Monthly Archives: June 2019

Cody Hahner ST. CROIX PROFILE

ST. CROIX PROFILE:

FLW Pro/STC Pro Staffer, Cody Hahner
Press Release

Park Falls, WI (June 4, 2019) – Cody Hahner, age 26, is one of the youngest St. Croix pro-staffers. An electrical worker from Wausau, Wisconsin with a penchant for muskies, Hahner is also an up-and-coming bass pro who broke onto the on the FLW Tour last year with a rousing rookie season. He cashed a few checks and qualified for the prestigious 2018 Forest Wood Cup.

Hahner came late to bass fishing, growing up – as many Midwesterners do – with a love of walleyes and a serious musky obsession. “It wasn’t until I learned that colleges had bass fishing clubs that I made the switch,” he recalls. “Once I realized I could fish and travel while still in school, I chose to attend the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, because they had a reputable team. Everything just snowballed from there.”

After graduating college and joining the FLW, Hahner got off to a fast start during his inaugural season. The sophomore jinx has him off to a slower beginning this year. Even so, Hahner remains determined to excel on the circuit.

“Nothing a little hard work can’t fix,” he says without hesitation. “I’ll probably head home at some point and fish for bass and musky on my home waters. Once I start figuring out those fish, I’ll be back fishing the trail with renewed confidence. I absolutely love the competition in bass fishing, but taking an occasional breather to simply focus on the fun of fishing is one trick I use to refresh and get back in the groove.”

That’s some wise thinking. Even at a relatively young age, Hahner is displaying some of the traits most successful veteran pros seem to have in common, including a passion for hard work and a willingness to adjust and try new approaches. He’s also really serious about choosing his fishing rods.

“These are your main tools,” he says pointedly, “so you need high quality, durability and sensitivity and a fair price,” he explains. “That’s one reason I like St. Croix Rods. They have the right tools for so many specific tasks, and yet many can also cross over from one technique to another. That gives me the flexibility and versatility to really stay in the game.”

Take largemouth bass, for example. Hahner points to a 7’ 4” medium-heavy moderate Mojo Bass Glass casting rod as his all-around favorite. “It’s a crankbait rod that can also be used for chatterbaits,” he notes. “It’s comfortable to hold, super accurate, has significant backbone and loads with a slight delay, which is perfect for lures that require the fish to really get a good hold before the hook is set.”

For bronzebacks, Hahner prefers a 7’ 6, medium-light, extra-fast Legend Elite series rod, noting it’s super-sensitive and perfect for throwing spy baits and hair jigs. “Even with the spy baits, which have tiny treble hooks, when I stick a fish on that rod it stays buttoned,” he says.

As for those muskies, Hahner is dialed in on two preferred choices. He likes a 9’ Premier extra-heavy rod for tossing large rubber baits like Lake X Tullibees and Lake X Toads. For working slow-moving big plastics and blade baits, however, his choice is an 8’6” extra-heavy fast Mojo Musky series rod.

For other millennial anglers hoping to join the pro fishing trail, St. Croix’s young pro-staffer offers three simple tips:

“First, don’t fret too much about the business end of things, that will mostly take care of itself as you get established. Second, be genuine to those you meet. Doing so will help you go a lot further in this sport than you otherwise might. Lastly, get on the water as much as you can to continue gaining experience and learning from your mistakes. That’s how the best pros get ahead and stay there.”

That’s sage advice from a budding professional who’s already wiser than his years.

#stcroixrods

About St. Croix Rod

Headquartered in Park Falls, Wisconsin, St. Croix has been proudly producing the “Best Rods on Earth” for over 70 years. Combining state-of-the-art manufacturing processes with skilled craftsmanship, St. Croix is the only major producer to still build rods entirely from design through manufacturing. The company remains family-owned and operates duplicate manufacturing facilities in Park Falls and Fresnillo, Mexico. With popular trademarked series such as Legend®, Legend Xtreme®, Avid®, Premier®, Tidemaster®, Imperial®, Triumph® and Mojo®, St. Croix is revered by all types of anglers from around the world.

What Is Your Biggest Bass?

What is your biggest bass? Do you have a goal, a hoped-for weight to catch? I have always wanted to catch a 12 pounder, but that hope is fading. I landed a 9-pound, 7-ounce bass in a February club tournament in 1991 at Jackson Lake, but have never broken it.

Part of the problem is where I fish. Big lakes where we have club tournaments seldom produce big bass anymore. A trip shiner fishing in Florida or to a lake full of big bass, like Lake Fork in Texas, does not appeal to me. And catching one out of a farm pond does not really challenge me to try to do it.

Back in 1972, a year after Linda and I got married, we spent the month of August at Clarks Hill. We had a month to do that after I was discharged from the Air Force in June and spending most of July in Maryland with her parents. We left Clarks hill in late August to move to Griffin and start teaching here.

