No Fish but a Lesson Learned

Since I bought my new fishing gear last week I’ve been itching to test it out and I did get a chance last weekend. The fishing trip didn’t go according to plan, however, since I came back empty handed, but I did learn one important lesson.

Before I get to the lesson, let me just describe what happened. I went fishing with my friend like usual. Upon arrival at Kensico Reservoir I went looking for shallow type of water with lots of rocks. This is because Lake Trout like to be around that type of water this time of year. There were couple of enticing locations that I decided to try out.

It all looked so promising. About every 15 minutes I either saw ripples in the water, or heard a large splash made by a fish. That was proof that there were fish where I was fishing. But none of them wanted to get on the end of my hook.

Since the fish were splashing a little farther than where I was, I decided to get my new heavier spoons so I can cast longer and get to them. I bought four different size spoons that weighed 1 oz., ¾ oz. and ⅝ oz. and this is where I learned the lesson. The lesson was: when buying casting fishing tackle, do consider the weight of the lure and the line you are using.

The spoons I bought were way too heavy for the fishing line.  I had a 12 lb. line which snapped after couple of casts because the lures were too heavy. I ended up loosing all four of the brand new lures that I bought and not getting a single strike all day.

Well, I hope next time I’ll have more luck and am not buying heavy lures unless I have a heavier line on my spool.

My New Fishing Gear for Lake Trout

Last trip left me kind of depleted so I decided to visit my local fishing store and pick up some fishing gear for my next fishing trip. I’m still trying to catch a lake trout so I wanted to buy some lures that would be the most effective on landing one. Here is what I got.

Spoons seem to be very effective on lake trout so I bought four different ones. I don’t have a boat and am trying to catch lake trout from the shore so I decided to buy a little bit more heavy spoons so I can cast longer. Before I was casting out with 1/4 oz. spoons but those are a bit too light and I can’t cast them that far. With these heavier ones I’ll be able to throw them out about 20 or 30 feet more which will hopefully increase my chances of catching my first trout.

For lures specific to catching lake trout I went with:
1. Gold Color 1/2 oz. Hurricane Kast-A-Way Slim Mino Spoon with Green and Red Bucktail
2. Silver Color 1/2 oz. Southbend Kast-A-Way Spoon with White Bucktail
3. Gold Color 5/8 oz. Hurricane Kast-A-Way Wobbler
4. Silver Color 1 oz. Hurricane Kast-A-Way Spoon with White Bucktail

All the above are spoons meant for catching lake trout. Am casting from shore so I went with heavier ones in 1/2 oz. to 1 oz. which will allow me to cast my lure farther than with a lighter type of lures. I also wanted them to have a bucktail. I saw how the tail reacts in water and it seems to have a wobbling action that is sure to attract fish. 

But that’s not all. Fishing store I went to had some other stuff on sale. Here is some other items I purchased.

1. Blaze Hardbait Lipless Crankbait
2. Zoom Super Fluke Baby Bass Plastic Baits
3. Gitzit Radon Spinners 5pk

The above lures are meant more for catching largemouth bass than trout but the price was right so I decided to expand my arsenal a bit.

I should be going fishing either this week or the next. That’s when am going to have a chance to test these lures. I’ll let you know how I do with them in my next post.

Red Colors Didn't Work as Planned

My latest fishing trip went according to plan but it didn’t have the outcome I was hoping for. The plan was to use red color lures in the mourning and then go with brighter colors in the afternoon. So as soon as I got out by the water I reached for a red and black South Bend Spinner, then a black and red plastic worm on a Texas rig, followed by my brand new Northland Buck-Shot Rattle Gold Spoon.

Unfortunately nothing worked. I didn’t get a bite for about an hour so I went into by tackle box for some other lures. I got a strike on South Bend Bucktail Spoon but I couldn’t hook the fish. It just fell back into the water.

After couple of hours of fishing we decided to move to another spot. I saw some fallen down trees which looked very promising. After trying all types of spoons, crankbait and other lures around the trees and not getting anything, I went for plan B. I setup a bottom rig with two live worms and opened up a fresh can of beer. I caught a seven inch Yellow Perch after some times so I guess plan B worked somewhat.

