Tony Spezio Inducted Into Hall Of Fame

Long time readers and visitors may know that some years ago (year 2000 to exact), Sage produced a video which I took exception to in how they compared rods to those that are hand made of split cane. After writing an article on the video, several cane rod builders contacted me and thanked me for

Posted on October 27, 2010 Filed Under Fishing | Leave a Comment

10/27 Update

Our new bass fishing page is up and running.  This area is now organized into different categories featuring the popular baits, lures, vacations, tips and techniques.

Posted on October 27, 2010 Filed Under bass fishing, Fish, Fishing, Fishing Trips, Lake Fishing, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Blue Lagoon Durban

This is also a very popular fishing spot, but with the easterly wind pushing hard into your face it will not be a pleasant experience. The soutern side of the pier will be an option, but not many people out to fish this morning. | For Africa | StLuciaOrgZa | ElephantCoastCoZa | iSimangaliso | Accommodation |

Posted on October 27, 2010 Filed Under Fish, Fishing | Leave a Comment

Grunters on the loose … St Lucia Estuart

Ever wonder why locals sneak away from work mid week. It could be cranky bosses, but when you listen carefully at their soft snickering it quickly becomes evident that they are up to something. Yes the fun factor is in the good condition Springers pesturong the anglers but the excitement is with the 450 and upwards Grunter coming out in the mouth area. Yes you have heard correct. With all the fresh water flowing into the system the water level has risen to the extend where residents are optimystic that a breach into the ocean is possiable. Under these conditions many fish species acumelate at the ski boat club area fueling this rumor even futher. Well what ever the senario may be it is worth personal investigation. | For Africa | StLuciaOrgZa | ElephantCoastCoZa | iSimangaliso | Accommodation |

Posted on October 26, 2010 Filed Under Fish, Fishing | Leave a Comment

10/26 Morning Update

Over 100 pages have been added to Door County already.  We are continuing to add pages to this destination, but it is up and active.  Some of the newer categories in our Door County section are: Door County Fishing Calendar , Fish of Door County , Door County Lodging . There are just a few of the new pages that are up.  Check out Door County for more information.

Posted on October 26, 2010 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Fishing Trips, Lake Fishing, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Inshore Knowledge – Snook Lures

Veteran charter guide Captain Joe Ward has been fishing the inshore waters of Ft. Pierce for over 40 years and is one of the most productive fishing guides in the Ft. Pierce area. Joe shares his experience in saltwater inshore fishing for Snook Grouper Trout & Redfish. More shows can be seen at www.palmbeachfishingreport.com

Posted on October 26, 2010 Filed Under Fish, Fishing | Leave a Comment

Exclusive: Olaf’s Haddock

In the second of our exclusive series focusing on Northern Iceland, Mike Thrussell once again teams up with former Welsh International Francis Jones and WSF Member John McInnes in search of haddock and much, much more under the guidance of local guide, Steve Mason.

Posted on October 25, 2010 Filed Under Sea Fishing, Sea Holidays | Leave a Comment

