Making the most of your time - Fishing Safety rules everyone should know Before you go fishing, you need to make certain that all of your equipment is in safe working order. This should be done before you even consider going out to any waterfront. You need to check several things while looking over your various pieces of equipment. First, you need to check your fishing rod and reel. Both of these pieces should be in top condition, with the rod having no cracks or breaks. If your rod separates, you need to make certain that it is very secure when it is built together. The reel itself should operate smoothly, with the line coiling without tangles. If the line is tangling quite a bit within the reel, you will need to unbind the line and replace it with new. If this behavior continues, you should consider a new reel. [Read More]

Cincinnati catfishing Bait Yes! I did say French Fries as bait! I have caught channel cats up river and right in the downtown Cincinnati area on FRENCH FRIES. I did read posting from a guy that caught a large Flathead on fries by one of the restaurants on the river in Newport Ky. Any fast food place that sells fries works. If possible pick some up when heading to your spot so they are on the warm side. That allows the grease to get into the water to make a scent trail easier. I had great success in February 2004 using chunks of steak for bait. I caught 8 bluecats with it, largest being 13 pounds. It did not matter if it was raw or grilled with seasoning. So if you have some scrapes left over from a cookout just put it in a small freezer bag. If you have a friend that works in a restaurant that has steak, ask them to make up doggie bag of scraps for you. It stays on the hook very well when casting and the fish have a hard time just pecking it off the hook. All of those eight fish were hooked, none swallowed it. So I was able to released them to grow bigger for the next season. [Read More]

Do Fish See in Color Fish do indeed perceive color. Every fly fisher knows that or ought to know that. Like humans, the retina of a fish have rods and cones. Cones are used in the day and rods at night. Color vision evolved to help fish identify potential food. In the environment of the fish, the background will either be the bottom, the water itself, or if looking up for food it could be the sky. The bottom is normally tannish olive to green. When looking across the water, the background appears pale silver blue. But if the water is off color due to algae or high water one must take that into consideration as well. Skylight becomes more important at dusk and dawn when it contains more reds. Thus for opportunistically feeding game fish, flies with bright or contrasting colors and/or a lot of flash will make them stand out against the above mentioned backgrounds. The Mickey Finn, tied with yellow and red, and a silver body is one of the most effective attractor patterns. As for dry fly attractors , the Royal Wulff is still hard to beat, with its red and peacock body and white wings. Black flies, because of their strong silhouette also are easy for fish to spot. Let's not forget patterns that contain strands of flashabou or other tinsel that reflect light when stripped or while drifting through the current are easy for fish to spot. [Read More]

Kenny Malone Caught A Big California Bass
Kenny Malone fishes in California and has always dreamed of catching a really big bass. When he landed this monster it showed a weight of 21.96 pounds on his Berkley....