Catching Bait and Breaking Windows

We've been hitting the Jordan hard lately, and my bait supply can attest to that. I realized I was completely out of white bass for bait, so I headed out today for a few hours to see if I could restock. I first went and checked a spot I received in tel on, and although the new spot looked promising, it didn't produce any fish. I'll have to give this place another chance when I have more time. On the way back to my truck there was a retainer pond that I could see fish swimming around in. One cast later, and I had the first fish of the day landed. It turned out to be a little green sunfish.

 

I only had a little time left, so I headed to my go-to white bass hole to see if I could coax any of them to bite. It took me about 10 minutes to locate the school, and once I did, it was fast fishing. They took a liking to a beaded yellow woolly bugger today. I also caught several with a size 1 silver Mepps spinner on my ultra light spinning rod. I landed 29 and kept 23. It's good to have bait again!

 

I finished filleting the fish about the time my wife got home from work. I recently bought her a closed face reel setup in the hopes I could get her to come fishing with me more. I started showing her how to cast, and things seemed to be going well. I handed her the rod, and she made her first cast... right into the window! Yes, in broke. The funny part of this is that she was casting south, and the window was directly to her right. I can't, for the life of me, see how she pulled off that cast. I guess I need to do better job at teaching casting lessons, and start looking for a good window company.

  

A green sunfish seemed to love the brown leech I used.

My bait supply us full again! they ranged six to nine inches long.

Casting teacher fail! We needed new windows anyway...

Night of the Cats

It seems as of late, I'm only able to find time at night to get some fishing in. Thankfully that should change in the next few weeks. My brother and his family were in town from Boise for the Pioneer Day celebration. He is the brother that got me into fishing and started my addiction. Can you guess who my wife's favorite in-law is? We were talking and I found out he had never been cat fishing before, so I figured I had fix that situation quick!

We headed out last night along with a few other friends. We set up at our usual spot at around 8:30 p.m. and the fishing started out really slow. We would have a hit here and there, but it didn't get interesting until around 11:30 p.m. when the moon came out. That seemed to flip a switch and the catfish came calling. The first one to the net was a 20 inch cookie cutter, and Jason's first ever channel catfish. I like to see people knock off a species from their list as much I like doing it myself.

Not long after landing the first fish of the night, my pole slammed down and was on it's way in the water before Francisco grabbed it and handed it to me. I set the hook, and immediately knew it was a big fish. I fought him about half way in, and handed the rod over to Jason so he could feel the tug of a big catfish. A few minutes later, He got him close enough, and I netted him! What a fish! Jason and I are both counting it as our personal best since we both fought it. It measured in at 28 inches. Needless to say, we were stoked!

While we fished, we noticed a cat face spider starting to weave a new web close to where our poles were. It was amazing to see natures art take shape right in front of us. Before too long, I found myself throwing bugs into the web to watch the cat face wrap them up like a bug burrito and chow down.

We landed a few other cookie cutters, and lost two that felt just as big as the 28 inch beast we landed earlier that night. One was lost to a bad knot thanks to yours truly, and the other broke the line. I would say it was mission accomplished for Jason's first catfish experience.

Here kitty kitty...



First netted cookie-cutter kitty of the night.

A cat face spider munching on an insect caught from her newly spun web. Can you see all three spiders?

New personal best channel catfish for Jason and I. 28 inches long!

Jason's first cat fishing experience was a success.

Hide your kids, hide your wife...

Fishing in the Dark

The catfish have been active the past few nights. My neighbor Francisco went out with his boy and went six for six of channel catfish in three hours of fishing. It was fun seeing some of the neighborhood kids come and inspect the nights catch. They seemed to think the fish were pretty cool.

Seeing Francisco's success, Roger and I went back out a few nights later to our regular fishing hole, and ended up with similar results. We didn't have to wait long before I had a hit so hard, that my pole nearing went into the water. Luckily I was able to grab it in time and set the hook. The catfish bulldogged me the whole way in. Once Roger netted him, I was surprised he was only 22 inches based on the way he fought.

We caught a few more cookie cutter catfish before it was Rogers turn to fight a big one. His fish gave him a few good runs, and even got caught but in some brush along side the river. How Roger got him out of that mess is beyond me, and soon I netted him! This catfish measured 28 inches, making it the biggest any of us have landed so far this year. White bass is the hot bait right now for those wanting to go and give the Jordan a try. Worms also work for the smaller bullhead catfish.

Francisco with his six good sized catfish.

Neighbor kids came to see the nights catch.

My biggest of the evening.

The biggest catfish of the night measuring 28 inches long.

A Little of Everything and Some Bow Fishing Action

This will be a wrap-up of a few trips. The night before we went after white bass and carp, Roger hit the river for some catfish. The fishing was a little slow, but he landed two big catfish! It took him several minutes to land them on his medium rod.

The next day we headed out to see if we could get some white bass. We had trouble locating any schools, but we did find more carp than we could handle! Since they were there, we decided to have some fun catching them instead. We caught a few on rod and reel, but there was another method that we thought might work better, so I called another friend to join us with his bow.

Once Jared showed up, the real fun began! He missed the first few he shot at, but soon honed in and started nailing carp just about every time! it was so fun to watch him. Since I'm a south paw, I couldn't use his right-handed bow, but I bet you can guess what my next fishing toy will be...

Roger had a great night on the river!

first carp of the day.

We managed one white bass for the day.

So many carp on top!

Jared with one of his targets.

 

 

Independence Day With a Little Fishing

I'm a little late getting this posted, but I guess later is better than never. For the fourth of July holiday, we headed up to the cabin in eastern Idaho for some relaxation and a little fishing. We were going to float the Snake, but high water (we're not used to floating monster rivers) and iffy weather made us fish from shore. We pulled over at a spot that looked to have decent access, and on my first cast I had a rainbow take my jig. I managed to lift him onto a shallow ledge where I was able to get my hands on him. The fish measured 17 inches, making it the biggest fish I've landed on the Snake so far. A few small browns made it to shore as well. other than that, it was a lot of hits, but couldn't get them to commit.
We did a lot of exploring, relaxing, and visiting with family also. The fireworks in Idaho Falls were very impressive. They shot over 17,000 shells! It was like watching a 31 minute finale. I really love Independence Day! A big thank you goes out to all the troops and veterans who have helped keep our country free!


The mighty South Fork of the Snake River.

17 inch rainbow trout on my first cast.

A little brown trout caught along the edge.