Monthly Archives: January 2015

What Are Otiliths and How Do Biologists Use Them To Determine Ages of Fish?

Biologists use otiliths to determine the age of fish
from The Fishing Wire

Ever wonder how biologists figure out how old a fish is and how fast it’s growing? Here’s how they do it, from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission.

Otoliths show fish ages

Otoliths show fish ages

Pictured is an otolith from a largemouth bass. The bottom is the cross-section, revealing the rings of this 8-year-old fish.

Age is one of the most important pieces of data researchers collect about both freshwater and saltwater fish. Biologists use bones in the inner ear of the fish called otoliths, or ear stones, to determine how old an individual fish is. These bones have rings very much like a tree trunk, and every year environmental triggers cause a new ring to form. Biologists remove the otoliths from the fish and count the rings. There are several things researchers can gather from this information.

Size at age: Size at age graphs are created by comparing a fish’s age to its length. This tells researchers how fast the fish are growing and at what age they become big enough to catch. The information from size at age can be used by management officials as part of the decision making process on length limits and to evaluate the quality of the food sources and habitat in a water body.

Year Classes: Researchers can also use age data to follow groups of fish born each year called, year classes. For example, biologists observed large year classes of bass following drawdowns on lakes Toho and Kissimmee. These fish went on to produce many trophy bass and biologists were able to document long-term improvements resulting from management practices.

Mortality: Biologists can estimate the rate that fish die from the number of individuals collected from each year class. This is used to predict how many fish will be available to anglers in future years.

Largemouth bass can reach 16 years old in Florida. After about 8 pounds, some say you can guess the age at about a year per pound. This is nothing more than a good guess though, as FWRI biologists have seen 10 pounders that range from just 4 to 14 years old. Black crappie can make it to 10 but rarely make it past 6 years old. The same goes for most of the bream, like bluegill and shellcracker.

Wildlife Seen from A Deer Stand

You never know what you will see from a deer stand. Friday morning I was settled in my climbing tree stand before daylight, waiting on a deer to wander by. For the next couple of hours I got a show I did not expect.

At about 7:15 two squirrels came out of a hollow tree near me and went through their morning stretches then headed to the ground to look for breakfast. Every time I watch gray squirrels I am amazed at how they can climb down a tree upside down. And I remember being told there is not a gray hair on them, and searching the next one I shot. They have white, black and brown hair but no gray hair, although from a distance they look gray.

Then I saw movement to my right and eased my rifle up. A gray coyote came into sight about 60 yards away, easing along looking for his breakfast, too. I got my scope on him for a few seconds and probably should have pulled the trigger, but he was moving, I didn’t want to spook any deer that might be nearby, and he just looked too pretty to shoot.

After the coyote went out of sight I settled down again and checked my watch. It was almost 8:00. Immediately I caught a flicker of movement to my left, the direction the coyote had gone and I assumed it was him coming back. I was wrong and was amazed when a bobcat came up the ridge.

I have been in the woods a lot in the past 55 years and this is just the second bobcat I have ever seen. The first one came out onto a pipeline I was watching for deer, sitting on a stand my Uncle Adron had put me on at daylight. I was about 16 years old so it was at least 45 years ago, but I still remember thinking how big the cat looked. It was about 100 yards from me and I did not have a scope on my rifle back then, so I could not get a real good look at it.

The one Friday was about 30 yards away and I got a close look at it through my scope. It looked like it was about three feet long from the tip of its nose to the end of its stubby, short tail. The legs were long and the cat seemed to be built for speed. I thought it was about two feet high at the shoulder. The tawny brown fur had dark splotches all over it, with dark stripes on its legs.

The cat crossed the logging road I was watching then headed through the thick pines. I was still thinking about how pretty it was, and how it and the coyotes had probably killed all the rabbits I had seen on the farm over the summer when I heard a deer blow down the hill from where the bobcat had disappeared. I guess it was spooked by the cat but I got my gun ready.

A few minutes later a yearling came up the trail and crossed the road. I got a good look at it through my scope but decided it was just too small to shoot. I like killing a yearling each year and cutting it up into roasts, but I have some in the freezer so I didn’t shoot, hoping a bigger deer with more meat on its bones was following it. No such luck.

