BASS FISHINGBass Fishing Sports Blog

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THE AMAZON RIVER — Sitting on the back porch, Margarita in hand and a fine Cuban cigar clinched in my teeth, I watched a caiman swim by.

I don’t know how long it was but it looked to have about an 8 to 10-inch spread between its eyes and it looked exactly like an alligator to me. By now I had accepted good drinks, fine cigars, giant reptiles and fantastic companions as a way of life down here.

down here is a long ways back in the Amazon Jungle. There is no place on Earth where an angler can catch more fish, more varieties of fish, and do it in a place where unbelievable wildlife flourishes, untouched by the hand of man.

Howler and spider monkeys swing in the trees. Macaws and parrots and all manner of colorful birds catch your eyes and your ears. Tapirs and weird-looking turtles stalk the riverbanks.

some animals are rarely seen, but you know they are there. Anacondas and jaguars keep to themselves, adding even more to the jungle’s mystique.

But it’s the fish that haunt the angler, not the roar of the jaguar or the snap of the caiman’s jaw. Peacock bass get the headlines, and maybe they should, but if they get all the glory it’s a disservice to many of the other fish found here.

There are some 3,000 different kinds of fish that live in the Amazon, and while most anglers don’t give a rip about most of them, many of them we do.

Besides the various peacocks, there is the payara, with long bottom teeth that fit into it’s upper jaw and piranha that fight well and taste fantastic; pirarucu that grow to the size of a boxcar but are rarely caught and the cow-sized red catfish.

Add the countless others with hard-to-pronounce names but which readily take baits and jump high as a tarpon and you realize what a place, what a fishery the Amazon River is.

It’s one of those places that I always wanted to visit. all my life I’ve read the tales and seen the pictures. I knew the myths about the piranhas and the headhunters plus I knew the legend of the peacock bass.

I was drawn to it like any angler. Fishing the Amazon is something that you must do at least once before you die.

My fishing buddy for this trip, Kenyon Hill, is a professional angler from Norman. he knows fishing and the Amazon was on his list, too, so we called Billy Chapman Jr. at Anglers Inn International.

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The Gainesville Offshore Fishing Club has gone up against this truth for years, planning events like their “Sheepshead Shootout”, “Cobiathon”, “Mack Attack” and “Scallop Fest” months in advance. often, the carefully-plotted affairs end up being rescheduled.

Last weekend the GOFC, one of the best and oldest fishing clubs in Florida, nailed one dead on the money. Saturday morning their Cobiathon arrived to perfect conditions and the season’s leading wave of migrating bruisers.

Fishing out of Crystal River, Lou Graf, Jay Peacock, Mark Rustemier and Hal Wilson pulled up to a spot in water less than 20-feet deep. Jay clarifies what happened next:

“After a few minutes, about a dozen cobia swam up —and they were hungry”.

The ensuing scene must have been something to behold. Peacock and Rustemier hooked up while Graf maneuvered his vessel. at the end of the double battle, Mark had a 37.6-pound ling, and Jay had whipped a whopping 67.5-pound specimen. A small later, Hal hooked another brown powerhouse and eventually vanquished a 54.5-pounder. these would be the first, second and third-place fish in the Cobiathon.

Club members launching at other gulf sites also scored. John and Charlie Thomas and Phil and Reid Wagner docked with a 30-pounder; while Debbie Knopf took a 36.9-pound beauty off Cedar Key while fishing with her husband, Ken.

Following their Friday trip to Crystal River, Gainesville anglers, Bobby Bounds, Robert Bounds, and Ed Austin had a tale very similar to the one told by the four GOFC fishers. The men were at anchor in water 26-feet deep when 10 large fish swam along. one of the brutes took Robert’s large Saltwater Assassin jig. For 45 minutes, the angler fought the cobia with spinning tackle before finally bringing it to gaff and into the boat. and the 52-inch, 60-pound fish was not the largest in the pod.

“There was one in the bunch that was much bigger … it had to be at least 100 pounds,” Bobby said.

Jason Orrock and Jim Sanden hooked three large cobia Friday off Cedar Key. All four looked to be more than 40-inches long, but only one — Jason’s 54-inch beast from Seahorse Reef — made it into the boat.

