Fish fry, no pics yet

My friend Terry came to town this weekend, and on Saturday we met up with another friend, Chuck, and did some all-day fishing. We took a canoe out to picnic point so that we could get at all the hard to reach spots along the shore. Not much was biting though, and we left after a few hours with one pumpkinseed in the bucket. It was a PR for me, at 7 3/4 inches.

Back to the Yahara! We set up shop under the bridge where I'd had luck in the past. Pretty soon we had several 8 inch bluegill added to the bucket. There was a lot of splashing going on under the bridge by the sides, and we found out that white bass had moved in to feed on minnows. Chuck was having a ball with them, catching 3 or 4 with two good keepers. He also caught a 14 inch walleye that we threw back. He was having quite the day! He even had a huge musky on the line at one point. It came up to the surface, thrashed around and really churned up the water before coming off the hook.

Terry wasn't having as much luck, catching a few crappies that were too small. He had his dog out with us too, and when some other people came by with dogs that wanted to play... well let's just say the fishing was pretty much done. After his dog was tired out, we took our catch back to the house and had one heck of a fish fry. All three of us ate as much as we could, and now I probably have 2 lbs of leftovers in the fridge. Fish sandwiches anyone?

Terry took a few pics on his camera, so hopefully I can get those up in a few days. What a day to forget my camera!

Still fishing?

Took some time off work yesterday to throw some hooks in the water. I went to the spot on Wingra creek where I've caught northern and largemouth in the past. I had some worms I wanted to use up, and the bluegills were happy to help out.

While I was down there, two game wardens pulled up and came over to check my fishing license. One of the guys read it over several times, and then asked for my ID. I gave him my IL drivers license. He frowned at that, and asked me if I had a 2nd ID for verification. I gave him my university ID. He looked back and forth at the two pictures several times and then read my fishing license again. Then he looked back to the road and asked if that was my car. Yeeeess...? He asked my why I was fishing down here. I told him I was catching bluegills. He said, why aren't you up at the lake with everyone else? I told him there were plenty of fish here. At this point, a car load of black guys went by, and one of them yelled out the window, "hey you still harrassing people???" and drove off. He frowned at them, turned back and frowned at me, and asked if they were friends of mine. I was laughing at this point and told him no. I think the only reason he left then was because he was so frustrated. I have no idea why!

I saw a northern going after bluegill in the weeds, but by the time I got my gear ready he was gone. It was pretty cool seeing him in attack mode!

I gave up there and drove over to Lake Monona to get away from the weeds and fish some deeper water. It was a nice day still, but the water was cloudy with dead plant matter and the action was slow. I did end up catching one largemouth, at 14.5".

My girlfriend the fish expert!

She did it! The last person I expected to ID the fish I caught in Japan (no offense, if you're reading this) was my girlfriend. It's called a Japanese whiting or シロギス in Japanese. It's popular fried in tempura.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_whiting

Here's the website she used to ID it.

http://fishing-forum.org/zukan/fjysrch.htm

Fish in the freezer

Went out yesterday with a guy from the lab. We had an early start at 6am out at picnic point. It was cold and windy. Not a lot was biting, mostly small perch and smallmouths. The only keeper was a 12.5" drum. We cut our losses around 9:00 and went to the Yahara to catch bluegill. We got 6 or 7 nice big ones and an 8" perch. We finished around noon and took the fish back to my house. Filleted them up, now they're in the freezer. :)

Big fat bluegills

Went fishing on Lake Monona between the terrace and Monona Bay. I caught bluegill, green sunfish, rock bass, smallmouth bass, and largemouth bass. I kept the 3 largest bluegill and filleted them up at home. The largest was 8 inches and the other two were 7 1/2. They made for a good dinner. :)

Aquarium update

1. Very few minnows left. I tried to move them to a 10-15 gal tank but must have done it too soon, because a lot of them died. I don't think temperature was the problem, so it must have been chlorine or whatever else was in the tap water.

2. The pumpkinseed seems to be doing ok, but I haven't seen him eating. He may have been eating minnows, but I'm not sure. He doesn't show much interest in the worms I drop in.

3. The two green sunfish are eating pieces of worm I drop in, expecially the smaller of the two. They seem to be easy to take care of given their aggressive nature.

