# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Fishing >  General Fishing Chat

## Adventure Wolf

Let's talk about fishing! I got turned on to fishing when I was a kid. My dad would take me up to the local lake most every weekend. My first fishing pole was an Ugly Stick with a Mitchell reel. The reel broke after a couple of years, and I slapped on a second Mitchell reel, and to this day my favorite poles are Ugly Sticks and my favorite reels are Mitchells.

For lures, I still like the lures I can find at the local KMart. I know a lot of people like Mepps and other brands, but I like Strike King, Rappala, and Zoom. I just can't bring myself to purchase a pricey lure to do any job a Carolina Rig or jig can do. In my mind, I'm guaranteed to lose about a dozen lures a year from tangle ups, snags, misplacement, etc. This gets worse if I bring inexperienced fisherman along, and in my cheapness I know that I'm saving money.

I like to fish for large mouth bass. Spin lures are my go to lures for this, especially in open water with few obstructions. If I'm in an area with brush, I will try to fish along the edges with a worm or jig to try at anything hiding underneath.

Occasionally I'll go cat fishing. I like to throw down a splitter with stink bait, which I classify as anything smelly. This could be chicken livers to off the rack catfish bait. A great thing about my area of North Carolina is that there's a lot of old road beds under the area lakes, because the lakes were built in the 70s and 80s, and they had to eminent domain a lot of land. I've found a lot of success by using underwater sonar on my dad's boat coordinated with locate maps to find them.

All in all, there's a lot of good fishing around Central North Carolina. If you like fishing, there's a local fishing show called the Carolina Outdoor Journal. They cover a lot of fishing information about the state. It's one of my main go-tos if I'm looking for good places to fish and need to know about what to expect.

----------


## Ranger F

R&R fishing just frustrates me!   I have a lot of respect for people who can but I spend most of my time tying on hooks. Trees,logs,rocks!  I'm just happy when I can hit the water with the bait. To me it's like shootin into the woods n hopping I hit a deer. I like to know n see what I'm after! image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

----------


## Adventure Wolf

Hawaiian Sling! I tried that. It was kind of fun, but I don't live near the coast, and a lot of the lakes in Central Carolina are murky, so you can't see well enough.

Edit: I looked at the photo very fast. Thought that was a sling, not an arrow. Bow fishing is fun too. I'm not good at it. I can fire a bow, but I'm lucky if I can hit the target. Kind of funny, because my best friend is awesome with a bow.

----------


## hunter63

My friends won't let me use the 7 mm mag for ice fishing any more......Way too much water spraying all over.
.
My cabin, "The Place" is on a river in Wisconsin.....so fishing is mostly brushing hogging a spot or couple of spots on the bank.....Setting up the lawn chairs and baiting DW river rig....biggest fish she has caught is a 18" brown trout.

I mostly just untangle her line, bait the hook and net the fish.

We have trout, suckers, and red horse.........

Nice hole on this curve of the river.....

Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

----------


## pete lynch

Bass, chain pickerel, bluegill, crappie, stocked rainbow trout and yellow perch in fresh water.
Bluefish, flounder, kingfish, black bass, striped bass( we call em rockfish) and speckled trout in saltwater.

----------


## LowKey

I like fishing for large mouth bass. I either use a Rapela Vampire at dusk and pop it along the top or I use Yamamoto worms in the morning. Usually get some really good hits on the "pumpkin" colored ones but sometimes red or green depending on the weather and the murkiness of the water.

I also like bait casting from shore down on the Cape. Usually around the Chatham area. I do that several times a summer (more if I can get the time off when the moon is right) fishing for striper and bluefish. I take two poles down the beach. I'll either do bunker bait or live-line a pogie if I can catch one. While that's sitting in the current, I cast a blue and white plug or a small baitfish rig to pass the time. I actually think bluefish is tastier but grilled striper is hard to beat too. Occasionally I'll go out coastal fishing on a friend's small boat. We go for Fluke and black bass. I don't like fluke at all but black bass are _tasty._

----------


## Rick

So in the world of culinary delights are fluke ..... a fluke?

----------


## Adventure Wolf

> So in the world of culinary delights are fluke ..... a fluke?


I second this question...What is a fluke?

----------


## pete lynch

> I second this question...What is a fluke?


It's another name for flounder.

----------


## Batch

I used to fish everyday. We would get off work and head out on the Atlantic in an un-sea worthy boat and we would keep all the legal fish and take them to the Chinese fish market. They would buy anything. Sold them lots of grunts. But, we thought of those a garbage fish. Now, I know a lot of people who eat grunts.