Then, about 30 minutes later, another flicker of movement to my left drew my attention. A beautiful red fox came slinking through the woods, going the opposite way the coyote had traveled earlier. I had seen the same fox a few days earlier right at dark but the red color really stood out in the brighter daylight. I watched it through my scope for a minute or so until it went out of sight.

Around 9:30 the two squirrels were back near the hollow tree. I was surprised they were still around after all the predators that like to eat them came by. Another squirrel chattered its warning cry about 100 yards down the hill and the two near me froze, hugging the tree they were in.

A red tail hawk sailed in and lit nearby. I watched its head swivel around looking for something to swoop down on. It stayed put for a couple of minutes then flew on to another hunting spot. After a few minutes the two squirrels near me started moving around again.

I love watching wildlife even if I don’t get to kill any deer while hunting. Seeing a bobcat made my year since they are nocturnal. They are not real rare around here but they mostly move and hunt at night so it is unusual to see one. I am told trappers catch them regularly.

Coyotes are not native here and are a problem. They kill a lot of wildlife, including deer fawns. A pack of them can kill a grown deer and a bobcat can kill a deer too. Foxes kill a lot of song and game birds as well as squirrels and rabbits. Bobcat, hawks and coyotes also take small game and song birds.

But all these animals, predator and prey, are part of nature, just as I am. I think they have their place and have a hard time killing them just to kill them. I would rather share the game animals and enjoy watching the other predators hunting for food, just like I am.

Gunfight Rules

Got this in email – I do my best to follow them. Do you have any to add? Post them in comments.
!

Gunfight Rules

In a gunfight, the most important rule is ….. HAVE A GUN!!!

These are shooting tips from various Concealed Carry Instructors.
If you own a gun, you will appreciate these rules… If not, you should get one, learn how to use it and learn the rules.

RULES
A : Guns have only two enemies: rust and politicians.

B : Its always better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.

C : Cops carry guns to protect themselves, not you.

D : Never let someone or something that threatens you get inside arm’s length.

E : Never say “I’ve got a gun.” If you need to use deadly force, the first sound they should hear is the safety clicking off or the hammer cocking.

F : The average response time of a 911 call is 23 minutes; the response time of a .357 is 1400 feet per second.

G : The most important rule in a gunfight is: Always Win – there is no such thing as a fair fight. Always Win – cheat if necessary. Always Win – 2nd place doesn’t count.

H : Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets …. You may get killed with your own gun, but he’ll have to beat you to death with it because it will be empty.

I : If you’re in a gun fight:
(a) If you’re not shooting, you should be loading.
(b) If you’re not loading, you should be moving.
(c) If you’re not moving, you’re dead.

J : In a life and death situation, do something …. it may be wrong, but do something!

K : If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. Nonsense! If you have a gun, what do you have to be paranoid about?

L : You can say “stop” or any other word, but a large bore muzzle pointed at someone’s head is pretty much a universal language; and, you won’t have to press 1 for Spanish/Mexican or 2 for Chinese or 3 for Arabic.

M : Never leave an enemy behind. If you have to shoot, shoot to kill. In court, yours will be the only testimony.

N : You cannot save the planet, but you may be able to save yourself and your family.
If you believe in the 2nd Amendment, forward to others you know who also believe.

Are Tail-Spinners Good for Cold Water Fishing?

Try a Tail-Spinner for Cold Water Angling

Today’s feature comes to us from Lee McClellan at Kentucky DFWR.
by Lee McClellan
from The Fishing Wire

This is the sixth and final installment of a series of articles titled “Fall Fishing Festival” profiling the productive fishing on Kentucky’s lakes, rivers and streams in fall.

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Some lures on the market have stood the test of time, catching fish decade after decade. The Dardevle spoon, the Panther Martin and Rooster Tail in-line spinners, the Jitterbug and the Hula Popper still catch fish today like they did when swing music topped the charts.

The tailspinner is another old-time lure that still catches fish consistently, and one of the best winter lures for black bass.

