The big one!

Also this weekend is free entrance to US National Parks that normally charge. Another great reason to get outside this weekend! Looks like the closest for me is Ohio or Indiana. No Kentucky parks listed.

I rented Wii Hooked! Real Motion Fishing for the Nintendo Wii game system from Game Fly. Wii Hooked is fun to play. It is kind of real in the fact that every cast out did not land me a fish (or maybe it is my technique?). First you are taken through a short casting tutorial and then I chose to do some quick fishing rather than go into tourney mode. This game is also Wifi compatible. I have not tried that yet I will try it and add a comment when I try it. I did not want to try it yet until I was a little better at it Here is a link for more information about the game over ar Amazon: Wii Hooked! Real Motion Fishing w/controller

By Larry Thornhill

1. Go Dark If your water is a popular recreation destination consider fishing after dark. Things usually settle down at this time and the fish typically become more active. Safety is the big concern after dark. Don’t fish alone; know your water; always wear a PFD; make sure your boat is properly lighted; and watch for other boat traffic.

2. If you can’t fish after dark go early Most fish are more active at dawn than in the evening during the hottest days of summer. It’s easy enough to get up around 4:00 a.m., fish a few hours, and then go home and take a nap.

3. Deep-diving crankbaits are hot Deep-diving crankbaits are super bass lures during July, August and into September. Throw them over offshore breaks and ledges. Long cast and very fast retrieves are usually your best option.

4. Fish schooling bass Often bass will surface-school during the hottest days of summer. Look for them breaking the surface and cast directly into the school. Small topwater baits, spoons, in-line spinners and crankbaits are effective lure choices for this type of fishing.

5. Release your bass immediately Survival times for bass in hot weather, hot water conditions are short. Release you fish immediately so you can catch them another day.

These tips are from a free newsletter published by Fish Harder Companies. You can get your own free fishing newsletters by signing up on the right or by signing up for the Fish Harder mailing list here.

I just found this site and signed up and I thought I would share it. It is called Gnats Unlimited. It’s a relatively new site that connects hunters and fishers and outdoors people together. Click on the more link for a video of catfishing the hard way from Gnats Unlimited.

I was browsing a site that had a listing of several bass clubs. The listing was not too deep and just had a couple of clubs. After doing some searching I found this list of bass fishing clubs for the US along with some in Canada and also a few international links. I even found a local Cincinnati area bass club. Are you a member of any bass or fishing clubs? Feel free to share your club info in the comments.

Thanks to The Local Fisherman for this informative video on how to tie a fishing hook to the line. To save space on the front page please click the more link for the video.

Here is your deal of the day from FlyFishExpress.com

I received this in my e-mail:

THE MADNESS OF MARCH RETURNS TO VERSUS:

THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST GAMEFISH WILL BE REVEALED BY VIEWERS

IN SECOND INSTALLMENT OF BIG FISH MADNESS

Bracket-Style Tournament Now Available on VERSUSCountry.com with Winner Decided

On-Air March 27/28 and April 3/4 During Primetime on VERSUS Country

STAMFORD, Conn. (March 5, 2008) – VERSUS Country is once again on the quest
to answer the most hotly debated question among sport fishermen since fish have
been caught on rod and reel — pound-for-pound, what is the toughest gamefish?
Will last year’s winner, the Tarpon, retain its title or will this second
installment of Big Fish Madness determine a new champion successor?

The VERSUS Country panel of angling experts, including Tred Barta, Roland
Martin, Bill Dance and Hank Parker, have narrowed the field by selecting the
top 32 gamefish and seeded the fish in a bracket split into four regions. This
year though, the ultimate decision for the toughest game fish will be chosen by
the viewers, not the experts. Viewers can log on to VERSUSCountry.com to fill
out a bracket with their selections up until March 21. Over the course of four
nights, each gamefish in contention will be featured in some of the most
spectacular fishing on television and Huntley Ritter, the host of The Huntley
Way, will take viewers through each match-up, round-by-round until the field of
32 is down to just one champion.

