Fishing Techniques

WINTER, WINTER – IT’S TIME TO PREPARE FOR WINTER FUN!

While winter is time for family indoor fun for most of us, it’s a great time to get outdoors and enjoy a new type of beauty.  There are many types of winter activities and winter sports to take part of and freezing to death doesn’t have to be part of the equation if you plan accordingly.

One of my favorite winter activities which just happens to be my favorite spring, summer and fall activity is fishing.  As we approach the winter months and in some areas, ice and snow, be prepared to take advantage of less anglers out fishing and fish slowing down- focused on survival.

Cutthroat Trout caught at Strawberry Reservoir, Utah
Early winter is a great time to head to a shoreline and fish slowly to entice a fish to strike at the energy source you are tempting them with.  This time of winter still allows an angler to try out different methods and rigs to trigger that strike.  This time of winter, fish are still active trying to build up energy reserves to get them through the hardest part of winter.  Depending on where you live, winter still brings plenty of interested fish, granted, you may have to dig through layers of ice to get to them.  Trout are a cold water fish and remain active near the surface throughout the winter months.  This cutthroat trout was caught last year around this time with an imitation prey fish.  The area had already seen some snow and snow was still in the air.

Winter brings a new look to an old area in addition to a different type of fun.  I enjoy late evening/night fishing for several reasons.

First of all, it’s a great time to be alone in the elements with your thoughts.  When it’s below freezing or near it, you are more than aware of the elements.  Second, the cold crisp air and snow on the ground adds to enjoying winter.  It’s funny that during the summer, we strive to stay in doors and out of the heat with the a/c freezing us to death while in the winter, we stick to the indoors with the heat cooking us.  Summer is a time to be hot and winter is a time to feel the cold and to remind oneself of how grateful we should be that we have the ability to get out of the cold while so many don’t.  Lastly, the cold night air is a second thought to fishing.  I have spent many hours in the middle of winter standing by a shoreline catching and releasing trout at night with my primary thought being on catching trout, not feeling the cold.  Once you feel the cold, game over!

I love watching it snow and accumulate on me while fishing.  Dealing with freezing lines and ice build up between every cast and having to cautiously and very carefully remove the hook from a catch so that your hands don’t get exposed to the water is a different type of fishing fun in the winter.  Don’t be reluctant – give it a try.  Check out this post from last year which shows a friend of mine enjoying the cold while fishing- Click here.  She was definitely a trooper, she didn’t complain once even while the other cold weather, winter anglers were leaving for the warmth of home.

You can’t go wrong by spending some time outdoors this winter.  It only comes once a year and provides a new look on things and hopefully an appreciation of what you got.  If you live in bass country, fish deep and slow by structure and cover.  If you live in trout country, fish at all levels of the water column with a slow to moderate retrieve.

Carp Fishing Holidays

Carp is a native fish to Europe and Asia and is held in high regard compared to the views of carp here in the United States.

Carp weight up to 90 pounds and are found in large bodies of slow moving or still water.  Carp prefer an environment with a soft or muddy bottom.  Common carp is a thick bodied fish with no scales on its head but its body is covered by scales.  Carp feed on insects, plants, worms, crustaceans and suck them in with a vacuum like action.

Angling value of Carp

Carp are eagerly sought after by anglers in Europe as they are considered highly prized coarse fish that are hard to hook.  Carp is also valued as a source of food and is the typical Christmas dinner in some areas of Europe.  In the United States, carp is considered a trash fish and is not thought highly as a food source. Their  are some angling groups that see sporting assets in the species and are trying to bring attention to the carp as a sport fish.  The common argument I hear regarding carp is that they are bottom feeders that will eat anything and are not worth fishing for less alone to eat.  Catfish are bottom feeders as well and are known to eat anything and I love to catch and eat catfish.

Angling for Carp

Carp are bottom feeders and so the preferred method of fishing for carp is to use a bottom water fishing rig.  A popular rig is to use a bell sinker with a weighted leader line that sits on the bottom.

Carp prefer to feed near some form of cover so areas around reed beds, sand bars, sunken trees and drop-offs are prime spots to place a line.  A hooked carp will run for cover and an angler needs to be using a large reel, heavy test line on a heavy rod to absorb shocks and to keep the carp away from snags.

Search PriceGrabber and find the best deals

Pricegrabber offers millions of retail product at great low prices since retailers are competing for your business.

PriceGrabber.com offers products ranging from digital cameras, lighting, bed spreads to outdoor furniture and gear. The time to save on laptops and other electronics to fishing gear is now as we enter the Holiday seasons.  Take advantage of the fishing downtime and restock on tackle and get prepared for Spring fishing frenzy.