4. The logperch is plenty active but hasn't been eating anything that I've seen. I have to be very careful about making sudden movements around the aquarium because he freaks out easily and rushes around the tank scaring all the other fish. It's amazing how much commotion that one darter can cause!

5. I stirred up the gravel last night to see if it was getting dirty. Holy smokes! The water was swirling with bits of dead worm and uneaten fish food and other waste. There were even a few dead minnows that somehow made it under the gravel. It smelled absolutely terrible. I wish I would have moved the fish to the small tank before I did it. From now on, I plan on getting smaller red worms that the fish can eat whole. Right now I have been tearing off small pieces of earthworm. The pieces don't move at all so the fish lose interest once they settle on the bottom. If the fish don't eat the food I give them, I need to take the pieces out of the tank, and not leave them on the bottom in hopes that the fish scavange.

6. The inlet tube for the filter is pretty long, but doesn't quite reach down to the bottom of the tank. I wonder if I get another attachment to make it longer then it will pick up more junk before it settles on the bottom.

7. The fish need more rocks to hide under. The green sunfish try to get under the one rock with the darter and the darter gets agitaded and tries to push them out. It's funny to watch, but I'm sure the fish would be a lot happier with more hiding spots.

A successful Saturday!

The weather was great today and I had no desire to sit around and watch football like everyone else in Madison. I'll take a day at the Yahara over TV any day. :) One of the first fish I caught was a 9 inch perch, which I brought home. It was actually the first time I've eaten perch. I got two small but decent filets from it, and fried them up in butter with three cheese bread crumbs. It was incredible. I'm going to get hungry any time I see a perch in the future!





I also caught a PR rock bass, at 7 3/4 inches. I know that's not very big, but I was pretty happy with it. I also caught plenty of bluegill, pumpkinseed, and green sunfish.



I couldn't stop thinking about those darters that I tried to put in my aquarium the other day. I was determined to try again, so I went to the same spot and put on my smallest hook. It took a while, but I managed to catch two more of them. One was pretty small and the other was the biggest I've seen. I took them home and slowly added water from the aquarium to the bucket they were in. The little one wasn't doing well and went belly up. The big one seemed to be ok, so after 15 minutes of slowly adding water, I put him in the aquarium. He was breathing rapidly for quite a while and I thought I would lose him like the other ones, but he calmed down and began to swim around the tank and respond to the other fish. He's been in there several hours now and is doing just fine.



Bonus points if you notice the other two new fish in the tank. Unfortunately they will have to be temporary because they'll definitely get too big.

Logperch pro, I'm famous, and 2 greenies in the tank

Went out to the Yahara again last night when I should have been doing research. My plan was to prove my logperch catching skills and then move down to the bridge and try for a walleye. I really need some smaller hooks for these tiny fish! I was getting bite after bite but could never hook them. I caught the one in the picture below, along with some perch, bluegill, green sunfish, and a tiny smallmouth, and then headed up to the bridge.

As I reached the bridge, another guy who had been fishing the other side came across on his bicycle. He stopped to ask me how I did, and then asked, "You don't.... have a fishing blog, do you?". I wasn't expecting that! He said that he googled Yahara river fishing to see if there was anything in there, and my blog came up as one of the hits.

If anyone in Madison is reading this blog and wants to meet up to do some fishing, you're more than welcome to join me!



I didn't catch any walleye, but I got plenty of other fish. I caught largemouth, rock bass, pumpkinseed, and one drum. That's a total of 9 species in one evening, which I believe is a new personal best. :) As it was getting dark I decided to catch a few small sunfish to take home. I chose two green sunfish that seemed healthy and were very small. They are doing well in the aquarium now. The pumpkinseed checks up on them from time to time to remind them not to hang out in his favorite spots, but for the most part doesn't care that they're in there with him.

Mystery solved - logperch!

Need help ID'ing this species

It's some kind of darter. I caught two of these while fishing with nightcrawlers yesterday. My first thought was fingerling muskies because of the vertical bands, but after looking at some google images I ruled that out. I put both of them in my aquarium, but unfortunaly they both died within the first hour. I remember catching rainbow darters with a net when I was a kid, and never being able to keep them alive in our fish tank either. Maybe they're just not able to handle the change in environment.

The aquarium is set up