Steve works hard to clear the other lines, as our anglers strap in for the fight. 1st fish comes in, textbook- rod tip up, secure the trolling weight, leader the fish up , for Steve to make the perfect gaff. 1st fish, in the low 30’s, hits the deck, but we still have lots of work to do. This fish is acting like The Man. Even though our angler is inexperienced, he is hanging tough in rough seas and reeling like a pro. We finally see the fish as he approaches the boat- and he’s a good one. I turned over the wheel so I could secure the weight and leader the fish. When the fish got within ten feet of the stern, he made a short dash, landing his head straight between the engines. Steve reacted quick, and sunk the gaff into his head. After getting a couple more hands on the gaff, he flew over the stern.

Wahoo baby! The Man!
This fish is pushing 80 pounds… – that’s what I’m talking about! Even though fish over 120 lbs are caught each season off of the break in NE FL, we were pretty happy to have this one in the box. After a couple hours of more trolling in building seas to no avail, we decided to change the plan and drop down for some trigger fish to top off the box. Why not field test some of the new Trokar Saltwater circle hooks and see what happens. A trigger in the boat on almost every drop including  a beautiful Queen! Yea, I’d say the new Trokars hold up just fine, can’t wait ’till they hit the shelves! After an hour or so bring triggers over the rail it’s time to call it a day and make the 64 mile run home.
As each of the clients found their cozy spot for the ride home, Steve and I couldn’t stop talking about new tactics we want to try and when we can get back out to he blue water to feed our wahoo addiction.

Wintertime Wahoo- Gotta’ get back out there! Slimy 5’s,

Capt Don

CatDaddy’s view on life is simple “Life is short so give as much as you can”. The CatDaddy give all that he has to share his passion and knowledge for catching monster Kansas cats.

CatDaddy is a master in the art of cat fish angling. He was taught everything he knows from his father and his father‘s fishing friends. With all of this knowledge, CatDaddy know more ways to catch cat fish than the average fisherman. Some of CatDaddy’s favorite techniques include more than just a pole. You will see CatDaddy string log lines, limb lines, and trot lines in the pursuit of monster cats.

CatDaddy has a passion to share his knowledge with his guests. Cat Daddy loves to watch the faces his clients when pull up a 70-80 cat on a limb line. With a smile, CatDaddy looks to his guests and says “Go on, and stick your hand in its mouth and flip ‘em into the boat”. This is where the guests normally loose it.

Not only does the CatDaddy catch fish, he also can show some great hospitality. CatDaddy loves to treat his guest with some fresh cooking. He will serve up fried catfish, catfish jambalaya, catfish steaks, pretty much any style of catfish you can imagine. CatDaddy’s food is as good as you can get.

http://catdaddyguideservices.com/

RR Shumway

1308 N W Logan

Topeka, KS 66608

(785) 357-0935

When it came time for packing for the trip, we asked to include our rods in his carrying case.  He chuckled and stated that the rods and reel that we had chosen were too small and would not stand up to the silver salmon of Alaska. At first glance of the size of his rods and reels we thought we might have come unprepared.

Upon arrival we adventured our rented boat through the Valdez Arm into Jacks Bay & Galena Bay.  At first we used down riggers and the larger gear to troll pop gear and herring for the silver salmon.  While we did catch a number of silver salmon it almost seemed unsporting as you couldn’t really feel the fight of the fish.

We then anchored in Jacks Bay for lunch, and unsheathed our W&M Alaska Medium Drifter rods & the Eagle Claw Endure Cast reels.  We rigged a small amount of weight and a herring, and cast over side.  As we were unpacking lunch my buddy shouted “the Wright McGill!”  My son grabbed the rod, set the hook, and it was fish on!  We had a modest set on the drag, when the salmon saw the boat it went for an immediate run stripping line off the reel.  After a good fight, we netted the silver salmon, which was our largest fish caught yet.  Immediately following the catch, the whining drag of the second Wright McGill sounded off, and my buddy grabbed the pole.  Like a kid in a candy store, he said “now this is fishing!” as he reeled in yet another big silver.  Lunch was delayed as we all took turns catching our limit with the Wright McGill fishing gear.

For the remaining days of our vacation we caught our limit using the Wright McGill fishing gear.  With each catch you could feel every twitch and pull of the fish, the responsiveness could not be beat.

My friend stated that he is getting rid of the other poles and from now on will only use Wright McGill.  I’m hooked, and cannot wait for our next trip!

