Thursday, March 31, 2011

Notta

Notta dam thing going on. You?

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Sun today, rain tomorrow

The sun was shining most of the day today, we're going to pay. Rain is on the way. Something like three of the next six days. Nice! Nothing going on at the river but some little ones tapping the bait. A couple fishermen were anchored and fishing below the ripples at Oakland Mills. Terry gave it a try from the dam and didn't have any luck.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Snow

We got about an inch of snow this morning. The high reached the forties so the snow is gone but it slammed the brakes on the fishing. Nobody was on the river or the dam this afternoon. It might warm up someday. I'm sticking to my theory that for every day that we get even the slightest bit of sunshine we will pay dearly. One day with even the slightest bit of sunshine will surely be followed by many days of clouds, rain, thunderstorms and even snow.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Still cold and slow

I was going to run down to the river after work today but changed my mind after getting a fishing report from Chub. He fished for about three hours today with no luck. The only thing he caught was a bad case of frostbite. I wisely decided to take the night off. There will surely be a warmer day with a few more fish biting.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Still cold, still windy

I was the only one on the dam this morning and now I know why. It was cold, windy and not one fish hit the beach. I got lots of bites but wasn't able to hook'em. It almost had to be fiddlers that were pecking away at the nightcrawlers.


I recently switched from 20# to 30# test on by smaller bait casters in an effort to save more swivels and sinkers from snags and found that they don't cast as well with heavier line. I knew the heavier line effected the casting of spinning reels but didn't realize it would have such an effect on bait casters. Additionally, I found that after casting 20# test line consistently for four or five years, the switch to heavier line had a dramatic effect on my casting accuracy. It was almost impossible to deliver a bait precisely where I wanted it. Almost felt like a rooky.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Spring, but cold

The Skunk came up nicely but the air temp dropped considerably. Enough to keep everybody in the house. Not much going on. Air temps are suppose to be in the upper 50's by next weekend. Last week I replace the line on a couple reels. I used a spool of line that I had in the shed even though I knew I didn't like that brand. Long story short I changed the line again tonight. The line I didn't like had way to much stretch, too much for me anyway. Word is starting to spread of another large flathead at Oakland Mills. I guess a big one was hooked sometime yesterday but they didn't get it landed. Imight brave the winter like air temps in the morning. Maybe!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Rising water/cooler temps

Although the air temps are twenty and thirty degrees below we had about a week ago, the water has been rising (about a foot) for about two days and the fish are biting. As usual they are going after the nightcrawlers and it only took a few minutes for them to start hitting the bait each time. Although I had constant action on two rods I only landed two small channel cats. Another fisherman who had been there for about seven hours had eight(?) in the basket. Five channel cats and three flatheads. All small, but catfish none the less. There had to be some big ones out there but the little ones were all over the bait and the big guys didn't have a chance to find it. The down side tonight was that I was under dressed so I was cold and the sun went down. I was still getting bites when I left at dark but it was time to go.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Weather circus

Not much going on. Thats good because some of guys who are unable to fish this week aren't missing much. I did fish for an hour and a half or so and only managed to land one channel cat that must have been 6 or 8 inches. He wasn't much to brag about but I didn't get skunked!
Get well Chub, the carp, perch and mudpuppies miss you. Mr. and Mrs. "C", congratulations on 44 years. Terry, do your celebrating and get your boat back on the water. I need your fishing reports on the Miss.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Cold and slow

The Skunk is getting pretty low and the bite seems to have slowed a little if you're fishing for catfish. Six hours of fishing produced one ten to twelve inch channel cat. The carp, suckers and mud puppies didn't help matters much but that is the down side to using nightcrawlers. Everybody likes'em. The morning temperature wasn't too bad but the wind picked up as the sun got higher in the sky. It felt like the temperature was dropping but it was just the wind chill cutting like a knife.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Mud puppies, endangered?

I finally made it down to Oakland at 5:30 this evening and all the real fishermen had already gone home. It seems that they caught all the catfish before they left because I didn't catch one. The remarkable thing is that in two and a half hours I didn't catch one catfish but the endangered mud puppy, I caught them all evening. No I don't know how many I caught, I lost count. I can assure you I caught more than you might expect for being endangered. I have always thought that endangered meant that there wsn't very many of them. The way I see it maybe the catfish are endangered. Did I mention that I didn't catch one catfish. I did catch two fish. The "C" word. I'm not gonna say it but "C" stands for carp.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Shorts weather is here. It might be a little cool in the morning and evening but I'm puting the pants away. I hope we don't get a last day of winter snow or ice storm. I don't want to get caught with my shorts on!
I caught two channel cats off the dam at Oakland Mills. Most of the bites were short and soft. I missed a half dozen or so. All I had were nightcrawlers so I don't know what else might be working.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Dale from southeast Iowa caught a 20-25 pound flathead on a nightcrawler below the dam at Oakland Mills. He caught one yesterday aroud the same size. I'm a little surprised there are flatheads there but not many channel cats. I expected the channel cats to show up first, followed by the flatheads. A few channel cats have been caught but nothing extroadinary.