“The tailspinner is one of the only lures to catch a documented 10-pound smallmouth bass and a documented 10-pound largemouth bass,” said Chad Miles, administrative director for the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

They are not just bass lures, however. They also catch sauger and walleye below locks and dams during the winter months. Trout also hit tailspinners as do white bass during their spring spawning runs.

The lure is a simple design; a piece of lead impregnated with wire and a small Indiana or hammered Colorado spinner blade attached behind it with a treble hook underneath.

A Bowling Green businessman named Cecil Pedigo began tinkering with a tailspinner design in the 1960s. He employed a triangular-shaped piece of lead with a concave face to help the lure sink slower, along with a hooked dressed in marabou behind a small Indiana spinner blade.

He called it the Spinrite, still held in legendary regard among smallmouth anglers in Kentucky and Tennessee. The Uncle Josh Company purchased the Spinrite from Pedigo and discontinued the lure many years ago, but a Kentucky company is bringing the lure back, appearing in tackle stores in the state soon. Tailspinners are also found in tackle stores around major reservoirs in Kentucky and from most outdoor retailers.

The late Billy Westmoreland, considered by many the greatest reservoir smallmouth angler of all time, caught a 10-pound, 1-ounce monster smallmouth on a Spinrite in late winter while slicing points with one on Dale Hollow Lake. He also hooked a smallmouth on Christmas Day of 1970 that he believed weighed between 12 and 14 pounds, larger than the world record. The Spinrite popped out of the fish’s mouth during a long fight. The memory haunted him for many years.

Slicing points with a tailspinner is a highly effective and easy presentation for black bass in winter. Fire a tailspinner to a main lake or secondary point and let it flutter down to bass suspended near the point. Reel just enough to keep the line taut and watch intently. Set the hook if you see your line jump, go slack or you no longer feel the blade of the tailspinner thumping in your hand.

This presentation is deadly on difficult-to-fish steep points that grow in importance to bass when water temperatures drop to 50 degrees and below. Fish the front and both sides of the point.

A ½-ounce tailspinner is the most popular, but a ¾-ounce works well in windy conditions or on deep lakes. These weights work best for smallmouth and spotted bass on our clear, mountainous lakes such as Lake Cumberland or Laurel River Lake.

A ¼-ounce tailspinner works fantastic for sleepy, lethargic winter largemouth bass in shallower reservoirs such as Barren River Lake, Green River Lake, Yatesville Lake, Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. Largemouth bass are the toughest of the black bass to catch during winter.

The late Ted Crowell, former assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, used to catch largemouth bass from Lake Barkley in winter on a Spinrite. He said many of the fish were so fat they weighed 5 pounds, but were only 18 or 19 inches long.

“You can cast it out and fish it like a spinnerbait over grass or mud flats,” Miles said. “The flats near deep water often hold big largemouths in winter.”

The compact design of a tailspinner makes it easy to throw one a country mile. Increased casting distance lends more stealth for the low, clear winter conditions on reservoirs.

Extra casting distance also comes in handy for walleye or sauger below locks and dams in winter as well as during the spring white bass runs. Sauger strike tailspinners fished just off the bottom below locks and dams on the Ohio and Kentucky rivers during the coldest days of the year.

Walleye in the tailwaters below Lake Cumberland, Green River, Carr Creek and Nolin River lakes strike tailspinners as well.

Smart anglers fishing below dams replace the treble hooks with a sharp single hook to reduce lures lost on the snag-prone bottom common in these areas. This is a good idea for those throwing tailspinners for trout in tailwaters as well.

White bass running in the headwaters of Nolin River, Taylorsville or Herrington lakes strike tailspinners with abandon, often soon after the lure splashes down.

Tie on a tailspinner this winter and let this old war horse work its magic.

Author Lee McClellan is a nationally award-winning associate editor for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He is a life-long hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth bass fishing.

Auld Lang Syne and Remembering People

The song “Auld Lang Syne asks “Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?” The beginning of the new year is a good time to remember our past and people that influenced our lives. They should not be forgotten.

