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 It was a great day to fish Norfork Lake in the Arkansas Ozarks.
I decided to fish with live bait this morning and finding bait was no problem.
One throw and I had all I needed and more. This was a good start to the day since I over slept and didn't wake up until 4:
30AM. I should have already been out on the lake baiting. I headed back to Fall Creek and started
with two poles down with weights at about 25 feet and two poles with free swimming baits
that I was pitching toward the shore. It didn't take long before I found spotted bass, smallmouth
bass and largemouth bass. I ended up catching 12 bass
in total and 7 were keeper size.
I released all but 3 spotted bass. At one point while I
was setting the hook on a bass, one of my down poles
bent to the water and the drag started to zing. This fish just would not stop running.
I actually started to use my trolling motor to make sure the fish did not spool me.
It was a very good fight but finally I won the battle (this
time) and landed this nice 12 pound striped bass. I also caught
another striper on a free swimming bait and one on a weighted fluke.
Those two 10 pound stripers were released.
I tend to cast artificial when I am live bait fishing.
That gets me into trouble frequently. It's difficult to
retrieve the artificial bait when one of my other poles takes off.
Live bait fishing can be very exciting and sometimes it's very
hard to handle multiple poles when you are fishing by yourself.
Robert Lee of Lee's Lite line took three of my guests fishing this morning.
They ended up "having one of the best fishing trips ever!"
(quote) They limited out by 6:30AM with 7 striped bass and 2 hybrids.
The big fish weighed 15 pounds. They ended up fishing for bass and had
a blast. Robert was fishing in the Bennett's area. Tom Reynolds of STR Outfitters
has been fishing the dam area and limiting out with consistency.
The fish are all over the lake and are being found off of points and the side of
points on the main lake as well as back in the major creeks.
If you are artificial fishing use a fluke with a weighed hook, I like white with a chartreuse tail.
Swimming minnows and a 3 inch grub are also working.
A top water bait is still handy to have ready as it would have been today but I was
already fighting the 12 pound striper when the fish exploded all around
me. All I could do was watch with! The Norfork Lake level
is dropping about 2 - 3 inches per day and currently sits at 577.8 feet above sea level.
The lake surface water temperature is in the upper 70's
and you could find temps in the 80's back in the creeks.
The lake is still stained, but is clearing.
In fact, the EPA declared that 40% of the US nation’s
waterways are overly polluted and not fit at all for swimming and fishing activities.
Most diseases have been traced to contaminated drinking water that carried different types of
viruses, parasites and bacteria. Surface contamination on the other hand promoted algal growth resulting in a
condition called eutrophication. This meant bodies of water, including slow-moving streams, received excessive amounts of harmful
substances and nutrients that led to too much
algal growth. This occurrence reduced the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, a condition that has
currently endangered marine life’s existence.
Since the 1950s, one-fifth of the world’s coral reefs have disappeared.
Due to the poor condition of the coral reefs’ ecosystem,
the entire Coral Triangle of the Pacific Ocean is expected to vanish
at the end of the century.
As an indirect consequence, acidified water precipitates into acid rain and
falls back to the ground in the form of acid rain or snow.
Countries and different European regions that receive great amounts of acid rain found most of their forests become
sparse and dwindling, to the point where some of their forests have eventually died.
Please proceed to the next page to learn about the consequences of hazardous waste brought by incinerators and
low-level waste burial grounds. Smoke fumes coming from waste incineration facilities not
properly outfitted with clean burning processes
exudes smoke that adds to air pollution. Ashes float into the air carrying residues and particulate
matter from heavy metals, dioxins, and other toxic gases.
In fact, incinerators are still considered harmful despite claims for reductions
in toxicity. Environmentalists still consider the amount
of toxic gases that accumulate in the air to still
be at harmful levels. Cancer, reproductive disorders, birth defects and neurological damages are only
some of the health disorders linked to the communities
living near areas where incinerator emissions have accumulated.
In China, smoke coming from factories and households that relied on coal burning as their supply of energy, had brought about a fog-filled
atmosphere. The country was reported as having
the highest mortality rate in the world for deaths linked to air pollution.
Reports have it that respiratory illnesses have affected more than 20 million Chinese children. In the US, statistics show that there are 20 million Americans who
have asthma, 70% are triggered by allergic reactions. The most
significant among all environmental problems caused by hazardous waste burning is the release of greenhouse gases included in emissions, since they add to the global warming problem.
What are the Cons of Hazardous Waste Being Underground?
