Applications are available for controlled waterfowl hunting permits to be used at two Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department wildlife management areas. Interested hunters must apply by Monday, September 21, 2009.
Hunting under controlled conditions for ducks at Mud Creek in Alburgh and geese at Dead Creek in Addison has been popular since the early 1970's. Permit applications for these two areas are available from Vermont Fish & Wildlife offices in Essex Junction, Waterbury, Addison, Barre, St. Johnsbury, Springfield and Rutland. The applications are also available on Fish & Wildlife's website www.vtfishandwildlife.com
Applications must be filled out correctly and postmarked no later than September 21, 2009. A public drawing to award hunting permits will be held Friday, September 25 at 12:00 Noon at Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area headquarters off Route 17 in Addison. Attendance is not required. Successful applicants will be notified before the start of the hunting season.
BackWoods Sportsman OutDoors
www.backwoodssportsman.com
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Fall Patterns to Emerge
Summer is starting to fade away and fall will probably come in with a bang this year. This transition can make or break a fishing trip of success and adjusting to the dropping water temps, will put the odds into your favor. As the waters start to cool, fish will engage into a feeding bonanza to fatten themselves up for the long winter ahead. Baits that work well for bass are crankbaits and spinnerbaits fished along the shallows and weed flats. Covering water is a good strategy in locating active feeding fish. Once an area is found that has fish, keep working that area as generally there are more fish there that can be caught. Fish in the fall group up in search of bait and once this school is triggered into biting, cast after cast could produce a fish.
BackWoods Sportsman OutDoors
www.backwoodssportsman.com
BackWoods Sportsman OutDoors
www.backwoodssportsman.com
Monday, August 17, 2009
Fishing Report August 15 2009
Summer dog days are here and we headed to New Hampshire to try a little deep water bass fishing again. Conditions called for 90 degree air temps, little to light winds and high bright sunny skies. Was very warm right away and water temps have climbed to near 80 degrees for surface readings.
A lot of boat traffic to deal with at this time of year especially when the weather is as warm as it is. But the fish are still there and willing to bite if you put the right lure and presentation in front of them. Started on a couple of shallow areas working plastic baits and these areas were definitely void of fish even though there wasn’t any traffic around.
Moved to the backside of a cove that comes out of the main lake depths to a rock shoal on the inside of it. Working water depths in the 10-12 foot range with deep diving crank baits, it didn’t take long to get the first largemouth into the boat. Casting to some shallower water and working the crank back through deeper water seemed to be the ticket especially if there was some weed growth.
Continued working this water depth contour around the cove back out towards the main lake and connected on a couple of more small large and smallmouth bass. Other anglers in the boat were throwing plastics and were unable to connect with any fish at this time. The sun was getting high and we needed to break for lunch and refreshments.
I headed back out a little later by myself and decided to run to the other end of the lake and fish the face of a large shallow flat. This corner of the lake has a big flat that averages around 4 feet deep and positioned the boat in 11 feet of water. There are numerous weeds growing in this area and decided to fish the area with Carolina rigged plastics.
Didn’t take long and was getting bite after bite with a mixture of large and smallmouth bass. Was casting into 8 feet of water and with some, not a lot of weed growth and definitely found an area that has a good concentration of fish. Worked the area for a while and when the bite finally died off, 7 fish were boated.
Made a run back to the main lake and started fishing amongst the boats and tubers. This area has a ridge that runs across the middle of the lake, north side is a large flat of 6 to 8 feet of water with lots of weeds, and south side drops off into the deepest water in the lake. I positioned the boat again in the 11 foot depth of water and casting up onto the flat in 8 feet with more heavy weeds growing there.
Wasn’t long and started locating fish once again and these were a little nicer sized fish. We fish this area a lot in the past but this year they weren’t using it at all but seem now that the water temps have come up, they are there. Few shallower anglers were reporting little success but the deeper anglers were having a little better day. With these hot sunny bright days, this is driving the fish deeper to escape the blinding effects of the suns rays. Don’t let this weather get the best of you and adjust your fishing and try going deeper to locate fish.
BackWoods Sportsman OutDoors
www.backwoodssportsman.com
A lot of boat traffic to deal with at this time of year especially when the weather is as warm as it is. But the fish are still there and willing to bite if you put the right lure and presentation in front of them. Started on a couple of shallow areas working plastic baits and these areas were definitely void of fish even though there wasn’t any traffic around.
Moved to the backside of a cove that comes out of the main lake depths to a rock shoal on the inside of it. Working water depths in the 10-12 foot range with deep diving crank baits, it didn’t take long to get the first largemouth into the boat. Casting to some shallower water and working the crank back through deeper water seemed to be the ticket especially if there was some weed growth.
Continued working this water depth contour around the cove back out towards the main lake and connected on a couple of more small large and smallmouth bass. Other anglers in the boat were throwing plastics and were unable to connect with any fish at this time. The sun was getting high and we needed to break for lunch and refreshments.
I headed back out a little later by myself and decided to run to the other end of the lake and fish the face of a large shallow flat. This corner of the lake has a big flat that averages around 4 feet deep and positioned the boat in 11 feet of water. There are numerous weeds growing in this area and decided to fish the area with Carolina rigged plastics.
Didn’t take long and was getting bite after bite with a mixture of large and smallmouth bass. Was casting into 8 feet of water and with some, not a lot of weed growth and definitely found an area that has a good concentration of fish. Worked the area for a while and when the bite finally died off, 7 fish were boated.
Made a run back to the main lake and started fishing amongst the boats and tubers. This area has a ridge that runs across the middle of the lake, north side is a large flat of 6 to 8 feet of water with lots of weeds, and south side drops off into the deepest water in the lake. I positioned the boat again in the 11 foot depth of water and casting up onto the flat in 8 feet with more heavy weeds growing there.