Many people impact us over our lives and affect the way we think and the things we like to do. Most important are our parents and family but it branches out to people we go to school with, work with, and meet in clubs and church.

Do you ever stop and think about what influenced you to love fishing? All kids seem to instinctively like fishing and enjoy going, but many never get that chance. And others seem to turn away from fishing as they grow up. But without the chance to go fishing growing up, few will become fishermen after they become adults.

Although I had only one brother, my father and mother had many brothers and sisters and those aunts and uncles influenced me in many ways. Most of them lived within a few miles of where I grew up so I had lots of contact with them all the time.

Uncle Adron, my mother’s youngest brother of five, took me deer hunting my first time when I was 14 years old. He also took me fishing and introduced me to Crème worms, the first plastic worms to come out, back in the 1950s. He taught me where to fish them, how to fish them, and ways to fight and land bass that hit.

Uncle Mayhu lived in Virginia but made annual summer trips to Georgia. I always looked forward to his visits because I got to go fishing with him almost every day he was in town. He and Uncle Adron fished together and let me go along on most of the trips to local farm ponds and lakes. Uncle Adron had permission to fish almost every pond in the county and we had many memorable trips.

I also got to go to New Port News, Virginia and visit Uncle Mayhu most years. He took me to tidal rivers and creeks to catch catfish and bass as well as fishing for saltwater fish in the James River and Chesapeake Bay. Those saltwater trips were great and I was amazed at how many fish we caught, and the variety. Many I had never seen or even heard of in central Georgia since there was no saltwater fishing within many miles of where I grew up.

Uncle J.D. owned a hardware store and he sold fishing and hunting supplies there. I bought many of my fishing and hunting supplies there at a very steep discount. It seemed something extra was always included after my purchase, too.

He also had a farm where we shot doves and fished in his pond. He gave me and army surplus gas mask bag the first time I hunted there when I was about eight years old and I still use it to this day, over fifty years later, to carry essentials when I go deer hunting. Old and ragged now, I carry it for the memories although newer more fancy bags are left at home.

Uncle Roger was a salesman for a big outdoor distribution company and always seemed to have something for me when I visited. From boxes of bullets to a brand new bass plug, he seemed to delight in my thrill of getting those items and using them. He did not fish much but loved to hear about the fish I caught on things he had given me.

Uncle Walter, daddy’s brother, took me saltwater fishing the first time I ever went. He loved going to Carrabelle on Florida’s panhandle and fish for trout. We went and stayed a week and the wind blew so bad we were able to go out only one day, but I fished in the boat canal and caught dozens of topsail catfish.

Those men will live in my memory as long as I am alive. I cherish the things they taught me and the trips I took with them. And they helped instill the love of fishing I have that will also live in me as long as I live. My mother loved fishing, too, and was probably the biggest influence on me, and that is a strong motivation in my life.

Family is important. At the end of the year, remember people who have influenced you and honor their memory. In fact, do that every day, not just at the end of the year.

Christmas Time Growing Up Country

Christmas was always a wondrous time growing up in rural Georgia in the 1950s and 60s. We had little compared to today but we had great fun and I have fantastic memories of those Christmases long past. I hope today’s kids are experiencing things they will always remember, too.

Until I was 12 years old I lived in an old farm house that was heated by an oil burning stove. It sat in front of the old fireplace that still had a mantle so that is where we hung our stockings. And they were stockings. We always talked mom into letting us have one of her worn out stockings – and back then, they were stockings, one for each leg – to hang. It would hold a lot!

Oranges and apples were always in them and I enjoyed them, but more fun were the boxes of sparklers, caps for the cap gun I played with for years, some fish hooks and sinkers, and other small items. Sometimes there were small toys, too, but they were usually quickly lost.

Santa always left some great outdoor gifts. Every year I got a block of ten boxes of .22 bullets and several boxes of .410 shells. I got a used .22 rifle when I was about 8 years old and it was great, but when I was 12 there was a brand new Remington semiautomatic .22 with a scope on it under the tree. I still have that gun and shoot squirrels with it.