Preston Innovations Festival

The October Preston Innovations festival is without doubt the ‘Big One’ of the festival season as all the anglers have qualified for the week long competition via other residential matches and festivals fished at White Acres during the current season. The top 24 anglers from this week are invited to compete on the Saturday following the festival on Jennies lake for the title of Parkdean Masters! There is no doubt that this is the one to compete in. The title of Parkdean Master also comes with a massive winner’s cheque for £25,000 as you can imagine, the majority the top commercial anglers in the country are resident in the Duchy for this week. Hard sections The section draw is available for everybody to analyse straight after the presentation of the Maver festival and as always it is subject of much debate! On paper some sections always look more difficult with a top heavy loading of star names. In reality all the sections are hard to win and you have to not only be on top of your game but also draw the right peg on the right day!  Personally I was B section with a start on Twin Oaks and Trelawney but that was on Monday, first there was time to enjoy the night knowing there was no match in the morning! Monday morning and I was hoping for a peg between 10 and 18 on Twin Oaks I was trying to put those positive thoughts into the draw bag, I came out with Twin Oaks 23 and to be honest I was happy enough with the draw as it put me in an area with a chance of catching a few carp and hopefully a good start to the week with a good section placing, or so I thought! As I walked down the lake I realised what a tough section it was, all you can do though is fish your own swim. I was certainly in good company flanked by Paul Yates and Craig Elkin so there was going to be a bit of friendly banter throughout the day. The plan The plan was to set up a couple of method rods, a long pole to fish up and down at 14m. The weather was glorious and I fully expected a few carp to feed shallow. I also had an edge rig and they did look good! At the start I tried my trick of starting down the edge trying to ambush a couple of early carp before they realised anglers were on the bank. This time however the plan backfired as all I had for my efforts was a small perch and a couple of roach! Further down the lake I could see James Hawkins and Paul playing carp on the method. I joined them and I was soon playing a two pounder. I just couldn’t keep up with the pace of Paul and James who were soon on eight each, I had three but to my right Craig only had 1 F1 to show for his efforts and it looked like we were on the edge of the fish. Surprising After an hour I noticed that Craig was playing a fish on the pole and as I couldn’t put anything together on the method decided to have a look shallow. I had been pinging pellets since the start and thought it was worth a look. I gave it 10 minutes or so fishing at around 18’’ deep and also slapping my J13 trying to entice a carp but they were just not there. Trying another rig at depth the float shot under as the pellet just about reached the bottom in about 6’ of water and what’s more it was a carp! I just could not believe the next ten or so drops in as I had a carp every put in. I felt I was now starting to claw some weight back on the others. At around the halfway stage Paul went down his edge and before long was sacking on big fish! I tried but all I could catch was perch and small F1’s that seemed to be resident in both my margin swims. Studying Pauls rig as best I could from the distance I was from him showed me that he was catching in around 12’’ of water. The shallowest I could find right next to the bank was double that and I guess the fish just didn’t want to be in that much water. My decision was to stay on the long pole and try to put a few more together. I figured if I could scrape third place that would be a reasonable start to the festival. Enough for third? The match drew to a close and I had really enjoyed it catching quite a few on the long pole, it was going to be close between Craig and myself as he had managed to find some edge fish. I knew that Paul and James were still in front and I had my fingers crossed as the scales came round. Craig had 70lb plus and I managed 82lb but was absolutely trounced by Paul who easily won the match with a stunning 180lb, unfortunately for myself the edge fish had continued further down the section with Grant Albutt finding  125lb of them mostly caught in the last 90 minutes, there were other ton plus weights from James and Marc Jones. I actually finished sixth in a brilliant section, great fishing which I enjoyed but no good in terms of getting to the final! Where are we fishing today? The next day and it was possible to draw one of four lakes in what was universally agreed as good pegging of this section. We were to be split between the two lakes at Trewaters, Acorn and Canal which gave everybody plenty of room. It was going to be important as we were getting some stunning weather for so late in the year, real T shirt days but consequently were suffering with very cold nights. Tuesday saw the second frost of the week, unheard of in the normally temperate climate of Cornwall. My dip put me on peg 35 at Trewaters and another draw that I had no complaints with. I set up some pole rigs to fish in the deep water and I was using a float that was new to me. Gareth Malman had given me some of his Pencil floats and I was itching to use them. I chose a .3 and .4 gram versions and have to say they are very good. I also set up my normal J13 shallow floats and an edge rig. I also had a method set up and it was this that I really wanted to concentrate on. Nothing on the thod! The match started and I cast to the far bank expecting a bite straight away but nothing happened! Geoff Wilde had the odd one to my left and young Jake to my right also had an early fish but I could not buy a bite. Eventually it went around and I lost a fish to some lost line that was attached to the far bank. I rearranged the cast a little to the left but still found the line. It was a shame as the banks had been cleared by the fishery team before the festivals. Never mind mustn’t grumble, it was time for the pole. I caught some fish at a top kit plus one and when that line died I added a section and had a few more but in the main they were small skimmers with the odd small F1. I really tried to catch but it didn’t really work. There was nothing to be caught shallow and nothing down the edge, the match drew on to a conclusion and I had 50 fish for 30lb which again was a day’s fishing but it left me well down and practically out of the festival on day two. Wednesday for me was the headless chicken day as I was running around getting nowhere as I tried to prepare for Porth. There is always so much to do mixing groundbait, lightening the load, and today I spent some time trying to save time by fitting my extra long legs to my box. I was eventually ready for the draw that had already started! As I walked into the cabaret lounge most had left and there was no one in front of me at the bag of dreams, I dipped in and pulled one of the few that were remaining and was amazed to see it was peg 77. Now, anyone that knows Porth will know this is the only peg on the match length with a proper platform, fantastic no need for waders or those extra long legs! Planning I had spent the previous evening talking with Gareth in our lodge, I was following his matches and he had given me a run down on how the skimmers had fed, the results showed some good weights in Thursday There is a distinct advantage on this peg as you are further out