In the US, radioactive elements were found buried
in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York several decades ago, at a time when these areas were not yet used for residential purposes.
Years later, toxic radon gases started emitting inside
residential homes.
Traces of groundwater contamination were likewise confirmed since the radioactive materials also leached while buried underground for several years.
This was linked to the high incidence of lung
cancer and asthma leading to death occurrences around the said locations.
The image you see on your left is an overview of "spent nuclear fuel", the term used for the radioactive
hazardous waste of nuclear reactors. What are the US Regulatory Actions about the Cons of
Hazardous Waste? The EPA made revisions regarding rules in handling hazardous waste.
Industrial sectors are now mandated to follow specific guidelines
for waste management starting from waste generation to its transport, storage and
final disposition. In fact, even the technical designs of equipment, storage container
and disposal facilities now have stipulations to ensure that humans and wildlife, as well as the environment are protected from harm.
Below are some of the latest additions to EPA’s regulatory courses
of action to address waste management. The US Department of Energy is said to be undertaking retrieval of radioactive wastes like plutonium, which were buried in low level grounds.
I had the pleasure of fishing again with Bob Blalock,
meeting him down at the Big Talbot Island Park boat ramp early, and with cloudy
skies. Although tropical storm Julia had passed through yesterday, we saw a window of opportunity to
fish, and we took it! We ran up the Amelia
River and dipped into Jackstaff and further into another creek to
begin fishing with float rigs and mud minnows at the very
peak of a high tide. Both of us had some soft bites but no takers
as we fished the flooded marsh grass. We crossed over a
creek, switched to jigs and minnows, and again, no real bites.
I wouldn't have thought that the storm that passed by would have affected the fish bite, but it may have,
because even thought the present weather was very comfortable, the bigger
fish just weren't biting. Bob tangled with a and caught a couple of high flying lady fish before we left,
ran through Horsehead, and fished some dock pilings.
He caught a few feisty Mangrove Snapper then we ran down the Nassau River to fish some marsh
runouts. The water was coming out of the marsh by now and
bait was moving and fish were beginning to bust and sure enough,
BOOM! Bob had a nice fish on.
I knew it was warm when I was driving to my spot today and someone passed
me in a convertible with the top down. Yikes, the temperature reached
67 degrees where I was fishing, certainly the warmest
Christmas Eve I have ever experienced. If you are
a carp fisherman, you know the good times are rolling in this
warm weather in recent weeks. I don't care where you are fishing, the fish are hitting.
I went to a river spot first today and was greeted by fast, flooding water from last
night's torrential rain. Even though I tried
for a period of time, my bait and line kept getting
clogged with weed and debris.
So, cancel that spot and come up with a plan B in a hurry.
I headed to a pond that I don't normally fish
at this time. That did the trick as I banked 8 fish in an hour and half and missed
a bunch more (see photo at left of one of the fish).
They were all caught on sweet corn on the hair with
a small method ball fished ahead of it. The fish were enjoying this warm weather as much as
I was! If you have a chance to get out in the next couple of days, do it.
This fishing is unusually good for late December, a very rare treat at this time of year.
You might never see this again. I want to extend a "Happy Holidays" to all my local readers and carp fishing friends.
Enjoy the holidays and I hope you find the time to land another carp or two before 2015 ends..
As might be expected, volume 2 picks up right where the first book left
off, the chapters begin at number eight to reflect this.
The first period covered is between 1951 and 1971 with characters like Bill Giles and
Dennis Pye featuring strongly. The heyday of Norfolk Broads features, peaking
with Hancock’s forty followed by the Prymnesium disaster of 1969.
Something all modern visitors to Broadland are
only too aware of. The figure of Dick Walker also looms large as although not truly a Piker his influence on "specimen hunting" in general is massive.
It was in this period that Pike angling ceased to be a purely mobile, active approach
and one of patience with multiple rods, mostly sat in one spot became more popular.
The chapters that follow deal with the period from 1971 to the present day.
They begin with the characters that set us on the course of ‘modern’ piking.
Fred Wagstaffe and Bob Reynolds were anglers I was aware of
but I didn’t realise how influential and ahead of their time these two were,
particularly with their use of lures. I was well aware of Ray
Webb and the great Barrie Rickards. These two men were masters of all piking
methods and produced probably the most influential Pike fishing
book ever. I can’t explain why but somehow I have avoided acquiring
a copy of "Fishing for Big Pike".
Another famous Piker of this time was Fred Buller who is probably more influential as an author than a Piker.
His "Domesday book…" certainly had a massive effect on me.