Gulf fishers looking for tamer fare have had small to complain about when it comes to this season’s crop of speckled trout. Trout fishing is great out of every port.

The 8th Fishing for Kids Saltwater Tournament held last Saturday at Steinhatchee’s Sea Hag Marina saw nearly 200 entrants fishing in 80 boats. The largest single trout was a 5 ?-pound whopper, and the top redfish weighed in at just more than seven pounds. Numerous hefty five-trout limits came in. Thirty-eight youth anglers participated, and each one went home with a rod and reel combination. as always, everyone in attendance raved about how well the contest was run.

The next on a full slate of upcoming gulf tournaments will be the Fightin’ Gator Touchdown Club’s 25th Fishin’ Tournament at Suwannee Cove. on the main competition day, May 12, freshwater entrants will compete in bass, bream and catfish categories. Those opting for the salty species will go after reds, trout, Spanish mackerel, red grouper, kingfish, cobia and amberjack. There are lots of ways to win in this one. For more info, call Greg Ahrens at 352-376-2060 or go to fgtc.org.

The Military Support Group of Alachua County held its 2nd Bass Tournament last Saturday at Rodman Reservoir. Fishing was excellent for the 38 competing teams, and there were lots of fine five-bass limits taken to the weigh scales. The Interlachen team of Jerry and Jason Gutierrez prevailed with a total weight of 16.94 pounds. Brian Smith and Chris Pierce were right behind with 16.80, and Travis Blucher and Steven Dose finished third with 15.11. The Gutierrez team was entered in the separate Small Boat Competition as well, giving them a clean sweep of the top paychecks. The successful fundraiser offered an impressive group of prizes that included four guided fishing trips — one to the Everglades for peacock bass.

The same day, Interlachen bass angler, Rick Hefner spent his birthday fishing Rodman. Although for years he was a well loved bass guide, Hefner’s first target this day was shellcracker. while trying to locate a bed of the huge bream, he spotted bassy surface activity that prompted him to cast a Red Eye Shad to the commotion. In small order, 15 bass up to 4.5 pounds had jumped on the lipless crankbait. The well-prepared sage was also armed with live shiners. With one of those, he also hauled in and released a nine-pound Rodman beauty.

Gary Simpson, a veteran tournament angler, operates Gary’s Tackle Box at L & S Auto Trim.

But now fishermen working a new lure called the Alabama Rig are cranking in two and even three bass at one time.

“The guys that have figured it out are catching doubles and triples every now and then,” said Brent Howlett of Lakeland, the former tackle shop owner at Stone’s Outhouse.

The Alabama Rig, an ?umbrella-style contraption reeled in like a spinnerbait but with five separate lures attached to wires by swivels, has been so deadly that bass pro Bobby Lane of Lakeland thinks it should be illegal.

“On any kind of lake with clear water, I reckon it’s going to destroy those fisheries,” Lane said. “It catches all sizes of fish, and huge fish. But two 8-pounders on the same lure, it just doesn’t seem honest to do that.”

Lane said the Alabama Rig looks like the perfect school of baitfish to a bass.

The Alabama Rig was invented by Andy Poss of Muscle Shoals, Ala., a pipefitter who developed a smaller version of umbrella rigs long used by saltwater fishermen for stripers and bluefish as well as in Southern reservoirs for hybrid stripers.

Poss showed the Alabama Rig to bass pro Paul Elias, and the rig became a sensation after Elias used it to catch 20 bass averaging 5.125 pounds apiece in a tournament on Lake Guntersville in northeast Alabama in late October.

Poss sold the design to Mann’s Bait co. in Eufaula, Ala., but now more than 30 lure companies are making versions of the rig, including Armed Assassin, Yumbrella Rig and School Bus Rig.

While these rigs can cost $25 to $35 apiece, tackle shop owners in Polk County said they’re flying off the shelves.

“I guess they saw it on TV and had to get some,” said Stacy Roberts at Phillips Bait and Tackle. “I can’t keep them in the store.”

