FLORIDA, MONSTER BASS ACTION

Friend Gary Clark had fantastic fishing for monster bass in Orlando Florida on July 29th. Gary landed over 20 huge bass in the morning while fishing with Capt. Ed Bussard of Bass Challenger Guide Service.

With the great bass fishing in Mexico being very dangerous because of the drug cartel problems, Florida is now THE place to go for monster bass.

During the spawning season it is difficult to get a booking with Capt. Ed so book early. However, the summer bite can be just as productive on artificials such as rattletraps and plastic worms

Capt Ed can set up all lodging arrangements and will pick clients up each morning at the hotel.

If you have a family trip to Orlando this summer, get away for part of the day and spend it after monster bass. Call now to get the best dates as they fill fast!

Capt Ed has a great website at http://www.basschallenger.com/

He can be reached at 321-377-2013

VALDEZ HALIBUT DERBY

Talk about beginners luck! Annette Gutierrez from New Mexico who works as a truck driver in Fairbanks, caught a monster 335.7lbs halibut on her first day ever fishing, July 2nd! The monster was caught out of Valdez, Alaska and leads the famous Valdez Halibut Derby which pays out $15,000 for the top prize.
The halibut was 87 1/2 inches long making the 5 foot 6 inch Gutierrez appear small! This is the second largest halibut ever caught in the 25 year history of the derby.
Gutierrez hooked the halibut in her first hour of fishing which is really amazing!

VENICE, LA REDFISH REPORT FOR JULY 20-22

Friends Gary Clark and Jeff Stagg fished for monster bull redfish with Capt Keith Kennedy of Born To Fish Charters during July 20th to the 22nd.
On day 1, the fishing was unbelievable. Non stop action put over 60 bull reds into the boat with Jeff's 30 pounder leading the way. Gary estimated over 1200 pounds of redfish were landed in about 7 hours! The amazing thing is they fished the same spot the entire day!
On day 2 the redfish moved from the honey hole above, but Capt Keith once again put the guys onto big bull reds. A few big reds in the 30lbs range were landed. The best lure is more or less a jighead called a Deadly Dudley.
On day 3 strong winds prevented the duo from returing to the spot on day 2. However Capt Keith knows more than a few hot spots. Keith put the guys on the big fish for the week. Jeff nailed a 33 pound redfish while Gary landed his largest bull redfish ever with a whopper weighing in at 45lbs.
All in all a terrific report reported by the guys.
Capt Keith has a few openings remaining this summer. I highly recommend you give him a call at (504) 908-3108

RECORD NUMBERS OF SOCKEYE SALMON ON KENAI RIVER, ALASKA

Last Sunday, a record number of sockeye salmon passed through the fish counter 19 miles upstream from the river mouth. An estonishing 230,600 sockeyes were counted in 1 day! Some years the count does not even reach 100,000!

These are sockeyes which have escaped the dipnetters, commercial fishermen, and anything else in their way to the spawning grounds.

With the increased number of sockeyes, the Alaska Fish and Game has now allowed dip netting through July 31st.

The previous one day sockeye total counted by sonar was 218,000 back in 1987.

Should be a fantasic fishing season for sockeye and a large number of fish returning back to the river in 4 to 6 years due to a great spawning season..

Hopefully the silver salmon run is similar!

MONSTER HALIBUT LANDED

Angler, Kent Carmichael, landed the halibut of his dreams on June 28, 2011. Carmichael was fishing in the Gulf of Alaska bout 90 miles from Pelican in SouthEast Alaska. The monster topped out the scales at the local lodge. The halibut measured 94 inches which converts to a whopping 466.2lbs by the conversion book pushished by Alaska Fish and Game. The current Alaskan record for halibut is 459lbs!

TOP LURES FOR ALASKA SILVERS

With 22 years of chasing monster silver salmon on the Alaska Peninsula, I have found a few lures far outproduce others.

The top silver lure on my list is the 7/8oz Blue Fox Pixee Spoon. The nickel plate and gold plate with a orange, red, and green insert are by far the best colors on the Peninsula for monster silvers. The Rattlin' Pixee Spoons in the same size/colors are also very good at catching monster silvers. Second on my list is the #5 or #6 Blue Fox Vibrax Spinner in silver blade and orange or pink body. The gold blade also is outstanding. Also have caught numerous big silvers with a purple, green, and chartreuse bodies. Third on my list is the hard to find Luhr Jensen Coho Bolo. The Coho Bolo is great in shallow water. The top model I have found is the silver-bladed, pink-skirted Coho Bolo in the largest size you can find.

One top tip I can give is when the silvers are a bit off, try putting a pink squid skirt on the end of the Pixee Spoon and the Vibrax Spinner which will definately make lure shy silvers active.

I am once again heading to Gary LaRose's Pumice Creek Lodge for monster silvers in mid September for a week of fishing. LaRose's Lodge offers some of best silver fishing on this planet in fisheries you will see no others than the local Brown Bears. Send me an e-mail if interested in join me for this great trip. 50 to 75 silvers up to 18lbs are the norm on these Peninsula Rivers plus we will fish a day or 2 for char where 100 char days are the norm.

TNT 140 prop lure

On recent trips to La Zona, low water gives the opportunity for one to use topwater lures to catch monster golden dorado. I found the ISCA Marine Sports TNT 140 to out produce the other large prop lures made for peacock bass by a wide margin.

However the TNT 140 is practically impossible to buy in the United States. Kermett Adams of http://www.klures.com/ can create a similar prop lure. I tried out Kermett's prop lure on my last trip to La Zona and found it to work well. It creates a large "woosh" sound when jerked and puts out a big wake from its prop to call in the monster dorado.

Contact Kermett at http://www.klures.com/ for more information on these and other great prop lures Kermett makes for golden dorado and peacock bass.

BERKLEY CROSS-LOK SNAPS

When you want to change lures very fast, Berkley makes an outstanding snap which enables you to do so. These snaps are made out of high grade stainless steel construction and have a wire over wire lock which enables you to battle the toughest of fish such as golden dorado or tigerfish.

The snaps come in black coloration and in a variety of sizes.

When fishing walleyes I normally use a size 3 snap which is rated for 60lbs. When I make wire leaders for such species as golden dorado I normally use a size 6 which is rated for 100lbs.

In all my years of fishing for monster species I have yet to see these Berkley Cross-Lok Snaps pull apart. Therefore I highly recommend you add a few of these snaps to your tackle box.