I highly recommend adding a tablet pc such as the Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet or iPad 2 so you can access the free fish depth and bite activity app while you are out fishing to help you catch the limit.

If you aren’t fishing, then you ought to be thinking about fishing.

Javascript and Fishing – cool fishing webapp is born!

After many long evenings for the past couple of weeks, I have been sacrificing my fishing time to work on learning and creating a web application.  It is based on the Fish’n Mate application that was originally made in Microsoft Excel utilizing Visual Basics.

I was amazed at how versatile javascript is in making dynamic webpages.  The cool thing about it is that I pretty much was learning html at the same time as javacript since they are so related and tied together.

Here is a very simple example of html and javacript working together.  Obviously, the radio buttons are a html form.  Click each one and see what happens. (Don’t worry, nothing crazy is going to happen – I kept this quick and simple).

Keyword spellings obviously makes a difference in terms of cost per click so it pays to do some homework if your goal is to gain webtraffic or benefit from high paying ads.

Now onto more important things, visit the new Fish Bite and Activity Indicator web application.

For all the javascript and html experts out there, please feel free to share experience on how run this application more smoothly and all across all browsers.  I recommend running this in internet explorer if you are having trouble accessing it from any other browser.  I hope I have corrected all issues preventing it from running on the most common browsers.

How To Fish – Using Sound and Vibration to Entice Interest

To understand how sound and vibration affect fish we need to understand some things about how sound and vibration travel through water.

Sound is vibration and travels through water by means of energy waves.  These waves move through water very efficiently and can roll and roll for long, long distances.  Sound travels faster through liquids than through air.  The medium of which sound is traveling through and the variables that influence that medium affect the speed of sound.  One type of medium is air and another is liquid. Variables that influence how sound travels are temperature, humidity and altitude.  On base comparison, sound travels through air at a rate of 1,087 feet per second while sound travels through water at a rate of 4, 862 feet per second.  Bass hear sound as humans do and sound has the same effect on bass as it does on humans.  It is very difficult to identify the direction that sound is coming from and to determine distance.

Fish live in a noisy environment. The sounds that fish are hearing come from man made devices like propellers and sonar and the noise that are created by the uniqueness of other creatures in the deep.  Bass have two means to sift through all this sound to decide if it a threat or opportunity.  Bass have a inner ear with an ear bone that works similar to humans.  They can hear a bunch of sound but have difficulty doing much more than that.  Bass also have a lateral line system that detects vibration as low as 50 hertz while the ear only detects vibration as low as 500 hertz.  The noise that the lateral line detects are pressure waves and bass can detect the low frequency waves given off by swimming prey.  The lateral line system is very accurate and can detect the vibration that is set off when an angler cast a bait into the water.

Spoons, swimbaits and trailers create the pressure waves by their swim action that entices the lateral line system of a bass.  To appeal to the inner ear and spark interest, rattle type baits are used.  Rattles imitate noises a prey fish makes or are used to get the bass’s attention and hopefully trigger a strike.

There are no special techniques or tricks to implement when wanting to use a type of rattle bait.  Fish strike at the presentation and not the sound.  The sound is simply a mechanism to help get the attention and that decision from the bass to determine: threat or opportunity.  As with anything, sometimes rattle baits help trigger that strike and sometimes it repels fish.  The best approach for using a rattle bait is to select one that emits a wide frequency range by using different size BBs.  Several types of lures are designed to attract bass with sound as the lipless Rat-L-Trap that can be found on Cabelas or ebay.

Rattles function as a means to get the attention of bass and other predator fish in an area.  Rattles used with jigs to imitate crawfish help attract bass to the expected click noises that are associated with crawfish moving around.  Other rattles can attract the attention of a bass by imitating the swish sounds of a school of baitfish.

To attract bass to your action and presentation, throw a rattle bait configuration close to the weedline or drop off and fish that action.  Beads that slide along the line and hit the split shot weights or other tackle are means to create noise within the water to help bring attention to your bait action and presentation.  Another means is to use bobbers that have varying sizes of split shot in them to create that sound disturbance.

Learn more on how to fish by understanding the variables that can trigger a strike.  Fishing is a lot more than just throwing a line, hook and bobber and waiting for the fish to find you to be interested in your bait.  How to fish to catch the limit is about knowing how the climate, terrain and specifics about your targeted fish all interact to trigger continuous strikes.