For viewers filling out a bracket at VERSUSCountry.com, points will be awarded
for each correct selection and tallied after each round with correct choices
receiving incrementally more points as the rounds advance. Throughout Big Fish
Madness, viewers can go to the website to see how their brackets are faring
against other viewers. The viewer with the winning bracket will be announced
on the last night of Big Fish Madness on April 4. The entrant with the highest
point total will win the grand prize – a 2008 Nitro Z-6 Boat with Optimax
Motor and Trailer, courtesy of BassPro Shops and Tracker Marine and the first
place winner will receive an all-expense-paid fishing trip with Tred Barta.
Other spectacular prizes for top point earners include: 42′ Panasonic plasma
TV’s, iPods, Xbox 360 game consoles, a Bill Dance signature rod & reel package,
among others.

“After a very successful first installment of Big Fish Madness we decided to
bring it back for a second year with an exciting twist—this year, the viewers
are the experts as they’ll be deciding which fish is the toughest,” said
Jeff Macaluso, Director of Field Sports & New Media Programming & Production
for VERSUS. “It’s a great way for our highly passionate anglers to engage
interactively with the programming and to see how their opinions match-up
against our expert’s for a chance to win great prizes.”

BIG FISH MADNESS PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE (subject to change):

Thursday, March 27, 2008: Round 1 – Field Goes from 32-16

7:00 p.m. ET The Huntley Way

7:30 p.m. ET Hunt for Big Fish

8:00 p.m. ET Sport Fishing Magazine

8:30 p.m. ET The Best and Worst of Tred Barta

Friday, March 28, 2008: Round 2 – Field goes from 16-8

7:00 p.m. ET One More Cast

7:30 p.m. ET LL Bean Guide to the Outdoors

8:00 p.m. ET Hunt for Big Fish

8:30 p.m. ET City Limits Fishing- ALL NEW EPISODE

9:00 p.m. ET The Best and Worst of Tred Barta

9:30 p.m. ET Dollar Wise Fly – ALL NEW EPISODE

10:00 p.m. ET Saltwater Experience

10:30 p.m. ET The Bass Pros

Thursday, April 3, 2008: Round 3 – Field goes from 8 to 4

7:00 p.m. ET Escape to the Wild

7:30 p.m. ET The Best and Worst of Tred Barta

8:00 p.m. ET Sport Fishing Magazine

8:30 p.m. ET Hunt for Big Fish

Friday April 4, 2008: Semi-Finals and Championship

7:00 p.m. ET One More Cast

7:30 p.m. ET The Bass Pros

8:00 p.m. ET Hunt for Big Fish

8:30p.m. ET City Limits Fishing- ALL NEW EPISODE

9:00 p.m. ET Best & Worst of Tred Barta

9:30 p.m. ET Dollar Wise Fly – ALL NEW EPISODE

10:00 p.m. ET Saltwater Experience

10:30 p.m. ET Sport Fishing Magazine

VERSUS celebrates real competition in all its forms across all platforms
(VERSUS.com, VERSUS on Demand and VERSUS HD). Now in more than 74 million
homes, the network is the national cable home of the National Hockey League
(NHL) and the Stanley Cup Playoffs as well as best-in-class events such as The
Tour de France, Davis Cup Tennis, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), World
Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and Professional Boxing. The network also offers
collegiate sports featuring nationally-ranked teams from top conferences such
as the Pac-10, Big 12 and Mountain West. VERSUS features the best field sports
programming on television and is a destination for sports fans, athletes and
sportsmen to find exclusive, competitive events that audiences can’t find
elsewhere. VERSUS, a wholly owned company of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:
CMCSA, CMCSK), is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators
throughout the United States.

# # #

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Meier Raivich VERSUS 203-406-2509
mraivich@versus.com

Katie Bradshaw VERSUS 203-406-2517
kbradshaw@versus.com

Leslie Byxbee VERSUS 203-406-2546
lbyxbee@versus.com

Check out this video from Sven & Ole’s Miracle Fishing Lures. If they catch anything it’s a miracle!! More for the video.

Longnose Gar (Lepisosteus osseus)
“THE FISH TO AVOID”

Range and Description:

The Gar is one of those rare fish that you don’t wanna see
dangling or fighting on the end of your line, unless your out for
an adventure! These long beaked fish look like something out of
prehistory but they are native to mainly large rivers and flowing
streams such as the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers’ and they’re
larger tributaries.

