HIT THE HARDWATER

Lakes are locked up solid with ice and its high time to chase some orange flags. Ice fishing is on every die-hard anglers radar, myself included, as I just got off the ice before writing this. My first trip of the year reminded me of all the gear you need to bring with you for […]

Lakes are locked up solid with ice and its high time to chase some orange flags.Ice fishing is on every die-hard anglers radar, myself included, as I just got off the ice before writing this. My first trip of the year reminded me of all the gear you need to bring with you for a day on the hardwater. Starting off, tip-ups are the most common form of contraption to catch fish through the ice, Berkeley makes a decent one to get you started.Spool up with Dacron for the main running line, then tie to a 50-pound Spro barrel swivel to which a 24-inch section of 8 to 30-pound seaguar fluorocarbon leader is tied to a size #6 to 2/0 Octopus hook depending on the target species which can range from small yellow perch and crappie to chain pickerel, northern pike and muskellunge. Live shiners are used for bait. Perch and bluegill are suckers for jigs such as Rapala Pilikki and Rufus Jr. offerings and jigging can be accomplished with the use of a tiny ice-specific rod and reel set ups such as a 13 Fishing Widow Maker rod matched with an ultralight Daiwa QR750 reel spooled with 8-pound Trilene Micro Ice monofilament.Other must-have accessories to make a day out ice fishing successful and comfortable include a solid pair of Costa 580 lens Blackfins to repel the brutal sun glare, Berkeley Ice Scoop to clear the ice chunks out of the holes, a pair of Berkeley Hemostat pliers for hook extraction, and of course a Jiffy Ice Auger SD60i model to easily bust fishing holes through the ice. Chasing flags and jigging with tiny rods is a full on exercise in fun, and while many people think its nuts to be out on the ice, the rewards can be awesome.I’ve had 50 perch days, pulled 46-inch muskies through the ice, and pulled out thousands of chain pickerel, trout, crappie, largemouth bass and landlocked salmon over the years. Plan your trips around low pressure systems moving in as the fish get on the feed before a storm front moves through and try to hit days of minimal winds. If you’re a newbie to ice fishing, welcome to the club![vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width='6' grid_id='vc_gid:1485876128429-956a0435a2a0f25f6c84919907eacd12-3' include='5925,5924'][/vc_column]" target="_blank">

BLACKFISHING ACCESSORIES

As we reap the rewards of a solid blackfishing season so far this winter, its easy to get bogged down in the intricacies of choosing the right rod and reel to battle the bulldogs, but just as important, certain accessories outside of the terminal tackle must be brought to make blackfishing a productive endeavor. Before […]

As we reap the rewards of a solid blackfishing season so far this winter, its easy to get bogged down in the intricacies of choosing the right rod and reel to battle the bulldogs, but just as important, certain accessories outside of the terminal tackle must be brought to make blackfishing a productive endeavor.Before you even get started dropping baits, when setting up on a wreck, have a pre-prepared marker buoy to drop down and mark the wreck for easier pinpoint anchoring. A simple sash weight tied with 125 feet of 1/8 inch rope wrapped around a Clorox bottle will suffice to unfurl and mark the wreck.You’ll be using plenty of green and white legger crabs as baits, but the crabs aren’t going to cut themselves. A solid pair of strong, sharp cutting scissors are needed to cut through the hard shells of crabs, trim legs off, and cut off claws. Large whitelegger crabs with a 5-inch carapace can’t be cut in half with scissors, so utilize a Bubba Blade 12-inch Flex knife to halve and cut legs off the big crustaceans.Wet hands coming from constant handling of slippery blackfish and slimy crab baits will instantly freeze into useless blocks of ice on subzero days. Fleece-lined Neoprene Glacier Gloves with the peel back fingertips are smart to wear not only to keep your hands warm and dry, but as added grip on the slimy baits and fish.Most fish are lip hooked, thus a sturdy pair of needlenose pliers or a dehooker is used to dislodge hooks from the toothy maw of a tog. On the end game, bring a Rapala digital scale to weigh the whitechinners and release them unharmed as well possess as a Rapala retractable ruler to be sure you are in compliance with the length regulations.And finally, to bring a blackfish into the boat, set up with a wide mouth, rubber mesh EGO net to dip under a chunky tautog. The rubber netting will prevent scraping off any of the protective fish slime the tog relies upon when rooting down into crevasses of wreck structures. Sure, the proper rods and reels can make or break a tog trip, but accessories to make the day run smoothly are just as important.[vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width='6' grid_id='vc_gid:1485876128429-956a0435a2a0f25f6c84919907eacd12-3' include='5835,5838'][/vc_column] " target="_blank">

MISSISSIPPI SEATROUT

Last fall, I tripped out to Mississippi to fish the Bay St. Louis Sound in an effort to break out the light tackle for spotted seatrout. Seatrout can be found all throughout the Southeast and Gulf Coasts, but magic was definitely happening in the Mississippi Bayous. I joined Captain Sonny Schindler of Shore Thing Charters […]

Last fall, I tripped out to Mississippi to fish the Bay St. Louis Sound in an effort to break out the light tackle for spotted seatrout.Seatrout can be found all throughout the Southeast and Gulf Coasts, but magic was definitely happening in the Mississippi Bayous. I joined Captain Sonny Schindler of Shore Thing Charters www.shorethingcharters.com as he motored up into the channels that funnel out of the big bay. Specks were breaking the surface at sunrise, sucking down grass shrimp as they outflowed with the tide. We started off fly rodding with 6 weight Temple Fork long rods, stripping shrimp flies in quick short bursts. One after another, speckled trout came over the gunnel, shrimp fly panted firmly between their spiked teeth, until I could literally not care anymore if another hit or not, landing well over 30 specks in 40 casts. It was that easy.“We don’t get the real size of trout back here,” said Sonny, “But we do get incredible numbers in Mississippi. The biggest trout you’ll see is about 3 to 4 pounds, but you’ll get hundreds of the 1 to 2 pounders, hands down.” Sonny wasn’t kidding. Mississippi has liberal limits on seatrout, 15 fish at 13 inches minimum size and you don’t have to feel bad about scoring your limit because there is more than enough to go around.We switched it up to the light tackle spinning gear, outfitted with 6-6 St. Croix Tidemaster TIS66MM rods Fin-Nor LT30 Lethal reels spooled with 8-pound Power Pro braid and a 10-pound Seaguar Fluorocarbon leader. First, we fixed clack floats baited on a 3-foot leader with indigenous “cockahoe” minnows, commonly known as killifish or mud minnows on size #4 Mustad Baitholder hooks. The commotion of the clack float was like a signal for all trout in the area to feed. Switching up to target larger specks lower in the water column, we tied on a 1/4-ounce jighead tipped with an Electric Chicken Bull Minnow soft plastic and DOA CAL Paddletails. The largest trout we encountered that day went about 4 pounds, which is pretty large by Mississippi standards, but without a doubt the true attraction was the sheer numbers of fish available as we literally released hundreds of fish before noontime. If seatrout is your game, book a flight to the Mississippi Gulf, you won’t be disappointed.[vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width='6' grid_id='vc_gid:1485876128429-956a0435a2a0f25f6c84919907eacd12-3' include='5823,5825'][/vc_column]" target="_blank">