We troll when its productive. But, when its hot a lot of time you fish at night set up over a reef. Bottom fishing is like a box of chocolate, you never know what your going to get. 

Freshwater we sport fish mostly. Largemouth and Peacock Bass and Snakeheads. You'll catch Mayan Cichlids and Oscar from time to time. My brother Sean caught a monster Pacu that pegged our 25lb scale and that we estimated at 30lb. They found one that weighed 52lb after we had a cold snap down here. The IGFA is 44lbs for this invasive.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/...d-dead-florida

I tried the Ugly stick and broke the tip the first day. Probably just a defective rod. But, I have always favored the Berkley Lightning rod with a Team Diawa baitcaster. I also have Shimano citica, corolis and curado reels. As well as a Abu Garcia's I use for live bait it's on a custom rod my brother one in a local tournament.

My salt water tackle are mostly Penns and one Shimano on various rods. I have several spinning rigs for saltwater  also. My salt water tackle doubles for gator hunting.

----------


## hunter63

.....Then there are days I like spark plug fishing.....when I don't want to be bothered.

As sitting in a boat, dock, or bank in a lawn chair drinking beer, is consider bordering  alcohol abuse, by some.....add a fish pole and a spark plug on the end of the line, toss it out........ That makes you a fisherman.

Now depending on what you brought along as "supplies" (wink, wink) one of two thing are gonna happen......
You are either gonna start catching stuff on the spark plug.... or you are gonna run out of beer........

In both cases it's time to go home.

----------


## LowKey

Bluefish would probably think a spark plug is a tasty thing. I've had them eat the orange floats I use to keep the bunker bait up off the bottom (away from the crabs.)

Fluke flunk the taste test. I like some of the larger deep sea flounders but those fluke just take like mud to me. They also have a weird smell when you filet them. My buddy loves them and can't smell them. I think it's a genetic thing. We trade fluke for black bass and all is happiness. 

All three of my saltwater reels are shimanos and they are on 10' Ugly Sticks with a medium action tip. I tried Penn reels but they just don't have the far-casting ability I like in a bait-caster reel to get the bait into the second line of surf. They're fine for boat gear. My lake gear is all garbage stuff. It doesn't take fancy gear to catch fish in a lake. Mostly cheap Shakespeare stuff. My spin-caster is an underslung lever action that goes where I want it. That's all that matters.

----------


## Adventure Wolf

> All three of my saltwater reels are shimanos and they are on 10' Ugly Sticks with a medium action tip. I tried Penn reels but they just don't have the far-casting ability I like in a bait-caster reel to get the bait into the second line of surf. They're fine for boat gear. My lake gear is all garbage stuff. It doesn't take fancy gear to catch fish in a lake. Mostly cheap Shakespeare stuff. My spin-caster is an underslung lever action that goes where I want it. That's all that matters.


My thoughts exactly. If I can't buy it at KMart, I ain't fishing with it...Well that sayings good until Sears/Kmart finally bites the dust.

I've never used a Big Water Ugly, are they any good?

----------


## Batch

What kind of fresh water fish do you all catch?

----------


## Adventure Wolf

> What kind of fresh water fish do you all catch?


Large Mouth Bass, Catfish, Crappie, and Blue Gill.

----------


## Sunset Sam

When I was young: smallmouth, crappie, bluegill, sunfish, walleye

Now: browns, brookies, 'bows

----------


## Adventure Wolf

Does anyone fish using live bait? 

I don't do it often, but occasionally I'll buy some worms and minnows from Bayleaf Fish and Tackle. I'll put out three bait casters and let them sit while I cast a lure to work brush piles. Since I fish a lot of private lakes this way, I catch mostly panfish on my bait casters. I still prefer the lure.

I've also been carp fishing four times in life with one of my best friends. He uses corn, casts off, sits and camps while he waits for the fish to bite. Him and I caught two once, cooked them over the camp fire for dinner. Those suckers are bony with sharp fins on their back. I don't think they taste as good as panfish either.

----------


## Sarge47

My "go to" rod right now is Lefty Kreh's "Temple Fork Outfitters Pro" 9 ft. in 5 wt.  Woolly Buggers are great for Bass and I take Blue Gill on a wet fly that I tie myself.  If I have to cheat and set the fly rod down I use a Zebco 33!  I've used Zebco for years...way back before I started getting into fly fishing.  If I use it I use big, juicy night crawlers for bait.!  If I want a good lure I use Strike King's "Sexy Frog!"... :Thumbup1:

----------

