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******OFFICIAL 2020-21 FISHING THREAD******

Went out to Pleasant Creek last night with a buddy. Caught a few small bluegills right when I got there to use for bait. Not a single bite all night until about 11:30. Had a muskie (I’m guessing, it just had to be) hit my bait. Hit so hard it almost pulled my rod out of my hands. As soon as I set the hook I felt nothing on my line. Reeled in, and the ****er sliced right through my steel liter. I was not happy/csb
 
Tarpon are probably the hardest fish to land. They thrash and jump so crazily, plus their hard assed mouth. I probably have only a 30% success rate. Hell, I've even sharpened the treble hooks on my mirrolure with little success.

I'm guessing you'll do better with a single hook then the treble hooks. When I used to fish gear when younger my Dad and I always took the treble hooks off our spoons we used for salmon and replaced with single hooks. Much better landing ratio, although like I said I only fly fish for tarpon so I can't say for sure. When you hook one on a fly you keep the rod pointed at the fish while pulling on the fly line to set the hook until just before they will snap 40# test fluorocarbon.
 
Down in Islamorada for a while so we'll see what I can hook into. On a list for some split charters but will likely just be fishing from shore and may try out of a kayak if the wind lets up.

Go fish under the bridges at night. Snake Creek is by far my favorite...If you go on an outgoing tide well after dark you are pretty much guaranteed to hook a 50+ pound tarpon. We would get at least 2-4 a night just fly fishing off the rock bank on southwest side near the restaurant.
 
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I'm guessing you'll do better with a single hook then the treble hooks. When I used to fish gear when younger my Dad and I always took the treble hooks off our spoons we used for salmon and replaced with single hooks. Much better landing ratio, although like I said I only fly fish for tarpon so I can't say for sure. When you hook one on a fly you keep the rod pointed at the fish while pulling on the fly line to set the hook until just before they will snap 40# test fluorocarbon.
Hmm, you might be on to something. I've only caught tarps when sight fishing and using artificial topwaters or shallow running plugs (spooks or mirrolures).
 
Lol, still kept the swisher in mouth, nice job.

Reminds me of a time I saw an old black lady catch a 30" Redfish on a cane pole using cut mullet. Right when it hit, she said "dat a red", then calmy got it to shore like bau. Her swisher sweet tucked nonchalantly in the corner of her mouth never budged.
Oh yeah. 25 foot cane poles and sitting on 5 gallon buckets. Out there rain or shine.
 
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Go fish under the bridges at night. Snake Creek is by far my favorite...If you go on an outgoing tide well after dark you are pretty much guaranteed to hook a 50+ pound tarpon. We would get at least 2-4 a night just fly fishing off the rock bank on southwest side near the restaurant.
We are going to head to a bridge tonight after dinner. Not sure if I have the gear for a 50lb tarpon but we''ll give it a shot.
 
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I'm hoping this fall monsoon doesn't cause a serious Mississippi rise for this weekend...the cool temps should have turned on the feedbag with all fish big time.
 
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I'm hoping this fall monsoon doesn't cause a serious Mississippi rise for this weekend...the cool temps should have turned on the feedbag with all fish big time.


I'm actually hoping at the Rathbun Dam we get a lot of rain. Hoping they turn the spillway on to fill it full of walleye. I have a couple bags of crappie left but am completely out of walleye which frankly pisses me off.
 
So this happened out on the Toona Schoona last evening!

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What did ya do? Botched attempt at getting a big payday?
I had just lost a big fish (true story!) and was re-tying some line. I set my multi-tool with the knife out on the livewell, planning to use it to cut the excess line off a jig I tied on. As I’m messing with my tackle, I don’t notice a big wake coming at me. Suddenly the boat rocks and I feel a stabbing pain right under my ankle. I look down and the freaking knife is LODGED beneath my ankle bone! I pull it out - it was a good 3/4 inch into my foot - and blood starts spurting out. Blood on my anchor, on the carpet and filling up my shoe!

Thankfully, I keep a bag of paper towel and toilet paper on the Toona Schoona - so I quickly apply heavy pressure with a wad of paper towels. Bleeding stops after a couple minutes and I get out the first aid kit and swab it down with alcohol and apply a band aid. Kind of killed the chill fishing mojo, so I went back in. Hurts a little today, but looks like it should heal up just fine.

Still pissed I missed that fish - it was another beefer!
 
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Had a guys weekend with my dad and brother in law. We went goose hunting saturday morning and missed all our shots, slayed the bluegill in the middle of the afternoon then everyone else proceeded to miss more geese while I had to pick up their slack. All in for the weekend we cleaned about 15 gills and 2 geese. It seemed like between the 3 of us someone was almost always bringing in a fish or getting a bite.
 
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Words cannot describe how frustrating my results were yesterday and just now. Not one fish landed, only 1 strike yesterday that spit the lure out.

The lady at the bait shop said all this past week was terribly slow for everybody. She said when the week prior rain ended, so did the bite. What I can't figure out is why cause the Mississippi didn't exactly rise all that much.

We were a bit post-frontal, and the river was slowly dropping...but still. Those shouldn't completely shut the bite down. Any couple days spent fishing are better than not...but it should have been at least a little better than a complete skunking.

Grrrrrrrrr.....
 
Words cannot describe how frustrating my results were yesterday and just now. Not one fish landed, only 1 strike yesterday that spit the lure out.

The lady at the bait shop said all this past week was terribly slow for everybody. She said when the week prior rain ended, so did the bite. What I can't figure out is why cause the Mississippi didn't exactly rise all that much.

