BASS FISHINGBass Fishing Sports Blog

May 18, 2012 3:25 pm By John Hayes / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Lake Erie: Charter captains reported huge lake trout catches at about 55 feet as the fish continued their migration to deeper waters, and anglers reported heavy perch activity in 45-55 feet and in Presque Isle Bay. when smallmouth bass in the hundreds entered Sixteenmile Creek on a spawning run, Bob Stevens of Bethel Park caught 25 on live minnows while a fly fisherman landed five on Clouser minnows. Other anglers reported consistent smallmouth action near Presque Isle's north and south piers. On inland waters and Lake Erie, bass season opens June 16. Northern pike and muskellunge were biting at Presque Isle State Park's Marina Lake.

Pymatuning Reservoir (Crawford County): Sublegal walleyes continued to be active.

Conneaut Lake (Crawford County): Heavy perch activity was reported and a 36-inch northern was released may 15.

Lake Wilhelm (Mercer County): good crappie catches were reported near Sheakleyville, but just a few anglers were spotted near the causeway and marina.

Neshannock Creek (Lawrence County): Conditions were good at Volant. Fishing was best on cool mornings with strong hatches of March browns, light cahills, tan caddis and some sulphers.

Ohio River (Beaver County, West Virginia): Catches of drum, striped bass and smallmouths were reported. the Chester Newel Sportsmen Club's Ohio River Catfish Tournaments will launch may 19 and run periodically through Aug. 18. Call 304-387-3982 for details.

Monongahela River (Allegheny County): several smallmouths were released by morning anglers plugging the South Side shoreline.

North Park Lake (Allegheny County): good fishing continued as the water temperature warms. An in-season state stocking of rainbow trout occurred may 10.

Deer Creek (Allegheny County): may 11 the state stocked browns and rainbows from the golf course to the “huge bend” a quarter mile below Rich Hill Road.

Deer Lakes (Allegheny County): Rainbows were stocked by the state in all three lakes may 11.

Twin Lakes (Westmoreland County): Rainbow trout continued to be caught in both lakes, with mornings and evenings most productive.

Donegal Lake (Westmoreland County): good trout fishing from shore was reported.

Cross Creek Lake (Washington County): Slab crappies as long as 133???4 inches were caught. Chris Witt and Ed Owad of Robinson had a field day hooking crappies up to 1 pound, 4 ounces. Walleyes were few and far between.

High Point Lake (Somerset County): Catches of largemouth bass, a few smallmouths, northern pike, chain pickerel and some crappies were reported.

Yellow Creek Lake (Indiana County): a light walleye bite, and crappies were hit or miss, while night anglers reported catching huge catfish.

Report your catch to fishingreport@post-gazette.com. Include angler's name, age (for children), place of residence, species, size, body of water, date of catch and phone number (not for publication). First Published may 18, 2012 12:00 am

THURMOND LAKE

Raysville Marina (Leon Buffington and Doug Pentecost), (706) 595-5582 – Trevor Vassel caught plenty of crappies, bream and catfish out of our fish house. He used minnows and hybrids pinks. Cliff Crowe caught 30 shellcrackers and seven white perch. Danny Johnson and Lester Strotter caught 14 shellcrackers, four crappies and two catfish. Raymond Swan, Scott Hodges and mark Watson went fishing. Swan caught a 3-pound bass and all caught limits of crappies, using minnows. William Hawkins caught two flathead catfish and two channel catfish, weighing a total of 25 pounds. the fish bit nightcrawlers. He also caught nine shellcrackers. We’re having an egg hunt on Easter Sunday starting at 3 p.m.

Capt. David Willard, U.S. Coast Guard-licensed, fulltime professional guide specializing in hybrids and striped bass and trophy largemouth bass. (Boat phone: (706) 214-0236. (803) 637-6379 (crockettrocketstriper fishingcom) – Water temperature is in the low 70s and the lake is clear. It’s been a excellent week for fishing. We are still free-lining and catching slab hybrids, 7- to 12-pound stripers, 3-to-5-pound largemouths and flathead catfish up to 18 pounds. the Bradshaw family from Chicago had a fantastic time, catching limits of stripers and hybrids in their day’s first two hours. Larry Wendt, his son, Kevin, and daughter-in-law, Naomi, and grandson, Tanner, had a excellent morning, catching stripers, hybrids, catfish and crappies. Chris Shadday and his daughter, Reagan, from Charlotte, N.C., caught a cooler full of stripers and hybrids on an early morning trip. Phillip Kennedy and his wife, Denise, daughter Reagan and son Gran had a fantastic morning, catching nice stipers, slab hybrids and huge largemouth. We are starting to see some schooling action including some huge schools of largemouths.

