Post About Fishing

"Another week- another trip!"

Someone said that I bet.

Oh boy! more fishing- this week was better than last (I promise). This week was the last week of football, and I scored the game winning touchdown!(not really- we got blown out) So I now have more time on my hands to fish and do other un-athletic things.

The day of the trip was the day that K-State played Iowa State. With K-State in such a precarious position, this guy needs to help the team out by watching the first half of the game- and by wearing a groovy hat and jersey. So after a convincing first half of football, I went to Dick's with my dad and looked around for a little bit. I left the store with a new little crankbait that I will now refer to as the "Three-Dollar Crankbait". The day started off with me telling my dad how great the UV lures had been working on previous trips. I said that all I had to do was hold the lure in the same position for a few seconds right under me. After demonstrating for a few minutes, I got a little too aggressive and lost the lure. The trip suddenly cost five dollars in only a few minutes. So the next move for me was to use the Three Dollar Lure. I nearly lost that one on a rock only a few minutes later, so I got the brilliant idea to lower the budget.

When I fish, I leave my gear all at one place and take a box of jigs, pliers, and a handful of soft plastic grubs and minnows in my pocket. Over time I keep forgetting to take the plastics out of my pocket and they go through the wash and blend colors. On this day, I remembered to bring the forgotten plastics and I used one on a jighead. (this is only a $.60 value)

I noticed some of the fish in the pond-area were acting weird, so I started fishing that side. Before long, I had what seemed to be a snagged sucker. When I brought it up to the surface, I saw that it was a flathead catfish, and it was kinda big- 25 inches long.

This picture shows the flathead that I caught. It also shows my muscular frame and admirable fashion sense.

That was kinda exciting; it actually tied my record for largest flathead catfish. When I went to grab its mouth, it felt warm, this is generally not a good sign because it means that my fingers are about to freeze off. It also means that the weather is getting colder and the fishing season is closing in a little while. But the cold water is a plus for some fish species.

After the flathead was set free, I got a taste of cold-water Rocky Ford. I got an aggressive hit from a little spotted bass. They are probably one of my favorite fish to catch because they are a really rare and pretty fish.

The spotted bass and smallmouth bass rarely hit any time of year other than the periphery of the season because of their cold-water preferences.

 This picture shows the dividing walkway between a calm pond and the speeding rapids.

So here are the notes for the week:
1 You could lose five (nearly eight) dollars of fishing lures in ten minutes, or you could use a sixty cent lure for two hours and catch fish on it.
2 Now is the time to look for spotted bass and smallies at Rocky Ford
3 Every time I watch the first half of the football game at my house, K-State wins, you're welcome.

Want more proof?

There have been many opportunities for me to test the validity of the UV lure's effectiveness recently. So if we are not all tired of hearing about the sensational new spectacle that is the UV lure, I will continue.

This week was filled with football and school, but not fishing. It seemed as if the only reason I scrapped a short trip together on Sunday was to get some material to write about. Before I joined the football team, I would go on an average of two trips per week, but now I just don't have the time. It is interesting how adding a new priority drained all of my passion for fishing. Of course, the season is still alive. the best trip of my life was in mid-November. It was then that I caught 29 fish in only a few hours. On top of that, the willow lake will be stocked with rainbow trout soon, and they will bite until the lake ices over.

So enough whining, time for actual fishing. The day started off slowly, because I didn't know where to go. My default spot is Rocky Ford so hey why not. There were only a few people there, and most of them were not even fishing, so I could basically go wherever I wanted. I started at the waterfall using that spoon that I was chosen to test. Surprisingly, I caught nothing , so I switched to the UV lure, and caught nothing. I felt the mist rising from the waterfall and realized just how cold the water was getting.

With the water getting so cold, I chose to move downstream. I was getting really lazy and just let my lure sit right under me when what looked like a largemouth grabbed it. I started pulling but it just straight-up unhooked itself. I quickly cast again and had an instantaneous strike- that I again missed. I kept on casting but had absolutely no luck. Unless losing your new UV lure is considered luck.(goodbye five bucks)

I switched to a much cheaper lure, a simple jig with a Powerbait minnow, and it payed off fairly well.

