Get Girls Fishing!

Welcome back fishing fans. We disappeared for a while, but now we are back and ready for action. A lot has happened in the last few weeks, the most exciting news of course, is that Gillian and I got engaged!

To the north temperatures are rising steadily and the taste of spring seems to be sending fishermen into a buying frenzy preparing for the upcoming season. Down here in the British Virgin Islands there are no seasons, nor do the fish migrate as they do in Florida. I haven’t taken a break from fishing in more then seven months and life is good.

After an incredible month of tarpon fishing in February the action has died off dramatically in March. Numbers of tarpon are sparse and the ones that are around are not feeding. I try and fish for tarpon at least a couple times a week, my favorite day to fish is Tuesday. About a month ago I sent out invitations too several of my friends here inviting them to Tarpon Tuesday, and each week more and more people show up. While catching the tarpon has proven difficult lately, a variety of beer people and food makes Tarpon Tuesday a successful event each and every week.

This week we will be attempting to catch sharks and we already have a large bucket full of blood and meat ready to be used as chum. With sharks exceeding eight feet in length and dangerous species such as tiger sharks and bull sharks lurking nearby, things promise to be very exciting.

Finally, for all you guys out there who hate being nagged by your significant other about how much time you spend away from her fishing, here is a how-to guide that should solve that problem!

Written by Gillian Hyde

Does your wife or girlfriend hate the fact that you fish? Does she get on your case about the amount of time you spend out on the water and with your friends? I bet you wish you knew how to get her to stop complaining, or even better, how to get her to go on the occasional trip with you. Look no further- you’re about to get some really great advice from someone (a woman no less!) who went from an anti-fishermen to being a passionate fisher(wo)man within a couple of months.

If you told me a year ago that I would be fishing on a regular basis I never, ever would have believed you. Now not only am I fishing a lot, I’m ENJOYING it! My life as I once knew it is over.

I’m your typical vegetarian; I don’t eat meat or fish primarily because I don’t like the idea of killing animals. I stopped eating fish nearly ten years ago because I don’t like the taste. As a child, I went fishing a couple times a year with cheap Canadian Tire rods, bobbers and worms, seeking out white perch in the lake behind my house.

I stopped fishing about fifteen years ago after an experience at a U-Fish (where a lot of fish are bred for catching and eating in a small man-made pond), where I got in trouble for not killing a fish after catching it. Even back then, when I was still eating meat and fish, I didn’t want to participate in the killing of the fish because it felt wrong. My step-father took the fish that I caught and slammed it against a table, killing it instantly. I was mortified, and I didn’t fish for the remainder of the day.

Continue reading Get Girls Fishing a How-To Guide For Men

New World Record Bass “Caught”- But Not Recorded

The current Largemouth Bass World Record caught by George Perry (more), has held it’s place for the past 73 years. Withstanding an enormous and growing sportfishing industry, from professionals to amateurs alike. Even a few possible, but not official, contenders to that record have come out in the past 20 years.

But now, we have proof of a record breaking Largemouth Bass topping the scales at 25 pounds.

Mac Weakley of Carlsbad caught what could be the world-record largemouth bass early Monday at Dixon Lake in Escondido.

The bass weighed 25 pounds, 1 ounce on a hand-held scale, which – if approved – would shatter the world record, the 22-pound, 4-ounce bass caught by George W. Perry at Montgomery Lake in Georgia in 1932.

Read more; World-record bass – maybe – pulled from Lake Dixon

However, things aren’t as simple as that day George Perry cast out his one and only lure. Turns out that Mac Weakly didn’t exactly catch the fish. In the previous article Mac does admit the fish was foul-hooked and might not be eligable for the record. The very next day Max retracted his entry.

Late last night, the man better known as Mac Weakley decided he’d had enough of the controversy behind his potential world-record catch, that 25-pound, 1-ounce Queen Kong of a bass he foul-hooked at Dixon Lake on Monday. He decided not to submit the catch to the International Game Fish Association for approval as the all-tackle, world-record largemouth bass.

“It’s a great day, but it’s a bad day,” Weakley said at his home in Carlsbad. “It was a valiant effort. We’ve been trying and trying to catch this fish for years. It’s the world-record bass. Unfortunately, it was foul-hooked.”

Weakley’s monster bass, caught on a Bob Sangster handmade white rattlesnake jig (on 15-pound P-Line monofilament) from Angler’s Arsenal, was weighed on a Berkley BogaGrip, a hand-held scale, but no measurements were taken of the biggest bucketmouth landed in the history of black bass fishing.

Read more; Bass fisherman decides not to submit papers for record, & Record* bass caught at Dixon

Mac’s gonna feel horrible if someone else officially catches this fish before he does. Good luck “Budda”.

Check out these crazy fishing videos!

Okay, I’ll admit its a hefty 200MB download, the left channel is in Thai, and the right channel is in Japanese. But the fishing in this video is outstanding. Vertical jigging with Butterfly Jigs and similar lures, “yo-yo’ing” as David Jones likes to call it, has got to be one of the more tiresome ways you can fish. Now throw a 100 pound Yellowfin Tuna on the end of your line and you start to see just how awesome this video is.

It looks like a promotional video from a company called King Fisher, but I can’t seem to find anything about them.

Watch the Yellowfin Tuna fishing in Thailand video!

Shimano also has a two really cool videos on Butterfly Jigs, one of which is a really nice introduction for those of you that are unfamiliar with this type of fishing.

& Of course, if you haven’t seen it already, theres the much disputed “jumping fish” video

Update: After numerous downloads with no feedback I have permanently removed this video.

We’re Back!

It’s been a while hasn’t it. I hope you didn’t think a little down time could stop the fury. I can’t say that I’ve done much fishing while we’ve been away, maybe Clive will pull out a few more monster tarpon! With any luck I will have a “Lookback 2005″ video , to show off some of our amazing footage from Mexico, in the next two weeks. Then theres the visits to Bass Pro Shops, new tackle, and Toronto Islands I suppose.

Also, Im looking at buying a new low profile baitcaster and rod, anyone have any suggestions? I’ve been thinking about the Quantum Energy PT I just wish they had the 7.0:1 “burner” in left-handed.