William Sasser’s Guide Service, (Capt. William Sasser and Capt. mark Crawford, U.S. Coast Guard-licensed, full time professional guides specializing in crappies, hybrids and striped bass). (706) 589-5468 (William), (706) 373-8347 (Mark) or (864) 333-2000. (Clark Hill Herring Hut) – mark: Don and Kaye Nathan and Lawson Berg, of Atlanta, caught a nice mess of hybrids and stripers. Patrick, Melissa, Connor, Jacob and Ean Strickland, all of Evans, caught 17 fish 3 to 9 pounds. John Pirkle and Logan Pirkle, Augusta, and Kevin Daniels, of Vokesville, Va., caught a nice stringer of hybrids and stripers. Bob Clardy, Laura Clardy and Michael Clardy, all of Eastman, Ga., also had a nice catch. Andy Pye and Kathy Pye, North Augusta, and Drew Pye and Zack Pye, Evans, caught a excellent mess. Al Blue, Camille Jenson and Doug Chalifour, all of Savannah Lakes Village; Tina Collin and Deryl Lybarger, Mt. Vernon, Ohio, and Alex , mark and Doug Mann, all of Evans, caught 22 stripers hybrids. Largest was a 25-pounder. William: Tyler Thom, Augusta; Nelson Poe, Grassville, Md., and Lucas Poe, Grassville, caught limits of hybrids and stripers. Don Siller, St. Louis; Mike Logan, Grovetown, and Michael Logan, Grovetown, caught a limit. Chet Jacobs, Waynesville, Ga.; John Brown, Brunswick, Ga.; Harold and Rhonda Smith, Waynesville; Christopher, Brinkley, Brunswick and Blake Brown, Brunswick, caught 26 stripers 3 to 10 pounds. Nathan Jones, Lee Jones and Jimmy Jones, all of Carlton, Ga., and Jim Higgins of Leesburg, Mo., caught 31 fish. Mike Langevin, McCormick, S.C., and Chris Driskell, Indianapolis, Ind., caught 13 stripers and hybrids. Mike Morgan, Deerfield, Ill., caught 10 stripers including a 28-pounder. Dr. Andy Allgood, Martinez; former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker, Atlanta, and Martin Poole, Ogden, Utah, caught a limit of fish. Traci Duffie, Jeff Miller, Zach Duffie, Andrew Duffie, Jake Miller and Wesley Miller, all of Evans, caught a nice mess.

Capt. Tommy Dudley, U.S. Coast Guard-licensed professional guide specializing in stripers and hybrids. (706) 833-4807 – Fishing has been fantastic for me this week. I’m still pulling planer boards. I’ve had fish blow the bait out of the water, which makes for some excitement. I’m fishing secondary points and around islands in the shallows up to 30 feet of water. I’m catching stripers in the 8 to 12-pound range and some nicer slab hybrids. Aubrey Reynolds, North Augusta; his brother, mark, from Caledonia, Miss.; friends Kevin Gallop, Caledonia, and Nick Kanaly, Aiken, had a fantastic morning catching breaking hybrids up to 8 pounds early, then hard-hitting stripers up to 12 pounds. they kept 21 huge hybrids and stripers. Robert Newton, visiting from Screven County, caught and released slab hybrids and stripers 3 to 8 pounds.

NORTH GEORGIA MOUNTAIN STREAMS

Carter and Hunter Morris, licensed professional guides specializing in fly fishing for rainbow, brook and brown trout. (706) 833-1083 (flyfishingnorthgeorgia.com) (facebook.com/flyfishingnorthgeorgia) – The warm weather has meant that many insect hatches are occurring much earlier than usual. We have seen significant caddis fly hatches on pretty much all of north Georgia’s trout streams and now we’re seeing mayfly hatches about a month ahead of schedule. especially noteworthy are the sulfur hatches already happening late in the evenings on the Toccoa River. the Soque and Chestatee rivers also are fishing well.

MERRY LAND BRICKYARD PONDS

Check-in station, 1408 Doug Barnard Parkway, Gene Kirkland and Brantley Toomer, (706 722-8263) – Gene Moyer and Mike Craig won last Friday’s bass tournament with 14.7 pounds. James West and Bobby Williams caught 53 shellcrackers on worms in the Shack Pond. Kevin Shaw and Brad Lee caught 25 carp on dough balls in the Ditch. Lonnie Newman caught nine bass in the Shack Pond on plastic frogs. Harry Parker caught 43 crappies in the Ditch. Norman Walls caught 51 catfish on liver in the White Elephant Pond. Freddie and Joy Perkins caught 42 crappies in the Membership Pond on minnows. John Wooten caught 40 crappies in the same place and the same stuff. Ben Davis caught 30 crappies over 1 pound each in the Ditch. Mike Leaptrotte caught five bass out of the Shack Pond, the biggest 6.4 pounds. Lock and Dam: Mollie Estillette ,9, caught catfish weighing 20 and 17 pounds. Mickey Howard caught a 5.40-pound bass on a Super Fluke down river. Jason Bannel caught a 38-pound striper and Bernard Pedro caught a limit of stripers on cut bait down river. Terry Jackson caught 22 catfish on cut bait.

BEAUFORT, S.C.

& VICINITY

Ralph Goodison, Fripp Island, (843) 838-2530 – Fishing could not be better in the Fripp area. Inshore, the bite is on for redfish, spadefish and whiting. Offshore, when weather conditions permit, head for the Gulf Stream. Trollers are catching nice bull dolphin and wahoo, while also picking up black fin tuna.

SAVANNAH, GA.

