Ice fishing at the triangle

Chuck and I took the shanty out to the triangle on Monona this morning for some pre-Christmas ice fishing. We joined the already sizable village of ice shacks around 7am, and had our jigs in the water by the time it started getting light. Visablity was pretty good, probably about 6 or 7 feet. The fishing started out slow, but eventually Chuck began to catch a few. None for me, but that was ok, I was sure they'd come eventually. Chuck kept catching them - more and more were being added to the bucket to take home. Still none for me! I was starting to get worried, but around 9am I caught my first fish, a small one. I didn't want to make a big deal about it, but I was pretty excited, considering that Sept. 6th was the last time I caught a fish. A few minutes later I caught another, this one was pretty big at 7 1/2 inches. It ended up being our last fish, we packed up around 10am, satisfied with our catch. Fried bluegill for lunch, good stuff. :)

Ice fishing will be here soon

As of last Wednesday we now have 18 inches (45.7 cm) of snow on the ground. Temperatures were down to -4 deg F (-20 deg C) last night.

I bet the lakes are freezing. :)



(pic taken from my house Wednesday morning)

Keeping the aquarium clean and the fish healthy

Thanks for the comments. About keeping the aquarium clean and the fish healthy:

1. I use two Whisper filters that are each rated for up to 30 gallons, in a 29 gallon aquarium. I felt this was important because I’m breaking the rule of thumb not to have more than 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. The fish I have came from a fast moving stream, so I'm sure they appreciate as much oxygen and water movement as possible.

2. I feed gold fish flakes to the dace (the darters won't touch flakes), and then I throw in a cube of frozen bloodworms (i.e. mosquito larvae). The darters and logperch go into a frenzy over the bloodworms, and afterwards there is rarely anything left to get sucked into the filter or settle into the gravel. Uneaten food is the quickest way to make the water nasty.

3. I change out 5 gallons of water about once every other week, and then maybe once a month I’ll take the fish out, stir the gravel up so all the crap floats up, and then change out around ¾ of the water before stuff has a chance to settle back down.

4. I wait as long as possible to change out the carbon filters, because they’re expensive. I take them out once a week and rinse them out in the sink to get big stuff off them.

Aquarium update

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Hi guys.

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My fishing gear has been put away for months, but I got the itch to post something, so I thought I'd give an update on my native fish aquarium. The darters got moved to the 30 gallon aquarium, and are doing fantastic. According to my latest census, there are about a dozen orangethroat darters, one fantail darter, two logperch, three southern redbelly dace, and one madtom (not sure what kind he is). Some good news is that I have not lost a single darter that I caught back in May! Last weekend while I was visiting my parents in Illinois, I caught the dace and a few extra darters to add to the aquarium. Everyone is getting along, everyone is eating, and everyone is looking healthy and showing some pretty vibrant colors.

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My back is getting better, slowly.

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I'm looking forward to ice fishing!

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Cheers,

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Ben

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Summer wrap up

That's about it for the summer. Unless I make it out again in the next week this will be the last post for a while. I've been dealing with some back problems for the past 18 months or so, with the last 6 months becoming more and more difficult to get out. I'm having surgery on the 16th which will hopefully take care of most of the problems. Fishing will be on hold though, probably until the lakes are iced over.

Chuck and I headed over to the Yahara after school Friday. Visibility was so-so, the water was low, and there are still plenty of weeds. We were both using small spinners, working our way up the river from Lake Monona to Lake Mendota. Fishing was slow, but I managed to pick up quite a few different species. Bluegill, rock bass, green sunfish, largemouth bass, and white bass (+1 to species count for 2009) were all biting. Caught the 2nd largest LMB of the summer at 16". Not very impressive compared to 2008, but I'll take what I can get! We brought home 1 bluegill and 3 or 4 white bass.

2009 species count:
1. Largemouth Bass
2. Rock Bass
3. Smallmouth Bass
4. White Bass
5. Bluegill
6. Yellow Bullhead
7. Black Crappie
8. Freshwater Drum
9. Round Goby
10. Logperch
11. Yellow Perch
12. Northern Pike
13. Pumpkinseed
14. Green Sunfish
15. Hybrid Sunfish (Pumpkinseed X Green)
16. Walleye

Terry catches salmon in Lake Michigan

Cigars and trout

Friday was Terry's birthday, and what better way to celebrate than go fishing and smoke cigars! We picked up cigars at a smoke shop on State Street and then headed over to Tenney Park to see what the catfish were up to. The catfish were no where to be found; all we caught were 2 drum. Cigars were good though, something you gotta do every now and then.