                                         This little wiper had pity on me in my time of need.

The majority of this trip was blind casting into fruitless waters, so I decided to risk it again with another UV lure. With the first cast came the second fish of the day. The little white crappie was encouraging. (Never expect me to say that again: there are times that I would rather catch nothing than catch a little crappie)

I felt that I should keep going with the UV lure. It was a pretty good idea until it somehow got caught on some line and I lost it. Fortunately, it broke free and floated downstream, so all I had to do was follow it until it stuck to a rock in the rapids. I left after that ordeal.

So this week's halfhearted attempt at a fishing trip ended up costing five bucks (nearly ten) in lost lures. Although, all but one of the bites this trip were on a UV lure, so I guess that proves that they are worth the price.

Time for a test

I am a member of the North American Fishing Club. That basically means that I pay yearly membership dues to get exclusive access to fishing content on their website and magazine, along with the ability to apply for gear to test and keep for free.

The testing process is a long waiting game. The best you can do is apply for as many things as you can and hope you get chosen to test a product that you like.

I have only gotten one test before- "Top Secret" braided fishing line (that turned out to be by Spiderwire).

About two weeks ago I was notified that I had been selected to test the "Johnson Slama Spoon". Since the shipping is as slow as can be, I got my new spoon just a few days ago.

The same day that I received the spoon was the day that I tried it out, but not before going to Dick's to see if I could use some coupons for K-State gear that I got in the mail.

When I got to Dick's, I found out that the prices for said football apparel are far outside the price range for most people ever, But I would never waste a trip there without checking the fishing section. It turns out that checking the fishing section was a good idea, as there was a good deal on one of the UV lures which I may have mentioned in previous posts.

I went straight to Rocky Ford from there and started using the new spoon that I had been given. At 3/4 ounces and 2 1/2 inches, it is much larger than most spoons that I use. Just as I was tying it on, it slipped and bounced down the rock towards the water. If it had fallen in the water, I would have absolutely no chance at finding it due to the fact that the water instantly plunges to 5 feet deep and is moving extremely quickly. With that little wake-up call, I started being more cautious while tying it on. I really thought that I had a good chance with it, but after twenty minutes I changed my mind and switched back to the UV lure. During this time I decided to move into the water as close to the waterfall as possible, and I quickly realized how cold the water had gotten in only one week of freezing temperatures. After thirty more unsuccessful minutes, I tried moving downstream into the riffles. It only seemed to get worse as I had no bites the whole trip and the water was numbing my feet.

I was getting the sense that the fish needed time to adapt to the cold. The best course of action seemed to be moving to Tuttle Creek, where the water would take more time to cool down. When I got there, the action moved at the exact same pace that it had before. After some time using crankbaits, I decided to pull out the scented minnows in a final attempt to catch something blog-worthy. After losing at least two minnows on rocks and getting a third one stu- oh wait that is a fish! I could tell pretty quickly that it was a flathead because it came to the surface before it realized it was hooked. Unfortunately the second time it came to surface the hook popped out. Nothing happened the rest of the trip.

This time of year is when you come to the realization that the fishing season will soon die and we will have nothing to do but analyze football stats and throw snowballs at the heads of our little brothers, how sad. Hopefully I can catch something with that new spoon before the season ends.

More UV

I had a pretty good fishing week this week. 

I started off the week with a short trip to rocky ford during my sisters volleyball practice. 

I noticed that the water had gotten higher. Because of the shutdown, the Army Corps of Engineers won't update their website, so we don't know how high the water is or what the output of the tubes is. But I do know that more water is a good thing, so I headed straight to the waterfall. Before long, I hooked a 16 inch wiper on the oh-so-great Storm UV lure. 

 This fish really impressed me, because normally the wiper are much smaller than this. As I kept going I had another hit. This one hit really hard and fought me for several minutes. I was amazed at how big he was- 19 inches. I have only caught one wiper that was larger- a twenty incher that I caught earlier this year. I hooked into another fish and assumed that it was another huge wiper, but it was just a 39 inch gar (aw man).So I was pretty pumped at this point and I was ready to go out again.