Miss Judy Charters, Capt. Judy Helmey, (912) 897-4921 (missjudycharters.com.) P.O. Box 30771, Savannah, Ga. 31410-0771 – Latest artificial bait that’s red hot for spotted sea trout is the Berkeley Gulp 3-inch molting shrimp threaded onto a quarter-ounce chartreuse jig head. the technique is to cast it into places where trout hang out. if the lure doesn’t get bit while it’s on the fall, it surely will once you start to retrieve it.

Another fantastic artificial lure that’s deadly on trout is Salt Water Assassin’s 4-inch chartreuse screwtail threaded onto a ?-ounce red jig head. Fish it on 8-pound-test braided line with a 3-foot-long fluorocarbon leader.

GILBERTSVILLE — Sonny Reynolds, 69, of Gilbertsville, Ky., passed away Tuesday evening, March 13, 2012, at his home surrounded by his family. Sonny formerly owned Citgo service stations in Ohio and a Ranger boat dealership in Indiana. he was a professional home builder and member of the Marshall County Elks Lodge no. 2707. Sonny was a pioneer. he joined FLW in 1986 and helped launch weekend bass tournaments during the company’s formative years. he even taught bass fishing to students at Indiana University long before FLW College Fishing was a mainstay on college campuses. His pioneering spirit made him a natural choice to lead the introduction of walleye tournaments to the FLW portfolio in 2000. he embraced walleye fishing and fishermen with the same passion he held for bass fishing. His like of fishing and eternal optimism elevated the sport and those around him. he worked tirelessly in service to his walleye-fishing family until his passing. he is survived by his wife of 22 years, Sharon K. Groves Reynolds of Gilbertsville, Ky.; one daughter, Jessica Moss and her husband Blake of Calvert City, Ky.; three sons, Tyler Reynolds and his wife Tara of Jacksonville, N.C., Terry Reynolds and Tracy Reynolds, both of DeMotte, Ind.; one grandson, Hunter Chase Reynolds; his stepmother, Kathryn Reynolds of Xenia, Ohio; and two brothers, Doug Reynolds of Monroe City, Ind., and Don Reynolds of Wickliffe, Ohio. he was preceded in death by one daughter, Sherry Reynolds; his father, Carson Reynolds Sr.; and his grandparents, Aytchie and Mattie Reynolds. Memorial services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 17, 2012, at Filbeck-Cann & King Funeral Home & Crematory. Private inurnment will take place at a later date in the Moreland Cemetery. Friends may call after 11 a.m. Saturday, March 17, 2012, at Filbeck–Cann & King Funeral Home. in honor of Sonny’s countless contributions to the sport during his 26 years of service, the Reynolds family has established the Sonny Reynolds Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship will be awarded to a college freshman who is an active member of an FLW College Fishing team. Contributions may be sent to the Sonny Reynolds Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o FLW Foundation, 30 Gamble Lane, Benton, KY 42025. Condolences may be sent on-line at filbeckcannking.com.

The Asian carp is a skittish fish, averaging about two feet long and 10 pounds apiece. When startled by something, say a boat’s motor, it’s prone to jump up to 10 feet in the air. so when Blake Ruebush, Levi Solomon, and Chase Holtman, an ecology team with the Illinois Natural History Survey, head out on an early October carp-hunting mission, they do so with caution, and armor.

Ruebush’s steering console has been modified with a carp-proof Plexiglas windshield and a side wall of mesh netting to guard the throttle and steering wheel from aerial impact. the team considered wearing helmets but dismissed the thought as too dorky. instead, despite the humidity, Ruebush and Solomon wear waders to repel the slime. Holtman, a burly-looking guy, has gone the other way, opting for a T-shirt, shorts, and Crocs. “I’ll shower afterwards,” he says. “People look at you amusing when you reek of blood and fish.”

As they head out from Havana, Ill., and up a side channel of the lower Illinois River, the water starts to churn with agitated fish, and the boat’s hull thumps from underwater collisions. then the fish start flying—dozens of them, rising like a storm cloud. One ricochets off the boat’s guardrail; another leaps in from behind the boat, getting tangled in the motor’s steering cords. the air is so thick with fish that some bash together mid-flight, showering everyone with a snot-like splatter.

The fish come in at close to 30 miles per hour. That’s enough to cause bruises and broken noses—even concussions have been recorded—but Ruebush and his crew seem unworried. “This is Ground Zero for Asian carp,” Ruebush says, steering forward as his buddies stand at the front of the boat. they won’t have to endure the barrage much longer, though. They’re about to electrocute all the fish.

Solomon and Holtman lower two 10-foot booms attached to a generator capable of producing 5,000 watts. Ruebush starts the generator’s engine. It’s like a giant underwater Taser. as Ruebush motors ahead, fish that swim into the field will be stunned, then scooped off the surface by Solomon and Holtman with dip nets and dumped in a tub in the center of the boat, where they are identified, measured, weighed, and counted.

As the generator goes hot, they jump even higher. a fish hurdles the guardrail, skittering to a stop at Ruebush’s feet. “Hey! There’s a volunteer. we count those, too,” he adds, chuckling. Within a minute the water quiets and unconscious fish start rising to the surface.