in the water than those around you and consequently do not have to fish as long as the others to get into deep water. I fished at 11m using a 1.25 gram pencil float which I find ideal for Porth. I had lighter .5 gram version for my closer 5m line along with some 4 x 12 J5 floats for fishing off the bottom, these were set at around 5’. Hook lengths were 0.8 Cralusso to a Middy hook. I had my limit of Groundbait which was Yorkshire Baits Green Betaine mixed with some fish meal. At the start I cupped in 6 250ml balls packed with chopped worm and casters on the 11m line and a further 4 balls on my 6m line. I started on the closer line and a perch opened my account, that was one point sorted out now I needed to get another eight! Nothing else followed and I was forced to have a look on my long line. Putting a double red maggot on the hook I dropped in on that line and the float was held up by a bite on the drop. It was a small roach and man was it small! Loads more followed and I just could not get bait through them! If I put a big bait on that got to the bottom but I wasn’t getting any bites! Meanwhile, my neighbours were bagging on the small roach. I had no choice other than to fish for them and it was solid. Enjoyable day I had another really enjoyable match catching loads of roach and even a few skimmers but they were few and far between and I just could not find anything to boost my weight. I finished with just under 11lb which was 4 th in section. Grant Albutt won the section from the end peg with 16lb plus taking the verdict over Dave Harpin by 1oz! Thinking about my match I am not sure I could have caught another 5lb of roach as that would have meant that I needed over 100 more tiny roach and I had caught in the region of 230 in the match. Home draw Thursday dawned and I was at Bolingey I had a few things to sort out that morning, I asked Wrong Lake to draw for me which was a bit of a worry as there are five queues that he could join! He managed peg 11 for me which has the potential of a good weight, thanks for putting me on the right lake Wayne! I had another chat with Gareth who told me that the guy who had the peg yesterday spent most of the match fishing around 3’ short of the island on the method, he told me that very few fish were caught on the 5m line or the edge along my bank. On the bank I decided on the method tight to the island and I set up two rods for this. I also had a .5gram Cralusso Capri for the 5m line and I could use this at 14m as well. Two 4 x 10 J1 floats finished my armoury for the day. At the start I fed my lines and had a quick look on my edge rig but unfortunately nothing was in residence. Casting tight to the island and the tip went around and a 3lb carp was soon in the net. That first part of the match was really good, I had a further two carp in the next two casts. But after that things really slowed, well actually they stopped! I spent around 4 ½ hours on the method picking off the odd fish here and there finishing with 10 carp for 39lb, where the bigger ones were I just do not know, perhaps I had drawn the nursery again! The pole just would not work properly and that day I used my neighbours as a guide. I just kept feeding my lines and watching them if they caught it would be an indication that I would. But as they only had a couple of fish on the pole line I didn’t think it was worth trying for too long. That said I did have a reasonable spell in the last hour on the 5m line for no fish. At least I had the pleasure of watching Tommy ‘the method master’ Pickering fish, he was around the front of the island on 25 and after a slow start upped the tempo and he started to empty the swim. He easily won the match with around 160lb it was a great performance to watch whilst I waited for bites. I finished around halfway in the section and in reality any slight hopes that I had left had finally disappeared, I needed a good draw on the last day on the notoriously Peggy match lake for any chance of some coin. Wrong peg! When I had my dip I was convinced that I had a good draw it was peg 21 and in my minds eye I saw it as peg 23 in fact I carried my tackle nearly to that peg and was convinced that Nathan Watson was setting up on the wrong peg. Slowly it dawned where I was and with it the realisation that I would need to be very lucky to frame from that peg. There are a lot of possibilities on this peg  including a long method chuck to the island which is the wrong side of the infamous high bank. A 16m pole swim tight to the island slightly to my right. Deep water at 5m a shallow bar at 14m and a nice edge! In the end I set up to fish all of the above in desperate hope of catching a few! My plan was to fish for 40 minutes looking for a carp, if I had a couple I would obviously try for more. I would then fish the remainder of the match looking for silvers followed by 30 minutes or so at the end looking for a carp. I would also feed the deep water heavily with meat hoping that carp would move into that swim. Well the match went perfectly for me with the exception of the carp not wanting to play! I figured on pinging pellets at the island would work as I was sure for the last two weeks everybody had fed meat there but I never had a bite. I caught some nice perch on the pole down to my right and I had a nice net of silvers at 14m that included a few F1’s Skimmers, Perch and some pristine Roach I really enjoyed catching them on light gear coupled with yellow J Range Lastix which is perfect for that style of fishing. He who Dares My mate Andy Dare won the match from peg 13 weighing 50lb of mainly carp and skimmers and in the end his weight had me doubting my plan. My pal, hindsight told me that if I had fished for silvers the entire match including the deep water swim, I could have perhaps framed. Just what do you do though? In the end I fished to my match plan, sticking with it until the end. It did give me another very enjoyable match and some information for the memory banks for the future but once again too few section points. Role on the next festival when I really must try harder! Many congratulations to Lee Kerry on winning not only the festival but the title of Parkdean Master 2010 what an achievement, I have a feeling we will be seeing his name winning more festivals in the future! Well done also to the White Acres staff on providing us with another brilliant festival and also to Preston Innovations for sponsoring the week once again with some fantastic prizes.

Posted on October 25, 2010 Filed Under Fish, Fishing | Leave a Comment

October 15, 2010 Explore Minnesota Fishing Report

Anglers are pulling walleyes from 25-30 feet of water on Poplar and Cascade lakes . Stream trout fishing in area lakes ends October 31. Please note that the lake trout season closed September 30. To find out more, check out www. …

Posted on October 25, 2010 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

10/24 Update

Our salmon and trout fishing section is online.  Some of the new pages that we will be using to organize some of our content for our salmon and trout fishing section are:  Salmon & trout fishing vacations Salmon & trout fishing tips & techniques Popular baits for catching salmon & trout Popular lures for catching salmon & trout Here are also a few of our recently added pages. Crankbaits for salmon & trout: trolling, casting Cut plug herring Swimbaits for trout: rainbow, brown & lake trout Trolling with frozen herring for salmon

Posted on October 24, 2010 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Fishing Trips, Lake Fishing, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

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