Midwest Fishing!

[terrehautian]

Same for Indiana.

 

[XJosh95]

Spent yesterday afternoon helping fix up my buddy's boat with him. Started with an empty hull. He had already cut out the deck pieces, so we covered them, ran wires and hoses, installed the decking, reinstalled the seats, live well and the storage container. We got the light wiring checked, which was good because one of his splices was bad for the front lights. Better than a screw through the loom.

He's gonna get it out on the water the week of his birthday in a couple weeks. I'll be out of town for a wedding and won't be able to help him test it all out.

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

5 or 6 pounder off of a local small 200 acre lake.

caught a couple more close to this size in a 2-3 hour period. lillys are almost up. LOTS of fish off of topwater, i was using a pop R and my father a torpedo. i later switched to a super fluke, him a spinner bait when the lillys got too thick. another couple weeks and you wont even be able to get to where we were fishing. we lost count of how many we caught. good day for sure.

 

[XJosh95]

Heading out on Sturgeon Bay tomorrow. Hoping we don't get stormed out.

 

[962door]

I can't wait to hear how you do. My buddy's dad has a place on little sturgeon bay, he has a boat parked there and everything. We just work too much.. what kind of fish are you chasing?

 

[XJosh95]

Pretty much whatever will bite. Generally speaking; panfish and bass.

I'm sure all we'll catch is a buzz and some damned gobis.

 

[XJosh95]

So this trip turned out horribly compared to as expected. Remember I said up there^^? Yeah, uhh. We got launched at about 1pm. Boat didn't want to idle so we stuffed it back on the trailer. Went to the other side of the bay to fish from the rocks across the road from the quarry. We weren't there 5 minutes before we had to go to the emergency room.

I'll post a pic sometime this week with some more story on the incident.

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

So this trip turned out horribly compared to as expected. Remember I said up there^^? Yeah, uhh. We got launched at about 1pm. Boat didn't want to idle so we stuffed it back on the trailer. Went to the other side of the bay to fish from the rocks across the road from the quarry. We weren't there 5 minutes before we had to go to the emergency room.

I'll post a pic sometime this week with some more story on the incident.

bad days of fishing are not better than good days at work... when they involve a hospital visit.

someone get hooked? slip on a rock? spontaneously combust?

 

[altrocker1]

Wet rocks did me in on a solo fishing trip once. Ripped my leg open and had to get 8 internal stitches and 11 external. Left a sweet scar...luckily I was able to climb a nearly vertical 40 foot hill and limp 3/4 of a mile back to my jeep. I try not to go to dangerous spots alone

 

[XJosh95]

Photobucket is having some difficulties right now with the importing of the photo. I'll load a link to it as soon as I see it's there. It's graphic so it won't be posted in the img code.

Paul and I got to Sturgeon Bay around noon and Brian was already pretty tanked. Typical for him. We got the boat launched and it wouldn't idle. He thinks the idle jet is clogged. The waves were nearing white caps so we got back on the trailer and proceeded to the quarry.

Brian is very diligent about warning us about being on the rocks. When you drink and fish on rocks, something is bound to happen sooner or later. I had lure in the water for about 5 minutes when I saw a fish jump to the right of me. I figured Brian had one hooked. I turned to find him kneeling down, facing away from the water with blood all over his neck. I dropped my rod and ran to check on him and found quite the gash under his chin.

He thinks he slipped almost right away and knocked himself out. He tumbled down the rocks and his legs went into the water. Thank God he didn't go in totally. If I never heard him go in, he would have likely drowned. So that's a good note. I told him he needed to go to the hospital.

He nearly insisted that he could put a couple bandaids on it and drink the problem away. When we got to his truck, he took a look in the mirror at his cut and knew that we were going to the ER. Duh!! Good thing he never lost consciousness, we wouldn't have been able to find the hospital.

2 hours or so in the ER and he came out with at least 17 stitches on the outside of the wound with more inside to patch his flesh together.

I've had better fishing trips.


This is your official warning. If you are at all squeamish at the sight of blood or open wounds, I would strongly advise against clicking the link.
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc18/92whitegp/100_0273_zpsfd863c11.jpg

 

[962door]

That sucks! I'm hoping to head up there in july with a few buddies, hopefully we can avoid the er. I have had to convince friends a wound was er worthy, always harder when they were drinking..

 

[XJosh95]

As it turns out, Brian's tale of woe didn't end with the stitches. He spent 4 hours at the dentist in surgery on Tuesday. He broke 5 teeth beyond repair and had them removed.

XJosh 'couldn't put Humpty back together again' 95

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

talk about insult to injury!

damn... expensive fishing trip for him.

 

[XJosh95]

Yeah, to get those 5 teeth replaced, he's looking at like $30K. He doesn't know what his insurance will cover. I'm sure it will be a while before he gets all the information necessary.

We should have braved the whitecaps with a shitty motor... haha!

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

took a lot of effort... but finally boated one!

measured over 40". released alive and healthy.

 

[XJosh95]

How strictly do you practice C&R?

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

on sport fish? all the time... something like bass, large or smallmouth, or pike, ill just toss back in, they are pretty lively. but big fish like this need to be catered to a little more. make sure they are recovered before throwing them in, ESPECIALLY when the water and weather gets hot.

i dont typically eat fish... so i release a lot more than i catch. i only keep what i know im going to eat. i always hate tossing back a fish i know isnt going to live. something that is deeply hooked or what not, even if its undersized. but... the birds will always clean it up, right?

 

[XJosh95]

Yeah. You figure the one time you keep a dying, undersized fish will be the one time the DNR wants to check your catch.

Personally, I've never had good enough luck to practice a lot of C&R. I love fish. Had walleye twice this week. I also don't do a lot of sport fishing. Typically panfish that fry up tasty!

Were you on St. Claire?

 

[VAhasnoWAVES]

Yeah. You figure the one time you keep a dying, undersized fish will be the one time the DNR wants to check your catch.

EXACTLY...


the two biggest learning curves for fishing, especially catching large numbers of fish, ESPECIALLY catching quality fish:
1 - deciphering the weather conditions and patterns, and learning them for new or large bodies of water, especially ones with heavy fishing pressure.
2 - matching fishing techniques and tactics to weather conditions, water conditions, and fishing structure.

i will spend (litterally) hours looking at wind charts, swell charts, barametric charts, topo maps, past fishing reports, and even climographs if im going to be spending an entire day on the water. i find it really tough (and intimidating!) to fish large bodies of water sometimes. but, you got to pay your dues. and talk to the locals/regulars!

god, what to fish with? what to use? i always hate that question. lol. sometimes one tiny little difference... a white grub with a red jig head instead of a black jig head will turn a day of not catching anything into a day of slaying everything in the water. i think that is always a hard question to answer because tactics always change with the weather and given season.



today, i wished i had MORE lures, i wanted to put MORE rods out, but sheesh, are they pricey. i used to HATE it when i was a kid... but, just like my father, ill gladly spend all day hunting for that one monster, instead of catching little ones all day. guess ive learned to be patient over time.

I need to look into getting one of these fish dermi'd though. i need to get my first 50" done.

 

[XJosh95]

Our trips are often a hasty decision with very little planning. I'm pretty sure we plan to get drunk and hope to catch fish. Our standards are low.