The electrocution, one of four that will occur in the area today, will last 15 minutes and cover about 200 yards of shoreline. INHS runs thousands of these “fish community assessment” collections a year—a mix of shock fishing and other techniques such as netting—to track changes occurring in the river. the group is looking for two different species of Asian carp. the jumpers surrounding the boat are Asian silver carp. the Asian bighead swims closer to the bottom of the river and is harder to zap. both are filter feeders and thrive on plankton, a flotsam of algae and other microorganisms.

In the 1970s, fish farmers in mostly Southern states began importing Asian carp from China to help clean their commercial ponds. some escaped in floods, making their way into the Missouri River, the Mississippi River, and the Illinois and Ohio River basins. they breed fast, grow fast, and eat piggishly. Females can spawn up to three times a year, releasing millions of eggs per drop. Young fish easily eat their weight in food daily, while adults can consume up to 20 percent of their body weight. That yields silver carp as big as 50 pounds and bigheads up to 100 pounds. After their first few months, the fish outgrow their natural predators in the river system. And they pick it clean.

Thanks to the interconnectedness of America’s waterways, Asian carp now infest more than 23 states, mostly in the Midwest. But they are not yet in the great Lakes, home to a $7 billion fishing and $9 billion boating industry, according to the great Lakes Boating Federation. Havana and the 210 river miles north to Chicago represent the last stand in the battle against the carp.  The Illinois Natural Resources Dept. estimates that adult silver carp account for nine out of 10 fish in some places along the Illinois River. That’s 4,300 fish per river mile. “It is probably an underestimate,” says Kevin Irons, the state’s aquatic nuisance species program manager, who adds that it doesn’t include baby fish or bigheads.

The carp are scaring people away. According to a University of Illinois survey, 47 percent of recreational boaters from Havana and the nearby towns of Pekin and Beardstown were hit by an Asian carp in 2010 and 2011; one-third of those suffered watercraft hurt. “It’s cut down on our business considerably,” says Betty DeFord, manager of the Boat Tavern, a bar made out of an old riverboat on cinder blocks that sits alongside a boat ramp in the nearby town of Bath. “People who used to go out on the water won’t anymore because they are sick and tired of getting beat to death by the damn things.”

Ross Harano, director of international marketing at big River Fish, a processor in Pearl, Ill., estimates there are more than 100 million pounds of Asian carp in the Illinois River and more than 500 million pounds in the Mississippi basin, all of it growing at a rate of at least 10 percent a year.

Fish, of course, must follow water to spread, and local and national authorities are attempting to find out which rivers they’re in and how to kill them. in 2009 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and David Lodge, director of the Center of Aquatic Conservation at the University of Notre Dame, began taking samples of environmental DNA, or “eDNA,” from the water, looking for genetic markers in leftover scales, mucus, and feces. in November 2009, samples suggested that carp had made it upstream, as close as six miles from Lake Michigan.

The primary gateway to the lake, the Chicago Harbor Lock, is a system near Navy Pier in downtown Chicago. It handles about 1,800 tons of barge traffic per week and is a cornerstone of the country’s $380 billion domestic shipping industry, a transit point for commodities such as coal, steel, and petroleum fuels from as far south as Louisiana.

A closure would reroute those commodities overland, costing the region anywhere from an estimated $1.4 billion to $4.7 billion over the next two decades. It would also plug a pathway used by as many as 8,000 recreational boaters annually. the other two access points are the Wilmette Pumping Station, a passage the city uses to discharge runoff, and the Thomas J. O’Brien Lock and Dam, near Lake Calumet.

In 2010 the Supreme Court denied a request by the Michigan Attorney General to close the Chicago lock. Michigan officials have since pressed the issue with a series of bills now being heard in Congress. the Army Corps of Engineers has also launched its own $25.5 million study to identify all nuisance species in the region, figure out how they might travel between bodies of water, and measure the costs and impacts of two types of longer-term solutions. the first, hydrological separation, would be a total quarantine with no access via waterways. the second, ecological separation, would divide habitats less strictly, possibly using nets, filters, pumps, and lifts to hoist boats over the locks. the report is due in 2015.

In many cases the fight against an invasive species ends in such protracted analysis. Asian carp have received more attention than usual because their presence immediately drives off business. as Lodge puts it: “When you’ve got a 40-pound fish jumping into a boat and breaking jaws and knocking out teeth, people tend to stop boating and fishing. That has a demonstrable economic effect.”  In September 2010, President Barack Obama tapped John Goss, a former head of the Indiana Natural Resources Dept., to become the country’s first Asian carp czar, though the term is not official. Goss runs a multistate, 20-agency task force, the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee, which includes officials from the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey, among numerous partners. Goss has greenlighted $106 million in projects aimed to reshape the way in which species are managed and maintained.

On a Wednesday afternoon in late September, Goss stands on the rear deck of an Illinois Conservation Police boat. He has arrived to check out part of his new fighting armada, a fleet of six vessels outfitted with nets, electroshocking units, and eDNA sampling bottles. the boats are puttering around about 10 miles downstream from Navy Pier in an area called Bubbly Creek, so named because it used to be a dumping ground for stockyards; air bubbles from cattle carcasses still burble up when the bottom is disturbed. That makes for nutrient-rich water, perfect for Asian carp. Not that Goss expects to find any. “If we do, I’ll be surprised,” he says, peering into the nets in various boats as they drift past.

