Fishing blog: Tales of angling adventures from around the world
Welcome to our fish blog! Here you can read more sage advice from anglers around the world. This is the place for news, tips and non-fiction fish tales from mountain lakes to distant beaches. Please feel free to comment and join in on the conversations and share some fish tales of your own!
A couple of days ago, we were kayak fishing for bass in a small creek near North Port. Kimball had a powerful strike and a good run from a fish that she didn’t see. After a good fight, she landed and released this really large Tilapia that took a frog. Now tilapia are not known as predators but this one ate the lure. I imagine the lure intruded in the nest and the tilapia picked it up to get it out of there. Kimball went on to catch and release over 15 bass in a little over 3 hours. All fish were caught on the Zoom Horny Toad in the Watermelon Red color. Me? I was paddling a guest and didn’t even make a cast. Learn how we fish this lure as a finesse bait in our book “Angler’s Guide to Kayak Fishing Southwest Florida-Sarasota Bay to Pine Island” Check out the whole series of waterproof angler pocket guides at https://www.anglerpocketguides.com/ 
We hope to see lots of friendly folks at the Placida Art Market this coming Saturday- January 10, 2015. Come out and meet the local authors of the popular series of “Angler’s Guides” and let’s talk about the best fishing in Florida. We will be signing our “Angler’s Guide to Shore Fishing Southwest Florida” and our newest book “Angler’s Guide to Kayak Fishing Southwest Florida”. Both are available in local B&T stores and on our website https://www.anglerpocketguides.com/ . The entire series is also available as e-book downloads through Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and Apple. Here is a picture from Jan 1, 2015 of Kimball with a pompano caught kayaking from Indian Mound Park in Englewood, Florida. It pulled Kim around for a while after being foul hooked right in the tail. 
Thursday, 12-04-14, we launched at the Placida Bridge and headed up Coral Creek. This small waterway winds its way northeast among mangroves and around oyster bars towards Rotunda. Numerous docks created additional habitat to fish as we explored this protected creek. We managed a small snook, a flounder, and fought off vast herds of omnipresent mangrove snapper. Fishing with shad tail jigs on 1/16 ounce jig heads, our lures were savaged by snapper that swarmed and attacked like piranha. We probably could have caught more snook but I am convinced they were afraid to venture into the snapper frenzy fearing for their fins and tails. All the snapper were of the 8” variety and we released all the fish we caught.
Leaving the withering snapper bite was hard but we wanted to head out towards the flats that mark the entrance to Coral Creek from Gasparilla Sound. Hoping to find some pompano like last spring, we circled the islands south of the marina channel but found only a few trout, also released. Check out the “Pompano Video” on our Facebook page to see Kim being dragged around by a large pompano in her kayak on that earlier trip.
Thanks to all the folks that showed up at Laishley Marine and the Venice Community Center. It was fun to meet and talk about the best fishing in Florida with other anglers in this area. We always learn something new and we hope you do too.
To see all of our “Angler’s Guide” series of waterproof pocket size books visit our website at https://www.anglerpocketguides.com/ . Thanks to all the folks that purchase our books designed to give the recreational angler insights to the tackle, techniques, and tactics needed to catch quality fish in Southwest Florida. This “cut to the chase” information is “Like Having a Professional Guide in Your Pocket™” and can take years off the time it takes most anglers to learn a new area. Please “Like” us on Facebook.
The Loch in Rocky Mountain National Park has been a favorite destination of ours for over 45 years. The hybrid cutthroat trout here are big [average 13”] fat, and frisky. Sampling by USFWS reveals these trout are a combination of greenback and Colorado River cutthroats but we also suspect some rainbow trout in the mix due to the presence of a brilliant red stripe so characteristic of that fish.
Kimball and I finally had a chance to hike to the Loch and sample the fishing last Friday [8.8.14] and were not disappointed. There was still a remnant snow drift at the approach to the lake but the trail was clear. We fished the north shore adjacent to the trail and found many cooperative cutthroats patrolling the shoreline and feasting on black ants. Kimball’s first fish ate a grasshopper fly although grasshoppers must be rare up at the Loch. Overall, the size 20 parachute black ant was the most productive during the heat of the day. In the afternoon, the storms arrived, the winds increased and the temperature dropped. Most folks left the lake but the best was yet to come. The sun soon returned, the wind dropped and the fish started feeding about 3PM. Surface activity was limited so Kimball tried a bead head prince nymph behind a bubble and had strikes with every cast.
For scenic beauty, relatively easy access and beautiful cooperative fish we think the Loch offers visiting anglers some of the best fishing in Colorado. Whether fly fishing or using a spinning rod with a fly and bubble this lake is sure to impress. The Loch is 2.7 miles from the Glacier Gorge trailhead and involves 940 feet of elevation gain. It is a small lake of 14.6 acres but has an amazing population of cutthroat trout. It is legal to keep these trout but it is discouraged due to the pressure that anglers could put on this lake with extensive harvest. Another consideration is the difficulty of transporting a fish down the trail in a hot backpack. The snowdrift that is there now will soon disappear but until then, an angler could pack a couple of trout in a baggie with some snow and get down to the trailhead with a salvageable dinner. It is probably best to let them grow another year and catch them again when you get a chance to return to the Loch.
If you get a chance to come fishing in Rocky Mountain National Park pick up a copy of our waterproof pocket sized guide “Angler’s Guide to Rocky Mountain National Park”. The information in this little book is distilled from over 45 years of experience and is intended to be “Like Having a Professional Guide in Your Pocket”. ™ This field guide will definitely help you to have a great day fishing in Rocky Mountain National Park and the Estes Park area. Available at most local fly shops, the Rocky Mountain Nature Association stores in RMNP, Macdonald Book Store, and through Amazon, Kindle or from our website: https://www.anglerpocketguides.com/
What a nice surprise!! Despite the destruction the flood last September caused, the fishing in the Big T is amazingly good. On a recent trip to the upper canyon, we hit a couple of our favorite areas in the 7 Pines area. Though this landmark spot is now a pile of rocks and rubble, the river here produced numerous brown trout and a few rainbows in the late afternoon. Being a fan of terrestrial flies, I offered a flying ant pattern that was eagerly accepted. Kimball found equally cooperative fish with a green wooly bugger and later a flying ant. The recent hatch of caddis flies should bring on a good bite in the late afternoon. If the wind and rain allow, “skitter” a caddis across the flatter areas behind boulders and along the shore for some explosive strikes from larger fish. It seems the Big Thompson still offers some of the best fishing in Colorado. Check out our website: https://www.anglerpocketguides.com/ for more good spots and info on tactics and techniques for fishing Rocky Mountain National Park and the Estes Park area.