From here on in the book is covering ground familiar to me,
modern Piking history from my own lifetime.
I remember much of what is covered although in most cases
I can remember bugger all else away from fishing through those years.
Graham Booth takes us through the birth of the ‘Pike Society’ and its eventual transformation into the PAC.
It is impossible to understate how much these organisations changed attitudes towards
Pike.
Without PAC in particular, Pikers in the modern era would not
have been able to enjoy the quality of Pike fishing that have been privileged with.
The rise and fall of British Pike waters is charted; The
Fens, The Broads, Gravel pits and Trout waters.
All of the famous captures, faces and places are given due recognition. There
are chapters dedicated to Scottish and Irish piking too.
Inspired by the likes of Wagstaffe and Buller English
Pikers ventured to these places and over the years the locals developed a love for Pike fishing
too. Pike fishing in the eighties, That would have made a good book title?
The rise, fall and rise again of Lure fishing forms the subject of
chapter 15. We Brits have been slow to recognise the worth
of lures but eventually caught on.
In the final chapter Booth asks whether Pike is once more
considered a "Game fish", particularly following the rise of
fly fishing in the UK. In my opinion Pike aren’t game fish, they are better than that.
Few species can be fished for with such a wide variety of
methods in such diverse waters. Although the history is now complete, happily the book itself isn’t.
We are taken back in time to the golden age and its "Champion Pike fisher"
Alfred Jardine. Graham Booth’s extensive research
has exonerated Jardine and put his 35lbs ‘Maidstone Pike’ back where it belongs as
the first English "Mammoth" and first record Pike in our sport’s
wonderful history. It occurred to me that although I had enjoyed the whole history of Pike fishing it is this
golden age that has intrigued me the most. This is the exact opposite to what I had expected before
I began reading. A History of Pike Fishing is published
by Harper Fine Angling and it goes without
saying that the book is of the highest standard and beautiful to behold.
As I said in March, Graham Booth has done anglers a service in documenting our
sport, not just Pikers, all anglers owe him a debt of thanks.
Pike fishing has a great history and these are two great books.
Norfork Lake fall fishing sure can be a lot of fun. I will admit that if you want striped bass,
hybrid bass and white bass you will spend some time looking for them, but once you
find them it is well worth the time. Large schools of white bass are
currently roaming the flats in the morning hours and during the day.
They tend to move into deeper water late in the day and start to relate to points in the mouths
of coves. I tend to fish many different areas of the lake looking for fish in order to try to
help our fishing guests find and catch fish.
I tell my wife that this is part of my job as a
resort owner, which is why I need to be on the lake so much.
 White bass fishing, largemouth bass fishing and crappie
fishing are the better bites on the lake as of today. I do expect the striped bass bite to improve very
shortly, if what I saw this morning is any indication. I found schooling and feeding fish in 22 feet of water and at around 7AM the striped bass
were all high up in the water column. Casting out a 1/4 ounce silver Kastmaster landed a nice striper for me.
Then the whites showed up at all depths. Vertical jigging a spoon or Kastmaster was
giving me many hookups. As the sun came up the fish continued to move
deeper on the same flat.
I finally lost the fish in about 35 feet of
water. Top water action for white bass and hybrids is sporadic.
I have not been fortunate enough to find this action, but several of my guests have gotten into some nice topwater action over the last week.
Topwater action is happening somewhere on the lake, but you
need to be in the right place at the right time! This will become more frequent based on past years experience.
The largemouth bite has been very good for
me over the week. In the mid to late mornings I have found schooling bass
in 30 - 40 feet of water on large flats.
Vertical jigging for the bass has worked great.
The schools that I have found have stuck around for well
over 45 minutes so you can catch your limit very quickly.
In the late afternoon I have changed tactics a little and moved into the secondary creeks.
I have located large schools of bass as far back in the creeks as you can go, but still being in 27 - 30 feet of
water. Secondary points in the small creeks have
been productive locations, especially if the creek channel swings in close to the deeper shoreline.
Jigging for these fish is working.
I have also located some nice bass on the bluff
lines where the bluff starts to transition to chunk rock.
Crank baits on calm days and spinner baits on windy
days are good baits to try. Jig and pigs are also working very well.
Crappie fishing has been good. Look for brush in 30 - 40 feet of water and the fish will be somewhere
around the brush. At times they are buried inside of
the brush and other times they will be suspended on top of the brush.
Live bait is working great, but small spinners, jigs
and crank baits are also producing some nice fish.