Goss hopes to meld traditional and genetic sampling. an eDNA hit implies fish, but not how many, so Goss is trying to match results with fished samples. “When we find DNA, it just says there’s DNA there,” he says. “Is it from one fish, multiple fish, or just fish scales brought in by barges from farther downriver?”

Containment starts another 20 miles downstream in Romeoville, Ill. There, near a railroad track lined with shanty houses, sit three electric barrier stations. These are like mega-electrofishing units, paralyzing fish across the width of a river. anything shocked will simply float back downriver. the river here is also flanked by 13 miles of ultrafine chain-link fence, meant to keep fish from other rivers from dumping into the channel above the fail-safe during floods.

When a barrier was taken down for service in December 2009, state and federal officials launched Operation Silverstream, a 450-person effort to poison six miles of river with Rotenone, an industrial fish toxin. the attack used boats and pumps on the shore to inject Rotenone into the water. Its spread was tracked with a dye, and caged fish acted like underwater canaries. a neutralizer was applied downstream. the effort killed thousands of fish but found only one bighead carp near the barrier. After numerous eDNA hits around the Small Calumet River just a few miles from Lake Michigan in May of the following year, officials mounted Operation Pelican, poisoning a three-mile stretch of river, again without finding any Asian carp. When a bighead carp was netted above the quarantine zone in Lake Calumet in June 2010, officials tried a less noxious tactic. a large-scale fishing expedition lasted for days, but their nets came up empty.

Despite such results, the Fish and Wildlife Service has bought 2,000 gallons of Rotenone, now housed in an undisclosed wilderness location. It’s a communal pool that any state can tap to protect still-virgin waters, but the committee wants to be prudent about using it again in Illinois. Upstream from the barrier, dozens of sites are fished and sampled weekly. Officials onboard with Goss carry a playbook adorned with the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee logo—a shield-like crest featuring a carp in a net—that outlines their rapid response plan. three eDNA hits in a row, for instance, or a reported carp sighting, leads to exploratory fishing. Catching one Asian carp leads to more intensive fishing. Two or more fish in hand, and the poison can be released.

Two days later, at a town hall-style committee meeting in Saginaw, Mich., Goss introduces the audience to Dr. Leon Carl, director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s great Lakes Science Center, who describes new weapons he is working on. the list includes an underwater “carp cannon” that blasts high-pressure sound waves to scare off the fish; a carp-specific toxin, or “carpicide”; and a perfume of pheromones that might lure males or females into some specific area, where they will find not like but death. the carp cannon has already been used to clear out the area around the barriers so they can be powered down for maintenance. More prototypes should roll out within the next two years, after which both Carl and Goss hope they can be applied more widely.

Locally, states and towns are doing what they can to kill the fish by more traditional means, such as catching them and eating them. directly below the electric barrier, Illinois Natural Resources has hired fisherman to pull as many carp as possible from the water. they netted 62 tons in 2010 and caught roughly 400 tons in 2011. the department is also promoting a new sport: aerial bow fishing, in which guys in motorboats with modified bows shoot and then reel in the jumpers. At the second annual Director’s Shoot, 54 teams shot more than 48,000 pounds of fish 120 miles upstream from Havana. At the Boat Tavern, owner DeFord also hosts the annual Redneck Fishing Tournament. she describes it as a “carp rodeo” where boaters with nets try to snag as many fish out of the air as they can in an hour, as if they were netting 30-pound butterflies. This year about 200 people, some wearing helmets and baseball cups, caught 8,977 carp.

Asian carp have been harder to sell to consumers. in March 2011 the Illinois Public Health Dept. approved Asian carp for human consumption. a series of videos posted to the USGS website titled “Flying Fish, great Dish” hasn’t really caught on. Officials promote carp as a cheap, protein-rich food source that’s lower in mercury than tuna, but in general the fish is considered bony and dirty. “A lot of people call them sewer bass,” says Steve McNitt, the sales manager at Schafer Fisheries in Thomson, Ill. currently, Schafer turns all the state’s donated catch into an organic fish emulsion fertilizer, but the company is prototyping carp hot dogs, carp burgers, and carp jerky.

Illinois has also hired a chef to conduct taste tests. On a Thursday afternoon in September, Chef Philippe Parola and his business partner, chef Tim Creehan, shuffle around the stainless steel kitchen of Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory High School on Chicago’s west side, checking on a series of buffet-size trays that will be dished out to more than 300 underprivileged kids in a gymnasium. the menu will be carp cakes—a fish version of crab cakes—with a béarnaise sauce and sides of green beans and sweet potatoes. they are also working on a bit of rebranding. during his presentation, Parola calls the fish by a more inventive and polished name: silverfin. It worked for Patagonian toothfish, also known as Chilean sea bass.