Demand skyrocketed after Elias thrashed the competition in the Walmart FLW Tour event tossing The Alabama Rig. Elias, one of professional bass fishing’s all-time greats and the 1982 Bassmaster Classic champion, attached five 5?-inch Mann’s HardNose Swimshads to win by a tour-record 17 pounds with a four-day weight of 102? pounds. The top four in that tournament also used the rig.

Lane, a Bassmaster Elite Series pro, can’t use Alabama Rigs in tournaments because the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society banned it on the Elite Series and in the Bassmaster Classic, though not in Bassmaster Opens. and the rig, more of a hardware harness than a lure, is illegal in at least five states because of the multiple baits and hooks. But it is legal in Florida.

“I’d like to see the Alabama Rig banned from Florida,” Lane said. “My take on the whole thing is if they let us fish them in the Bassmaster Elite Series, I’d have some ready to go.

“But I’m not a fan. I don’t reckon it’s a true way to fish. I reckon it’s taking away from the art of fishing. I don’t agree with having five baits on at one time with five hooks,” Lane said.

Howlett said the most productive lures on Alabama rigs are swim-baits like the little Skinny Dipper, Super Fluke Jr. and D.O.A. Saltwater Shad in shad-colored patterns.

But they don’t work just anywhere.

“You have to have baitfish that you’re reeling it through,” Howlett said. “You can’t just go out there and cast grass lines.”

Howlett suggested down-scaling the rigs and using the smallest swivels with a 1/8- or 1/16-ounce jig-head guiding the harness of wires, with all the lures the same color.

Howlett said clear, deep lakes like Summit, Winterset and Gibson are likely spots provided there are baitfish present.

Lane said a friend he was fishing with on Lake Okeechobee hooked three bass up to 2? pounds on one of the rigs the first time he cast it.

“They do work,” Lane said.

The Bass Assassin website includes a warning in bold type with sales of its Armed Assassin:

“Don’t forget to check your state’s fish and game rules and regulations — a fully loaded umbrella is illegal in some states.”

[ Del Milligan can be reached at del.milligan@theledger.com or at 863-802-7555. ]

By JULIET EILPERIN April 08, 2012 12:00 AM

The smallest fish in the sea are more than twice as valuable when they’re eaten by bigger fish than when they’re caught by humans, according to a report released last Sunday by a scientific task force.

The 120-page analysis by the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force — a group of 13 scientists specializing in everything from fish ecology to marine mammals and seabirds — underscores the growing concern researchers have about the fate of forage fish, including anchovies, mehaden, herring and sardines that serve as food for bigger fish, sea birds and marine mammals.

Forage fish account for 37 percent of the world’s commercial fish catch, with an annual value of $5.6 billion. (Only 10 percent of forage fish caught are eaten by humans; the remaining 90 percent are processed into fish meal and fish oil, which feed livestock and farmed fish.)

But the team of scientists, who worked for three years on their analysis, concluded that forage fish support $11.3 billion worth of commercial fish by serving as their prey. in the North Sea, for example, sand eels help sustain cod, and tuna in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean feed on sardines.

The group’s economic analysis did not include the value forage fish provide to sea birds and marine mammals, many of which are highly dependent on them. University of Washington conservation biologist Dee Boersma, one of the task force’s members, has conducted studies showing that the breeding success of Magellanic penguins is directly related to how far they had to forage for food. if they could find fish between 30 and 50 miles of their colony they produced two chicks; if they had to travel more than 90 miles away, they had one; and if they had to go 125 miles, they had none.

In an interview, Boersma said that with fewer forage fish, seabirds were having to travel farther for less food. “Suddenly, instead of 90 percent, you’re settling for 10 percent. That’s what’s happening to seabirds. When fish is not there, they don’t do as well.”

Ellen Pikitch, chairman of the task force and executive director of Stony Brook University’s Institute for Ocean Conservation Science, said society may need to reassess its reliance on small marine species to sustain the growing aquaculture trade. Farmed fish accounts for roughly half of the world’s commercially sold fish.

“People don’t know how massive this fishery is,” Pikitch said, referring to how many forage fish are processed. “It seems we may be on a collision course at some point, where increased demand is going to pull the rug out from under the ocean ecosystem.”

The issue has become increasingly vital for fishery managers in the mid-Atlantic, who voted in November to cut the amount of menhaden that can be harvested annually from 183,000 metric tons to 174,000, out of concern that the fish have been depleted.