My friend Chris and I decided that we would go fishing for perch on Edgemere road. We had caught 20 perch before it began to rain.  As we were packing up I noticed that my light action rod was being dragged into the water. I ran over and picked the rod up, set the hook, and felt what I thought was a whale.  It took a grueling 45min to real in this mud puppy! I was forced to run up and down the road to avoid running out of line or snapping the 4lb test. When I finally landed the monster it felt like a cylinder block. It ended up weighting 53.4lbs.  Thanks to Eagle Claw hooks I was able to catch this giant carp. I can finally say that  my Rocheser outdoors club finally got popular! – Bobby

REEL TIME FISHING

Where are you located? What bodies of water do you fish? Lewiston, ID. Clearwater and Snake Rivers. Also the Kenai River in Alaska.

What type of fishing do you specialize in? Salmon and Steelhead

What can guest expect from a trip with your guide service? A full day on the water with lots of laughs, excellent equipment and a shore lunch.

What makes your guide service stand apart from your competitors? I work for a top notch outfitter (Toby Wyatt) and our crew of guides keep in constant communication so we always know where the fish are, and we get them!

What is the best part about being a guide? Watching the smile on peoples faces when they see the fish they’ve just fought come in the boat.

What is a success story with guests? The day I forgot to bring my net and ended up landing 4 spring Chinook by hand. It was quite a circus.

What would you do if you were not taking guests fishing? I’d be fishing!

Favorite fishing tackle? Wright & McGill rods and Lazer Sharp hooks of course! I’m very picky about my equipment; everything has to be clean and in top shape. There is not a better salmon rod on the market then the magnum plug rod in my opinion.

What are your plans for the 2011 season? Spend more time on the water chasing spring Chinook and getting more kids out on the water.

What else would you like the public to know about you? I’m a tackle junkie. And love playing with different egg cures. My garage looks like a tackle shop.

What is your contact information and links? Bookings 1-208-790-2128 and the website is www.reeltimefish.com

Any words of wisdom? Just to always stay positive when the fishing’s slow. A rough day out on the water still beats a day behind a desk.

If you were stuck on your boat with one set up, what would it be? Salmon Fishing it would be a W&M magnum plug rod back trolling some fresh cured roe for sure!

Brian Woodward is the director of the Wyoming Walleye Stampede.  Brian is in charge of running three different events. The 1st event is at Keyhole Reservoir on May 7th and 8th.  Second event is at Glendo Res on June 4th and 5th.   The 3rd event will be held at Boysen Res on June 18th and 19th to finish out the regular season.  Then the top 25 teams from the Stampede will go on to compete against the top 25 teams from Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, and South Dakota for a combined 125 team Championship.  Really exciting!  All good stuff!!

Brian Woodward is also the president of the North Platte Walleyes Unlimited.  Brian spends most of his summer (when he is not fishing) reaching out to youth in the local area and throughout the state of Wyoming.  North Platte Walleyes Unlimited donates over 1500 rod and reel combos to young anglers.  The club has 3 major events that they participate in and giveaway fishing rods. The major event of the year is at the Sportsmans Expo in Casper where the organization gives away around 900 combos.  The club is also the primary sponsor for a life jacket loaner program that the Casper EMS department runs.  Last year the North Platte Walleyes Unlimited received some great recognition for saving two lives due to individuals wearing our jackets after getting swept away in the North Platte River.

During the winter months Brian coaches a competitive girls volleyball team that competes at a junior national level.  The girls team will travel to Colorado for 5 tournaments.  The team will be attending the Junior National Qualifier in Minnesota.  This year the girls are competing in the 18 year old division. Lets wish his girls team the best of luck this year.

Brian is involved in many different organizations. But when he does have time he like to fish. Here is a list of the tournaments that he will be fishing.

Masters Walleye Circuit West Division Includes:Devils Lake ND,June 24-26th, Mobridge SD, July 22-24, Cass Lake Sept 16-18

The Cabelas NTC @ Bays De Noc, Escanaba MI,  & the World Walleye Championship, Praire du Chien, WI

Glendo June 11th and 12th and one tournament at Big Mac with the Nebraska Walleye Trail in May.

http://www.wyomingwalleyestampede.com/j/

http://www.npwalleyes.com

As predicted we have seen some very good fishing this November off Guatemala. The amount of bait and activity out wide has been something to behold. Anglers who have made it to these rich waters have been rewarded with some superb action. Boats have averaged between 15 to 30 sailfish
releases a day with almost daily encounters with blue marlin in the 200 to 300lb range.

Mike Malin, his father Gene, Bill Frint and Rich Dorchak, were the first to join us in November going 7 from 22 on the sails their first day. The following they released 10 sails and strong blue in the 300lb range which Rich Dorchak did a fine job on as the angler. Their third day saw 8 from 21 and then 14 releases from 23 bites on the last day to see out a great trip which the group all thoroughly enjoyed.