My grandparents had a trip planned this weekend to stay at the river-pond in their camper. My mom let me take Friday off from school so that I could fish during this time.

I went again to rocky ford on Friday and immediately tried the waterfall again- or I would have if it wasn't crowded. I started downstream and started getting some success, but I couldn't catch anything really good. When there was an opening, I quickly jumped on it and started fishing. I then hooked into a wiper which felt bigger than the others. After a five minute fight, I pulled it up and saw that it was much bigger than anything I had ever seen before. It was 23 inches long, making it the biggest sportfish I have ever caught. I kept on casting and soon had another 19 incher, but the bite just quit after that. I moved downstream and had some success before leaving.

 I went again the next day and was instantly onto the bite, meaning that I had three 20+ inch wiper in the first hour. But the same thing happened again- the fish stopped. I only had one more fish after that, a 14 inch drum (yay).

I had one more opportunity on Sunday. This time the waterfall was taken so I tried downstream. I had a good sized saugeye in the first few casts, and I eventually ended up catching a little drum, but I really wanted another shot at the waterfall. I made my way back and found the position open. On the first cast I had a 14 inch wiper (that would-on any other day-be a great fish), but I wanted more. I hooked into "more"( a 19 inch wiper)  and found myself the center of attention among many of the people there. Once again, after that the bite just stopped and the only other fish I caught was a 37 inch gar.

All of the fish mentioned in this post were caught either on an orange Storm Smash Shad or a green Rapala Shad-Rap, both of witch have the special UV paint.

So it looks like as long as the UV paint doesn't cost more, I will continue to use it.

P.S. I didn't reveal a lot of information on HOW I fished the lures, just THAT I used them. The detailed information will be revealed as soon as my fishing show airs on ESPN. (because that will totally happen)

UV experiment

This post could also be "I went fishing," because I actually went fishing this week.

I started out the week with a ten-dollar certificate to Dick's Sporting Goods that really wanted to be spent. I had to take my sister to volleyball practice, so I had the perfect excuse. When I got there, I knew that I needed some more minnows, but that wouldn't take up the ten bucks. I decided to buy a Storm Smash Shad 6 with special UV paint. The Idea behind this paint is that the fish can see Ultraviolet light, that penetrates through murky water, better than the normal spectrum. Since I have heard good reviews from magazine writers, I decided to try UV out. The results were pretty great, as I landed the first wiper in a long time in only a few minutes using this lure.

Lure showing its potential with this little wiper

It was all football from that point until Saturday. On Saturday I set out with most of my muscles aching straight into the slippery rapids at rocky ford. The day started out slow but I kept using my new lure. Eventually I had something hit it, but it instantly jumped out of the water and spat the hook out. With newfound hope, I kept on casting. I noticed that there were jumping baitfish within casting range, so I started casting just beyond were they were. First cast- nothing, second cast- nothing, third- still nothing, but I wanted to make absolutely sure that there was nothing there before I moved on. On the next cast, I had a hit. It felt heavy- like a drum- it fought by shaking its head- like a drum, and I was almost certain that it was a drum. Once I pulled it in though, I saw that it was no drum- it was a monster saugeye. It was 21 inches long and it completely dwarfed my lure. These fish double in weight from 16 inches to 21 inches, so this fish was quite a catch.

That lure is three inches long, making it only 1/7 of the body length of this fish.

                                                    This saugeye ties my personal record

I got back to fishing and started moving upstream. I started getting onto some fish but they kept tossing the hook and I only caught one 14 incher. I assume that they were all saugeye based on how well they tossed the hook. As I moved upstream, I found myself on the western side of the rapids, so I decided to try my new lure in a pool that cannot be accessed from the eastern bank. After two casts I found myself hung up on some line that somebody cut and left in the water. I was stuck between losing my new lure and wading deeper into the cold water. I hate it when I quickly lose a lure that I just got, so I forced myself in and retrieved it. This was not the healthiest decision that I have ever made, as the sun had gone down and the wind was blowing and my pants were now wet, but it was totally worth it.