Monday, March 14, 2011

All systems go

I backed my boat down the boat ramp at Water Works Park and fired her up this afternoon. After priming her about a half a dozen times and five or six attempts at staring her she came to life. I let the engine run long enough warm it up and open the thermostat. Aftrer shutting her down I fired it up again. She didn't skip a beat. I think we're ready to go.

I dropped a small piece of nightcrawler in Pond X, mostly out of boredom. After working my way around the pond and trying different depths with no luck I called it quits.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Fire the weather man!

After seeing that all the weather organizations were saying our high temperature was going to be somewhere in the low forties I made plans to drag the old Sea Ark down to the river, back it down the ramp and get it running after a long winter sitting in the garage. The weather man really dropped the stink bait today. We barely cleared the thirty degree mark. If I'm not mistaken it reached thirty two. Did I mention the wind chill was in the low twenties all day. Now they are saying that three out of the last four days of this coming week are going to be wet. Needless to say I didn't get my boat started today. I'm thinking about starting a petition to have the weathermen banished from the weather business.
All was not lost though. I spent a little time in the garage tying up a lot of little loose ends like stowing the life jackets, putting the anchors in place and checking the boat bag to make sure all the necessities are there. Yes, toilet paper is on the list and in the boat bag. You never know, right?

Saturday, March 12, 2011

First on the Skunk

Traveling west on 34 near Rome, Iowa I saw what I believe was the first boat on the Skunk this year. It didn't seem like they were fishing. Maybe just getting the boat in the water and getting things going.
It kind of slipped up on me but I just heard we bump the clocks ahead an hour tonight. That is always a good indicator that spring and catfishing is near. Good deal!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Chub said there were fishermen on the dam at Oakland Mills earlier today so I checked it out after work There wasn't anybody around this evening and I didn't find any evidence that anybody had caught or cleaned fish today. The pleasant weather today and similar but slightly cooler weather tomorrow will probably bring the fishermen out. Looking forward to that!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

We're gonna pay for this

As much as I would like to see the sun every day I am learning to be careful what I ask for. For three years, and now working on a fourth, the weather has been terrible more often than not and it seems like every time we enjoy a day or two of sunshine we will almost surely pay for it. Maybe its just me but it seems like a day or two of sunshine is almost always follwed by a week or more of clouds, rain and thunderstorms, as many as four serious storms in a twenty four hour period. That being said, I was thrilled to see the sun bake through the heavy cloud cover today but the cynical side of me fills like we are going to pay for this.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Rising waters

It started raining yesterday afternoon, rained all night and sprinkled on and off all day today. Terry pointed me in the right direction and I now monitor the water level of the Skunk River via a guage at Augusta, Iowa. Since about 6:30 this morning the Skunk has come up about 4 feet. I now include the water level of the Skunk River in my fishing log entries on sliprig.com.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

First skunk

After catching a catfish yesterday I thought I might try to catch another one or two today but no luck. I did get three bites on nightcrawlers but didn't hook anything. Maybe it was the cold hands in the pockets thing again, I don't know. Anyway. I got my first skunk out of the way early. I moved my bait around in the slack water but there was another guy trying the fast water also, nothing.
A sign of the times? I took the snow blade off my John (Deere) and put the mower deck back on. Everything is lubed up and ready to go. Bring on the green grass. Hopefully we won't get any more snow because I don't even have a snow shovel. I broke the one I had when I was trying to break up the ice a week or so ago. I know, I should use the right tool for the right job.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

First catfish of the year

Last night Terry told me there were a few catfish being caugfht in our local tailrace on the Skunk River so I had to give it a shot. Although it was cooler today there were still a few cats biting. I probably had a half dozen bites but only caught one. The air temp was only 3o and the wind chill was apainful 22 so the hands stayed in the pockets until he was hooked. Had I been a little more willing to hold the rods during those soft bites I probably would have hooked one or two more fish than I did. It was cold and I only caught one but he was the first catfish of 2011 for me. I'm hoping this is only the beginning of what will be a great year.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Early season cats

Terry reported that a lucky early season angler caught several channel cats from the tailrace below the dam at Oakland Mills. As you might expect, nightcrawlers were the bait of choice.