Robert Schoenthal and his collegue Alex González made the trip down from a cold New York to enjoy our hot action. The duo released 7 from 16 bites on the 14th to start things rolling. With Alex having high sights on his first blue marlin we stuck to our guns in persuit thereof and were rewarded late the next day when the second blue of the day inhaled the mackeral pitchbait for Alex to enjoy the angling highlight of his life and release a feisty 225lb Blue to compliment the 6 sailfish Bob and he had already released. Day three saw Bob enjoying a relaxing day around the pool catching up on soem work, while we wore Alex out offshore, releasing 16 sails, putting some 30 to 40 pound dorado in the boat and having two blue marlin up we just couldn’t connect on. To say Alex and Bob left happy would be putting it mildly.

The 18th saw our OBX/Decisive team with us from the East Coast to practice fish a day prior to the PCCA’s final event which is historically held in Guatemala. Anglers Mike Viveiros, Dell Dembosky and Craig Johnson got off to an exciting start releasing a blue and 2 sails all at the same time all on 20lb early in the day. Only minutes latter we released another feisty blue to start their trip.
Following our initial plans of exploring prior to the tournament the following day we unfortunately seemed to leave the fish behind as we went looking but it did give us an idea of where not to go the next day.

The 19th saw the tournament start and we found the pick of the bite out west but we just could not get the hooks to stick and ended with a disappointing 13 from 38 bites, but Dell did release an exciting 250lb blue . After a good team talk we were back in high spirits on day two and found our groove, going an impressive 38 from 54 bites in 6 hours of tournament fishing to take top day honors and put us back within 5 fish of the top boat.
With a lot on the table for the final day we were back out west but just couldn’t get it going with a slower pick for everyone. With 45 minutes to lines out we were still 5 fish behind the lead boat and found a pocket of fish for the Decisive to turn it on. First we released a triple, two sails and a blue marlin in the 250lb range, exciting stuff with 20lb tournament line and so much at stake. Next a triple of sails, then a double, then a single, down to the wire it went to tie on points but loose by 7 minutes on time. Not to be disappointed Team OBX/Decisive was victories taking the Grand Championship Team for the Event, with Mike Viveiros taking the Grand Champion Angler for the entire event and Dell Dembosky taking the Top Angler for the Guatemalan Leg. All in all, a fantastic showing, a new PCCA release record with 676 sails, 7 blue marlin and a striped marlin to make for some unbelievable action.

The 22nd and 23rd saw our neighbour Scott Lund and his friend Ron with us. The sailfish were most certainly around and we encountered unbelievable numbers of them feeding on balls of bait, but it was marlin the boys were after so on we pushed in search of the blue dog.
With a few sails under our belt and some 20 dorado we unfortunately were not rewarded with what we were after, but a great time was had never the less.

Our bookings have filled nicely and we are convinced that those that have scheduled a trip will be rewarded with some fine fishing this season. For those looking to treat themselves to the fishing trip of a lifetime we still have some open dates in April and May of next year, so drop us an enquiry.

Until next report, compliments of the festive season to you all. Tight lines, Eagle Claw circle hooks and healthy releases.

Capt. Brad Philipps
“Decisive”
Guatemalan Billfishing Adventures

www.guatbilladv.com

Bernie Keefe will be hosting ice fishing seminars open to the public.

Jax sporting goods in Ft. Collins on December 9th.

Gander Mtn. Sports in Aurora on December 10th

Bass Pro shops in Denver on December 11th and 12th.

Please visit Bernie’s web site;  http://www.fishingwithbernie.com/

As far as fishing goes, I have been fishing pretty hard the last month. California has had some great weather lately (about 80). Over all this year has been a terrible for fishing …every time I go it seems like “should have been here yesterday”. I have been fishing Santa Barbara Island the last two weekends, the bite for yellow tail, white sea bass & halibut has been good. Two weeks ago we tried to get the island but was unable due to 25 knot winds. The boats that were able to get to the island did catch fish. We finally got there this past Saturday to find great weather but the fish didn’t bite. The sport boat that has been catching the most fish, close to 50 a day, caught only 6 on Saturday and 4 Sunday. We went 0 for 2 Saturday and couldn’t get bit on Sunday. Fishing there sucks because if yellow tail, white sea bass & halibut aren’t biting and there is nothing else to fish. The island is under the cow cod restrictions which has specific rules on species and depth. It is not worth getting caught.

Squid has been available all year which is strange. Squid is usually available only in the spring to early summer. I have been using the P140-5/0 and that has been a good hook for that application.  Here is a picture of a Sheephead that we let go. That hook was jammed right into the roof of his mouth.

I have put away the saltwater gear and will concentrate on freshwater.

–Jason Martinez 

For more info on the Cow Cod restrictions go to

http://www.fgc.ca.gov/regulations/new/2010/27_20isoratt9.pdf