The .410 shotgun was a hand-me-down and it killed many squirrels and a few doves and quail. My brother still has that gun. He got it when I started using dad’s 12 gauge shotguns. He had three, an old pump Winchester he had growing up, and two semiautomatic guns.

That old pump gun was temperamental. It had a hammer and a very light trigger. So light that sometimes it would fire when a shell was loaded and the slide slammed shut. One day I was sitting on a tree lying in the woods and bumped the butt against it. Fortunately the gun was pointing straight up since it fired. I learned then to never cock the hammer until I was ready to shoot it.

I still have that old pump and the two semiautomatic shotguns and use them when I get to go bird hunting.

Family and friends were very important and we always spent time with my uncles and aunts and dozens of cousins. We usually visited them the days after Christmas since we were in Florida the week before Christmas. One of my aunts lived in Ocala and dad’s mother lived with her. We would head down there the day after school holidays started and spend several days with them.

I loved Florida, from visiting Silver Springs to picking oranges right off the tree. Strange thing was, the oranges in our stockings looked a lot like the ones we had picked and brought home. I also loved digging in the soft sandy soil in my aunt’s back yard. I spent hours digging holes – and filling them back up.

Christmas lights were great and we got to see a good many on our trip since we drove straight through both ways, and it was about a 12 hour drive back then. We passed one house in south Georgia that had a very pretty yard and a pond in front of it. My mom said it was her dream house. They had some lights around the house that the pond reflected and they were beautiful.

Christmas lights were very subdued back then compared to now. No light icicles hanging from eaves, no big lighted statues in the yard. Most house had a single Christmas tree in front of a window. A few had lighted trees outside and very few had other lights. Many houses did have manger displays, the real reason for the season, and it seems it was more honored back then.

I did get to go hunting during the holidays, from trips by myself to kill squirrels to running my friends pack of beagles for rabbits. I loved both. Deer hunting was a few years in the future back then. I didn’t go deer hunting until I was 16, just a couple of years after the first season opened in Georgia.

We also hunted Christmas decorations. An old abandoned field a couple of miles from our house had a lot of cedar trees in it and they were perfect Christmas trees. We also went to an old home site and collected Smilax, which I found out later is green briar. It stays green all winter and was thick at the old home site. We made wreaths out of it and also framed our door with it. It was very pretty since everything else was pretty drab after the leaves fell off the pecan trees in the yard.

I hope you have some great Christmas memories and make even more this year.

What Is Swimbait Bassing?

Swimbait Bassing

By Frank Sargeant
from The Fishing Wire

There’s not much that better imitates a shad than a swimbait; many of them are nearly an exact imitation of the favorite food of bass in most of North America in shape, and their swimming tail closely resembles the movement of a free-swimming shad. Add to this that the soft plastic body feels edible, and the single hook is much less likely to catch weeds than the trebles of crankbaits and lipless lures and you get an idea why the swimbait is a favorite nearly everywhere in bass country.

Use swimbaits for bass

Use swimbaits for bass

Big swimbaits often fool big fish, winter or summer, throughout shad country.

They can be particularly effective in early winter in the South and Southwest, where early freezes knock back the thickest weed stands, leaving tall but scattered springs of cover that’s prime country for swimbaiting.

Bass particularly like to prowl the scattered weed stands at the edge of deeper water; these are areas where shad congregate in winter, and anglers who motor these edges and watch their sonar will eventually find spots where there are lots of shad either on the edge or nearby. These are ideal areas to try swimbaits.

Swimbaits vary widely in size, from little 3/16 ounce models barely three inches long to big 8-inchers that would just about choke a striped bass. The best for all-around bassing are typically 4 to 6 inches long, in silver, white or steel gray colors.

Varying the weight of the jig head or the swimbait hook (some have sliding weights that pinch on the shaft) makes all the difference on the depth at which the lure runs and the speed at which you’ll want to fish it. With a light head, a big bait can only get deep if you fish it slowly, and many days in winter that’s exactly what the fish want.

Swimbaits come in a variety of colors

Swimbaits come in a variety of colors

Molded swimbaits like these from Bimini Bay/Tsunami are more durable than those that are designed to be fished on a bare jig head.