There’s one place, however, where carp is both in small supply and welcome on the menu: China. since 2010, Illinois has spent $6 million training fisherman to catch carp and helping processors develop ways to better store and ship bulk orders to China. in the homeland of carp, there are hardly any wild-caught specimens available; canal systems are too polluted to support the species. American processors can buy carp for 13¢ per pound on the docks and get up to 92¢ per pound from mainland importers. “In China, we tell everybody that this fish is so fresh and has so much energy that it dances on the water,” says Harano, the marketer at big River Fish, which recently received a $2  million state grant to expand its packing plant to handle an annual 30-million-pound contract for Beijing. “We market it a lot like you might Angus beef.” Their logo is a bald eagle clutching a fish in its talons while flying over the Mississippi River.

Above the barrier at Romeoville, eDNA testing suggests carp are getting through, but in small numbers. in 2010 there were 21 hits out of 1,270 samples. in 2011 there were 34 hits out of 2,548 samples. That isn’t enough for a big intervention. That there are fish still in the region, though, argues against hydrological separation as a permanent solution; it doesn’t account for human interference. There is currently a federal ban on transporting live Asian carp anywhere, as well as state bans on using carp as bait. That doesn’t mean fishermen, especially those who are selling live catches at ethnic markets or out catching their own bait, are following the guidelines.

Back near Havana, the INHS crew completes another electroshocking and spots a type of species thought to have been driven off: the human. Dan Belden, a lean, tan, 23-year-ancient with a ponytail, paddles up to the boat in his canoe, spooked by the carp flying around everywhere. Belden has been on the river for weeks. in September he loaded his canoe with camping gear and trail mix and put in hundreds of miles upstream on the Fox River in Wisconsin, plotting to paddle south until he hit New Orleans.

He knew there would be danger along the way, but he wasn’t expecting it to be in the water. Belden got blasted in the head with a super-size Asian carp a few days ago. “I never thought I’d be worried of a fish, but those things had me frightened within a day,” he tells Ruebush. When he nears a shoreline, he has learned to tuck his paddle into the boat and drift in gently, hoping not to launch the bottom-dwellers. Belden looks over at the stunned fish in the tub. “Do you reckon there are any lakes out there where these things can’t live?” he questions. says Ruebush: “I wouldn’t bet against them.”

R&R was founded on E. Rich Street in 1913 by two Roberts brothers (hence the store name). Thirty-four years later, Wentzel’s father (also named Bill) bought the business. In 1976, the younger Bill Wentzel went it to the current location, a 2,000-square-foot building at 781 S. front St. in the Brewery District.

In those days, the neighborhood was working-class and gritty — just as it had been since the late 19th century, when the area’s namesake breweries were going strong. The bait shop suited its surroundings, serving Columbus residents who wanted to fish the Scioto River, which flows just a few hundred yards west of it.

In recent years, though, the Brewery District has been made over as a historic area and — much like German Village, its neighbor to the east — now features renovated brick houses and a number of new condominium and apartment buildings.

“The bottom line,” Wentzel said, “is we were there before all this other stuff happened.”

Don Plank, a lawyer who has worked for Bill Wentzel and whose family has ties to the enduring Plank’s Bier Garten on S. High Street, sees a bittersweet side to the transformation.

“The area is more upscale,” Plank said. “That was pretty close to a slum area (in the ’70s), so (redevelopment) is a good deal for Columbus. But, at the same time, it can push out the flavor of a neighborhood.”

R&R certainly is flavorful, with a mural of a deer and a leaping bass adorning the double-wide storefront and a smell indoors that only an outdoor-sports enthusiast could like.

Taped to walls are fishing maps of area lakes and photos of customers posing with fish caught using R&R bait. Above gurgling tanks of water behind the counter is a sign listing the prices of an array of live bait: night crawlers, red worms, crappie minnows, bass minnows, chub minnows, soft crawdads, hellgrammites, leeches (water or jumbo mud), waxworms, mealworms, hard crawfish, shiners, goldfish and skipjacks.

The gear, too, seems impressive: Fishing poles, line, hooks, sinkers, bobbers and lures fill several aisles.

“This place has a certain charm to it,” said customer Larry Harding, of Columbus. “I could go to Dick’s (Sporting Goods) zip-zip, get what I want and be done. But, here, I like to hang out.”

I like to fish and do it everyday at one of my family's pond (we have five). I was wondering if i could bass fish or catfish in the winter when the water ISN'T FROZEN? I dont want to go out on the ice because it is never thick enough here in Ohio. if I can bass fish in the winter what jigs or bait should i use? *** well for catfish? any tips would be excellent. I know they will be in deeper water in the winter. one of our ponds is about 6 or 7 maybe 8 acres big and half of it is COVERED in lillypads. WOuld a topwater frog be excellent bait?

you can bass fish all year round. no top water, jig deep with tubes and rage tail craws, throw deep diving cranks.

lookin for excellent shore fishing for bass or walleye. or just fishing in general. willing to drive a bout an hour. from deerfield,ohio or niles, ohio. any thoughts?? give me alot of options

There is a site starting out, but made to answer this question. youhuntandfish.com

I don't think there is a lot on the site for Ohio, but if you do go and have luck you can be the first to add a story and spot, helping the next guy out.

Excellent luck as well!

