choose rod. You can get away with a less expensive reel but you will not get the control you need with a cheap rod because it will flex more when you try to cast. The rod is more important than the reel.

Buy a reel made for fishing saltwater
You will still have to clean it after use but it will hold up better than one designed for freshwater.

Buy the best fly line you can afford
More expensive fly lines last longer and perform better than cheaper lines, it’s as simple as that. Your lines are the one place you can’t afford to pinch pennies. Also be sure to keep your lines clean and dressed with a good line dressing if you expect top performance from your lines.

Keep direct contact between your rod tip and fly.
Beginning saltwater anglers often do not realize the lighting speed at which a marine game fish is apt to strike. Every little bit of slack from our rod to the fly means a greater chance your hook-up will be unsuccessful.

Keep your rod tip pointed toward the water
Your best chance of hooking a saltwater game fish is by not lifting your rod from the water and setting the hook by stripping the line, keeping the rod pointed down before lifting it. Eliminate as much slack as possible between your rod and the fly and you will find your attempts will be more successful.

Try the shooting head system
Because of the heavy head section, a good caster can achieve a good 80 to 90 feet of distance with only one false cast. You may often find yourself in a situation where an 80 foot cast is sometimes not enough for open water fishing so a long cast with a shooting head is what is needed.

Fabulous flies
Keep in mind what your game fish eats and mimic it (most of the time). Sometimes the fish will only bite the bizarre, but usually you’re better off with flies that look like minnows, shrimp, crabs, worms, and various other small saltwater creatures.

Whether you are just getting started and testing your fly-fishing “wings” or are a veteran who simply loves the sport, give saltwater fly-fishing a try this fall or spring. You’ll be hard pressed to find a more exciting fly fishing adventure than a saltwater one.

E. A. Edwards is a free-lance writer with a variety of professional and personal interests. You will find more information about fly-fishing and fly-fishing gear on http://www.fly-fishing-guide.info

Comments Off

Originally published in Procats Online Magazine

Summertime angling for trophy-sized blue cats on huge reservoirs can be tough. Peer across an expansive lake and the sheer vastness will seemingly swallow you whole. Where do you start? Do you just go out and look around with a good locator and hope to see some arches and begin fishing? Based on past experiences you know two things. Sometimes you have to drift. Other times you’ll have to anchor. How do you know which to do first and what types of structure are you looking for that will hold big burly blue cats?

Procat pro-staffer Jeff Williams ardently targets big blues on Truman Reservoir and Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. A lifetime of big-lake catfishing has taught him a thing or two about catfish behavior in reservoirs, and according to Jeff you can put more fish into the boat if you learn a few keys to summertime blue cat location. Before we get into the fishing part let’s look at the two lakes Jeff fishes.

Lake Ledges

Many lakes around the country have different bottom styles from sheer drops down into as much as 180 foot of water on canyon terrain reservoirs, to relatively shallow featureless bowls with subtle drops in depth. Not all lakes are built alike but trophy-sized blues behave in similar ways wherever they swim - especially when it comes to relating to the same types of cover and depth according to the season you are fishing.

Ledge Blues

While Jeff targets cats in a variety of situations during the summer period, he reports that during the warm-water post-spawn period, drift fishing is in his most productive pattern for most days on both lakes for numbers of fish.

He looks for areas where the bottom has subtle rises and drops going from just below and well above the thermocline. “During the hotter water period, the thermocline is everything.” Jeff uses his locator to mark fish on gently sloping ledges with the right depth before he deploys his baits and begins a drift. “You can find fish holding on steep ledges in the summer but steep ledges are difficult to get the right drift to stay in contact with numbers of fish. I prefer gentle rises and drops in a long diverse bottom contour area. Once you catch a few fish, make a note at what depth you’re catching them in. If you’re catchin’ fish in 16 foot of water around a 12 foot hump - you’d better find some more 16 foot of water to drift around in.”