Not wanting to lose my new favorite lure, I switched to the minnows that I just bought. The thing about those minnows is that they could have one of two different densities. You may end up with a pack that is nice and firm, or you might get one that is full of minnows that are just waiting to fall apart when you put them on the hook. This is particularly frustrating when the minnows end up costing 30 cents apiece for the 2.5 inch model. I got a bad pack, so that means I need to be extra-careful about using them in rocky places. So anyways, I started moving back to the starting point when I got two bites and one fish in three casts. It was just a little drum, and the action died as quickly as it started.

I decided to call it quits at this point because my hands were getting to the point where I couldn't tie a knot because they were so cold.

So I guess the take-away from this week is that UV lures are saugeye and wiper approved, And that I should be more careful about which pack of minnows I buy.

catfish

Due to a lack of fishing success, I need to do another profile.

Time for catfish!

There are thousands of species of catfish in the world. In fact, catfish are the largest family of fish in the world. The catfish family is represented in Kansas by blue catfish, flathead catfish, channel catfish, and bullhead. All of the catfish in Kansas are scaleless, have whiskers, and have rough tooth patches in their mouths.

The blue catfish is the largest member of the catfish family in America. The world record blue catfish was 143 pounds! These catfish live mainly in large rivers like the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, but they venture up into the blue river and a small population exists in Tuttle Creek. These fish eat dead and dying fish and crayfish. The blue catfish can easily grow up to ten pounds in places like Tuttle Creek- where there is a large population of gizzard shad. These fish have a very strong sense of taste because, like the other catfish in Kansas, they have taste buds all over their bodies- especially on their "whiskers". Blue catfish (along with the other catfish) are known to congregate below the tubes waiting for unsuspecting fish to be flushed right at them in the turbulent water. There was once a time that I was at the tubes with a friend. We were about to leave when I snagged the one-thousandth rock of the day. As I pulled the line I realized that this was1 no rock- it was something huge. I told my friend to grab the net, because I obviously was going to need it. That fish took me back and forth for 28 minutes before it wrapped around a rock and pulled the hook out of its mouth. There are only two likely suspects for what this fish was, and those are blue catfish and flathead catfish.


Flathead catfish are a more well known catfish in Kansas. The world record flathead was 123 pounds and was caught in the Elk City Reservoir in Kansas. Their habits are more like that of largemouth bass than like the other catfish. For example, flathead only eats live food and will stay motionless for hours waiting for food to come to them. The flathead catfish is a largely unpredictable fish, during the day it stays on its favorite rock and you can only catch it by the professional process of dumb luck (my primary tactic). At night they move into river beds and gorges to feed on whatever fish they can find. Because of their feeding habits, you may catch three of them in a day, or one of them in three months. Although they are the largest predators in Kansas, the average size that I catch them is only 17 inches- not really that monstrous.

here is my dad with a 25in. flathead

The most common catfish in Kansas is the channel catfish. It it the catfish most refer to when they say "I caught a catfish." This catfish can grow to more than fifty pounds, but they usually cap out at seven or eight pounds. They are abundant in every water system in Kansas- ponds, lakes, reservoirs, rivers, creeks, and even in ditches- so long as they stay wet all year. The channel catfish is the least picky fish that I know. They will eat anything that stinks or swims, so long as they can fit it in their mouths. Bait for channel catfish includes: pre-molded catfish dough (in flavors like "liver and cheese"), pretty much any lure that has either scent or motion (meaning all lures), certain vegetables (like corn), anything fit for human consumption, and basically all non-plant organic matter. Channel catfish are easy to find and easy to catch for most young anglers. I on the other hand, couldn't catch a catfish until sixth-grade. If you happen to catch a channel (or blue) catfish, you should first wet your hand, press down on the dorsal fin, and grab just behind the pectorals. If you don't hold these fish right, you could get a two inch serrated barb through your hand. If you happen to catch a bigger catfish (20+ inches) the barbs should be dull- so don't try to hold it by its mouth. I once caught a large channel catfish and though that I could just hold it by the mouth- Like those guys holding giant flathead on tv. The fish clamped down on my hand so hard that it drew blood and nearly made me cry (and we all know that I never cry). 1 those guys on tv are psychotic rednecks, 2 Who on earth does what they see on tv and comes away unharmed, and 3 flathead catfish don't have anywhere near the jaw strength or leverage that blue catfish and channel catfish do. Please learn from my mistakes.

