macfish
-
Posts
2,975 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Articles
VIDEO'S & other MEDIA
Forums
Store
Downloads
Events
Gallery
Posts posted by macfish
-
-
Hyacinth Bucket (Bouquet) in Keeping up appearances - not the best to be honest, have you seen little Britain Macfish?
macfish here. Marcus, nope, never heard of it. Is it one that they have some episodes on Youtube? There was also another show that I watched which was about an unusual group of employees at an English department store. They store owner was senile, there were several employees who were "sensitive" about certain of their personality traits and there was even a Colonel on the staff. Can't remember the name of that one either, but to me it was better than Keeping Up Appearances. Thanks, Jonathan
-
macfish here.
Jonathan,
Thank you ever so much for brightening up an otherwise dull day. Now that's funny!
Ray
Trigger Happy with Dom Joly - absolute classic, he did a stint over in the US but I think it only aired in the UK - check out youtube for more Dom Joly it's top drawer TV
Ray, I'm glad you liked it. Wouldn't you like to have the same experience!
Marcus, thanks for the info! I have liked a lot of Brit humour for a long time - Monty Python, Faulty Towers, some show that had a lady pretending to be socially a bit more than she was (can't remember the name). Great stuff! Jonathan
-
macfish here. Mike, beautiful looking fish! I've never had the chance to go for steelies. What might be an "average" fish, or does that change a lot year-to-year? If you hooked, say an 8lber, how long a fight might it normally give you? Thanks for posting this. Jonathan
-
macfish here. I bumped into this on YouTube and couldn't resist posting it. Pretty cool stuff! Not familiar with the show. Anyone know something about it? Jonathan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahhOJWkgo1g...feature=related
P.S. Mods - if this thread needs to be moved somewhere else like Off Topic Discussion, could you please do that? Thanks.
-
macfish here. This is a bit of a slant off of your post, but if you work at getting others to join CAG, you can get a free three months extension for each new member referred (those referred new members can't have been a member of CAG in the last 12 months). Jonathan
-
macfish here. Brid, does it stay warm enough in southern California that you can catch carp through the winter or do they slow up a lot? Good luck on catching a bigger lump! Jonathan
-
macfish here. Sebastian, I'm the guy that posted the story about the well known flyfishermen (Dave Whitlock and George Harvey) who became carping flyfishermen. Great video you have there. I hope our regular flyfishing carpers notice it. Thanks, Jonathan
-
macfish here. Brid, great story! Congrats on your new PB and what a nice fish it is! My maternal grandmother was a woman named Ellen Satterthwaite Henderson who passsed away in 2000 at 99. We called her "Granny" - after the TV Beverly Hillbillies Granny whom she resembled. Although not a fisherperson, she was very much an outdoors/plant person. She taught me deeply about the love of nature and the woods, much of which I owe to her today. I caught the bug so deeply I earned my B.A. in Botany. I still remember much of what I learned 25+ years ago and longer ago than that from Granny. It was truly wonderful to have had such a great mentor in the family. Cheers, Jonathan
-
macfish here. Kent, I opened this thread and immediately thought I was having a bad case of deja vu. Didn't you have an almost identical post in the summer or other time with fish from the same spot? At least I think I remember seeing you hoisting a nice number of hefty minnows like those with that same bank behind you. You don't have a printed, rolled background you put up behind you when you do pics to disguise your best spots, do you
? Great fish and fishing!!! Jonathan -
macfish again. We have a WWD (warm water discharge - like Midgeville) about 1 1/2 hours west of us up here. A friend and I fished there Jan. 1st, 2006 when it started off subfreezing with blowing sleet and a fairly blustery wind. Really nasty and very uncomfortable stuff. It did change a bit later - sun up and air temps up to about 44. My friend caught three or four small carp around 5lbs. each and I think I got one small channel cat. At the time I was still really green in carping. Now I know enough to know there's lots I don't know. Last year the road/boat ramp closest to the WWD was closed for work, so I couldn't fish the warm water. I'm hoping it might be open again this year. Jonathan
-
macfish here. Horace, you caught the ones you were scheduled to catch today. And it certainly looks like you all had a good time. What more can be asked of a proper carping session, especially this late in the year? I bet your next trip to the pipes, when the temp is down to say, oh 35-38, the fish might be a tad more interested in what you're offering.
By the way, if there are less pipes, does that mean that there is less warm water being discharged which might put a slight damper on the fishing? Jonathan -
macfish here. Mario, sorry, didn't mean to put it off track. Jonathan
-
macfish here. John, thank you! I kept thinking there might be some other fish I forgot, but couldn't remember what they might be (any others?). I saw one paddlefish/spoonbill jumping in a local water a few years back, but it was only a baby, probably less than 20lbs. They have a very tight season on them in Missouri, maybe 60 days? I'm a bit squeemish about snagging for them. Somehow it just doesn't seem at all sporting, but I sure would like to tangle with say a 50+. I think my gear is up to it.