Wasn’t long and started locating fish once again and these were a little nicer sized fish. We fish this area a lot in the past but this year they weren’t using it at all but seem now that the water temps have come up, they are there. Few shallower anglers were reporting little success but the deeper anglers were having a little better day. With these hot sunny bright days, this is driving the fish deeper to escape the blinding effects of the suns rays. Don’t let this weather get the best of you and adjust your fishing and try going deeper to locate fish.
BackWoods Sportsman OutDoors
www.backwoodssportsman.com
Friday, August 14, 2009
Angling Summer Dog Days
We anglers always can’t wait until summer finally gets here because we keep telling our selves “then the fishing is going to get better”. Pending on which part of the country you reside, this particular spring into summer has been far from normal by any means.
Most places spring came in and never left with the cool air temperatures and many extra days of rain as well. The lakes and rivers water temperatures are far below normal as well with New England waters in mid July and barely over the 70 degree mark, which is almost 10 degrees off.
Fishing this season seemed to be focused around spring like conditions for a much longer time this fishing season. But now we are finally getting to the point that the fish have moved into their summer haunts and it seems like that may have happened over night. That is fine with this angler as now the deeper fish are finally there and time to search them out.
This time of year, many anglers dread because the fish are not as easily found as they are in the spring or fall. The air and water temps are rising and those conditions do make it harder for some anglers to locate fish. The bigger fish leave the shoreline shallows as the water is getting to warm and head off shore looking for cooler and more comfortable waters.
This time of year with fish seeking refuge off shore, this has anglers perplexed as to how are we going to locate and also catch these fish. If the waters are deeper than 5 feet or so, some anglers will still avoid looking for fish there, as they will still catch some fish shallow, but the bigger fish are out deeper.
This time of year the electronics in your boat come into play much more than they do in other times of the year. Finding the deep weed line is fairly critical as these are ambush locations that fish use fairly regular in their search for food. By watching the graphs that we have we are able to follow these weed lines and anywhere that it makes an abrupt turn or nook, these are key areas that the bigger fish in the area will occupy.
Also, if you can find areas in the weed line that have rock or wood there as well, these are fish magnets that will attract fish every year. Always look for something that is a little different and that is what is going to keep fish biting your baits. Don’t be afraid to venture out into deeper water as there are many areas that the fish haven’t seen bait and are willing to bite whatever comes by.
If you have an underwater camera, this is a great tool to have out there as well. This will allow you to take a look down there and see what are there and also what the fish are relating to. Having underwater eyes is fun to watch but is something that will definitely teach you as well as now you are in the fishes world and can see what they are doing.
Try exploring some deeper waters and you may surprise yourself in what you find and catch there. While you are reeling fish in you will see boat after boat going down the same shoreline not catching much and much smaller fish. You can then tell yourself, “that use to be me and now I am fishing for fish that are more than likely untouched and more willing to bite”.
Most places spring came in and never left with the cool air temperatures and many extra days of rain as well. The lakes and rivers water temperatures are far below normal as well with New England waters in mid July and barely over the 70 degree mark, which is almost 10 degrees off.
Fishing this season seemed to be focused around spring like conditions for a much longer time this fishing season. But now we are finally getting to the point that the fish have moved into their summer haunts and it seems like that may have happened over night. That is fine with this angler as now the deeper fish are finally there and time to search them out.
This time of year, many anglers dread because the fish are not as easily found as they are in the spring or fall. The air and water temps are rising and those conditions do make it harder for some anglers to locate fish. The bigger fish leave the shoreline shallows as the water is getting to warm and head off shore looking for cooler and more comfortable waters.
This time of year with fish seeking refuge off shore, this has anglers perplexed as to how are we going to locate and also catch these fish. If the waters are deeper than 5 feet or so, some anglers will still avoid looking for fish there, as they will still catch some fish shallow, but the bigger fish are out deeper.
This time of year the electronics in your boat come into play much more than they do in other times of the year. Finding the deep weed line is fairly critical as these are ambush locations that fish use fairly regular in their search for food. By watching the graphs that we have we are able to follow these weed lines and anywhere that it makes an abrupt turn or nook, these are key areas that the bigger fish in the area will occupy.
Also, if you can find areas in the weed line that have rock or wood there as well, these are fish magnets that will attract fish every year. Always look for something that is a little different and that is what is going to keep fish biting your baits. Don’t be afraid to venture out into deeper water as there are many areas that the fish haven’t seen bait and are willing to bite whatever comes by.
If you have an underwater camera, this is a great tool to have out there as well. This will allow you to take a look down there and see what are there and also what the fish are relating to. Having underwater eyes is fun to watch but is something that will definitely teach you as well as now you are in the fishes world and can see what they are doing.
Try exploring some deeper waters and you may surprise yourself in what you find and catch there. While you are reeling fish in you will see boat after boat going down the same shoreline not catching much and much smaller fish. You can then tell yourself, “that use to be me and now I am fishing for fish that are more than likely untouched and more willing to bite”.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Summer Cold Fronts
Summer's heat comes in and hangs around for quite sometime until a refreshing cold front pushes through. Cold fronts give humans a much needed break from hot, steamy summer weather but it also has an affect on fish in our lakes. Fish in the summer are out in their deeper haunts and actively feeding until a cold front comes through. What they do then is move into the weeds and waits out the conditions until they improve and then go back out about their business. An angler can still catch these fish but needs to slow down their presentation as well as down sizing the baits they use. By slowing down and go smaller, these cold front fish can still be caught and a day on the water will still productive.
BackWoods Sportsman OutDoors
www.backwoodssportsman.com
BackWoods Sportsman OutDoors
www.backwoodssportsman.com
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