I’ve started getting the fever now that trout season is upon us once again here in Argentina. Browsing through some blogs, fishing forums and other sites, I’ve accumulated a few pictures from the last 10 days to share. Enjoy.
 Río Perdicitas (Córdoba) |
 Río Perdicitas - Darío |
 Río Jaime |
 Río Jaime - Maxi |
 La Hornilla |
 Lago Exequiel Ramos Mejía - Picún Leufú - Neuquen |
In July of this year I spent an unforgettable week on Eagle Lake with 32 fishermen during our traditional family and friends Canadian fishing trip. I’ve been going since I was 7 years old. This year was the first time it became my responsibility to coordinate the trip. Not a small task, but worth the effort. I’m working on a longer write-up of the trip to share, but I wanted to give everyone a heads-up. There were many more friends and family who couldn’t attend who I know will enjoy hearing more about the fishing, card playing, shenanigans, antics, accommodations, and fun.
We caught plenty of Northern Pike, Walleye and even some Musky. It really took some skill and knowledge to find the fish this year due to a few conditions I’ll explain in the next article about the trip. Thank goodness we had some skilled fishermen on the trip, and also, thank goodness for Peg and Bob at Temple Bay Lodge. They run a great outfit and are really wonderful people.
"Pescando con WoollyBugers"
A fellow “hermano de la pesca”, Marcelo spent his Easter Holiday in Chile fishing for trout with a good friend and guide Eduardo. He took along his son and his wife. He also had the wisdom to take along his wife’s friend. (Good move Marcelo. Sos un genio!) Marcelo’s updated his blog and invited me to share his latest adventure.
While my fish-blog pal Simon is trying to keep busy and pass the winter hours away tying those fantastic flies of his, I wasted spent an hour of my own surfing the web to take a break for work and enjoy, albeit virtually, with some of my hobbies, mainly fishing and off-road.
I came across a few interesting things, and one thing in particular that kind of combined both hobbies… the Wilcraft.
I was surprised I hadn’t seen anything about this before. It seems to me this is the ultimate ice-fisherman status symbol. And as you might have guessed, it’s from Minnesota, because lakes and ice are abundant.
Wilcraft
If you’ve got about $10 grand, and a place to… dock? park? this craft you can show up on the ice next season to impress (or scare) the crap out of your fishing buddies.
Check out this video (…you think we can get them to change the music?)
Hey Simon, perhaps you can get one customized with a fly tying station!
Asian Carp
Non-native species are can threaten or destroy local aquatic ecosystems. Invasive plants, fish, crayfish, snails, mussels, or parasites can destroy existing aquatic communities when they enter a new river or reservoir because they may either overtake local species, or may introduce disease.
Sometimes you never know what you’ll find in your own backyard.
Growing up in the Midwest, Canada was always the Mecca for catching great fish. The further we could get away from civilization the bigger and better the fishing. There must be some “great white north” fishing ratio of miles-to-pounds – for every 50 miles further north add 2 pounds per fish and 4 fish per day.
Even visiting my mother’s family in Upstate New York often included a trip to family cabins in Canada on Crosby Lake.
Later, when I was still in high school, my family moved “Upstate” to Canandaigua, New York.
The area is generally referred to as the “Finger Lakes” and is well known for producing wine. In autumn, travelers flock in to enjoy the fall colors, spend cool days on wine tours, and some even stick around for the winter skiing nearby.
Canandaigua Lake is in fairly close proximity to Rochester, New York and is one of the lakes in the region that is particularly known as a summer resort town, so to speak. Lakefront property values go higher every year and the city is one of the fastest growing in the state.
Since Canandaigua Lake was so well known for other lake sports, I never thought of it as a great place to fish. The city is well populated and there are lots of recreational power boats on the lake. It just didn’t square with my idea of a serene and promising lake-of-choice where I could get my fix – the adrenaline rush from a healthy strike.
Most of the recreational watercraft spend their time on the northern end of the lake. So from time to time I’d go out on the south end of the lake, but for a serious outing in the region we’d travel a short distance to other nearby lakes.
My Uncle Dale (who is now 86) is what I think of as “old school”. He’d make most of his equipment, maintained his own boat motors and even made electric down riggers using automatic-window motors from an old car. I think because he has a sense for how things work, it served him well on the water. He rarely came back without something on the stringer.
In July, I traveled back to Canandaigua with my family to visit Uncle Dale and the rest of my family there. Upon arriving at my father’s house I picked up the local newspaper and was treated to an EYE POPPER… a 21 pound Lake Trout.
My first thoughts were… Ontario Lake? Seneca Lake? …but to my surprise it was my own -taken for granted- Canandaigua Lake. Suddenly I had a flash back to my best friend growing up, David… actually I flashed back to his voice saying “you gotta fish the pump house!”
At the pump house there’s a 90 foot hole at the bottom of the lake – perfect for lake trout because of the depth.
So at this point, I’m trying to square things again and decide to do some research. I began by looking through newspaper archives and even found some research done by a student at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Stephen Dwyer) in 2006 and his analysis of Seneca Lake as the “Lake Trout Capital of the World”. Stephen looked at the effects due to the presence of sea lamprey, zebra and quagga mussels, and smelt on the lake trout population in Seneca Lake, as well as, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) management.
This research and other articles led me to the following conclusion: The Lake Trout Capital of the World is more likely to be Canandaigua Lake than Seneca. Here’s why…
 | Hanita on Deep Sea – Panama |
 | JB (Sport Fishing Am… on What the waters hold |
| Matt Smythe on What the waters hold | |
 | laura labella on What the waters hold |
 | Shoreman on North American Trout – B… |
Sport Fishing Americas 