A

On Saturday Chuck and I headed north to a trout stream. I wanted to see some trout before I buy a trout stamp (probably next season), and this trip turned out perfectly. The water was clear with plenty of trout. Chuck caught 3 browns and 1 brook, and had about 6 come off the hook as he was reeling them in. He released all the fish he caught.

Sunday I went fishing by myself at Picnic Point and Lake Monona by the terrace. Nothing was biting at the point, but by the terrace I caught a pretty big drum on a spinner. (PR at 14.5")

A

Can't do work, gotta fish

Our linux server at work was down yesterday, which I depend on for my research. I knew it wouldn't be up and running this morning so I went fishing instead. I hiked out to the end of picnic point and had my line in the water by 7am. Feeling lazy, I stuck with nightcrawlers and a bobber, hoping to catch a few fish to bring home. My first cast got a hit and I pulled in an 8" perch. It was pretty fat and went into the bucket. After that... nothing. I switched spots, and after not getting hits there either I began reeling in my line. However, I saw a drum following my bait in towards shore, so I slowed down to let him grab it. That made for an easy catch. At 14", he was a PR for me. After that things really slowed down. At one point a school of small perch came through. I caught 4 or 5, but they were all too small to keep.





When I got home I filleted the drum and perch for lunch. I breaded the fillets with a mixture of Progresso parmesean bread crumbs, extra spicy Mrs. Dash, and garlic powder, and fried them in olive oil. The drum was pretty good, but when I got to the perch - oh man! It was really really good, I'll have to try to duplicate that recipe next time I catch perch.

4th of July in Milwaukee

I visited my friend Terry in Milwaukee for the weekend. We got up at 4:30 on Saturday to go fishing on Lake Michigan. By 5:15 we were in the harbor. We went about 2 miles off from shore to 70' of water where we planned to troll for trout. Terry got the downriggers set up, we got our lines in the water... but when Terry was trying to start the trolling motor he broke a piece on the fuel line. That was the end of that! The big motor apparently can't idle down low enough to troll with, so we had to head back to the harbor.

We had seen people fishing for perch from the rocks around the harbor, so we followed suit and anchored along shore in 15-20' of water and dropped jigs down to the bottom. No perch, but we caught plenty of round gobies. Definitely not the fish we were after, but they were pretty entertaining. +1 to my life list and 2009 list.

Yellostone Park, WI

Went camping with some friends at Yellowstone Lake State Park, WI, over the weekend. Terry brought his boat and we got a chance to do some fishing Sat. morning and Sat. night. In the morning we followed the south shore, casting crankbaits and spoons. I caught an 18" largemouth and a ~12" largemouth. We had a couple of additional hits, but that was it. In the evening, we set up 3 poles for trolling and worked our way around the lake, staying in about 10' of water. I caught one small walleye, and we lost two fish as we were reeling them in. Despite the fishing being slow, it was a gorgeous weekend and very nice to get outside the city for a bit.

Catching up

5/31/09 - Chuck and I walked the length of the Yahara river from Lake Monona to Tenney Park by Lake Mendota. It was a really nice, sunny day, which unfortunately meant the fish weren't very active. We saw a lot of white bass and largemouths, but couldn't get any to take an interest in our lures. I settled with throwing a worm on the bottom and picked up 5 or 6 rock bass, 1 bluegill, and 1 largemouth.



6/4/09 - Second try at catfishing off of the pier by Tenney Park. The water was calm and very clear. Even at night I was able to see the bottom a ways out. Last time, we got set up after the sun was already down, so this time I wanted to start earlier to see what will bite as the light is transitioning. I threw out two lines, one with a chicken liver and the other with a nightcrawler. The nightcrawler got three fish, a largemouth while it was still light out, a smallmouth as it was getting dark, and a drum once it was dark. No catfish!

