It's spring and I like fishing.

Huntindave McCann

Huntindave McCann

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The water is still high and a bit dirty but the Walleyes are starting to cooperate. Picked up these three males this afternoon. Already consumed one for supper tonight. Had the river to myself today but that will end real real soon, doesn't take much for the word to get out.



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I might not be enamered with fishing but I love eating fish. Eye?s are as good as it get in the fresh.

Nice job!
 
Had the river to myself today but that will end real real soon, doesn't take much for the word to get out.
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Well, when you post stuff like that on the internet, with pictures even, whaddya expect???? [laugh]

Nice bunch of fish. I've been turkey hunting and we have some water in the woods...not as much as the last few years but enough that there are still warmouth in the woods and I have taken great pleasure in feeding the fishes any mayflies that have the misfortune of being nearby. I keep telling myself to bring a little ultra light rod or two when I head to the turkey woods but I keep forgetting.
 
Good on you, Dave! Male walleye usually arrive on spawning gravel sites first, so things are likely getting close to spawning. Is their milt starting to flow from their vents freely? Do you check stomach contents?

Yes, I am with you on the joys of fishing. As the north woodsman's saying goes: You have to know what the forest looks like to recognize the unusual. Same holds true for fishing, with the added challenge of seldom actually sight casting to your prey.

Have four Chinook salmon on at the same time, with all fish in the high teens to low twenties...quite the fire drill! I have had this happen four times on my boat, never landed all four fish. Craziest event was being forced to hand line two fish in that were tangled together and then having to grab the spoon's nose when the fish came alongside and flip them into the splashwell in one uniform arc, because the net held another fish that managed to hook the webbing. Mending tackle gets a lot less stressful when you have forty- some pounds of salmon fillets flopping around on ice in the fish box.

Dorado are another species that never knows when to quit as well when hooked. Plus, they are without question one of the best eating fish when fresh.

Dave, enjoy and good luck! Still awaiting ice-out here... Batteries are back in the boat and charged. Gas is in. Fogging solution blow-out is next and a shake-down cruise.
 
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Good morning, Dave~


Happy Spring! Hereabouts, I'm just waiting for the Wood Frogs to start "quacking".



...more important...upon what vessel are those Fine Fish displayed?


All the best,


SJS

 
Dani,

What do I expect? I expect you to keep my secret. [ninja] My biggest problem is it is a small town, everyone knows me and my boats(s), I drive right past the town cafe when going to the ramp and guys drive to the ramp twice a day to check on things. No secrets here.

Our first season here is the youth season and it runs April 5th-7th. Then we have four seasons running back to back until ending May 12th. Each season is from 3 days up to 7 days long. I haven't even decide if I'm hunting this year or not. I'd like to take my grandson out sometime but,,,,,,,,,,, he is terribly energetic. We would have to find a suicidal bird just to even see one. [;)]

So are you seeing/hearing any birds? Plenty of areas to hunt where you are located or do you have to travel a bit?
 
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RL,
Milt is leaking just a bit. Water temps jumped quite a bit but I'm only getting a surface reading. I probably would learn more if I made a habit of checking the stomach. I can however always tell you the last thing they ate. [cool]

I've lost enough tackle to this river to know what it looks like below the surface. Each year can be a bit different but essentially it stays the same. We did have a good flow of ice chunks this spring. That always helps to rejuvenate the river and make navigation a bit easier.

Always fun when the lure gets fouled in the net, especially if the fish is still in the water.
 
Steve,

The boat in question is a Devlin BBIII. It is a good size fit with my local rivers and lakes. This spring, due to the high water conditions, I have been forced to launch from the parking lot in front of the actual ramp. This leave the boat high and dry above the water. I can just get it humped off the trailer and successfully launched. I just recently added a 2X12 gangplank along side the tongue so I can do this without full waders. It works great.





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The BBIII is the one in the middle.

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I don't know how your youth season works out with birds gobbling but when I have scouted during the youth season down here, I have always had the most suicidal birds then. If a person takes a kid out during youth season down here and they can find a gobbling bird, then based on my experience, they should have an outstanding chance for a kid to get a nice gobbler.