One company, Omega Protein, took 160,000 metric tons of menhaden — 80 percent of about 450 million fish harvested in 2010 — off the coast of Virginia, which is the only state that allows industrial fishing of menhaden.

Edward Houde, a task force member and a professor at the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, said the task force concluded that fishery managers should leave at least 40 percent of adult forage fish in the sea. Menhaden support a range of species in the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean, including striped bass, osprey, bald eagles and brown pelicans.

Traditionally, fishery managers aim to leave 20 percent of adult fish unexploited. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will finalize its mehaden rule next year, and is crafting limits that would ensure at least 15 percent of adult menhaden, and perhaps as much as 30 percent, are left to spawn in the ocean and its tributaries after the yearly harvest. Current limits are to leave at least 8 percent.

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FOR WEEKS, it was a drought, then a month-long deluge and — on the odd day that we got a few hours on the water — we had armies of bait-plundering crabs to battle with rarely a fish to show for it.

Many anglers simply stayed home, counting the days until salmon season, and there was at least one party boat in the East Bay that couldn’t wait, that had to fish for something, and so it was running charter trips for — get this — surfperch.

But at last, reports are coming from all corners of the Bay that the striped bass are in.

Sturgeon, too, are finally on the bite and, as freshwater gushes downriver and washes the armies of bait-stealing crabs out to sea, we actually have a chance to anchor, lean back in the spring sun, soak some expensive shrimp baits on the bottom and know that when that rod tip dips, it’s a fish.

For Oliver Woelfel, a mill Valley angler, Tuesday morning was excellent for five striped bass — four taken on jigs casting along the shore of San Pablo Bay. That afternoon, the native of Germany returned with mud and ghost shrimp. he was thinking of sturgeon now and, though he didn’t catch what he was looking for, he didn’t go home complaining, either.

“I caught four more striped bass and one was the largest I’ve ever caught,” he said. he tried to net the fish, which he intended to transport back to the harbor in his live bait tank to weigh at Loch Lomond Bait Shop, then release, but the fish shook the hook as Woelfel struggled with his net. he guessed it to be at least 15 pounds.

Striped bass have been keeping San Rafael angler Tommy Glasser busy, too. Casting hair-raiser jigs along the Marin shoreline, he and two friends caught 20 stripers on Monday and 17 on Tuesday. on Wednesday, Glasser managed three more. Each day, the anglers took fish home for dinner. But Glasser, frankly, was not impressed.

“When it’s three guys who know what they’re doing, and they get 20 stripers in three hours, it’s the craps,” he said.

Spoiled? Perhaps, but you can’t blame him. it was about a year ago that Glasser and two friends caught about 200 undersized striped bass in three days. This year, such numbers of fish have not yet shown, but the excellent news is that those shakers of 2011 are now keepers.

At Leonard’s Bait and Tackle in Port Sonoma, shop owner Joel Sinkay said large schools of stripers in the 20- to 30-inch range have been giving shore anglers using grass shrimp all the action they can handle, and there was even a 20-pounder taken out on San Pablo Bay. the Petaluma River, Sinkay said, is loaded, and the Napa River “is on fire.” It’s there, too, that “the sturgeon are stacked like cordwood,” he said, before adding, “And the crabs are finally gone.”

Worthy of mention in the huge fish club are Andy Shaw of Petaluma, who was out several days ago near the Pumphouse and caught a 5-foot sevengill shark. Also notable is Dale Wilson, of Santa Rosa, who recently took home a 58-inch sturgeon, and local angler Jack Gonzales, who caught a 63-pounder at McNears Beach using ghost shrimp. With huge tides coming in the next week, and with rainwater surging down through Carquinez Straits, experts and veterans all seem to agree that the sturgeon fishing should only get better through April.

The salmon season opens on Saturday. But this is that uncertain time of the year when there are no fish reports to rely on, no hot tips from the odd skiff that chose to fish outside the fleet and found a school of smoker salmon.

No one has seen a salmon in months, and it’s anyone’s guess where the fish may be. But Roger Thomas, captain of the Salty Lady, has a hunch: “There was just a blue whale spotted about halfway to the Farallones, and that means there’s krill.” And krill mean salmon.

