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Good OP. It's pretty difficult to cover a topic as diverse as fishing that varies so much from region to region, so it might be worth adding some regional/species links for sites or forums that people visit and have found helpful. Here are a few I like: Washington Lakes - A site specializing in fishing in Washington State. You can look at reports from lakes, rivers or saltwater areas that you fish to get an idea of what others are catching. The forums are actually surprisingly good and have a much lower percentage of idiots than most fishing forums I've been on. IFish - Decent forum for the Pacific Northwest. Most users seem to be out of Oregon, but the info often works for Washington as well. Much higher percentage of idiots wanting to fight with each other about how declining Salmon/Steelhead numbers are all someone else's fault, but if you get into the subforums for Trout, Kokanee, and Bass there's a ton of good info. Crappie.com - Great website for Crappie and Panfish fisherman. Easily the best species specific website I've seen. Here's a link to the 2011 thread in case anyone finds this one that didn't read the last one. It's full of tons of information that won't go out of date and is a good resource until it gets archived. As for me, I have gotten my line wet a couple times this year, but haven't caught anything yet. This weekend is "Opening Weekend" for a lot of my local lakes, but I'll be out of town so my season will have to start later. I started fishing Kokanee last year which has been a blast. They're landlocked Sockeye salmon that, while typically small, fight like crazy and taste even better.
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Apr 24, 2012 18:38
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Good tips, Cluricaun. Probably also a good point to reiterate that you should always be sure to leave the the area you're fishing cleaner than you found it. Nothing is more depressing than getting to a spot and finding it covered in empty beer cans and piles of fishing line. This is the crap not only gives people a bad view of fisherman in general, but also gets good spots shut down. Bring a plastic bag if you have to and pack other people's poo poo out. It's also worth noting that there's folks who want to ban led in fishing lures due to animal poisoning so giving them ammunition in the form of hastily discarded lead would be a bad thing.
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Apr 27, 2012 02:20
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Finally got out on the water and caught some fish this year. I fished a small lake near my house and struck out on bass but got some stocked trout. I caught them all on lures I had assembled myself (dodgers and "wedding ring" type spinners) which felt pretty good. The inflatable I bought last fall and built floorboards and bench seats for in the winter performed admirably. The only thing that sucks is how much it moves in the wind. I'll be fishing in northern California with my wife and her uncle next weekend, probably for bass. Cluricaun posted:I had a perch charter booked for this past Sunday that ended up assing out at the last minute because the wind was coming into the harbor from the northeast which was causing Lake Michigan to be sporting some five foot swells and the captain told us to rebook. Quite the bummer to wake up at 3:00 am to drive an hour and a half just to go back home, but such are the ways of charters. I'm turning it into a king salmon charter in July instead. Pretty interesting to hear about a Perch charter. They're one of my favorite fish to catch, but around here they don't get much larger than 8-9" and aren't very popular. I imagine the Great Lakes ones run a bit bigger?
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May 9, 2012 20:58
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Dik Hz posted:A fat 9" perch is the most delicious fish God has graced us with. They do run bigger in the Great Lakes, but a 10" is a nice perch anywhere. Good point on girth, I hadn't thought of that. I caught a bunch of 8" perch last year, but they were almost all skinny and it was hard to get much meat off of them. Just got off the phone with my wife's uncle and it looks like we'll be fishing a mix Stripers and what he called "Black bass" on Friday. It looks like that is just a term for fish in the Largemouth/Smallmouth family, but if someone can clarify northern California fish slang I'm all ears. BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 04:17 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 10, 2012 04:13
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Just to follow up on my post about going fishing with my wife's uncle for Stripers a few weeks ago. We got skunked, sadly. He lost one at the boat and that was the only bite all day. Still a nice day and fishing the delta was very different than my usual stomping grounds so I enjoyed it. Wish I could've landed a Striper though. I think I also may have solved my "Black Bass" question I had. I didn't realize it, but they apparently have Spotted Bass in addition to Largemouth and from the photos he showed me they're very hard to distinguish. I think the "Black Bass" label just gets used to lump them together. tesilential posted:Hot drat an SA Fishing Thread! As I type this I am sitting in an office overlooking Tampa Bay. Every time I look down I see a fish jump and get pissed that I can't live and fish here. Then I step outside and melt in the humidity and want to go home to nice gloomy Seattle.
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May 30, 2012 21:23
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Brozekiel posted:Thanks for all of the help. I was up in Seattle this past weekend with my girlfriend and on the way back to Portland, I noticed a giant store off the side of the highway called "Cabella's." She reluctantly took the next exit after a bit of pleading and with the promise of some kettle corn. I'd never been to a Cabella's before - drat that place is huuuge. I could have spent hours there but I didn't feel like pushing my luck. If you make that journey often you should be aware that you pass Sportco just off the freeway in Fife. I haven't been to that location in years, but I go to Outdoor Emporium in downtown Seattle which is owned by the same people and essentially the same thing. Not as big as Cabellas, but great selection of stuff and the prices are cheaper than any place I've ever been for a lot of the standard lures, etc. Finally got to go fish for Kokanee with my dad this past weekend and did the best we ever have. Ended up with 11 Kokes, most of them as large as we've ever caught. Kokanee are an absolute blast to catch and put up a ton of fight. I made blackened Kokanee for dinner last night and it was as good as any Salmon I've ever tasted.  
BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Jun 12, 2012 |
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Jun 12, 2012 17:54
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tesilential posted:Where are you all buying braided line in bulk? I'm getting an Okuma spinning reel that can take 2-300 yards of braid, but it only comes in spools of 125 yards around here. I've checked eBay but it seems like there are crappy off brands mixed in. A lot of my local tackle shops will spool it for you and charge by the yard, but my impression is that it's not any cheaper than buying it in large spools. My local stores (not that it really helps you) sell PowerPro in 125 and 300 yard spools. Cabelas online appears to have 500 yard spools as well. Braid is pricey 
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Jun 13, 2012 17:30
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Rythe posted:I would be worried if it is private or federal land the lake is on. I would say when in doubt ask the local game wardens about the legal issues on that, there could be a big penatly for introducing fish species to a lake and I would rather ask first from the law before doing anything that could get you into trouble. I know I'm way late on this, but definitely check your local laws. It may be legal in some places, but here in the Pacific NW it's a huge no-no. Not that people don't do it all the time (I even heard about someone getting caught trying to transplant a full grown Sturgeon), but it can cause major havoc with our local lakes. It will boggle the minds of most of you, but they don't even allow live minnows to be used as bait. I know there's at least one major Oregon lake that's had to be killed off multiple times due to people dumping bait minnows that take over the ecosystem. That said, I fish tons of lakes with spineyback species that only exist due to "bucket biologists", but you really need to be careful.
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Jan 7, 2013 00:48
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