Have I ever mentioned how very much I hate turkeys? Like abhor their aggravating selves? Hate em. With a vengeance. Truly a love hate relationship and truly an effort of supreme torturing of myself. I travel about 2 hours from my house to my turkey woods. There are closer areas, perhaps not with as many birds but perhaps with more birds. I haven't spent a great amount of time learning the woods near me simply because my turkey woods I have spent a great amount of time in and have learned a great deal about and know generally where the birds should be in most conditions. It's a big enough place that in 10 years, I still haven't even learned but maybe 1/5 to 1/4 of the property. I think there are a good number of birds. Certainly plenty of hens but it is tough to judge how many gobblers are out there when they won't announce their presence.

FL birds in general are very tight lipped. They don't gobble like birds I have hunted in WA. Steve says they don't gobble like birds in any other place he has hunted. We can get a gobbling fool from time to time but that is the exception. We have seen a good number of tracks. And one day I was able to call in three different gobblers for Steve but for one reason or another a good shot wasn't possible. But that is the only day where we have had gobblers cooperate in any way. The last two weekends of the season on the WMA that I hunt (which are this weekend and next...the FL season runs for about 6 weeks but each WMA can have different season lengths...this WMA is about 19 days long) are the ones where we generally have better luck. I am hopeful our luck will turn around. I am hopeful we don't have another hellacious rain like we have had the last several seasons that turns our somewhat muddy but passable swamps into thigh deep water swamps. So, right now I HATE TURKEYS!!!!!! But that could change if we get some cooperation. Not much more humbling out there than getting your butt handed to you over and over by a bird with a brain the size of a peanut.
 
Dani,

Your response resonates extremely well with my experiences also, love/hate. I too have a local turkey population and I have taken one or two nearby. However I do love to drive two hours away for both the change of scenery and the fact that, as you, I too have hunted these areas for years. Back when I first started turkey hunting, only two areas in the entire state were open for hunting and one could hunt only until noon each day.

Then more zones were added and one had to pick a season and zone to hunt, with a limited draw. Now the entire state is open but one still has to pick his/her season to hunt. The nice thing is one can buy the tag over the counter so I can decide to go on a whim and be hunting the next day. (even a weekday [sly][sly][sly] while others,,,,,,,,,, are working)

My grandson is not yet old enough to hunt. My daughter and son in law have not yet given me the go-ahead to put a gun in his hands. We discussed it once but no decision was made. My son in law happens to be the Chief Deputy Sheriff, in the adjoining county from where I live. (3 miles away) I suspect once he is comfortable with my grandsons knowledge and understanding of the terminal effects of a firearm, everything will be good to go.
 
I envy you with that nice batch of walleyes. Good for you. Enjoy it while you can. Seeing boats in tow in the desert is a strange sight.
Al
 
Dave, its moving water, so very little chance of extensive temperature stratification. Your surface temp. reading is probably pretty spot-on. I always check stomach contents. Weirdest thing I ever saw was a seventeen pound Chinook with hundreds of spent Hexagenia sp. in its stomach.

The fish hit a shallow running fly/flasher running on Power Pro rigged rod tied to a dipsy diver. When you have a large enough crew you can run a Power Pro and a Wire dipsy diver rod on each side. The fly was a little boy blue which is mostly crystal flash and tinsel in a blue white blend combo. it was beat up after taking several fish. We dug out several old trolling flies that were nothing but numbins and rigged them up. When we ran out the next morning we worked these down the edge of what Great Lakes trollers call the scum line, which is just a water temperature break that occurs as the lake tries to stratify, where a series of temperature isopleths that are packed tightly bend and rise to the surface. For an hour and a half we had continuous action, until the sun angle got high enough to scatter the fish deeper.There wasn't a boat in sight in the shallow waters we were fishing.
 
Pack ice blew in last weekend, after two days of onshore winds, which pounded it into small chunks. Sun and some rain have knocked a lot down. We can only launch off the beach at the mouth of the Dead River via a temporary beach road until the two marina ramps in the upper and lower harbor open. One or two good day long rains will turn thing on...
 
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