Venice, LA Bull Redfish for July 20 to 22

With the covid virus putting a stop to many International Fishing Trips this season, I was extremely anxious to wet a line and experience some world class fishing action.  I have fished for big bull reds in the past and always said this is a trip that compares to the best fishing in the world.  A few months ago, I contacted Capt. Keith Kennedy of Born To Fish Charters and booked a 4 night/ 3 day fishing package.  I have fished with Capt Keith for many years and he is a great guide always putting us on fish.  I was going with friends Cole Lundquist who has fished with Capt Keith numerous times and Mike Sadar who was coming for his first trip to the Gulf.  On July 19, I flew out of O'Hare Airport on American Airlines without any problem.  The flight was about half full.  We landed in New Orleans and rented a car to drive to Keith's which takes about 1.5 hrs.  Keith supplies all housing, meals, and tackles.  His meals are simply delicious.

  During our stay we had cajun shrimp, Blackened redfish, deep fried redfish and shrimp, and bar-b-que ribs!  A day or so before we arrived the winds switched to the SE which are not ideal.  However, Capt Keith as the norm put us on numerous redfish the first morning.  We landed a total of 29 bull reds and 1 Jack Crevelle, lost numerous reds and battled a few sharks.  Our best tactic was using BlabberMouth popping corks with rootbeer/ chartreuse plastics.  We rigged the plastics using Gamakatsu Inline Octopus Circle SE 8/0 #265418 hooks.  The wind was too strong to use topwater Whopper Ploppers and others.  The action continued throughout the day.  On our second day we awoke to similar conditions.

  The action started out nonstop for the first hour as we probably landed over 10 bulls with my largest at 26lbs landed on the first cast of the morning.  The action slowed as sharks invaded our fishing grounds chasing the reds away.  We landed a total of 20 bulls with another Crevelle landed.  Having fell in love with Giant Trevally fishing out in the seas of Papua New Guinea, I enjoy battling these Jacks on light tackle.  Also the bull reds put on numerous drag burning runs.  On our last day the action slowed as the winds increased with an incoming storm.  However, a few big bulls were landed by all.  All it all it was another great trip with Capt. Kennedy. I experienced no problems at all travelling in and out of the Airports due to virus concerns!   Was great to finally get out and landed some quality fish.  I will be heading back for another round with the bull reds in a few weeks and later this fall.  Capt. Keith has a few prime days remaining this season.  With the International destinations come to a halt, his bookings are filling fast.  Give Keith a call at 504-908-3108 to get into some World Class Fishing Action which last throughout the year! 

MEMORIES OF ALASKA

31 years ago, I decided to fulfill a dream and head NORTH TO ALASKA to land monster silver salmon.  I fished for silvers ( cohos) in my backyard, Lake Michigan, but was tired of the crowds and having steel mills for scenery.  Images of virgin, uncrowded rivers teaming with salmon went through my mind.  After lots of research, I booked a week at Painter Creek Lodge on the Alaska Peninsula.  My dreams were met as the King Salmon River was chocked full of silvers while Painter Creek was stacked with sockeye salmon and arctic char.  I met numerous fantastic fishermen along the way.  Angleo, George, the Jarvis brothers, and many more remain friends to this day.  As the years passed, I would venture for 2 weeks to the Land of the Midnight Sun.  Week 1 would be with the Jarvis brothers and I catching huge halibut out of Valdez or Homer before heading to Painter Creek.

Our best year saw us put 12 halibut over 200 lbs into the cooler of which 2 were estimated at 300 lbs.  Also numerous huge lingcod and numerous species of rockfish were landed.  One year we put out shrimp cages and wound up with hundreds of giant prawns!  At the lodge, owner, Joe Maxey and Jon Kent would arrange for me to spend the stay in a tent on the Pacific on Amber Bay.  Joe would land on the Pacific beach during low tide and drop my guide and myself off.  The fishing was insane.  Huge silver to 20 lbs were landed all day.  My best day was over 150 silvers landed on a spinning rod rigged with a pixee spoon.  We were the only fishermen at Amber except for the numerous Brown Bears where my guide always had a rifle in hand just in case.  One year we walked upon a sow with a cub.  Luckily after a shot was fired into the sky the bears ran off without inflecting any damage!  On August 23, 2000 while returning from a successful halibut trip, we heard on TV that Joe Maxey was killed in a plane crash flying back to the lodge from Amber. 

