Walchit said:
Houghton Lake, MI.
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outdoors a fishing thread
- Thread starter keybrdkid
- Start date
Houghton Lake, MI.
BigB said:
EDIT: I see you are a spearfisherman. I am rod and reel. Any tips for how to catch hogs on rod and reel? or how deep you have to go to find them?
ooo I'm jealous. I'll take two bugs. jk. I've always wanted to catch some hogs... but I'm not in the right area I don't think. I maybe need to go either to the keys or the bahamas for that or somewhere in between. or to deeper water. I've never caught one in my area despite being in 50-200 feet of water. That's not to say they aren't there. Just that I don't know how to catch them. I'm just a novice so I don't know anything.
tips?
I saw something weird the other day, Kingfish going after Ballyhoo. At first I couldn't make sense of that, since I think exclusively I've seen them favor sardines or cut bait 100% of the time. But they were striking Ballyhoo left right and center. Saw a 15lb king pulled in on and then some in 15-30 ft of water. Apparently according to my sources they do normally favor sardines. But there seems to be a scarcity of sardines in our area for some reason right now. So lacking their normal food source they went after what was available. Too bad I wasn't setup for it when I went out. XD.
-Key
keybrdkid said:
what part of florida are you in?
re hogfish: hogs will be at all range of depths from 10ft-100+ft. You can get big hogfish in shallow water, I don't go deeper than 20-40ft spearfishing, and all the big hogs I've gotten have been in about 15-25ft. My friend goes to 90ft and seems to get good sized hogs, I think if you catch one deeper they're generally bigger and already transitioned to males. The babies and females are usually always in shallow reefs. If you're on the east coast of fl (not sure what the west coast regulations were changed to) they just changed the size from 12 --> 16" and to 1 bag limit per person and there's also now a season on them, which I think it follows grouper season. Hogfish tend to gather around the border of rocky reefs and sand. If you're targeting hogs with rod and reel, i've always had luck anchoring right along the border and actually fishing the sand right next to a reef. The best bait to use for them is the stinkiest shrimp you can get, they love it. They're wrasses, so they're sifting through the sand for shrimps crabs and shellfish. if you've ever opened one up, they always have sand in their belly. When i fish the bottom anchored up, i usually have a bank sinker and a 8+ ft fluorocarbon leader and a circle or live bait hook and then another rod with a vertical or bucktail jig, i've caught hogs on both setups.
re kingfish: down here in miami/ft lauderdale, everything eats ballyhoo. If I had a live bait to choose, I'd go with ballyhoo 100% of the time, pilchards are great for drift fishing because you can chum the waters with a bunch of live pilchards and get the fish to you. I've caught kingfish on just about everything, live pilchards, trolling ballyhoo, live ballyhoo. If you're targeting kings, stick out a block of chum and drift with live bait and wire leader. If you've got live ballyhoo though and you're drifting, make sure you send one down because mutton LOVE ballyhoo, it's like candy for them.
BigB said:
interesting.
West Palm. so not too far from you. We have a fair amount of Sardine schools as I can recall hovering around our area over the past few years. They come and go. Most of the kings I have previously caught have been using some form of sardine. hence my curiosity. But since I now know ballyhoos are an option, I need to learn how to catch them live. My local fishing store recommended a certain hook and small pieces of shrimp or squid. I've heard oatmeal and ballyhoos have some sort of relationship. As for kings, I have 4 poles. One that is rigged with 30lb mono, the other 20lb mono, the other with 15lb mono and a sabiki, and the last with 40lb Braid and a flurocarbon leader/wire. But the braid pole had a few run ins with what I assume were spinner sharks or a decent king and the reel got a little messed up I think. I need to replace it or get new braid.
I don't necessarily want to catch hogs deeper since I fish on a pier sometimes. The pier is in about 15-30 ft of water. I also go out on a local drift boat which can get me a lot closer to a deeper reef. But finding the edge of it might be more difficult unless I ask the boat captain for a location. Water can be murky. I don't think I've ever seen one pulled in off our drift boats when I've been out. Mostly kings, triggerfish, jacks, dolphin, amberjack, cobia, and wahoo. And the more finicky fish like yellowtails, muttons, and what not.
Stinky Shrimp. Got it. I can probably find some of that. Are you using a swivel clip on slider rig with the bank sinker? or a stationary chicken rig/tie on of some type? I'm not so good with jigs unless it is a Sabiki. lol. And even then I'm not that good. Although I have a handful of jigs for a variety of unsuccessful purposes (probably my lack technique or arm strength.)
A bit tricky to get a live ballyhoo aboard a drift boat unless i bring it with me or catch it while on the boat. I suppose if I had one and I knew I was going out later I could bring my aerator bucket. But not sure it'd survive to be lively enough by the time we got out to the Vanderbilts (I think the Vanderbilt family lives in our area, and there is a reef offshore somewhere around where they live. so it got named the Vanderbilts. Unless that is the actual name idk.)
keybrdkid said:
I went fishing for the first time north of me, delray --> lake worth on a kayaka. i was surprised how deep it got so fast, their drop off is much closer in the ours down here. The best way to catch hoo's are always using chum to bring them in, then a cast net. Otherwise, i find single small gold hooks tipped with something tend to work better than sabiki string hooks. If you're targeting kings, always have wire leader. If i'm floating a live bait on the surface, i usually have a wire leader. For your braid --> fluorocarbon, learn the FG knot, it's the only one you should be using, and replace your braid on a yearly basis if you fish regularly. Regarding the sinker, I actually meant to say egg sinker, but a bank would work just fine. i use a swivel and just put it above the swivel so the fish can swim around and not get your line fucked. however, i have fished wrecks with larger live baits like blue runner and do use a triple swivel and have a 2 ft mono attachment on one of the swivels that i can just interchange the bank sinkers depending on the current and then a 15-20ft leader for the live bait not he other prong of the triple swivel. You can still catch hogs on a chicken rig i'm sure. I like to tip all my jigs, even vertical jigs, with a little bit of something, like bonito or squid. vertical jigs, you don't need as much to tip it though because it's mainly the action that attracts the fish. and yea, i can imagine getting live bait, especially ballyhoo, on a head boat gets tricky
Walchit said:
My buddies and I will be staying in an ice cabin on Red lake next weekend. http://www.portavilla.com/villawp/fish-houses/4-man-salem-ice-cabins/ I've never stayed in one before so I won't have much of a reference, but I'll let you know how things work out.
I know that Red lake is a pretty good bet for walleye action, it also has big northern and its crappie population is really coming back. If you're making a long trip up here though, you might want to look into Lake of the Woods. It's a much more diverse and productive fishery. Decide soon though - weekend rentals book early.
Walchit said:
I haven't run into any jumbo perch, but Pike bay has a metric shit ton of decent size ones. They seem to be really hungry and stupid from my experience too.
Walchit said:
When I first moved to KS I went to a local hole and asked what the were catching...."just a few perch", they said. I got all excited until they pulled up the stringer...."them are just gills"...lol
muskymojo said:
On my bucket list to stay 3 or 4 days on the ice at LOTW or Red. I've done overnights in my portable. Walleyes are hard to come by around here.
New York State has delicious Bluegill and Yellow Perch. I'm not a big fan of filleting anyway, but it is certainly a waste of too much good meat with the panfish. I just cut the heads off, gut them and scale them. I find that my family and friends are generally too wussy to eat around the bones, so more fish for meWalchit said:
I love this guy.
No homo.
No homo.
I have fishing blue balls. Fucking weather!!