How to River Fish from a Bank

River fishing can be a lot of fun as it requires a different rig and method to that of lake or reservoir fishing.  If you were to google “river fishing techniques” or “how to river fish” you will most likely read about fishing at the right time based on weather and moon position or something in regards to having to actually wade in the river just to be able to cast out.

Well, if you follow me or have explored my site and found the fish finder app, you will know I am big supporter of how weather (barometric pressure) and moon phase influence fish depth and bite activity. But that applies to lakes, reservoirs and rivers.

River fishing provides a complexity that lake fishing doesn’t and it has everything to do with current, bends and vegetation/brush/trees that are inherent along the bank.  I don’t believe the only way to fish a river is to have to be in the river.  I have seen plenty of rivers that are too deep, moving too fast and are too cold to be subjected to while fish are awaiting to be fished.

River fishing is something that takes practice and loosing some tackle to master.  The two primary methods of river fishing is either using heavy weight such as a pyramid sinker with a hook line attached further up on the main line or using a light float to find where the water is pooling at, which is the topic of this article.

Float Fishing on Rivers

One of the first things I learned to look for when river fishing is where is the water pooling at.  I’m referring to the parts of a current that the water has broken away from the flow of the current and is circling back on itself making a pool.  This pool section is a part where the water has slowed and if you got a float into that area it would no longer drift with the main current.  This is important because if that is how a float responds, fish food would also respond the same way which would create an ideal area for fish to be feeding at.  Second, those pools are great locations for fish to be resting at while taking a break from the river current.

Float Fishing Rig

Float fishing is using light tackle to carefully control small floats as they drift and find these pools of water within the river.  These pools are not going to happen in the center of the full current, it happens along the sides of the bank so needing to cast far distances is not necessary.  This is also where most of the obstacles exist such as fallen trees, debris brought from upstream, thick vegetation that attract fish.  These obstacles can also eat up tackle if you lose control of where and what your rig is doing.

The trick to river fishing is to cast upstream and allow the float to move with the current and help it find the water section that is being broken away from the main current creating a circular flow resulting in the pool usually along the bank somewhere.  Carefully moving the float to the edge of the pool but not to the limit it gets caught in the current will create enticing bait movement.  There is no special bait needed to river fish.  Use what works for you when you fish lakes and reservoirs.  I am fan of jigs so I typically use mini-jig which inherently have a little weight which creates the drop action as you carefully manipulate the float within the pool.

I may be new to fly fishing but even when bait fishing, using hoppers to catch trout is a must during hopper season.   Most anglers go the larger hoppers when fishing but more often than not the small hoppers match the naturals more closely.

One of the best benefits of having a highly portable fishing kayak is that I can launch dang near from anywhere and can skim over  the shallows to the high grass lines. I’ve seen large trout in shallow patchy weed areas that boats simply can’t get into.  I know someone out there is thinking, well – there are weedless hooks you can cast over the weed patches.  I have tried several brands of weedless hooks and they may work with bass who strike so violently but I’ve never caught a trout with a weedless hook.  If you want to use hoppers during the season, you got to get in the water and towards the high weed or grass lines.  

Hoppers Trigger Strikes

Look for high grass along the bank or shore where hoppers would naturally be moving among.  Hoppers aren’t great fliers so it is easy for them to get knocked off course with a gust of wind and end up in the water.   Trout have learned this and are usually in the hunt in those areas waiting for an easy meal.

Take advantage of these areas but also don’t feel wrong to be fishing further out from the shore or bank as the current would have taken hoppers out deeper from where they had fallen into the water up stream.   

Check out some of the hoppers shown here on this site.  If you haven’t ever explored the use of artificial hoppers with bait fishing reels or a fly rod, have a several color patters available and watch the trout go to town. 

Fishing Hoppers meant for fly fishing

When using a bait fishing rod to trigger trout strikes with an artificial hopper, use a small water bobber partially filled to get some distance.  Use a light line like a 4lb test and keep around 2 feet of leader between the bobber and the hopper tie on.  Cast it out along the grass line and let the hopper sit for a few seconds.  Be patient!  After waiting a few long seconds, start to retrieve slowly and sporadically giving off the impression of a hopper trying to make it’s way in the water. 

Cold-Climate Fishing Tips

Colder months doesn’t necessarily mean an end to good fishing but it does mean changing to a deep depth to find the fish.

Winter fishing means a changed environment for the fish populations within lakes and reservoirs compared to that of the warmer months.  Vegetation is dying with diminishing light penetration into the depths resulting in less oxygen in the water, more murkiness and less cover for protection.  As the vegetation that was dependent more on the abundant light recedes into the deeper depths, fish that inhibited those areas are moving with the receding growth.  Other fish are following the smaller baitfish to deeper sections of the body of water or to areas that still provide opportunity to feed such as remaining green weeds in the shallow.