At other times, though, the fish may be more active and you’ll do better with a slightly heavier head, allowing you to fish the bait faster and still get it down to where the fish are. At times, the best speed is dead slow, literally crawling it along bottom.

One of the nice things about these baits is that you can fish the same lure at a wide variety of depths, from just below the surface to right along the bottom, just by varying the retrieve speed.

Good swimbaits will tell you when you’re in the sweet spot for cranking speed–many of them actually cause the rod to throb as the tail wobbles back and forth. It’s a much less pronounced feel than you get with a crankbait, but it’s clearly there when you get the speed right.

Bass typically just swim up and inhale the swimbait–you’ll feel a strong bump, and that tells you it’s time to set the hook. Unlike with crankbaits, there’s less danger of pulling the hooks free with a quick hookset of the large, single hook.

The Shadalicious from Strike King can be fished over a tube jig head, making the lead invisible.

Shadalicious from Strike King

Shadalicious from Strike King


While swimbaits often work best in scattered grass at this time of year, they can also be great open-water baits when anglers find bass suspended near shad schools over the main channel. This action often occurs near the upstream tips of shell bars, and blind casting in these areas with heavier swimbait heads sometimes connects, but the best bet is to ease along watching the sonar until you spot large schools of bait, then fish those areas hard.

In open water, the retrieve that works may be a bit more aggressive–a series of pull-and-drop actions can sometimes turn the fish on when they ignore a steady retrieve.

Storm, Strike King, YUM, Tsunami and many other companies make good swimbaits–buy a variety of colors and sizes, along with a good assortment of jig head weights, and you’ve got just about everything needed for successful winter angling through the month of December in much of largemouth bass country south of Mason-Dixon.

Fishing Tackle Suggestions for New Fishermen

I received the email below from Bob:

Good Morning,
I was on your website and thought that I would write to you for your suggestions and recommendations. It is the Christmas season so I am sure there are a lot of deals out there as well. If you have recommendations as to where to purchase for the best buy that would be an added plus.

I live on a small freshwater lake (Honeoye Lake) in upstate NY http://www.fishingnotes.com/lakeinfo.php?id=23327 and would like to get into fishing. I am a “novice” in the fishing department so that is why I am writing. Our lake is great for large/small mouth bass, walleye, perch and sunfish. What would be your recommendations as brand and models to purchase and why you recommend these:

· Fishing rod –
· Fishing reel –
· Specific Lures for fishing –

Thanks again for your help. Have a great day.

Bob

This is my response – What do you think?

Hi Bob

For someone just starting fishing and wanting to fish for a variety of species you mentioned I would get a mid-range priced spinning outfit. I like the Shimano Sedona reel. They are about $60 and I have four I have used for years and they have held up well. Team it with a medium action fast taper rod like the Browning Cherrywood rod for about $25. There are much more expensive rods and I really like St. Croix, but to start a cheaper rod will serve you and you can get a better idea of what you like.

I have both listed on my rod and reel page from Bass Pro Shops at

https://fishing-about.com/my-favorite-rod-and-reelfishing-products/

I use fluorocarbon line but for a beginner I would recommend a line like the Trilene XL in eight to ten pound test. Be careful putting it on and it it is twisted let it out behind a boat slowly moving and reel it in slowly or if you don’t have a boat you can untwist it by stretching it out on the ground and reeling it in slowly.

https://fishing-about.com/fishing-line-i-use-and-like/

For lures, keep it simple. A jig head worm and a weightless Senko and small jig and pig all catch smallmouth and largemouth.

https://fishing-about.com/soft-plastic-baits-i-use-and-like/

I would add a couple of small spinnerbaits and crankbaits, too. And a small top water popper like the Rico or Pop-R are good.

https://fishing-about.com/crankbaits-i-like-and-use/

For pan fish live bait is hard to beat and an outfit like this will let you rig a hook and small slit shot to fish them. You might want to drop down to six or even four pound line for them. And if your water is real clear and not much cover, I would fish for bass with six pound line, too.

Hope this helps – let me know if you have other questions.

Ronnie