Why Drift During Summer

Jeff anchor fishes ledges, flats, trenches, wood cover, and steep drops during most of the year except during the hot-water post-spawn period. Big blues will hold on specific cover part of the time and roam around in tight areas looking for food before relocating during the cooler months which allows him to set up on a good number of fish. He still has to look for fish with his finder during the colder water periods but once he finds them, he can anchor up and fish a specific area. Jeff’s theory about blue cat metabolism may hold the key to understanding why he does better while drift fishing during summer and the opposite during the cooler water period.

“I think as the water gets hotter, their metabolism rises with it and the blues need to roam around searching for food a lot more. It seems that I have to move around a lot more as well so I drift over areas targeting the active fish and don’t worry about fish holding in one area. In hot water, when the fish are active - I can set up on them and by the time I’ve caught a few fish they’ve moved. When the fish are acting this way I feel like I’ve made the right choice by drifting.”

The Controlled Drift

Jeff admits that drift fishing for blues isn’t really targeting big fish specifically, but he is still targeting structure that holds big fish. He finds an area that is showing the right drift scenario according to his experience on his lakes. He looks for fish arches on his locator holding the right distance off the bottom according to the thermocline. He likes to see fish on the graph holding either really close to the bottom. “Somebody out there might have some success with these loosely suspended fish but I haven’t done well trying to target them yet.”

Make sure to read Part 2 of this article to learn more about catching monster ledge lunker blues!

Copyright © 2004-2005 Jeff Williams and Procats

Feel free to include a link to the rest of this article above the copyright information: ozark-lodges-fishing-trips.com/ledge-lunker-blue-catfish.htm

You have permission to publish this article free of charge as long as you are not selling it and that you include the author bylines immediately visible with the article and, if published in an electronic medium such as on a web site, you provide a link back to www.ozark-lodges-fishing-trips.com in the author bylines, both where the web address is listed as well as well as with the text “Lake of the Ozarks Catfish Fishing Guide Service”:

Jeff Williams runs a Truman Lake Hybrid Bass and Lake of the Ozarks Catfish Fishing Guide Service offering lodging and guided trips in Missouri. To book a trip, learn more tips, or find out how Capt. Jeff would fish your own local waters, call 1-866-HOOKSET or visit http://www.ozark-lodges-fishing-trips.com today!

Comments Off

Almost everyone likes to go on fishing trips, whether you do it just for fun, or for sport is entirely up to you. Many people fish for leisure, but also let it become a little bit more competitive around family and friends. Here is some advice about striped bass fishing, and to offer some tips that you might not have known, but can help you excel on the family fishing trip.

If you are planning on going on a trip for striped bass, take this striped bass fishing tip with you; there are some things that you should carry with you when you go, and we’re not talking tampons or toothbrushes. You should carry a fishing rod that is at least twelve to eighteen feet in length according to the circumstances of your striped bass fishing trip.

Your rod should also have at least two hundred to three hundred feet of fishing line. You want to make sure that your rod and reel can support the fish that you catch, you don’t want to be drug into the water. The best place to go striped bass fishing is in the quietest place you can find at full neap tide.

Striped bass are members of the temperate bass family, which includes white perch and white bass species. Striped bass breed in freshwater and spend their lives in saltwater. However, they like to be in a quiet environment so that they are not disturbed. The four major bodies of water that you can find striped bass in are:

1) Chesapeake Bay
2) Massachusetts Bay
3) Hudson River
4) Delaware River

Stripped bass can be caught by a number of baits and this striped bass fishing tip should help you to decipher which type of bait to bring with you on your trip. Bass like these following foods: clams, eels, anchovies, bloodworms, night crawlers, chicken livers, and sand worms.

The best time to fish for stripped bass is during the winter or spring. In the winter the stay in their haunts in shallow water. In the spring, you can find stripped bass in the rivers to freshwater and spawn until late fall when they then seek shelter.

Learn More Bass Fishing Activities Facts, Tips and Tricks at fishing.activitiessite.com

Comments Off