Diversity In Fishing

[Lucky Craft Man]

Here are a few.

 

 

I was hoping you would post some pictures of those monsters you caught!  Just Incredible! 

[Lucky Craft Man]

That laker is a pig

 

 

Anything Dwight catches is the size of a pig.  I'm surprised he hasn't pull out a real pig yet.

[Lucky Craft Man]

Not much I can add species wise over what has already been shown (and the ones of the same species I have caught would look like minnows compared to Dwight's and Bluebasser86's).

 

Here is a new species (though not a monster and not sure why the picture is so small)

 

[slonezp]

Excuse the man boobs

 

[slonezp]

Nobody has posted any sauger yet

[CarlF]

This is a cool thread.

 

I cant help but fish different techniques for different fish, theres so much enjoyment to be had. I love fly fishing for trout: you can throw tiny emergers with a 3 weight in a small stream, or nymph a hole in a local river with your 5 weight. You can take your 7 weight out and sling some real beefy flies and turn a few heads and maybe catch a nice one. Bass fishing is also diverse: dropshotting for smallies, grinding cranks in search pattern, walking a spook, or throwing a jig under a dock for largemouth. I love ice fishing, and catching crappies, perch , and trout.

 

This year I was very fortunate to enjoy three big trips with good friends/relatives. My bass fishing buddy and I got to go fish Clear Lake for largemouth for the first time. My Fly fishing buddy and I went up to Yellowstone National Park and caught a ton of nice trout on the fly at the Madison river. And Third, my father in law took me to Canada, where we camped on an island and trolled for walleye and pike for a week. I love this sport, and while I respect anyone who dedicates themselves to pursuing one thing, I cant help myself from constantly learning and enjoying this sport to the fullest.

[Will Wetline]

This topic got me searching for photos that go back more than 20 years!

 

Let's start with the American shad, an anadromous fish and the largest member of the herring family. I cast for them below the Holyoke dam on the Connecticut River in Western Massachusetts. They're a hard-fighting fish in current.

 

 

On to Quabbin Reservoir in central MA circa 1993 for a look at a big, bold bluegill that came off a bed to smack a Pop R:

 

 

Peck, peck, peck . . . Peck, peck, peck . . . I was fishing a 4" spider grub at a depth of about 15' and expecting some smallmouth interest. I swung twice at the pecking pest and missed. Thought it was a bluegill. Third time I got it and never expected  to see a landlocked salmon circling the boat just under the surface! Lake trout like to munch on hula grubs when they're shallow in the early spring but salmon are generally caught trolling.

 

 

Ah, here we are on big, beautiful, bountiful and diverse Lake Champlain. The walleye, smallie and pike were all caught within a half hour from the same spot. And hey - if anybody has any 5/8 oz. Arbogast Mudbugs they don't want, you can send them to me. Thanks. 

 

 

We're in central New York now, on the Salmon River. I've been making yearly trips here in the fall and early winter since 1996. Have a look at a plump rainbow trout, a close relative of the steelhead trout but comparatively docile at the end of your line. They're strong and stubborn coming in but no where near as crazy as steelhead.

 

  

If you burst into a tackle shop in Oswego, New York and yelled, "Hey, I just landed a 12 lb. brown from your river!" you would get blank stares. Maybe someone would ask if it was your first trip here. Boys, brown trout braggin' rights start in the in the high teens here.

 

 

Oomph! We're back on the Salmon River now. In 2011 there were still quite a few salmon in the river at the time of my annual visit. I was fishing a size 10 fly at the end of a 7 lb. fluoro leader. I had 8 lb. copolymer filling the spool of my Stradic 4000 which was mounted on a 10 1/2' noodle, a slow action stick designed to wear down big fish and, in this instance, the fisherman. It took me at least a 1/2 hour to bring this king salmon to the net. The big, young guy helping me estimated it at 24 lbs.

 

 

The scale at the smokehouse read 11.2 lbs. for this steelhead. It had been a long, slow day on the river and just as dusk was settling in, this fish took a size 10 Glo Bug. It then ran me 200 yards (300?) downstream and it was heading for a pool I couldn't negotiate - I was already waist deep and having a hard time seeing my next step as dusk deepened. My netman said, "You gotta stop it." So I put more pressure on the noodle rod, bending it into the shape of a "C." The line held and here's the picture:

 

 

January 5, 1999. I was in my totally obsessed phase of steelheading. Why else would I be standing in a 33º river in Red Ball waders which old timers remember as being made of canvas. If you're fishing the Great Lakes region this time of year you shouldn't be surprised by a few flurries (more commonly known as a "lake effect snow" or, even more serious, a "whiteout"). It's weather your mother wouldn't want you out in. But hey, I was afflicted, had to be there. Hah, it was worth the pain!

 

 

Now, understand that I love Quabbin smallies, but if you twisted my arm and said, "Pick a fish!" I'd have to say the fastest, most unpredictable species I've fought - steelhead trout.

 

[screenshot from YouTube video by Aaron Holmes]

[desmobob]

This thread has me planning a "diversity day" for next season.  I want to see how many species of fish I can catch in one day.  On southern Lake Champlain, it wouldn't be out of the question to get ten....

 

Tight lines,

Bob

[Jtrout]

I also fish for anything everywhere from bass and striper fishing in maryland or trout in lakes and rivers to florida catching sharks and sailfish to fishing lake tahoe for lake trout! I love fishing!

[Dypsis]

Will, love that picture of that bluegill!!!

[Lucky Craft Man]

This topic got me searching for photos that go back more than 20 years!

 

Will,

 

Those pictures are Awesome!  Thanks for going back that far, as I enjoyed looking at every one!

[EvanT123]

I don't fish in many different places as much as I would like but you never know what the river will give up.

My favorite fish to catch....