The Longnose Gar can be found in a similar range to its
cousins, the Alligator Gar, and Spotted Gar, which includes
nearly all of the southern and Midwestern States as well as the
West.
Identify:

Identifying this prehistoric looking monster fish is fairly
straight forward. The Longnose gar has a “Long Nose” funny huh?
But besides this long and narrow beak which contains many large
sharp teeth you also have a thin cylindrical type of fish. The
Longnose gar will usually be covered in sporadic diamond shape
scales. The color of the Longnose Gar range from an olive or
brownish black with a white under belly.

Identify Male / Female:
Physically identifying this fish is difficult because of a
shortened spawning season and little is known of sexing gars that
I know of, although generally females grow much larger and faster
and tend to live to an older age than males.

Weight / Size: 24-40 Inches and 1-7lbs – Occasionally 49
Inches and 25lbs

Fishing Tips:

• Longnose Gar stay near the surface of large streams and
  rivers.
• This makes Gar excellent for bow hunters, being on the
  surface.
• You must have an extremely sharp hook to catch Gar.
• Other than curiosity or sport Gar are better of left
  alone.
• Gar feed on only small fish and minnow so use those as live
  baits on the surface.

Black Crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus)
“White Perch, Calico Bass”

Range and Description:

The Black “Crappie”, or if you feel awkward pronouncing it the
way it looks, just say “Croppie” which is what I hear most people
in the Kentucky area call them; are just another ordinary pond
fish, and they are similar in habitat and temperament as other
fish in the sunfish family such as the Bluegill. Its Scientific
name “Pomoxis” refers to “opercle sharp” which describes the
spiny and sometimes sharp gill covers.

The Black Crappie (Croppie) can be found in all lower 48
states, and tends to negate to same habitat that other sunfish,
most notably the Bluegill but they are a bigger fish and prefer
deeper waters and also hang out around objects such as tree
trunks and other structures near the water.

Identify:
Black Crappie (Croppie) are randomly dotted with black and tend
to be a silvery green color, with a general body flow as a
Bluegill with a rounded and compacted body. This fish has no
vertical bar markings like others of its species and its dorsal
fin contains seven or eight spines.

Identify Male / Female:
Physically identifying this fish is difficult because Black
Crappie (Croppie) do not change colors in the spawning season.
But sometimes you can get lucky and identify the males by having
a darker more iridescent heads as well as breasts than
females.

Weight / Size: 10-12 Inches and 2-3 1/2lbs

Fishing Tips:

• Bite best on live minnows, small jigs, and spinners.
• Best time to fish for Black Crappie is in the spring
  spawning season.
• Fish in areas with plants, bushes, stumps and tree roots or
  anywhere near a dock.
• Summer and Fall you will catch Black Crappie in deeper
  waters.

By Jesse G. Roland

Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)
“Channel Cat, Spotted Cat”

Range and Description:
One of the more common varieties of Catfish, Channel Catfish
prefer lakes and larger rivers with clear bottoms of sand, gravel
or stones, and mud flats but tend to stay away from weedy areas,
also lives in the deeper, slower pools of swift, clear-running
streams. In large reservoirs, they are often found below dams
where they feed on food swept down to them.

Identify:
Channel Cats have a sleek and slender body type with a defined
and forked tail. They’re bodies are usually a gray silver with
some blue hues, usually with many dark spots. This fish has an
upper jaw that is longer than the lower. And the most defining
aspect of the Catfish are the “Whiskers” or barbels to be
technical, which makes them resemble a cat.

Identify Male / Female:
Again physically identifying and distinguishing between male and
female fish is a hard thing to do and its no different when
looking at the Channel Catfish. One of way of figuring this out
though is to look at the head, males tend to have a larger broad
and muscular head, while females have a narrower and less
muscular one. Besides this the only way to determine the sex of
the fish would be looking at the genitals.

Fishing Tips:

• Channel Catfish prefer live bait over anything
  artificial.
• Most Catfish like other fish are not randomly positioned in
  lakes and streams but are in certain areas that must be sought
  out.
• You Can catch catfish year round.
• Live bait is best for catfish over 3 lbs
• Cheese is an alternative and effective bait for fish 10-16
  inches in length.

By Jesse G. Roland