We were shocked.  Flights to Amber were no longer an option in coming years.  In 2005, I was sitting alone in the King Salmon Airport.  Normally others heading to Painter would be present. The PenAir pilot informed me that the Mount Chiginagak Volcano erupted a few weeks ago sending an acidic discharge into Mother Goose Lake and the King Salmon River.  While at the lodge I saw countless dead salmon filling the river shallows which has an orange tint with a sulfur odor.  The salmon would not return for a few years.  During the week, Jon introduced me to Gary LaRose who owned nearby Pumice Creek Lodge.  I hired Gary to drop me off on the Cinder River so I could catch some silvers.  The results were spectacular as the silvers were huge and abundant.  After numerous talks with Gary and Jon, we decided the best option for me was to book future trips with Gary as Painter was going to fly fishing only lodge.  I absolutely fell in love with Pumice Creek Lodge.

  We would fish alone at the Cinder River for silvers or Lava Creek for char.  100 + silvers per day per person were the norm on the Cinder and they were even larger than the huge Amber silvers.  Gary LaRose and his lab Cinder, more or less became family.  Guides Rudy and Todd were 2 of the best guides to date.  Countless friends were made.  In 2020, Gary decided to retire and stop booking fishermen.  This left a void in my heart which, remains to this day.  The base was set too high at Pumice Creek to go to another Alaska Lodge.  Sitting back and looking at old photos and video, I was blessed to fish both Painter, Pumice, and some saltwater.  Plus having the honor to meet such great people.  Boy do I miss Alaska!

Fishing 2020

Am sure everyone out there has cabin fever including me.  Due to the coronavirus, our lives have been drastically put on hold.  Dream fishing trips to lands outside the USA have become a hope.  When International Travel can begin is in question with a few countries saying they will not open anytime soon, maybe not until 2022!  So, what is a person to do who wants to wet a line?  A few friends have recently been fishing locally in the USA.  Friend, Gary Clark has been fishing for big largemouth bass with Capt. Durwood Day on Lake Toho in Florida.

Durwood has years of experience in getting clients huge bass.  Dr. Clark has said the fishing has been redhot.  Durwood can be reached at 407-719-0215.  I have a few trips booked this summer with Capt. Keith Kennedy out of Venice, LA.  Capt. Keith runs Born To Fish Charters and puts clients on huge bull redfish year long.  Keith provides everything from meals, lodging, and tackle.  Keith can be reached at 504-908-3108.

If my International trips indeed do not come about this fall, I am sure I will be reaching out to Keith for more trips.  Good friend, Larry Walker, is always posting photos on Facebook holding giant largemouths over 10 pounds he lands on local lakes in Texas.  Recently, Larry and friend Jim Schmid fished for monster alligator gar on the Trinity River with Capt. Kirk Kirkwood.  Both Larry and Jim had great trips landing gar over 100 lbs.

Capt. Kirkwood can be found on Facebook.  Maybe I will have to get my boat running and head back up to Northwest Wisconsin to restock my freezer with walleyes.  I would tend to believe the fishing is currently on the slow side due to cold weather as it snowed here last night in Fond Du Lac, WI.  So, if your hope is to wet a line this season, International travel unfortunately is probably not in the cards, so look at the good old USA for some action!  Keep on an eye on Facebook and other publications to see when this virus nonsense will finally end and allow folks to live out their dreams! 

Argentina-Low water poaching

The Panara and Uruguay Rivers are at all time lows.  With the current virus shutdown being enforced in Argentina, numerous reports of poaching taking place has been reported.  Gamefish such as golden dorado and surubi catfish are schooled up in the deeper holes which are easy prey for illegal poaching.

Hopefully rains arrive in South Brazil soon to get the levels in the rivers up.  Conservation police should do their upmost to prevent this illegal practice and prosecute the poachers to the highest extent.  Use common sense and your greatest resource is the fisheries along with tourists pouring lots of money to the economy by wetting a line in your outstanding rivers.  I pray each day that this virus issue gets solved as quickly as possible thus allowing everyone to get back to their normal lives. 

