Fishing!

[mainbutter]

Well Gander Mountain was having a pretty good sale this week on a reel I've been giving serious thought to picking up, so I went ahead and decided that $30 off was enough to make me drive around to two different stores until I found one that was in stock!

I ended up picking up an Abu Garcia C3 6501 baitcasting reel and a brand spankin new musky rod(nothing special, cheapest one they had), going to try my hand at musky fishing this summer up in Ontario, and if I can find a buddy with a boat even some time out here in Minnesota. Also this will be a great reel to pair up with a catfish rod(soon to come) when I hit up some local rivers for flatheads.

Now that the snow is beginning to melt and the ice is beginning to break up on the lakes, I'm getting extremely antsy about open-water season. If only they didn't close the season to most sport fish in the spring! I'll satisfy myself with channel cats and carp for a while until the water water warms up and various species open for the new season.

On Friday I'm heading to Florida for 9 days(boss giving me some time off too!) to visit family, and the grandparents HAPPEN to have a condo on the beach.. which means shore fishing for shark/snook/redfish! It might even be prime time for the beginning of snook migration, which could very well mean incredible fishing. I still have yet to catch my "big" shark, the two big ones I hooked into last year were more than my tackle could handle. One snapped my 50lb test and the other bit through my 100lb monofilament leader, which I was told was nearly bite-proof even from sharks.. I guess that's why the term "nearly" was applied. Hopefully this year, with my brother along for the first time, we'll have increased odds.

There's nothing that gives me quite a rush as pulling a shark up on the beach by its tail for a quick unhooking/picture before walking it back into the water. Especially the med-small guys, they're big enough to give you quite a chomp and small enough to be REAL QUICK if they're still green when you land 'em. Snake handling reflexes come into play there So far I've remained unscathed, and I want to keep it that way(unlike snake bites which I couldn't care less about)

Just had to share my excitement (and a bit of stir-craziness b/c of snow and ice delaying open water season) about new fishing equipment.

If there's anything that's more addicting that reptiles for me, it's fishing. If only I could somehow make my living by being a fisherman/reptile breeder, I'd be the happiest man alive.

[nixer]

If there's anything that's more addicting that reptiles for me, it's fishing. If only I could somehow make my living by being a fisherman/reptile breeder, I'd be the happiest man alive.

you and me both!

[llovelace]

What part of Fl are you coming to?

[mainbutter]

sanibel island

[joepythons]

Well Gander Mountain was having a pretty good sale this week on a reel I've been giving serious thought to picking up, so I went ahead and decided that $30 off was enough to make me drive around to two different stores until I found one that was in stock!

I ended up picking up an Abu Garcia C3 6501 baitcasting reel and a brand spankin new musky rod(nothing special, cheapest one they had), going to try my hand at musky fishing this summer up in Ontario, and if I can find a buddy with a boat even some time out here in Minnesota. Also this will be a great reel to pair up with a catfish rod(soon to come) when I hit up some local rivers for flatheads.

Now that the snow is beginning to melt and the ice is beginning to break up on the lakes, I'm getting extremely antsy about open-water season. If only they didn't close the season to most sport fish in the spring! I'll satisfy myself with channel cats and carp for a while until the water water warms up and various species open for the new season.

On Friday I'm heading to Florida for 9 days(boss giving me some time off too!) to visit family, and the grandparents HAPPEN to have a condo on the beach.. which means shore fishing for shark/snook/redfish! It might even be prime time for the beginning of snook migration, which could very well mean incredible fishing. I still have yet to catch my "big" shark, the two big ones I hooked into last year were more than my tackle could handle. One snapped my 50lb test and the other bit through my 100lb monofilament leader, which I was told was nearly bite-proof even from sharks.. I guess that's why the term "nearly" was applied. Hopefully this year, with my brother along for the first time, we'll have increased odds.

There's nothing that gives me quite a rush as pulling a shark up on the beach by its tail for a quick unhooking/picture before walking it back into the water. Especially the med-small guys, they're big enough to give you quite a chomp and small enough to be REAL QUICK if they're still green when you land 'em. Snake handling reflexes come into play there So far I've remained unscathed, and I want to keep it that way(unlike snake bites which I couldn't care less about)

Just had to share my excitement (and a bit of stir-craziness b/c of snow and ice delaying open water season) about new fishing equipment.

If there's anything that's more addicting that reptiles for me, it's fishing. If only I could somehow make my living by being a fisherman/reptile breeder, I'd be the happiest man alive.

Now you have me getting ancey wanting to go fishing .Good luck catching your shark

[Little B-Py]

Now you have me getting ancey wanting to go fishing .Good luck catching your shark

Me too, I love to creek fish at my buddies place, nothing huge but typicall some 2' gar and some 1/2 to 3/4lb smallies which is still fun. He has a bluff we camp at that is about 30' deep so there are some nice sized catfish on the bottom.

[isorokko]

Well, fishing is about the most addicting past time activity I can thin of.. Up here in Finland we also get a lot of muskies, or northern pike as we call them here. If the muskies are anything like their northern cousins, you'll want to get some Rapala lures (yeah, from Finland ) and catch some of the big ones!

[mainbutter]

We have both muskies and northern pike here in the Northern United States and also in Canada, they look very similar but behave differently.

I am a huge fan of Rapalas, by far my favorite lure to date. Also my girlfriend is half Finnish, I keep bugging her that we need to take a trip to visit her relatives some summer and get some fishing in!

Just a note: The Finnish immigrants to the United States settled in Minnesota, which is where I live, because it looks so much like their home country.

[isorokko]

Yeah, I know about the immigrants up in your part
I actually spent 5 years of my life in TX, quite a lot of finns down there also, especially near Dallas due to the big Nokia offices...

You should definately come over for some fishing, it is great over here. TONS of nice clean lakes an a bunch of coastline, both filled with northern pike.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

hey, I will trade you a 40 lb WAHOO for one of those 25 lb feshwater catfish you have up there!!!!