                                        Here is a 25 inch channel catfish that I caught at rocky ford

      The final fish that I mentioned were the bullheads. I actually have never seen nor heard of anyone who has ever caught a bullhead. I think that it is part of a conspiracy, like how there is no gold in Fort Knox and how the Egyptians had alien contractors build the pyramids. If you have any information regarding bullheads please send it to me so that I can file it between bigfoot and chupacabra. We may yet discover the secrets of the bullhead someday.

    All of the catfish (which actually exist) in Kansas give great, consistent fights when hooked, and make good table fare if you catch them at the right size.

some fish

I didn't go fishing a single time this week! My faith is being tested obviously.

So it's time for another profile

Walleye, saugeye, and sauger are the three fish I will profile.

     Walleye are fish that are common to the Midwestern United States and up into Canada. They are one of the most sought-after gamefish in the areas that they live. The reasons for this is that the walleye has tasty flesh and it is a top predator. The world record walleye was 25 pounds, to put that in perspective, the largest walleye I have ever caught was four pounds. The walleye is commonly referred to as the pikeperch, this is incorrect as the walleye is in a family with the yellow perch and the European perches, and is not closely related to pike. The reason these fish were called pikeperch is that they bear a close resemblance to the pike, with long, thin bodies, and a mouth full of teeth.

    The walleye lives in deep cold lakes and rivers in the Midwestern part of North America. It has highly reflective eyes which are used to hunt baitfish in the deeper, darker portions of the water column. Their eyeshine is caused by the reflective layer which is used to enhance the light coming from the surroundings, much like a cat. Walleye have been known to strike a wide range of baits, including, live minnows, mayflies, live and plastic leaches, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and poppers (at night).
The walleye was introduced into Kansas unsuccessfully for years until the population started to catch on in lakes like Milford. The problem was that the fish were flushed out of the reservoirs that they were stocked in.


   The saugeye was produced to help establish a gamefish into Kansas, as they seem less likely to get flushed out of reservoirs. As you may be able to tell, the saugeye is a hybrid between the walleye and sauger, and because of this, it has many of the same traits as both its parents. The saugeye is hard to tell apart from its parents other than the patterning of the spiny dorsal fin. The sauger has distinct spots in the margins of the spines, the walleye has one large dark blotch at the base of the dorsal fin, and the saugeye has dark streaks running down the margin of the spines. The saugeye is the only one of the three that I catch on a regular basis, so it is the one that I know the most about (as far as catching experience). The saugeye has an amazing ability to feel much heavier than it is. When they are smaller, they use this ability very well. During the spring spawning run last year, they would hit a crankbait and hold still. If you set the hook, they would take off at mach 9, stripping line from your reel as they went. It was an awesome time to fish, as I would average ten fish per trip and get at least one huge saugeye every time.

     The sauger is a much less well-known fish compared to the walleye. It only grows to about five pounds and it doesn't do as well in lakes. It is mostly a river fish that lives in waters that are darker and muddier than the water walleye thrive in. There eyes are even larger than in the walleye, and they use this to their benefit when hunting baitfish- like shiners and minnows. The saugeye is the only one of the three that is never stocked in Kansas. This fish has a near identical build as its brethren, which includes the spikes.

     These fish are the only fish other than gar that you will readily find near Manhattan that have teeth. On top of that, their first dorsal fin is comprised of sharp spines that can reach several inches long. On top of on top of that, they have nasty spines on their gills that really like to dig in when they throw their heads back at your hand. There is simply no way to hold these fish that doesn't hurt the fish or the holder. All of these fish are known to attack lures of the most outlandish colors, like neon green, yellow, pink, and in this weird color pattern called "firetiger".

    Hopefully this post was helpful to you- o' young fishers. Happy fishing!