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6/7/09 - I remember catching boatloads of crappie around this time last year on Lake Wingra. This was after the heavy rains and flooding, and the increased water level by shore probably brought the fish in. The water is much shallower this year, but I thought maybe I could still get some crappie like last year. Using a small plastic spoon with a rattle, I caught several bluegill, 1 crappie, and 1 largemouth. I also lost a crappie and a largemouth right by shore, probably due to the very small hooks on the lure I was using. As the sun was going down I switched to using worms and a bobber, and picked up over a dozen bluegill.

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Monster catfish

Last night Chuck and I went catfishing in Mendota over by Tenney Park. Armed with chicken livers and nightcrawlers, we each threw 2 lines out into the water around sundown to see what we could catch. Not long after we got there, a young guy was pulling in a 8-10 lb channel cat, so we were optomistic about our chances. Just a few minutes later, Chuck got a hit and it was big! He was using 8 lb line and a fairly small pole, and whatever was on the other end decided it wanted to fight. It took probably 10 minutes to get it up to the shore - a monster channel cat! Some passerbys had a scale and weighed it at 14 lbs.



I was hoping for a monster of my own, but I had to settle with something a bit smaller. My chicken liver didn't get a bite all night, but I soon hooked up on a small bullhead on my nightcrawler. Please excuse the overly cheesy smile. :D



As the night continued on, I caught 1 more bullhead and Chuck caught 3. We took all 5 home, where they are chilling out in my spare aquarium until we clean them tonight. (The channel cat was released.)

Memorial Day weekend

Hit up the Yahara again on Saturday, more to enjoy the fine weather than to actually fish. The bass were biting more than the day before. I caught 4 largemouths and had several come off the hook. I finally caught my freshwater drum under the bridge. I took it home and breaded and fried the fillets. People consider drum a trash fish, but I say who cares, they taste pretty darn good when they're fried in butter!

Under the bridge

With the water temperature rising (about 57 deg F now), the fish have moved back into the Yahara from Lake Monona. I spent the late afternoon by the first bridge, seeing what there was to see and enjoying the weather. The water is very clear, and I was able to see quite a few different species of fish:

Largemouth bass (caught 1)
Rock bass (caught 1)
White bass (saw near the bridge)
Bluegill (saw all over)
Carp (saw all over)
Freshwater drum (saw near the bridge)
Logperch (caught 16)
Muskie (saw by the opening of the lake)
Green sunfish (caught 1)

I took the rock bass and a couple of the logperch home for the aquariums. As of this morning the rock bass is doing fine in the big tank with the other sunfish and bass, and 2 of the logperch are being quite active in the darter tank and ate bloodworms that I feed to the darters.

Fishing from Terry's boat

What a great weekend! Terry brought his new boat to Madison to fish Mendota all weekend, and we definitely made the most of it.

Friday night - Launched the boat around sundown and fished the bay north of picnic point. Each caught a northern on crankbaits in 10 ft of water. (no pictures)

Saturday morning - Got up early and hit the water at 7am. The wind was pretty strong from the northwest, so we trolled the north shore of Mendota with the same crankbaits in 12 ft of water. Terry caught a big smallie and 2 northerns, and I caught 2 northerns followed by a 16.5" walleye.







Saturday night - The wind was starting to die down. We basically did a repeat of Friday night only on the south side of picnic point. Terry and I each caught a largemouth and a northern. I lost 3 or 4 fish because I didn't set the hook very well. Need to work on that!





Sunday day - No fish, but holy smokes was it a gorgeous day!

Darters feeding (video)

Here's the new set up. The third tank will be for feeder minnows. Haha, I just noticed in the picture that both bass and one of the sunfish are quite interested in the darters. They must be able to see them through the glass. Oh man that's going to be torture.

Darter tank

Set up a darter tank with some fish I caught in a stream by my parents' house in central Illinois. The majority of the darters seem to be orangethroats (originally thought to be rainbows). There's also one fantail darter and a southern redbelly dace. They are all very entertaining! I'll get a video of them feeding and put it up here. It's quite the show!

This is how you deal with an invasive species

My buddy Chuck sent me an email with the same title and the following picture. He caught those rusties near his home town of Green Lake. They're mean buggers, a lot more aggressive than other crayfish species.