One night at dinner with my parents, I said I was going to catch a 12 pounder before we left. After all, I was fishing all day, every day. Daddy said that if I did, he would have it mounted for me. Linda asked how big a bass she had to catch to have it mounted, and he said eight pounds.

Some mornings Linda got up with me and went out fishing. We trolled from my parents big outdrive ski boat, the only boat we had. I would bring her in mid-morning before it got miserably hot but go back out and troll until late afternoon when she went back out with me.

As fishing luck would have it, late one afternoon we trolled across a shallow point that dropped into the Heart Creek Channel. Suddenly her Mitchell rod bowed and the drag on her Mitchell 300 screamed. I stopped the boat as a huge bass came up trying to throw her Hellbender, one of the few plugs available back then.

That bass jumped three more times, scaring us, just knowing it would throw the bait like so many did. When she fought it to the boat I though my trembling hands and shaking legs would keep me from netting it, but somehow, we landed it.

At Raysville Marina that bass weighed eight pounds, ten ounces. Unlike most bass I caught, it did not get smaller after landing it. True to his word, we took it to a taxidermist in Augusta, the same one that mounted my first deer, and daddy paid. I’m not sure which of the three of us was most proud of that fish.

Although I continued to fish every day until time ran out, I never caught a twelve-pound bass, or even came close.

I have lost a couple of bass that would have weighed twelve pounds or more. One fall afternoon in the 1970s at Jackson Lake I hooked a huge bass on a Wiggle Wart crankbait.

It never jumped like Linda’s eight pounder, but when it rolled on top my heart almost stopped. It was the second biggest bass I had ever seen, much bigger than Linda’s. I could tell it was very old by the way its body looked.

The bass did not fight hard. There were no strong runs, just a heavy, steady pull. I fought it several minutes and got it within 10 feet of the boat when it came to the top and turned on its side, giving up.

The fight was over, and I just knew I would land it, but when I pulled on it to get it to the net, the plug just popped out of the fish’s mouth. It lay there for several seconds before rolling over and disappearing into the depths, never to be seen by me again.

The biggest bass I ever hooked was on a private lake near Madison. In college my fraternity had a party there for the weekend. Linda and I were married, and while most of my brothers partied, we went fishing in one of the canoes.

The lake was well managed, and the bluegill were bedding. We caught dozens of big bream casting Mepps #2 spinners for them. But on one cast, my little spinner just stopped. In the clear water I saw it not moving, just sitting by a dark object in the water, and thought I was hung on a stump.

Then it started moving. It was in the lip of a monster bass. My little Mitchell 300 outfit was no match, but I carefully fought it. We could see the bass moving to our left in the water, acting like it did not even know it was hooked.

Then it turned back to the right. The spinner was on that side and a little pressure pulled the small hooks out. It slowly swam off, seeming to laugh at me.

When I told my tale back at the party the pond owners son told me they had caught an released a 17-pound bass in that pond the year before, and they regularly caught and released bass weighing more than ten pounds. I will always wonder just how big the one I lost really was.

Its nice to have goals, even if you never achieve them. I will continue to hope for a 12 pounder and fish every chance I get. Even if it never joins Linda’s eight pounder, my nine pounder and a pair of bass I caught at Oconee in the 1980s that weighted eight pounds, eleven ounces and nine pounds, five ounces on the wall, I will keep trying to land a twelve pounder!

Native Trout Species Returned to an Appalachian Stream

Hundreds of Tennessee’s Only Native Trout Species Returned to an Appalachian Stream
from The Fishing Wire

Native trout being restocked in Tennessee


Chattanooga, Tenn. – Winding under a thick canopy of trees and down a stairstep of boulder-strewn waterfalls, Little Stoney Creek’s descent through Cherokee National Forest is the idyllic picture of Appalachian Mountain splendor.

With its dappled pockets of sunlight and shade and frigid water, this pristine stream is an ideal habitat for Southern Appalachian Brook Trout. Also lovingly referred to by scientists and sport fishers alike as “Brookies,” this region-specific strain of Brook Trout is the Southeast’s only native trout species.

With blue skies patchily peeking through the trees overhead, Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute Reintroduction Biologist Meredith Harris and Reintroduction Assistant Hayley Robinson carefully navigate the stream across moss-slick rocks and trees.

Their progress through the rushing stream is made all the more difficult thanks to the shifting weight of the thick plastic bags they’re carrying. These awkward burdens are filled with water and — most importantly — dozens of two-inch long juvenile Brookies bound for reintroduction into the creek after months of attentive care at the Aquarium’s freshwater science center in Chattanooga.