Jonathan -
macfish here. Scott, great fish! Is that with the giblets or without? Jonathan
-
macfish here. Great job, guys! Let's see - carp - minnow family, buffalo - sucker family, catfish - catfish family --- YUP, you've got a triple crown there, guys! CONGRATULATIONS!! Jonathan
-
WOW, that catfish is huge!
macfish here. That is a very respectable flathead. Every year a local tackle shop sponsors a two session contest for largest catfish caught. The flatheads are always the winners. Usually there are several in the 40s, some 50s and once in awhile a 60+ comes along. The current world record for flathead is 124lb. (from Kansas) so they are capable of gettting quite large (the current world record for blue catfish is also 124lb.). The only freshwater fish I can think of in North America that can get bigger are sturgeon and alligator gar. Jonathan
-
macfish here. Catching flatheads is mostly about snags, structure and live bait (but not just). You will only rarely find them far away from longjams or other places they can hide, and that's during the night when they range to find food. I do think they can be found and caught during the day, but early in the morning (predawn to maybe 9AM) and then predusk to throughout the night are the best times. There was an article in one of the In-Fishermen Catfish specific editions which had a guy who only fishes during the day and he is successful. He puts his bait right at the edges of the logjams (I think he uses mostly cutbait), and then just waits for them to smell it and come get it. As far as the gear I use, my favorite setup is a baitcasting reel on a baitcasting rod. I've caught them using smaller Abu Garcia (USA 500) and Quantum Iron 110 reels. They're not as heavy as an Abu Garcia 6500 C3, but they did the trick. I use an older (early 1990s) Shimano bass flipping rod called a Bullwhip which is a 6'4" graphite composite rod. It's one of the toughest rods I've ever seen with a nice soft tip. For line I usually use 15 to 17lb. Berkley Trilene Big Game. Mind you, I generally do not stay close enough to logjams that the fish actually has the chance to get into it. With that line, I doubt I'd win. I've got Euro setups as well, but I can't quite imagine using them for flatheads. The Shimano BTR 3500A Baitrunners would probably do fine, but I'm just not real sure about the 12ft. graphite carp rods. I like having some fiberglass in the rod to give it a bit more cushion. E-glass is good as well. I also have a couple of really heavy duty baitcasting setups - 8'6" Quantum Big Cat heavy weight e-glass baitcasting rod and another cheap 8' casting rod with a Quantum Big Iron 430SX reel and a Shimano Calcutta CT700S reel. Those reels were both loaded with 300 yards of 50lb. braid, one with Johnson Spiderwire and the other with McCoy Mean Green Braid. Just recently I switched them both to 12# Big Game. It works okay on both of them, but feels somewhat underpowered after using that braid. Those two outfits were both overkill and would probably be much more useful if I could get out on the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers in a boat to go catting for flatheads or big blues. As far as hooks go my preference is to use Gamakatsu Octopus Circle, usually 8/0. Like several others here I too like no roll sinkers, usually in 2 or 3 oz. size, but that's with light to moderate current. Live bait is the general rule for flatheads (up here usually green sunfish, bullheads, frogs are good), but it's not the only thing that will catch them. Cut gizzard shad and skipjacks might work as well, but I haven't really tried them. My largest flathead was caught on a 4" Storm Firetiger pattern swim lure and I know of several other large flatheads that were caught locally on white jigs on rip rap below a dam. I caught one close to the same size (40" long - probably 30+lb.) on a chunk of hair rigged range cube. They're opportunists. If the food is under their noses, I don't think they'll turn it down. One great source for catfishing gear is www.catfishconnection.com. Good luck and make sure you post pictures of your success! Jonathan
-
macfish here. Axel, great looking fish! I bet you got a nice tussle out of them. Jonathan
-
macfish here. Sometimes I think size (length and weight) are overrated. If you and your daughter had a good time catching the fish, then it really doesn't matter, at least to me, what it weighed. Both of you did great! That is a really nice healthy looking fish. I wouldn't mind catching one like that. Nice paddle! Jonathan
-
macfish here. Great stuff, Brid! Congrats on your new PB. You were surely worthy of it if anyone could be. Hoepfully the next record won't take as long to get broken. Jonathan
-
macfish here. I had never thought of the "stringer" aspect as a possibility. I can imagine someone doing that if they caught a nice meal and they suddenly realized they had forgetten their stringer. My suspicion, the more I thought about it, was that maybe someone hates carp so much they tied the line around the fish to do it harm and then released it. I sincerely hope I'm wrong about that, but it's still a suspicion. Just one more demonstration of my tendency toward paranoia.
JonathanLouis, nice mirror. Mine was neither a mirror nor so large (maybe 1lb.), but I still felt sorry for it. The skin on mine wasn't grown over the line at all, but it was definitely more than just irritation. It rather looked like a bite line except perpetrated by line. Thanks guys.
-
macfish here. Rick, duckweed is not an algae, it's a flowering plant, the world's smallest, and it's not what you see in any of these photos. It has a very light green color. As far as the algae goes, if you dipped your hand in (don't worry, it won't bite or hurt you), I'd be willing to bet that you'd find little clumps of algae balled together. They might be anywhere from the size of barely visible to mustard seed size. I wonder if it's the same type of algae that give can water supplies a nasty type taste later in the summer, sort of a musty taste? It does look kind of cool, especially in your photo. Jonathan
-
macfish here. Joey, only rod and reel fishing is allowed at this lake and the line looked like somewhere around an 8 to 12lb. mono, so it's not likely it was from a trotline. It was stained white and black so it had been attached to the fish for awhile and I have no idea how it got there in the first place. It was pretty tightly wrapped around it. I could almost hear the sigh of relief when I took it off. Jonathan
-
macfish here. Yea Rick! Now they're working. I always love your macro work the best! Is the windblown suspensoid miniature algae all piled up? Thank goodness you weren't all tied up catching fish! Just kidding. Thanks, Jonathan
An Informative 10 Minute YouTube Post on Asian Carp
in Other Species Stories
Posted
macfish here. Some of you may have an interest in the Asian carp problem. I'm referring specifically to silver and bighead carp. Here is a very informative 10 minute film on these fish which was posted to YouTube last summer. It's the best piece I've seen yet on them. In particular there are two Canadian fish biologists who are interviewed and they show these same folks out in boats experiencing for themselves leaping silver carp near Peoria, Illinois on the Illinois River. Enjoy! Jonathan