He said they were delicious. :)

Spring is here!

Highs were in the low 70's today, and I did my best to make the most of it. The big lakes were too murky to catch anything, but the lagoon in Vilas Park was doing just fine. There's never anything big in there, but I had a good time catching small sunfish. Caught a total of 11 bluegill and 4 pumpkinseeds. I could see bass and a couple muskies swimming around, but they had their minds on other things (and aren't legal to fish for yet).



This time of year there is always a crowd of people at the dam separating Wingra Creek from Lake Wingra. There is a sign up that says no fishing allowed, so why are they there? The muskies are trying to jump up the dam to make their way to spawning grounds in Lake Wingra! The following two pics are of a musky swimming under the creek side of the dam, and one that made it over the waterfall and was building up courage to swim the rest of the way to the lake side of the dam.

Rainbow darter

Traveled down to visit my parents in central Illinois on Saturday. They have two streams running through the back of their property, and I wandered back there to see what fish I could catch with an old butterfly net I found in the garage. The larger of the two streams seems to be doing very well! I caught plenty of minnows, chubs, and dace, as well as a handful of rainbow darters. I really wanted to take them back to Madison to add to the 10 gallon aquarium with the sticklebacks and sculpins, but I didn't think they'd last the trip without an aerator. I'll find a good battery powered one before I go down there next, probably in May.

Mottled Sculpin

My first collecting trip! (Not counting the hundreds I did as a kid in Illinois.) Chuck and I drove west of Madison today to see what we could find in the creeks around the area. Unfortunately, most of the decent streams are designated trout streams, where netting is prohibited. We used a game/fishing map of WI of Chuck's to find some smaller creeks off the beaten path to try.

Mottled sculpin were the fish of the day! We caught 5 of them at the first stream, and 2 more at another. We also caught 1 brook stickleback. You can see most of them in the picture below, along with a few bait shop minnows.

My next task will be to get the small tank set up better for these guys since I'm going to keep them for a long time. I'll add more rocks and fake plants to give them plenty of cover. Hopefully Chuck and I will be able to find some more interesting species to put in there in the future (logperch, darters, dace, etc).



Update 4/3/09 - I moved all of the bait shop minnows to the big tank so the sticklebacks and sculpins will have more space. The sculpins are doing great. They aren't territorial (yet?) and even like to sit close together. They've been eating flake food and small pieces of nightcrawlers. The two sticklebacks swim around together part of the time, but fight each other at other times. They nip at each other's fins, something that you'll hear a lot about on forums. One of the sticklebacks ate a piece of nightcrawler as well, but they haven't touched the flake food.

Brook Stickleback

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I have a 10 gallon aquarium stocked with minnows from the bait shop that I use to feed the sunfish and smallies in my 30 gallon aquarium. The number of minnows has been dwindling down, and yesterday I found a surprise visitor to my tank, a brook stickleback! I've never seen one before, but I'm 99% sure that's what it is. I can clearly see the 5 spines on it's back. Sorry for the crappy photo, but it's the best I could do with such a small fish that insisted on staying at the back of the tank.



I took a short video too. The stickleback has some interesting behavior. He has to furiously move his pectoral pins to swim around, and tends to stay on the bottom like a darter when he's resting. I have no idea how to care for it; I'm really hoping he'll eat goldfish food.

Overdue post

Ice fishing really slowed down since my last post. I think I made it out on Monona twice, but didn't have any luck either time. I was really hoping for the 'late ice crappies' that a lot of people were talking up, but apparently I wasn't out there on the right days. Below is a pic from inside the portable shanty that Jeff is letting me borrow.



I was down in Champaign for one day 2 weeks ago and stopped by that small subidivision pond to do a little bass fishing with Jeff. The fishing wasn't spectacular - we each caught 2, but I was excited to fish open water for a change (the lakes in Madison are still frozen!). After Jeff took off I stumbled upon a channel cat sitting in the shallow water and grabbed him by hand. Does that count as noodling from land? It looked like he was sick and hadn't been eating because he was very thin. I let him go and he swam off, who knows if he'll make it or not.

I really need to get more sun. Dang I'm pale!