Bob Brown gets paid to fish Erie or the Keys His peers depict him as a consummate charter boat captain; his wife a fully skilled first mate BY MATT MARKEY BLADE OUTDOORS EDITOR http://www.toledoblade.com/MattMarkey/2012/01/15/Bob-Brown-gets-paid-to-fish-Erie-or-the-Keys.html   Brown runs a wide, stout, 32-foot Century fishing boat. THE BLADE/MATT MARKEY Enlarge | Photo Reprints MARATHON, Fla. -- Bob Brown, Jr., has a lengthy commute to work. Every fall, he drags his boat onto the trailer and tows it 1,500 tough, arduous highway miles from Lake Erie to the Florida Keys, not very far from Cuba. Brown despises the drive, but he still adores his job. "I get to fish all year, in two of the best fishing grounds in the world, so I'm not complaining at all. It's just the 'getting there' part I'm not crazy about," Brown said recently after a successful outing fishing the reefs, and the shipwrecks near the Keys. He spends May through September as a charter fishing operator in the w ...

First Ice 2012 by Dennis Foster   First ice is nearly here-and that can mean only one thing…ice fishing!  The first forays onto hardwater, in my eyes anyway; stirs up something deep in the soul akin to a religious experience.  There is a direct correlation, as after all, we as mere mortals are indeed walking on water.  Not God-just God like, as we once again gingerly place our feet onto the beautiful playing field the creator has so generously laid before us in full anticipation of what is to surely come. Maybe a little too introspective there, but the sentiment is genuine, nonetheless.  I am not alone in this passion (perhaps addiction) to the sport, as there is an ever growing legion of those who consider ice fishing not just another outdoor endeavor, but rather the most important of all outdoor activities.  This can be witnessed in the fact that ice fishing is ...

3-D Walleyes by Ted Takasaki & Scott Richardson   It would be easy for anglers to fall victim to the notion that the watery world below is two-dimensional.  The water's surface is flat.  Lake and river maps are flat.  Your sonar screen is flat.  But down below, the bottom consists of peaks and valleys just like the dry world above. Changes in bottom contours are called structure and understanding how structure affects fish behavior is the key to angling success.  The trick is to train our minds to translate two-dimensional images from a map, your sonar screen, or GPS into mental images with three dimensions.  A technique called visualization can help you with this task. Many professional athletes have used visualization within their respective sports.  When Tiger Woods lines up a putt, he “sees” himself stroki ...

Icing Eyes On Big Reservoirs by Rick Olson   Reservoirs like Oahe, Sakakawea, and Fort Peck, of the Missouri Reservoir System, are absolutely loaded with walleyes, and can offer some fantastic ice fishing opportunities. That's the good news. The bad news is the fact that they are massive in size, and there are so many places for them to hide. However, anglers armed with a little understanding of seasonal migrations, and the right gear, can get in on the very best the hard water season has to offer. The most important key to catching big reservoir walleyes is, with out a doubt, finding them. If you can find them, you will catch them. With so much water, and miles and miles of potential fish holding areas; How do you decide where to start? Fortunately for ice fisherman, it's not all that difficult. During much of the summer and into the fall, big reservoir walleyes can be found using deep ...

The Tuition of Cameras by Jason Mitchell   The education we get from being able to watch our presentation and watching how fish respond is invaluable.  Having the mental picture of how the presentation or lure looks in the water, how the fish approach the lure and what actions caused particular reactions from the fish sets some anglers apart.  Anglers who have this education have a huge advantage.  There are several ways to get this education.  When I was a kid, I would lay on the ice with my jacket pulled over my head so I could look down the hole.  I would lie on the ice mesmerized until I was so wet and cold that my body started to have a tingly burning sensation. On some water, the visibility is such where anglers can look down the hole and watch fish, watch the presentation.  Spear houses, dark houses and even portable Fish Tr ...