Alastair Bland is a Bay Area fisherman. Send him tales, photos or video to or call the IJ sports desk at 382-7206. Check out his blog at blogs.marinij.com/fishing_in_marin/

NORTH BAY PARTY BOATS

The following outfits are availble for early salmon fishing:• New Rayann: 924-6851 • Salty Lady: 674-3474• Sea Turtle: 531-3706• Outer Limits: 454-3191 • Hog Heaven: 382-7891 • Touch of Gray: (925) 261-9820• Predator: (707) 342-8481• Blue Runner: 458-8700

The state of Iowa continues to ignore the fact that vision screenings in school can prevent many current and future problems for our children. Kids need to see to learn.

Considering that nearly

80 percent of what a child learns the first 12 years of life is through vision, good eyesight is an essential part of a child’s education. So, when a vision problem is overlooked, a child goes through life in a blurry fog, with poor grades and potential behavior issues.

It is disheartening to know that Iowa is one of only 10 states that does not require a vision screening or examination to ensure school-aged children are ready to learn.

Iowa spends thousands of dollars annually to educate each child in our school system, but we fail to ensure that they can see.

In addition to wasting state funding, we have disregarded the clear

connection between vision problems and learning disabilities along with behavior issues. Nearly

80 percent of children with learning disabilities and 70 percent of juvenile delinquents have an

undiagnosed vision problem.

The newly elected Iowa Legislature has the opportunity to ensure that every dime we invest in our children’s education is being place to good use by requiring vision screenings at every school during the first and third grades.

This legislation is supported by Prevent Blindness Iowa (PBI) and other organizations who know the importance of our children being visually prepared to learn. PBI, a voluntary health organization dedicated to the prevention of blindness and the preservation of sight, provides free vision screenings to nearly 20,000 Iowa children annually to detect common eye problems. once a vision problem is detected through a vision screening, these children are sent to an eye doctor for a comprehensive exam to ensure their vision is corrected.

Not only do these screenings help in learning, but they can also detect a vision problem that can cause permanent sight loss if left untreated. With one in four school-aged children experiencing a vision problem, we can’t afford to let these children slip through the cracks and suffer from vision problems that can have lifelong consequences.

Iowa has fallen behind other states on investing in our children’s vision health. The Iowa Legislature has the power to help ensure each child has the opportunity to excel in school and become successful adults through affordable, regular vision screenings.

Our children’s health and education must continue to be our no. 1 one priority.

Chris Schroeder is president of Prevent Blindness Iowa, preventblindness.org/Iowa/. Comments:

