fishing reports
- Thread starter bueller
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Nova
5 year old buck +
Last day of walleye/sauger season and it was 43 degrees and sunny. Had to take a half day off and enjoy the weather. We were in short sleeve shirts on the ice. The bite was slow until just before sunset, but it was just fun being out on the ice in that temp. Ended up bring home 5 for dinner. Great way to end the season
dsinwi
5 year old buck +
Got out on the WI river this past Saturday for the start of the walleye run. 5 keepers 15.5" to 19"one slot at 26.5". Lost 2 keepers. I suspect that those may have been resident fish but a nice way to start the season none the less.
Snagged a ton of high fin as well. All on plastic. Color didn't seem to matter. Not much for current yet. With the rain and or snow predicted things should pickup real quick.
Snagged a ton of high fin as well. All on plastic. Color didn't seem to matter. Not much for current yet. With the rain and or snow predicted things should pickup real quick.
Nova
5 year old buck +
My only question is, what do you do for 7 hours while the fish pulls the boat around
Congrats on a great fish!!!
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
That's got to be one of the coolest things ever!
My only question is, what do you do for 7 hours while the fish pulls the boat around
Congrats on a great fish!!!
You pump and reel. The capt and the boat do a lot of work for you. Impossible to catch one without a great boat operator. Spend thousands of dollars, travel thousands of miles, spend days on the water, fight a fish for seven hours, and immediately turn it lose upon capture. There are eight major world billfish species. I now have six - two more to go for my world slam.
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Haha - nope. She is there for someone else to catch. Most billfish I have caught are pretty well exhausted at time of release. This fish went berserk. I thought she might come in the cockpit with us. She was very alive and well when she swam off.
I have been out quite a few times in Mexico and it always makes me sick when we get back to the dock and see them dragging a dead, dried marlin up the walkway from someone else’s boat
We were on vacation in TX and LA last week. I decided to take the boy on a 4hr redfish trip in the Lake Charles area. It was a blast. Caught a lot of reds,sheepshead, lost a big flounder, and also had a 5ft alligator gar on till it jumped up and hit the side of boat. I've never been fishing down south. It reminded me a little of going to Canada, fish everywhere and didn't see another fishing boat in thousands of acres of marsh. Those reds really fight.
Attachments
Great fish. Glad you could experience it wih your son. Most saltwater fish just dont know when to give up.
dsinwi
5 year old buck +
Put a long day in on the river again this past Saturday at the Dells. We had high hopes but those were dashed after about 4 hours of fishing. It was a cold start to the day with freezing guides and spools making it tough to cast. Ended up with 4 keeper eyes 15" to 19". Not a bad day at all but it was slow for the number of hours we fished.
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Fishing report of a different kind... over the past 10 years I've tagged and released over 70 cobia (with thin spaghetti style tags that have tiny phone number printed on them to encourage recapture reporting). Out of those 70+, just 3 have been subsequently reported as recaptured. Just learned about the 3rd being re-caught a few days ago after being emailed a report by agency that leads the tagging research effort.
Took a couple of friends visiting from Clearwater / Tampa area out of our Tallahassee area this past summer and one of the cobia we tagged was re-caught this February... had traveled at least 167 miles over the 193 day period since we originally tagged it. And here's the crazy part of the whole story... IT FOLLOWED THEM HOME!!! Actually was caught in Clearwater Pass which literally connects to their backyards!
First photo is of us celebrating landing one of the cobia we tagged
Picture of me punching the tag in (spaghetti tag has small plastic barb can just see at tip of hollow steel insertion tool)
Picture of actual spaghetti tag
And finally, the recapture report
Took a couple of friends visiting from Clearwater / Tampa area out of our Tallahassee area this past summer and one of the cobia we tagged was re-caught this February... had traveled at least 167 miles over the 193 day period since we originally tagged it. And here's the crazy part of the whole story... IT FOLLOWED THEM HOME!!! Actually was caught in Clearwater Pass which literally connects to their backyards!
First photo is of us celebrating landing one of the cobia we tagged
Picture of me punching the tag in (spaghetti tag has small plastic barb can just see at tip of hollow steel insertion tool)
Picture of actual spaghetti tag
And finally, the recapture report
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bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Swat1018, I had the exact same suspicions about big reported growth rates on the first 2 recapture reports I received so I took the time to google scientific papers on growth.
Turns out the rate actually fits almost perfectly with scientific data studies on cobia. Helps that they're voracious feeders and grow to be a rather large species (IGFA lists at least 4 Florida fish weighing over 120 pounds in the record books) and more importantly that their fastest growth rate is during their first 3 years of life. On average they put on approximately 12" of growth their 1st year, 10" of growth the 2nd year, 10" more going into the 3rd year before the growth rate (at least length wise) begins to taper to more conservative levels of growth. If memory serves, one-year old fish average around 18" long, two-year old fish around 28" long, and three year old around 38" long.
The shocking thing to me about the growth rate isn't the length gain alone... it's that it happens at the very same time the fish prove capable of swimming great distances / expending significant energy!