Norfork Lake's level is slowing rising with very little power generation coupled with rain for several days in a
row. The lake level currently sits at 552.37. (Basically normal pool) The main lake is fairly clear and most creeks and coves are somewhat stained.
The surface water temperature this morning was 62.5 to 63.5 degrees.
Is the choose to be jack of all rivers and master of none or to
truly master a river. I choose to have complete confidence in each
day, based on thorough knowledge of my surroundings.
Conditions are everything, on the west slope of the Cascades
Mountains they change each day. So many
rivers within a day drive and I have no desire to explore new haunts.
The goal, for me, is to know every water level, each rock, and the subtle changes to the greatest extent.
For the entire winter I am faithful to one river.
This bleeds confidence and this assurance hemorrhages success.
These are my secrets to success. When the river is high and has good clarity you should be
there, as the fish will be holding in prime lies. Often in 2-5 of water right in the
middle of your swing! Low, cold, and clear river and the fish like 10-20 feet of water.
This is when you need to focus on the deep seams and get down. Early
in the morning, late in the day, and especially in periods of high flows the
tactic or temptation of fishing heavy sink tips and weighted flies
is completely detrimental to success on my chosen waterway.
Fishing a tight line through soft flows in 4 to
5 feet of water with un-weighted fly and light sink-tips compensates for most of the steelhead landed throughout a season. Take the opportunity during
those low flows to learn the river.
Often the best fishing is at higher flows and the chance to learn rocks,
depressions or drop offs, and subtle channels are
right under or behind you as you fish these lows flows.
Take note. It’s important for next week when the
river doubles in size and you can recall what features
exist in that soft run. Low and clear is also the queue to fish deep.
Time to get down. Joe Saracione lands a winter hen.
· Start short and high in the run. Especially in water you cannot see into.
· Be consistent and turn over your casts. A predictable
fly on the swing gets crushed. I believe the cast that gets the fish to eat
is not the cast that created this chance. I believe your last 5 casts are the reason that fish ate!
The steelhead saw the pattern of your swings and this primed this critters attitude.
When you get that hard grab it is because this fish anticipated the swing.
It knew where it would land, how fast the swing would be, and the predictability of it all contributed to the fish knowing it was going to be able to crush
your fly! Fish through a run erratically and it is tough to convince the fish to grab let alone hang around.
It is much more important to fish at a shorter distance unswervingly than huck out bomber
casts that result in Helter Skelter crazy swings. · Sharp hooks
stick fish.
 Keep them sticky.
Touch a rock? Check your hook. Dull hook? Change or
sharpen. It’s a sin to fish so hard all day and finally after all that
dedication get grabbed only to come up empty because of a super dull
hook that has been ticking bottom on each hang down. · Fish
hard and fish long. One fish in a day will make it a great day.
It only takes one cast to get it done. It could
be your first or last cast. Keep positive knowing each one could be the one.
If you think your not going to catch a winter steelhead, you
likely wont. If you think you are going to catch one you likely will!
NJ Outdoors Program Although one of the smallest and most densely populated state in the nation, New Jersey offers endless fishing
opportunities. From spring migrations of striped bass and American shad in the Delaware River to bayshores and the Atlantic coastline, there's something for all anglers.
And progressive management and fish culture and stocking
programs means a greater of variety of fish are available than ever
before. Waters in Wildlife Management Areas, in state parks and forests, in federal lands and
county and municipal parks make fishing nearby for everyone.
Many sites have been improved for access by wheelchair, and public boat ramps
abound. For those who've never tried fishing, or have
been away from the sport, two Free Fishing Days in June allow fishing without a license or trout stamp, and
a license is never required for saltwater fishing. Take a kid fishing and catch the excitement!
Whether it's surf fishing from the beach, miles of native trout streams, lunker bass
lakes or through the ice, New Jersey anglers have
some of the widest varieties of fishing opportunities available anywhere.
Get out and see why the fishing in New Jersey has never been better!
Catching big trout is something that most of us all want to do at
some point or for many of my friends, something we can never get enough of.
The next stage of fishing is "how the heck can I catch one?" that's the all important question and more times
than not ending with another weekend left with what if's.
This weekend was a little different with luck being a large part of my success.
Catching this monster was my biggest to date and after landing
a few fish over the years over 10lbs, this one takes the Cake!
She measured in at 28" in length, 20" in width and topped the scale around
15lbs! 22 rojo midge. Jason (from the Trophy Stalkers) got into a number of nice fish
as well and put on a clinic as to how it's done. |
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