Winter fishing also means a change to how to fish and to get that finger freezing bite.  As oxygen is scarce and changing levels within the body of water, fish are remaining still and possibly packed together and only moving to adjust for oxygen level fluctuations.  Bass fishing can result in some large hits but fishing slowly and exhibiting more than the usual patience is key.  Finding the location of where schooled fish are still at is the hard part followed by the even harder part of triggering a strike by trying to convince the fish to utilize energy reserves for a potential meal that will not only replenish the used strike energy but gain reserves.

Fishing slowly around drop offs and exploring the feeding zones slightly below the drop-offs could land great results.  Utilizing a jig and walking it off the drop to achieve that free fall strike works well in winter months.

Even for cold water species such as trout, fishing may produce better results near or at the bottom of the lake or reservoir.  Feed sources are simply reduced in the cold winter months and trout and other cold water fish fend well feeding off the bottom or around the oxygen rich waters flowing in from streams.

Altering your fishing technique to a very slow action isn’t the only thing you may need to change.  Fishing deep bottom flats of lakes and reservoirs also means using heavier weight to hold the fishing rig on the bottom or to sink your lure and baits down deep, the more powerful your rod needs to be with your choice of tackle.

I LOVE this GMC Canyon

I bought a 2005 GMC Canyon, 3.5L, 5cyl 4WD Automatic, 4Door crew cab truck with only 28,000 miles on it.  I truly lucked out finding a truck like this with such low mileage.  The GMC Canyon 5cyl. has great power, it is a lot of fun to drive and simply does not like going below 40mph.  I was truly concern when I made a leap from a Toyota Camry to this GMC Canyon but I have not regretted it a bit.  The miles per gallon in the city is showing around 17 even when driving a considerable amount in 4WD.  Lucky for me, shortly after buying it we got plenty of heavy snow and ice that has allowed me to explore this option in addition to me heading off road the day after I got it to fish the Provo River.  Practically speaking, the mpg does not compare at all to the Camry but that is what you would expect when going from a sedan to a pickup truck.  

This truck is going to make heading out fishing and hunting a lot more fun and relaxing knowing I’m in a vehicle that can truly handle what I’m driving on.  More importantly, my wife loves driving it as well.  We have a Toyota Sienna AWD and we have no problem putting the car seats in the backseat and taking the kids on errands in the GMC Canyon.  Initially I was only considering the extended cab since we have a van for family use but after sitting in the seats in the extended cab, there was no way I was going to buy anything else but a crew cab.  My kids would have outgrown that area in a year or two and I do plan on taking them fishing, kayaking and camping with me in the GMC Canyon so an extended cab would not be practical for long-term use.  The benefit I was after with an extended cab model was the 6 foot bed rather than the 5 foot bed that comes in the crew cab model but there are solutions for that as well.

As we paddled perpendicular to the waves, feeling ever wave hit us and water coming over, the sense of urgency to get back to the launch site was of utmost importance.  Another boater who had been at a different section of Deer Creek had also returned to the dock to get out of the heavy waves.  I have to admit, it was a relief to see someone else in the area, relatively close to us, who could come to our aid if necessary.  

We made it back to the dock with no problem, the canoe handled the rough water well.  Although it was a dangerous outing that we had done, it all ended well. We had remained dry and warm since we were properly dressed for the elements but it definitely took us off guard when Murphy struck which reminds me of this saying: hope for the best but prepare for the worst.  The conditions were not alarming when we got out there but things changed very quickly.  Within a matter of minutes it went from no wind and calm waters to high winds and white tipped continuous waves.  Luckily we had not ventured too far off so getting back to the launch site wasn’t a long drawn out ordeal.  

Dead Bodies Under Water

There was a recent article in the local newspaper about a search and rescue for a missing boater on Strawberry Reservoir that turned up bodies of missing anglers from 1995 and 2001.  Apparently the cold waters of deep Strawberry Reservoir preserves the bodies but the reservoir is so deep that it is beyond the limits of the search divers.  Apparently due to the advancements of sonar, they were able to retrieve these bodies from the deep but none where of the person they were searching for.  This article also mentioned a number of bodies that are known to be lost in Deer Creek, Jordanelle and other lakes and reservoirs in Utah.  It definitely adds to the creepy-ness of these bodies of water but also of the reality of how quickly things can change on the water and the unexpected can occur.