I've seen advertisement for pro stuff on tv that u spray on plastic worms to attract a fish. And some people say to use different at home products idk if that's right or not anybody got an idea?
Btw I'm fishing for bass either shallow on the rocks at the lake or in a pond at all different depths

Never heard of home remedies for bass attractant. I know their's this spray stuff you can buy at Wal-Mart and it's a bass actractant. You might could just put some garlic salt or regular salt on them. oh and i'm not sure how well that fish attractant works. I wouldn't worry about it just fish what ya got. good luck.

What colors work well for bass on them lakes? and also how deep are they?

do as i do. fish both lakes,and just try different lures and depths.

Visitors from near and far come to Presque Isle State Park each summer to explore the gem in Erie’s backyard.

“People don’t know what they have up here,” said Linda Burnside, 58, a park visitor from the Pittsburgh area.

Most Erie County residents realize the park has beaches. a recent weekday spent on the peninsula revealed just how much else the locals and visitors can learn to do at Presque Isle.

Where: Multi-Purpose Trail, numerous other trails. Cost: Free

The greeting is exchanged by people passing as they start their day walking, running or skating on the Multi-Purpose Trail.

Raymond and Yolanda little, of Elyria, Ohio, started their first visit to the park with a walk. Sunlight sparkled on Presque Isle Bay and ducks swam just yards from the parking lot.

Raymond little said they plotted their two-day trip after finding Presque Isle on a Google search for state parks.

“This was a big one,” he said. “It was by the water.”

Sheri Gunter, of Fairview Township, and Galiena Rae, of Erie, were starting their walk about the same time from the Vista 2 parking lot. they begin there every Sunday and some weekdays.

One of the first things Gunter and Rae pass is an educational panel titled “A Walk in the Park” with information about the 13.5-mile Karl Boyes Multi-Purpose Trail and the late state representative it’s named for.

Gunter said they like it because weekdays there are “cool.”

Rae said, “Usually it’s cooler down here to walk.”

A breeze made their trek comfortable on a morning when the temperature was 75 at 8 a.m.

When it gets too hot, the park’s Tom Ridge Environmental Center, open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., is a excellent spot to cool off and learn about Presque Isle.

Where: Multi-Purpose Trail, park roads. Cost: Free if you take your own bike; rental fees range from $6 an hour for a toddler trike to $40 an hour for a two-bench surrey.

Morgan Pruckner already had a row of bright yellow surreys, bikes and trikes awaiting customers by 8:20 a.m. The recent high school graduate is spending her third summer working for the Yellow Bike Rental co., a vendor at Presque Isle.

“It’s awesome,” Pruckner said as she added another trike to the row under the trees in the Waterworks area. “I like it here.”

Fred Woolley owns a yellow bicycle that he likes to be riding around the peninsula about the time Pruckner is setting up for the day’s first customers.

The Millcreek Township man rides there because it’s flat.

“It’s exercise, and it’s fun,” said Woolley, 75. “It’s better than sitting watching TV.”

Where: by Misery Bay. Cost: Free, unless to you want to plunk a quarter into a viewer that magnifies the sites.

Woolley said he always takes a break from biking when he reaches the park’s Perry Monument. The concrete blocks surrounding it are a excellent spot to sit, eat an orange and drink water.

Educational panels tell about Battle of Lake Erie hero Oliver Hazard Perry and the 80-foot limestone monument, built in 1926 for more than $45,000.

The area is shaded and nearly its own little peninsula, nearly surrounded by the waters of Misery and Presque Isle bays.

“You have such a beautiful view all the way around,” Laura Clayton, 54, of Millcreek, said as she sat on a bench there eating a morning muffin.

Her husband, Jamie, 56, sat beside her. he likes to people-watch and had his eyes on a family fishing nearby.

Where: Numerous locations, including Waterworks Pier and the North Pier. Cost: Equipment plus a Pennsylvania fishing license, except on special fish-for-free days; the next free day is Sept. 5.

Carbon County father and son Steven DeLong, 51, and Alex, 15, came to Erie County for three days to fish. they stayed at Sarah Coyne Campground near the park’s western end and reeled in bass off the North Pier on its eastern end.

“It’s nice,” Alex said as he watched his father land a 141/2-inch smallmouth bass.

Nearby on the pier, Jim Burnside used a cell phone to take a photo of his wife, Linda, with the largemouth bass she’d caught using a rubber worm.

The couple also comes to the park for the fishing and for the opportunity to meet people. The Burnsides said they usually stay in the Erie area about five days, driving from Jefferson Hills, south of Pittsburgh, and getting a room at a hotel during the week, never on busy weekends.

“We’ve always loved it,” Jim Burnside, 58, said.

Where: around the park. Cost: a recent car ride around the peninsula, with a little backtracking plus side trips to the marina and North Pier, used about a gallon of gas, which cost $3.69 at the time.

The Claytons stopped at Perry Monument during a motorcycle ride around the park.

“When you come down the road in the morning, it’s just so shaded,” Jamie Clayton said about traveling on Peninsula Drive with its tree canopy.

From a car, truck, van or bus, you can see wildlife, flowers and trees, water and sand and, of course, houseboats floating on Horseshoe Pond.

Where: Presque Isle Marina, Perry Monument, Lake Erie, bays, lagoons, other areas. Cost: Varies; pontoon boat tours are free; a scenic boat tour on the Lady Kate, which docks near the monument, is $16 for adults, $9 for ages 5 to 12 and free for younger; rental fees range from $10 an hour for a canoe to $125 for two hours for a 20-foot pontoon boat; cost of stalls in the marina is based on size.

