fishbeer.com

After much anticipation, Fishbeer.com is now live. Please enjoy.

Fishbeer.com

what creek? sugar creek.

Amy and I traveled to Shades State Park on Friday to see what is touted as one of the most beautiful natural places in Indiana. We took my boat and floated a short section of Sugar Creek above Shades State Park.

Shades is pretty. We didn't see too much of it, but it is definitely pretty. Turkey Run State Park, just a couple miles down Sugar Creek, is supposed to be similar. The bad thing about Shades is that the campground was full. People were there to party and party they did. All. Night. Long. Of course, pleasant weather, mid-June, Friday night might have something to do with it. Whatever. The take home message here is perhaps, unless you want to drink all night long with your neighbors, stay away from Shades on the weekends.

Sugar Creek was nice. It was a nice float. The boat performed well. I even caught a couple smallish smallmouth bass. But Clement's Canoes, the outfitter that ran a shuttle for us at a reasonable $25, was kind of booked up and while scheduled for an 11:00am shuttle, didn't get on the water until 1:00pm. Not sure what the take home message is here. Maybe just don't count on an on-time shuttle on a nice Saturday in June.

Also, try to avoid wicked hail storms when breaking down your boat.








By the way, the new blog is imminent.

things

I've been doing a lot of things lately.

It was Adam and Katie's wedding. This is Ben and Leigh who are themselves getting married in a few short weeks.




Click to enlarge.



I explored more of my favorite creek and caught many fine bass.









Dr. Saunders came through town and I dragged him out to go fishing.

Click to enlarge.

good for philadelphia

Philadelphia is going to kick the Boy Scouts out of a rent-free city building unless they change their policy of excluding gays or start paying rent. I am an eagle scout, and think being a Boy Scout was good for me. However, I remember having problems with the religious component of the Scouts and their intolerance for gays.

Welcome to the 21st century Boy Scouts.

bass bonanza

Went fishing a couple days ago with a guy I met on the Indiana Smallmouth Alliance discussion forum. Pretty cool guy. Got me onto a nice fish. Here is a picture:



Then, yesterday, I went to my favorite little creek and explored upstream further than I ever have before. And it was worth every extra step. I found a long, deep, boulder strewn pool with many smallmouth bass cruising about. I saw one fish that had to be at least 20 inches. A true monster. I caught at least five or six smallies over 15" (I'm guessing on the size, you be the judge below) and a number of fish in the 10"-12" range as well. The new stretch of water is quite pretty and secluded. I very much enjoyed fishing there. But I do need to get a stripping guard.

stripers not strippers: a photographic extravaganza

Adam is getting married to the beautiful Katie in two weeks. So, for his bachelor party, we rented a house and chartered a boat on Tilghman Island on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay at Harrison's Chesapeake House. And we fished for stripers. Striped bass. Rock fish. We caught a ton.

And everyone knows that a good, Irish-made, 10 pound Shepard's pie is the best fishing food and a fine good luck charm.















































On Sunday R and I went back to Pell's house and fished the Potomac and B&O Canal north of DC for bass. I didn't have much luck fly fishing but Pell and R caught a couple nice smallies.









More video to follow.

ain't no high water gonna' keep me home

I braved the high, turbid, turquoise waters of my favorite little creek today and scored this nice smallmouth on a new variation of my sculpin pattern.



Then, I went to Yaniv's house to drink a bunch of stouts and porters for NO MAAM night which is men's night which I assume is also a clever acronym for something. It was at Yaniv's house that I learned that Yaniv had been caught by one of Google's cameras and can be seen in three or four images on Google Street View outside the Runcible spoon apparently on a Saturday or Sunday morning because that's when Yaniv goes there. Note that he is recently showered as his afro is not in full effect. Also, note Yaniv's Honda Civic Hybrid and how he is actually waiting for the Google car before crossing the road. Yaniv's infamous thong picture was also discussed and it turns out that it was stored on my old Insight account, thus it no longer comes up on the first page of a Google image search for "yaniv". So I must repost it here. Google runs the world. Long live Yaniv. Simulations are not experiments.

behold the boat

I received my boat on Monday. It is an Outcast Fish Cat 13 (the pontoons are 13' long). It is an inflatable pontoon boat, also known as a cataraft. Outcast is a division of AIRE inflatables, one of the leaders in the whitewater raft and cataraft industry, one of the reasons I chose this boat over some others.

A cataraft is pretty much two inflatable pontoons connected by some sort of frame. There are large and small catarafts. They were designed, I believe, primarily for whitewater paddling and river running. Here are some videos of some serious whitewater catarafts (that cost much more than mine). This is a 16' cataraft surfing a big wave. And here is a video that includes a bunch of catarafts running Lochsa Falls in Idaho. I think it's actually the same place as the first video.

Outcast claims my boat could handle that river, but I don't think I could.

Catarafts have also proven to be excellent fishing platforms. This is because catarafts are extremely stable. You can stand up in them and lean over the side or the front and it won't tip over. Try that in a kayak or canoe. And they are lighter and go more places than a drift boat or skiff can.

My boat comes with a modular two-seat frame. I have it set up for one person right now. And I can actually car top it (that's the higher seat pedestal in the picture with my car which is convenient for fishing but not so much for rowing).

I caught this beautiful bass in a lake 10 minutes from my house. I like my new boat.

behold the boat

...in my garage. It is here. The boxes were heavy. I have to make my syllabus for summer session before I can play with it. Damn.

Photos to follow.

Aesculus is blooming, dem bass are eating

After driving to the airport this morning at 4:45am I went fishing at my favorite creek again. It stormed a bit but that's ok. Because I caught a lot of base and it was actually a rather nice day and I saw a large water snake. I caught a large smallmouth and several spotted bass. And this beautiful rock bass for Pell.

Click all to enlarge.















And isn't this a fucking tease? The boat sits lonely and cold in a warehouse in Indy...

indiana springtime smallmouth...are everywhere except stinesville

I have the makings of one fine fishbeer.com post. It's about Stinesville. And Jack's Defeat Creek. But that has to wait. I went back to my favorite creek the other day and caught a couple more smallies and many more rock bass for MB Pell.

Also, my boat is scheduled to arrive on Monday people. Monday. Unfortunately, the boat's arrival coincides with Brian's. Brian is going to have to ride the boat whether he likes it or not.

Behold them. Click to enlarge them.

dem bass ate real good

Click to enlarge all.

I caught this rock bass just for MB Pell.




Then I caught this portly smallmouth just for me.





This fish took the rabbit fur fly I made earlier. I guess it's closest to a sculpin in the water, but I'm happy to just call it an attractor pattern.

That's a pretty nice fish for a river this small.




But that's what Indiana Catch and Release* regs will do for you I suppose.



*Some Indiana rivers do have regulations actually designed to improve the catch and release fishery, for example Sugar Creek has a 1 fish 20" or larger regulation and the Blue River has a slot regulation, something like keep no fish between 10" and 15". I just hope my favorite little river is never deemed unpolluted.