Posted Yesterday, 10:36 PM

as many of you may know 2011 was a rough year on the Missouri River. Releases from the dams were more than double what they had ever been before. there was a tremendous amount of property hurt and access to the river was very limited. I'm talking about the Missouri River from Sioux City up into South Dakota. I had last fished the river in May when it was coming up but starting late May most of the boat ramps were under water and the river was closed to boat traffic below Gavin's Point Dam. In about August I was starting to get a small jumpy and I needed a river smallmouth fix to settle my nerves. I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to navigate the river and get to the spots I wanted to hit. Prior to this year I had come up with a formula I use to locate smallmouth on a river. Others may agree, others may not, it's what I use and it has not failed me yet. I look for four things. Current, clear water or water cleaner than the rest of the river in general, vertical structure and rocks/riprap. if I find those four things I will find fish. with that in mind I did a map recon using Google Earth to locate new spots that the high water would make. I already had my old spots I knew would produce and I formulated a game plot. On my first trip I place in at the west end of a reservoir and headed upstream. The dams on the Missouri were still releasing 150,000 cubic feet per second and the river was absolutely raging on its narrow stretches. for me this was uncharted water and with the river being high all the sandbars were now underwater and I was pretty much running blind. I have some water reading skills but it was still tough. My target was 25+ miles upstream and fighting a 3 to 4 mph current ate up a ton of time, not to mention I did not run on plane very often. I hit some bluffs along the way briefly and picked up a few fish but nothing like I knew I could get into so I kept pressing on. after about three hours in the boat I finally came to my first target spot. Jackpot! In less than a half dozen casts my Dad and I each had a smallmouth hooked up and it went on like that until we chose to head back. Throughout the next month or so I continued this same pattern. all along I had been plotting the main channel on my GPS so after a couple trips I was able to run up on plane and not mess around. one thing I noticed was the average fish size was up. This is no scientific study by any stretch of the imagination, just my own observations. Prior to the 2011 flooding the average smallmouth would be about 12" to 14" and you would get a few 16" or so fish each trip. sure, you would catch larger fish from time to time but you could pretty much bank on a 16 to 16.5 inch smallie or two on every trip. now during the flood and from there on out the average fish was 14 to 16 inches and huge fish for the trip was 17 to 17.5 inches. all the fish were bloated on baitfish and shaped like footballs. The high water had flooded so much backwater area that the year class of baitfish and all other fish for that matter was huge. I took a few guys with me on my trips. they were well outside their comfort zones until we started catching fish, me, I was HOME, haha. one guy I took with me had never been on what i would call a "real" fishing trip. Every smallmouth he caught that day was over 16". I wish I had that kind of average. once the water started to go back down I found my hotspots growing cold, the current was less there and the vertical structure was limited, so I applied the same formula I have always relied on and got back on the fish. let me back up a small. Prior to the flooding there were endless cattail/reed islands in the river with channels going through them. I had picked off a few fish on them in the past but I always had the best luck fishing rocks/bluffs/cliffs. The flood had washed all those reed islands away. The back waters were draining and there was limited cover and structure for the fish to utilize (gamefish and baitfish). The fish were now stacked on key spots. a "perfect storm" condition had setup. all those fish that had previously hung out on the reeds prior to the flood or in the flooded timber during the flood now had to find new homes, they were concentrated. Sweet! a few notes on equipment and safety. with the strong current in the spots I was fishing I had to kill the trolling motor and let the boat run with the current to get a fish with any size to it in the net. a true cranking rod saved my rear on baits with treble hooks. My Dad must have grown tired of me kicking his butt so he place away his pool cue worm rod he was throwing cranks with and bought a glass rod for cranks (thanks Hooligan). The right rod helps keep the fish hooked. In a current the smallmouth's ability to throw hooks when it jumps out of the water and unloads a stiff rod is very excellent. after my first trip I came to the conclusion that if I went in the water in some spots I wasn't coming up. I wear a auto/manual vest all the time now. Make sure your boat partner can operate the boat. Carry a spare prop and the tools to change it. not only was the smallmouth fish excellent but other fish were more than happy to smash a crank, jig, plastic or spinnerbait. We caught smallmouth, largemouth, drum, sauger, walleye, pike, yellow perch, crappie, goldeye, channel cats, white bass and even a chinook salmon. I like anything that will smack a bait so for me it added to the fun. In summary if you find Mother Nature has dealt you a blow place in the work and use it to your advantage. Oddly enough despite the brilliant fishing I pretty much had the whole place to myself. I like that. when I see a cluster of boats I go the other way. I might be eating turkey jerky on a boat for Thanksgiving if I can find another crazy person to go with me.Shane's first ever smallmouth<a%20href=i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq19/Brad762/DSC_0110.jpg">a few more nice ones.<a%20href=i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq19/Brad762/DSC_0023.jpg"><a%20href=i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq19/Brad762/DSC00595.jpg"><a%20href=i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq19/Brad762/DSC_0076.jpg">

Halibut Hal reporting with this weeks fresh and saltwater fish reports for KHTS-1220AM, your Hometown Station….Here’s what’s biting in our local lakes:1)  Castaic Lake….The striped bass bite continues!  The stripers are boiling on the schools of shad;  these are mostly 2-4 pound fish, with an occasional 8 pounder. There is also a few largemouth bass mixed in with the striped bass.  Also, excellent bluegill and catfish action in the coves. 2)  Pyramid Lake….Excellent striped bass fishing  on or near the surface.  Try early AM or late afternoon for the best bites.  Fish the coves for the catfish and bluegill.  Decent largemouth bass fishing in 12 – 30 feet of water.3)  Lake Piru….Honest bass bite; try early AM in the coves for the best action.  Also, a very excellent crappie bite in the coves.  Bluegill and crappie fishing is honest to excellent.4)  Lake Cachuma….Honest to excellent catfish action in the bays.  Some of these whiskers are reaching 8 pounds.  Honest bass bite; try the early AM or late afternoon for the best action.  Still a pretty excellent bluegill bite.