A lucky few people own the 24 houseboats on the park’s Horseshoe Pond, paying the state an annual fee to moor there.

Others, like Mike and Carol Hilbrich, have a boat that they keep at Presque Isle Marina.

The Erie couple lives on the sailboat Aquaholic all summer. they pay about $1,200 to keep the boat there from may through October, Carol Hilbrich said.

The couple has been in a 28-foot stall on the end of Pier a for 21 years and in the marina for an additional 19. they have a wooden sign there with their name and tomatoes growing in a pot.

“It’s just a little piece of heaven,” said Carol Hilbrich, 70.

People who don’t have a boat can catch a free ride on a park pontoon. but you have to be early if you want to get aboard.

Sign-up for three free daily pontoon tours starts at 10 a.m. at the dock.

“We were full by 10:30,” volunteer Betty Perkins said on a recent weekday.

Free evening rides are offered Wednesdays and Fridays, with sign-up by phone starting Monday at 10 a.m. Those spots go even quicker than the daily rides.

If you miss out on getting a seat for a 45-minute tour, you can rent your own pontoon boat or other watercraft from the Presque Isle Canoe & Boat Livery.

Photo identification and a refundable deposit of $40 are required.

Kari Sullivan and Melissa Kaye, of Corry, take their own kayaks to the park.

“It’s just a different world down here,” Kaye, 45, said.

Where: throughout the park. Cost: Free

Tom Hill goes to Presque Isle for the bass but encounters other wildlife on his way to fish from Waterworks Pier a couple of days a week at 6 a.m.

“That’s when you hear the most things,” he said.

Like owls roosting in the nearby trees. Turkeys gobbling.

Hill, 58, of Erie, knows to watch out for a skunk on the walk through grass and trees from parking lot to pier. he tries to avoid the gaggle of geese, which he said can be mean. He’s seen deer pass by, and on a recent morning, as he stood fishing at the end of the pier, a fantastic blue heron flew by.

“It’s a relaxing place to be,” Hill said.

Over in the lagoons, an eagle has been spotted recently, there’s a beaver lodge, dragonflies skim the water’s surface and dozens of turtles sun themselves on logs.

Where: on the lake side. Cost: Free, unless you buy or rent chairs, umbrellas or boogie boards or buy food or souvenirs from a concession stand; a dill pickle costs 99 cents; a double cheeseburger is $6.29; postcards are 49 cents; prices vary for other items; only cash is accepted.

At Beach 11, which has shallow water and a playground that make it family-friendly, Scott and Lisa Littlewood sat in several inches of water while daughters Ava, 4, and Ella, 2, used shovels to scoop wet sand into fish- and star-shaped molds.

The parents read about Presque Isle in the Buffalo News and thought the Pennsylvania peninsula, just 90 minutes from their home, was close enough for a day trip with the little ones.

“The beach is just a nice place to hang out with the girls,” Lisa Littlewood said.

At Beach 11′s concession stand, one of four on the park, 3-year-ancient Jessica Acker showed off the blue bucket grandparents Paul and Vicky Acker, of Albemarle, N.C., had just paid $3.79 for.

Near Beach 6, which also has a concession stand, Steven Clark and Jordan Elchynski were beating Joshua Boyd and Corey Ferrara in an afternoon volleyball game on one of six sand courts.

Earlier, the 19-year-olds, all from North East, had buried one another in the sand and swum.

“It’s a excellent way to get away, enjoy the excellent weather,” Boyd said.

Sunset Point, a well loved spot for flying kites and watching the sun slip below the horizon, was closed on that day for sand replenishment, part of an ongoing project. The work doesn’t occur on weekends.

Presque Isle Lighthouse

Where: Lake side near the mill Road Beaches.

Twenty years ago, when Steve Kling was sailing the Fantastic Lakes with the U.S. Navy, he’s sure he passed the Presque Isle Lighthouse.

So when the Pensacola, Fla., man’s daughter came to Erie’s Mercyhurst College, Kling and his wife, Karen, decided to get a closer look at the lighthouse.

“It’s a very pretty place,” said Karen Kling, 52.

She and her husband walked on the beach for the best view of the lighthouse, a private residence occupied by a park manager. Educational panels on its other side clarify that it was finished in 1873, has a 57-foot tower and a 250-watt light maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard.

“It’s really neat,” said Steve Kling, 54, after a photo on the sand in front of the lighthouse. “It’s an impressive structure.”

Where: throughout the park. Cost: Depends on what you buy and take with you.

Sharon and John Bachman poured charcoal into a park grill in the Waterworks area, where picnic tables are scattered among trees, and pavilions and cabins can be rented for the day. Overnight accommodations aren’t available at the park. Pavilions that haven’t been reserved for a fee are free to the first taker.

The Bachman family came from Pittsburgh to the peninsula, where they were swimming and then grilling burgers.

Sharon Bachman said the family was looking for a “cheap vacation,” and Presque Isle beat out Atlantic City, N.J.

DANA MASSING an be reached at 870-1729 or by e-mail.