Jon, I’m confused, I looked at Red Wing to Kellog and see 1 meal a week for Walleye and Sauger?

Red Hammer!

Thanks for the updates. Good luck and hope to see you next week sometime.

I don’t know much about cameras, but know a great picture when I see it. Outstanding!

I found they have bags that replace wrapping paper, they come in different colors, just pick the right size drop in the present, add some fu fu tissue paper and a name tag. Go back to organizing your tackle box.

Caution: May be habit forming.

There is a medical exam that needs small amounts of air introduced to the gut to take the kinks out of gut so a scope can exam for possible tumors. It is so uncomfortable (Painful)that patients are usually slighted sedated. Bet if they used enough air to turn the stomach inside out and out the mouth, the request for sedation would be major. Point is this has to be a major trauma for the fish even with fizzing.

Brian, have to admitt, Houston to Aransas Pass, is quite a side trip. But I have to plead “all things are relative” after we drove from Minneapolis to Houston another four hours to see some salt water fishing; seemed normal. We did see a lot of miltary ships running a route away from the jetties. I was told they were mine sweepers clearing the area for troop and equipment ships heading for the build up. I also was interested in seeing they way the fishermen catch bait. They walk the shore near the water with PVC pipes with a plunger in side, when they see a small hole in the wet sand they suck up about 8 inches of sand and shoot it on beach, most often it exposed what
they call a ghost shrimp,(about 3 to 4 inches long and white) which they picked up to use as bait on the jetty. They also pick urchins off the jetty rocks at water level. again that is bait. Yes I did hear of the Bass around Houston. In fact my son had fixed me up on a catch and release lake,(small and private about 15 acres) but he could not get off work and my spouse navigator wanted to play with grandkids instead so I opted out versus driving solo through Houston (we normally have one person with a finger on the map in that city). This was in June and had to fish early… as by 10:00 it would be too hot. The compromise is we plan to take a charter from Aransas pass if he comes to visit us there in winter.So it promises to be fun, but fact is, I really am looking forward to Spring on the Croix and Missipppi. You mentioned Austin, I was stationed in Fort Hood in 1955 and when we could, we piled 5 or 6 guys in a car and went to Barton Springs a large natural spring swimming area. As I remember it it could hold 2 to 3 hundred people- but that was a long time ago might be wrong. Swam all day and slept on our military air mattress under the trees at night. Bet that is not allowed or safe now.

Hey Beach Brian,, glad to see there is more interest in jetty fishing at Port Aransas. One of our sons and his family live in Houston and on a visit last winter he suggested a side trip to it. Because it seemed off the beaten path and we took a ferry to get to it. I thought it might be a “who cares” place,- as far as our freshwater forum goes. Good news is, I am wrong again. We stayed a week and it too was windy most days. But I talked to some locals and winter Texans who made it interesting and said that the wind does go down. So I talked my Norwegian snow loving wife into our first extended winter south-. I will take pictures, then need to figure out how to get them on line. Maybe a digital camera for Christmas?

Cagey, thanks for the reply. Now I am getting excited! In fact we are considering staying longer. Do you plan to go this year? This post may only be of interest to you and me, can e-mail me at [email protected] if so choose.

Herb, The no cull idea is a step in the right direction. But if 30 to 50 boats are bobbing around and there are two men per boat. It would almost take a warden in each boat to enforce it.

Lets face it, most serious sports men are limiting or avoiding the dam fishing already. Only an enforced law will educated the hard core regulars. Hopefully some time in the near future it will be stopped. Once that is done, we will look back, and wonder what took so long!

I am wondering if the minnow stage of the new carp types would replace/supplement shad as a food base for Walleye, Sauger, Stripers and other game fish. If so, and they occur in large numbers, is that good or bad?

Sure hate to admit it, but Iowa now leads us in football and conservation common sense. Hope we do not wait for the results of the five year experiment before doing the same for the Minnesota, Wisconsin portions.

Jon; Actually,reading a good report is sort of a “Ray of Hope” that the bite will be there again next spring. Keep posting the good news.
But “at least two boats”! — my wife is very tolerant of my toys, doubt if I could sell that one.

Sounds great! Sign me up.

From what I have been reading about phytoplankton, enviromental conditions (water temp.,oxygen,nutrients)are the major control of the numbers of phytoplankton. And that when conditons are favorable they will reproduce very fast. I am thinking that if bats,birds and dragon flies cannot keep up with mosquitoes. Can it be the same with the new carp and phytoplankton. Those smaller life forms are good at reproduction, usually overpopulation is their problem

Went long line trolling cranks from the Kinnie to Prescott on Tuesday from 1:00 p.m to about 3:30 p.m. Very slow had three small Sauger and one small Walleye no keepers.Saw some schools of large Carp rolling on the surface near the harbor that had the closed gate for some time this spring. Wonder what they were up to — must have seen 50 or 60 backs out of the water in ten minute period.

First time I used the Grappler Shad Firetiger,was this August during the slow bite on the Croix. It produced a Sauger fish fry for two adults and two grandkids.

Speaking of Zebras, my trolling line tells me their population is all most zero. I just do not find them on my cranks that touch bottom any more.

Was out for four hours Monday afternoon, trolled cranks, caught three Sauger all too small. Did get a 29 inch Northern and 27 Musky. Took nothing home, but enjoyed the day.

What is a paper tournament? The lack of a negative effect on the fishery sounds great.

I hope that tournament sponsors will come to realize, that rude participants, fish kills, and squeezing the locals out of the landings, does not promote the product they are advertising. In fact does just the opposite and could encourage boycotts. All these could be corrected without outlawing the tournament — it is just good business to keep the end user happy.

Lets face it, a Blitz on an area by a number of well equipped experienced fisher persons is not beneficial to that fishery at any time. But Sponsors (money) rule. It is a sad situation.

When trolling I find the RPM’s are a better guide than the speedometer.

Was out twice this past week, very few,all small greys. Ticks were ready and waiting though.

Thanks for the information guys. I do repack each fall. The Liqualube looks interesting, have e-mailed tham for for info. If it is too expensive will go to the dust cap as per Jon. Hope I do not need to go the new hub route. But I have gone threw three buddies on this problem. Thanks again.

Basstracker: Thanks for sharing the series of pictures, really enjoyed the outcome!

Where are the Sauger? Seems to me that last year it was normal to catch as many Sauger as Walleye. Been out twice this year and caught lots of undersize Walleye. Not one Sauger so far. I blame me for the undesize Walleye, just like with pan fish, small ones are easy to find, but the big ones take time on task. However the lack of Sauger is a mistery to me. That said, I do prefer Walleye over Sauger, I think pound for pound a Walleye out fights a Sauger, and when filleting them have noticed the Walley is much firmer.

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