Harris and Robinson, along with two other reintroduction assistants, Avery Millard and Anna Quintrell, have traveled hundreds of miles to reach this beautiful, remote waterway. Along with representatives from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the U.S. Forest Service and members of Trout Unlimited, the biologists have convened to return 389 juvenile Brookies to waters that are their ancestral birthright.

“You know, today is the day when we really get to see what it’s all about,” Harris says, smiling. “It’s a great day; it’s the best day.”

Despite the treacherous footing, she and Robinson are all smiles as they slosh along, pausing occasionally by patches of comparatively still water. Dipping into their bags, they deposit nets full of baby trout into these calmer pools. As they watch the tiny fish swim away, their expressions mix equal measures of pride and joy.

“We work really hard back at the facility and spend a lot of time working with these animals,” Harris says. “To be able to come out here and watch them swim away into the water, to fulfill the ecological role that they were meant to, that’s what makes it all worth it. That just really brings the purpose home for me.”

Thanks to clear-cutting in the 1900s and the introduction of larger, competing, non-native species like Rainbow Trout and Brown Trout, the ruby-bellied and golden-speckled Southern Appalachian Brook Trout now occupies less than 15 percent of its historical range.

Since the 1980s, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has been working to restore the Southern Appalachian Brook Trout to cold water streams like Little Stoney Creek that flow through the species’ native range. In 2012, the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute joined this effort, helping to raise the juveniles in propagation facilities at its freshwater science center near downtown Chattanooga.

Each fall, Conservation Institute biologists collect eggs spawned by a broodstock of wild-caught adult Southern Appalachian Brook Trout. During a month-long incubation, scientists tend to these eggs until the young emerge, still attached to large, nutrient-rich yolk sacs. After another month, these “sac fry” become free-swimming and are able to eat.

Biologists care for these juveniles throughout the winter and early spring until the diminutive fish are about two inches long, just large and hardy enough to survive in the wild. Including the current batch of juveniles, the Aquarium has raised and reintroduced about 3,500 Southern Appalachian Brook Trout to Little Stoney Creek and other waterways.

This effort is fully financed by the Appalachian Chapter of Trout Unlimited through funds raised by the sale of special vanity license plates adorned with the Southern Appalachian Brook Trout. In 2018, Trout Unlimited donated $11,170, the organization’s largest single grant since it began financial support of the program in 2014.

“The Tennessee Aquarium is a natural partner for us,” says Steve Fry, the chapter’s president. “The mission of Trout Unlimited is to conserve, protect and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds. This project allows us to coordinate efforts with Trout Unlimited Chapters in northeast Tennessee to bring back an iconic species.”

At Little Stoney Creek, representatives from the Overmountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited are wading alongside Harris and Robinson, enthusiastically accepting offers from the biologists to release some of the fry. To them, Brookies aren’t just another fish to try and catch; they’re a part of the region’s natural heritage.

“The Southern Appalachian strain of Brook Trout is the only trout species in this area that God put here himself,” says Overmountain Trout Unlimited Chapter President Ryan Turgeon. “A lot of different organizations came together to raise funds, and a lot of grant money and hours were put in to get something like this done.

“It’s great to see everyone come together — different age groups, different diversities — to return these fish to the stream. It was really great to see that.”

To learn more about the Tennessee Aquarium’s work to restore the Southern Appalachian Brook Trout, visittnaqua.org/protecting-animals/southern-appalachian-brook-trout. For more information about the Appalachian Chapter of Trout Unlimited, visit appalachiantu.org.

See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YEEaLyuS3A&authuser=0

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About the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute

The Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute is a leader in freshwater science. For more than 20 years, our researchers have been working to better understand and protect the Southeast’s abundance of aquatic wildlife. The region’s rich diversity is part of our natural heritage – a gift to be discovered, appreciated and protected.

Learn more about the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute online at tnaqua.org/protect-freshwater.

Get updates about our field conservation and research projects by following the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute on Facebook and Twitter.

Two Tailwater Floats for Summer Smallmouth

Two Tailwater Floats for Summer Smallmouth Bass Fishing
from The Fishing Wire

Float for summer smallmouth


FRANKFORT, Ky. Anyone who loves floating streams for smallmouth bass out of a kayak, canoe or personal pontoon boat did not enjoy last year much at all. Many areas of Kentucky set annual rainfall records in 2018.

It seemed a 3-inch rain hit every third day from spring through fall. Streams flowed raucous and so muddy it seemed you could cut the water with a knife. These conditions are the absolute pits for fishing; you are better served catching up on yardwork.

After a rough start to this year, it seems weather conditions and rainfall levels are returning to normal patterns as we come into the warmer months, the best time of year to stream fish for smallmouth bass from a paddlecraft.