The Chautauqua Bait Company

Recently, while looking for some jointed minnow type lures for a planned trip to Russia for taimen, I came across the Chautauqua Bait Company which is located in Earlville, Illinois.  CTQBait makes a variety of hand crafted, genuine cedar lures.  After browsing through the various lures on their website, www.CTQBAIT.com,

I decided to order a few 8 inch jointed Chautauqua Minnows and the 5 inch Super Shark.  These lures have stainless steel lips which can be bent to vary the depth.  Both lures run down to 8 feet upon casting.  They are made to order and come in some super colors.  I was able to cast both lures at my local lake and both ran better than expected.  I am sure that both of these lures will fool PNG bass and golden dorado which I hopefully will be fishing for quite soon!  The company makes some 11 inch jointed minnows which I plan to also order before my trip this October to La Zona for golden dorado.

Fishing Rod Repair

Upon returning from my recent trip to Papua New Guinea for monster GT, I decided it was time to replace a few rod tips.  The bobbin, PR knot, puts a tremendous amount of pressure of the rod tips and guides along with the drag burning runs put on my these brutes! Upon looking at options, I contacted Randy "Buzz" Butters who owns B & B Custom Fishing Rods located in Ripon, Wisconsin.

Also, I decided to replace the tips and all the guides on some quality TFO TFD Big Fish spinning rods which were designed by friend, Larry Dahlberg.  The spinning rod models were never set into production but friend, Jim Shulin, of TFO put me onto a few of these blanks.  Buzz is a rod building instructor for Mud Hole Custom Tackle.  After numerous discussions with the staff at Mud Hole and myself we decided to replace the guides with high quality FUJI Titanium SIC (Silicone Carbide) guides.  The other option would be high quality FUJI Torzite guides.  The main difference between these guides is the Torzite is about 30% lighter than the SIC guides and about $100 higher in price. 

To replace all the guides and tip on a 7 1/2 foot spinning rod will cost over $250 without labor for the SIC parts whereas the Torzite will run over $350.  So, when guys notice that high quality GT rods like Ripple Fisher cost in excess of $900, the Torzite guides are the main part of the cost.  Also if you notice one of your favorite GT rod is lighter than other, odds are it is the guides. 
Buzz Butters can handle all custom fishing rod building and repair.  You can find him on Facebook at BbCustomRods or give him a shout at 920-896-3132 or email rodmaker@dotnet.com

La Zona 2021

To date, this is the largest dorado I have seen a photo of that was landed in La Zona.  This monster bottomed out the lodge's 60 lbs bogagrip.  It was weighed on a different scale pushing it to 68 lbs.  It was landed last year on Christmas Eve on a Rapala Super Shad Rap.  I have seen only one other photo of a dorado pushing the scale over 60 lbs which was also caught in the month of December.  However, the guides claim they have seen larger!  Recently, the governments of Argentina and Uruguay have approved an anti-poaching agreement on the Uruguay River which both governments will enforce.  So, with this great measure, I believe more dorado of this size will be landed.  Years ago a 40+ lbs dorado was considered the trophy of a lifetime.  A few years ago panic set in when the Argentina and Uruguay Governments placed a restriction zone from anybody fishing within 100 meters of the Salto Grande Dam.  Once informed of this restriction, I predicted on this blog that the size of the dorado will drastically increase as fisherman will now not concentrate their majority of time near the dam as there are too many dorado in the 30 lbs range for the true monster to grab your lure.  My prediction came true as now numerous dorado exceeding 50+ lbs are caught which is now the trophy measure. 

With the onset of the coronavirus numerous clients had to be rescheduled to 2021. This has made weeks available in 2021 in tight demand, so book now before all the top dates are filled and your left out in the cold.
As mentioned in previous posts, we are going to do an exploratory trip for surubi catfish elsewhere on the Uruguay River to determine if it is feasible to offer this fishing to clients which stand up to the high standards La Zona Lodge has.  The hope is to have clients extend their dorado trip a few days to catch a trophy surubi and/ or clients fishing at other Argentina Lodges such as Jurassic Lake to extend their trip.  Clients on the proposed surubi trip will stay in the La Zona Lodge hotel with the dorado clients and drive in from Buenos Aires with them, unless extending their current trip.  This will be at a much reduced rate compared to the high demand golden dorado fishing in the zone!  Stay tuned for an update later this fall.