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Saltwater Report:Landings from Long Beach to Marina Del Rey:  Limits of rockfish including a nice mix of red snapper and bocaccio. There’s also an assortment of ocean whitefish, sand dabs, bass and sheephead being caught. Lots of excellent lingcod fishing, as well.  The crab and lobster trips are still scoring on twilight trips.  Fall fishing is excellent….go for it.Oxnard/Ventura Landings:  The outer island trips are getting limits of lingcod (2 per angler).  In addition, limits of rockfish with lots of red snapper and chuckleheads in the mix along with near limits of ocean whitefish. The lings continue to move into the shallows.  The “Cobra” continues its hoopnet/fishing trips with lots of red rock crabs and rockfish as well.  The “Pacific Eagle”  out of Ventura Sportfishing caught a decent white seabass on Saturdays trip; in addition to limits of rockfish……….until next week, this is Halibut Hal reporting for KHTS-1220AM.

Posted October 06 2011 – 10:22 AM

So I am hooked on ultralight fishing. I purchased a trout magnet kit and crappie magnet kit at the beginning of summer, and have been using the crappie magnets since then. Recently I tried the trout magnets, but could not get any distance. Some details about my setup… Cheap 5' ultralight combo (shakespear ?), p-line cxx 4lb, and a trout magnet ( 1/64 oz jig with small rubber body). I have even tried with a small splitshot about 12" above the lure with no luck. I recently ordered a fenwick elite tech riverrunner, 6'8" ultralight. I have heard that a longer rod casts farther and is able to protect the line better than a shorter rod. So my question is, what can I do to maximize my casting distance with this setup. I have considered trying sufix 832 in 6# test ( 2lb dia) because smaller diameter line casts further right? I recently tied on the remaining 10lb test fireline i had (4lb dia) and I think that may have been part of my problem. it was a somewhat windy day, with ancient braid that was coiling up pretty bad, even after being sprayed with KVD conditioner. should i stay away from braid and stay with the p-line cxx? I have had good luck with it, but I dont want to rule out the braid being that the braid i tried was somewhat ancient. I fish for bass (like smallmouth fishing!), crappie, panfish, really anything that will bite. I fish on lake champlain in vermont, as well as the winooski river and lamoile river, both are good size. Smallmouth is mostly what I am after though, so if anyone has any general smallmouth on ultralight tackle suggestions too, I am all ears. Thanks.

i fish in the summer at the lake in a little cove off the bank. there is some structure around the area and it is about 30-60 feet deep. the air temperature is usually around mid-80s. what would be the best bait to catch bass

Historically, the best lure to catch Bass, (Smallmouth & Largemouth), is a simple plastic worm or tube lure.

Soft plastics rigged "weedless" tend to be your "best bet" when fishing along a bank, (because weedless lures can be fished in a variety of depths and in any environment). If you want to catch Bass I suggest using something simple and effective.

Here are some Soft Plastic suggestions and links to how to rig them:

1. Senko, (or any stick-bait plastic), rigged "Wacky style", (with or without a weight in watermelon or green pumpkin colors) – basspro.com/Yum-F2-Dinger-Wor…

– how to rig Wacky style- youtube.com/watch?v=ZActyKl3r…

2. Berkley 7" worm, (in black or camo colors) rigged Texas style on a 3/0 Gamakatsu Offset hook- basspro.com/Berkley-PowerBait…

-How to rig Texas style- youtube.com/watch?v=5h-GD2QP5…

3. 4.5" Coffee Tube rigged Texas style- basspro.com/Strike-King®-Coff…?

-How to rig a Tube weedless using a Gamakatsu Skip-gap hook- youtube.com/watch?v=aD23dJ4Bc…

That's about it!

Any ONE of these will catch numerous Bass, are cheap, and simple to work. Just make sure to juice your plastics with a excellent fish attractant.

Hope this helps ya!

try going more deeper