The pop-up thunderstorms common in summer may spike the flow on an average stream or free flowing river, but a tailwater such as the Green River below Green River Lake or the Barren River below Barren River Lake offer more predictable flows in summer.

“You have controlled flow in a tailwater with more stable water conditions,” said Mike Hardin, assistant director of Fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “The long range forecast calls for a return to normal summer weather patterns.”

The Green River from Green River Lake Dam downstream to Greensburg holds many fat smallmouth bass and offers excellent access. The Barren River from Barren River Lake Dam downstream to Martinsville Ford is another productive stretch for smallmouth bass.

“Green River is still doing phenomenal for smallmouth bass,” said Jay Herrala, stream fisheries biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “Green River and Barren River have good size structure in the smallmouth bass population and both rivers offer a chance to catch a 20-inch or longer smallmouth bass.”

Planning a float on either of these streams is simple. Log on to the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife website at www.fw.ky.gov and visit the Stream Fisheries page by typing “stream fisheries” into the search bar on the top right of the page.

On the Stream Fisheries page, the entry for “Lower Barren River” and “Green River, Pool 6” contain a great deal of information about the good smallmouth bass sections of these rivers, none more important than the link to the “Three Day Lake Release Forecast” from the Louisville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Water releases from their respective dams control the fishing on these rivers. The best release levels for fishing on the Green and Barren are under 300 cubic feet per second (cfs) with 100 to 200 cfs ideal.

The first float on the Barren River begins at the Barren River Tailwater Recreation Area and ends roughly 13 miles downstream at the Barren River VPA No. 3 access. Paddlers planning to fish this stretch should launch their boats at daybreak and plan to take out at dusk.

This stretch holds many flowing shoals rimmed with water willow, islands and stream drops. Since this is such a long float, choose lures you can work quickly such as a floating/diving Rapala style stick bait in chrome and black, small medium-diving crawfish-colored crankbaits and 1/8-ounce white spinnerbaits.

Work these lures along the willow edges of the flowing shoals and in the moving water above and below stream drops.

The next float begins at the Barren VPA No. 3 access and ends about four miles downstream at the Claypool Ramp on the south side of the Barren at Martinsville Ford.

This section of the Barren makes many subtle turns. Anglers should probe the rocky, flowing outside bends with 4-inch skirted double-tailed grubs in green pumpkin rigged on a 3/16-ounce Shakey head.

The Barren constricts between islands and gravel bars several places in this stretch, increasing the river’s flow. Tube jigs in green pumpkin rigged on 1/8-ounce heads draw strikes when slowly worked in the seam where fast current meets slower in these areas.

The Green River offers two manageable floats for smallmouth bass anglers: one about 6 1/2-miles that begins at Roachville Ford and ends at Russell Ford and another of about four miles that starts at Russell Ford and ends at the Greensburg Ramp.

Anglers should use the south side of Roachville Ford access via Thunder Road off KY 417 from Greensburg. The shuttle is much shorter than using the north side of Roachville Ford for access.

The flowing deep runs in this float hold fat smallmouth bass. A 4-inch Senko-style soft plastic stick bait in the green pumpkin magic color rigged on a 1/8-ounce leadhead is tough to beat on the Green in summer. Let the lure tumble in the current and watch the line intently. Green River smallmouths often strike subtly during the warm months.

Fly rod anglers can find great sport throwing bass-sized yellow and black cork poppers in the eddies behind boulders. This presentation also attracts hefty largemouth bass.

About halfway through this float, paddlers will notice a bluff rising in the distance when Meadow Creek meets the Green on the right. The mouth of Meadow Creek to the take-out at Russell Ford is the best smallmouth bass water on this float.

The next float is popular in summer with paddlers, but does not hurt the fishing. This section of the Green is more intimate and downsizing your lures to the Finesse TRD-style soft plastic stick baits often used for the Ned Rig presentation work fantastic in this stretch when rigged weedless on 1/8-ounce bullet-style leadheads. The best colors are green pumpkin goby and blue craw.

A rocky, deep flowing pool about half way between Russell Ford and the KY 417 bridge makes a fantastic place to fish, paddle back to the head of the pool and fish again. The flowing stretch just upstream of the U.S. 68/KY 61 bridge in Greensburg is another productive area for smallmouth bass on this float.

The take-out is on the right just after the U.S. 68/KY 61 bridge in Greensburg.

Paddlers may camp at Green River Lake State Park or stay at the lodge, cottage or camp at Barren River Lake State Resort Park. The Green River Paddle Trail offers cabins for rent at the Greensburg boat ramp in downtown Greensburg.

Enjoy floating two of the best smallmouth bass rivers in Kentucky this summer with more predictable flows than many in our state.

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.

(Editors: Please email Lee.McClellan@ky.gov for photos.)

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Kentucky Fish and Wildlife news releases are available online at fw.ky.gov