Ok, so my strategy didn’t work this time around. I think the problem was locating the fish. So for next time I have to work on finding the fish first and then on what type of lure to get them with.

Red Colors and Spoons for Lake Trout

Last time when I went fishing I wanted to catch a lake trout but instead I got my first largemouth bass. This weekend am going fishing again and the goal remains the same as last week: lake trout. I’ve done a little more reading on how to go about it and here is my plan.

Last time I started out early in the mourning with a gold color spoon. I hooked a small fish, which looked like trout, with it but it escaped (see earlier post). Based on that I decided to buy another gold color spoon in hopes it will work better. The spoon I went with is a Northland Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon and I have a good feeling it will work great because of the rattling effect.

My latest reading has also led me to believe that early in the mourning red colors show up better. First thing in the mourning, I will try a red and black spinner and some red plastic worms I have. Later on in the day I’ll try my other crankbaits, spoons and spinners. Let's see if I'll be able to hook a fish this weekend.

How I Caught My First Largemouth Bass

When learning about fishing or watching fishing videos people always say how exciting catching largemouth bass is. As a beginner fisherman I’ve never had the experience of catching one until this past weekend when I finally hooked one. Here’s how it went down.

My friend and I decided we were going to go fishing. So we packed up and left early Saturday mourning for Kensico Reservoir. I like going fishing there since it’s only 40 minutes from NYC. Not only that but there’s lake trout in Kensico Reservoir and that is actually the fish I wanted to catch. We got there early in the mourning about 6:30am. The sun just started to come up but it was still dark outside. 

When we got by the water I decided to go with a bright type of lure since it was still dark. I pulled out a gold color South Bend Kast-A-Way Spoon. I heard trout like to go for spoons. I casted it out couple of times and I actually hooked a small fish on it but it fell off the hook before I could get a good look at it.  It might of been a small trout about six or seven inches. I kept on casting out spoons of different color, sizes and shapes. My goal was to get me a trout. But after about two hours of trying I haven’t got anything so I reached into my tackle box for some other lures.

I’ve reached for the Rapalla Rattler 05 Lipless Crankbait which I purchased recently. It’s a light blue and white lipless crankbait with a BB rattler inside. I casted it out couple of times and nothing, but I was impressed with the movement it made in the water. I told myself that I’ll cast it out maybe once more before I’ll move on when over a sudden it happened. 

I got a strike. So I pulled back on my fishing rod and started to reel in. As I did, the fish leaped out of the water. My first thought was “this has to be a largemouth bass” because I know they like to put up a fight. My reel was loose enough so that the fish could take off as much line as it wanted and this bass did just that. The reel kept on lousing line as I was pulling the fish in. When the it was about 6 feet from me that’s when I was sure I caught my first large mouth bass.

I pulled it out of the water. It was about 12 inches long and I would say about a pound or so. Maybe it wasn’t the biggest large mouthbass in the world but it was big enough as the first bass that I caught. Let’s see if I can get something bigger next time.

In the Beginning

I want to welcome everyone to "The Green Angler" blog. For my first post I'd like to tell you all what this blog will be about, so here it goes.

Am a fisherman from the New York area. I've been fishing for about three years now so I consider myself a beginner. The point of this blog will be to document my progress as I, hopefully start becoming better at fishing.

I mostly go fresh water fishing but am not limited to one kind of fishing. In later posts I'll discuss the equipment am using and or purchased for my fishing trips. Then every time I go out fishing I'll make a post about it and tell you guys what type of fish I caught and how I did it.

So far the biggest fish I caught was a 19 inch pickerel. I'm not sure how much it weighted, but am thinking anywhere between 1 to 1.5 lbs. Besides that I caught some brown trout, perch bass and some pan fish but nothing bigger than my pickerel.

So hopefully there will be bigger fish in my future. I should be going fishing this coming weekend so another post will come shortly.