Top Tactics for Early Fall Walleyes by Rick Olson   Somewhere between the late summer and fall period is September, and the action can range from phenomenal to awful. The key to cashing in on the phenomenal and avoiding the awful is understanding the conditions and recognizing a good opportunity (or the near impossible) when you see it. Depending on the existing conditions early September can produce some decent catches and is a good time to be on the water. Typically you can still find walleyes sticking to deeper summer patterns, but on certain bodies of water there is also a move to shallow water and is where you can expect to find the largest number of active fish. The move to shallow water will depend on how much good shallow water cover is available and includes shallow weed choked bays or tributaries, rocky bars and reefs, as well as larger weed flats. The big attracti ...

Look Before You Leap by Dennis Foster   … ..or perhaps as better adapted to fishing…find before your fish.  This may sound oversimplified and about as basic as it gets, but as with anything, the basics are always the most important, although most overlooked aspect of any endeavor.  Angling where there are at least a few fish to tempt is about as fundamental as it gets.  But, it is surprisingly easy to have some strong preconceived notions about where the fish should be and to begin fishing for them even though they may or may not even be present.  This applies to traditional seasonal patterns all the way to the “they were there yesterday” situations.  I for one fall into this category more often than I care to admit and get far too wrapped up in trying to outsmart the fish, rather than actually locating numbers of them first.  No matter how good ...

D'Arcy's Fishing Report: Steelhead trout running up area rivers, streams Published: Friday, October 14, 2011, 8:23 AM     Updated: Friday, October 14, 2011, 8:33 AM The recent rains have encourage steelhead trout to run the Northeast Ohio rivers and streams after spending the summer feeding on Lake Erie.  Lake Erie's massive algae problems have shut down the yellow perch fishing from Toledo to Cleveland, although some trophy walleye are being caught around Kelleys Island and jumbo perch are biting northeast of Fairport Harbor. Big winds will be a major problem on Lake Erie over the weekend. The fall bass, crappie and perch fishing has been good on the inland lakes, catfish are still biting and weekend rains should kick off another run of steelhead trout into Northeast Ohio rivers.  CLEVELAND AREA  The yellow perch fishing has been very slow because of a blanket of algae that stretches from Cleveland Harbor to about 10 to 12 miles offshore. Some perch are being caught by a ...

The Art of Triggering the Bite by Ted Pilgrim with Tony Roach   Lure Moves for Walleyes in Reality Last February, fresh off a phenomenal trip to the current version of hog walleye heaven—Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba—Tony Roach could hardly keep himself from jumping out of his Snosuit. “Here we were,” Roach exclaimed, jigging arm twitching randomly, “Standing out in the middle of the ‘Winnipeg Wasteland,’ ripping these clunky rattling crankbaits—lures like the Rapala Rippin’ Rap. You’d pound these things into the bottom with heavy line, didn’t matter, and halfway up your jigstroke, WHAM, these big ‘eyes would jolt your arm to a dead-stop. Locals were catching 12-pounders on 20-pound test baited with hot dogs!” Befuddled, Roach muttered, “If I could experience one or two bites like that at home each winter, I’d be a happy camper.” What you must understand at this point is that like ...

The Deadliest Lure by Ted Takasaki and Scott Richardson   Much like hybrid cars that run more efficiently on a combination of gasoline and electricity, spinner rigs are a marriage of two great ways to catch walleyes and these rigs are deadly anywhere walleyes are found. Spinners have the attraction of both artificial lures and live bait for a one-two punch that’s hard for walleyes to ignore any time water temps are above 50 degrees F. The natural scent and feel of juicy nightcrawlers have caught more fish over the years than most any other bait in history. The vibration and flash of spinners attract walleyes from a distance in clear water and prompt reaction strikes when water is dingy. Spinner rigs also offer another key advantage – especially in larger bodies of water like the Great Lakes, where big brutes are vulnerable. You can cover large swatches of water with rigs and ...