We were a bit post-frontal, and the river was slowly dropping...but still. Those shouldn't completely shut the bite down. Any couple days spent fishing are better than not...but it should have been at least a little better than a complete skunking.

Grrrrrrrrr.....
That is so frustrating. Hope it picks up - I am going out with a walleye guide out of Dubuque on Oct. 4. Think we are fishing near Bellevue.
 
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Words cannot describe how frustrating my results were yesterday and just now. Not one fish landed, only 1 strike yesterday that spit the lure out.

The lady at the bait shop said all this past week was terribly slow for everybody. She said when the week prior rain ended, so did the bite. What I can't figure out is why cause the Mississippi didn't exactly rise all that much.

We were a bit post-frontal, and the river was slowly dropping...but still. Those shouldn't completely shut the bite down. Any couple days spent fishing are better than not...but it should have been at least a little better than a complete skunking.

Grrrrrrrrr.....
Same thing out at Lost Grove. Fished for bass for 4-5 hours on Saturday. Not a bite between us.
 
How is the weed situation out there? It was nasty the last time I was out there in July.
Still terrible in places. I wish there was something that could be done. Certain coves are better than others. That's the frustrating part...you know about 2/3 of your casts have no chance to catch a bass.
 
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Still terrible in places. I wish there was something that could be done. Certain coves are better than others. That's the frustrating part...you know about 2/3 of your casts have no chance to catch a bass.
They need to plant about 10,000 more trees out there. I think the algae and weeds are partially the result of fertilizer runoff from nearby farms. I think more trees could help control that
Somewhat.
 
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Where do you go around here? I’ve tried that at Wildcat Den - didn’t have much luck. Any good spots on the Maquoketa you know of?
Lyle Retz Park north of Monticello is where I like to go. Takes about 90 minutes or so. It's a couple miles south of the Delhi Dam or Lake - a lot of people talk about there as well.

Retz Park - it is in the middle of nowhere - is part of a 4 mile stretch of catch and release fishing. I don't even get fancy at all with it. I throw worms on a crappie hook (they bend more to get out of rocks), with a splitshot, into eddys when I can find them. Throw upstream, let the current pull it down and often times smallies will come out and hit it. They just sit in there waiting for food to drift by. They fight like hell too. Nice bluegill in there as well. My daughter saw a school swim by her and within 2 minutes we were pulling nice ones out.

Total blast.
 
Lyle Retz Park north of Monticello is where I like to go. Takes about 90 minutes or so. It's a couple miles south of the Delhi Dam or Lake - a lot of people talk about there as well.

Retz Park - it is in the middle of nowhere - is part of a 4 mile stretch of catch and release fishing. I don't even get fancy at all with it. I throw worms on a crappie hook (they bend more to get out of rocks), with a splitshot, into eddys when I can find them. Throw upstream, let the current pull it down and often times smallies will come out and hit it. They just sit in there waiting for food to drift by. They fight like hell too. Nice bluegill in there as well. My daughter saw a school swim by her and within 2 minutes we were pulling nice ones out.

Total blast.
Awesome. I actually trout fish up that way already anyway. Will add this to the itinerary!
 
Awesome. I actually trout fish up that way already anyway. Will add this to the itinerary!
Good luck! I made the mistake of going up there the day after that big rain we had a few weeks ago. River was muddy and up two feet. I wandered over to where I knew there was a rocky shallow area - usually dry - forgot about the freaking rusty barrel that sits on it. Yada yada yada...I got a tetanus shot when I got home.
 
My dad is fishing pool 10 in the mississippi this week. Mud Hen is right across the river from my uncles "cabin" slayed alot of Eyes in that lake. Hope to get up there this season.
 
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It’s good to see you old dudes catching fish on ancient tackle. Try any lazy Ikes or daredevils? I kid.
 
It’s good to see you old dudes catching fish on ancient tackle. Try any lazy Ikes or daredevils? I kid.
I’ll have you know I caught a couple of those bass on a Whopper Plopper! That’s pretty modern.

And any honest angler would tell you if your life depended on catching fish and you could only use one lure/tackle - for saltwater or freshwater - they’d take a plain old jig.
 
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I’ll have you know I caught a couple of those bass on a Whopper Plopper! That’s pretty modern.

Nailed it, Torbee. I was was just effing around. A 1/4 oz splitshot and a crawler and I’ll hammer some Walleye. My boy who is a senior in HS has worked at a bait shop since he was fourteen and we live on the river. His $1000 dollar Japanese rigs can’t outfish my Croix and Shimano. He’s a “finesse” fisherman, I’m not.
 
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Nailed it, Torbee. I was was just effing around. A 1/4 oz splitshot and a crawler and I’ll hammer some Walleye. My boy who is a senior in HS has worked at a bait shop since he was fourteen and we live on the river. His $1000 dollar Japanese rigs can’t outfish my Croix and Shimano. He’s a “finesse” fisherman, I’m not.
“If you’re rigging, you better be jigging.”

(I’ll take things that sound vaguely racist but aren’t at all for $300, Alex. 😉)
 
Other then a crappie jig, I had never caught a fish on a lure in my life until this summer. Now I'm a fan of chatter baits and saucy swimmers. Hopefully Rat L Traps work too.
 
I’ll have you know I caught a couple of those bass on a Whopper Plopper! That’s pretty modern.

And any honest angler would tell you if your life depended on catching fish and you could only use one lure/tackle - for saltwater or freshwater - they’d take a plain old jig.
Is the plopper worth the $15 a pop?
 
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