33-year-old tuna world record shattered with a 405-pounder

Source: San Diego Union Tribune

Long-range fishing’s most coveted record, one that has lasted more than 33 years, was shattered Monday.

Pending approval by theInternational Game Fish Association, Mike Livingston’s 405.2-pound yellowfin tuna caught Nov. 30 on Capt. Mike Lackey's 80-foot sport boat, the Vagabond, will be the IGFA’s new all-tackle, world record. The previous record was the 388-pound, 12-ounce yellowfin caught April 1, 1977 by Curt Wiesenhutter aboard the Royal Polaris, owned then by Capt. Bill Poole.

Even if it’s not approved by the IGFA, Livingston’s tuna, which was weighed in at Point Loma Sportfishing on Monday, is the largest ever landed on rod and reel.

“This is a fish of a lifetime for Mike, for our crew, for me and the entire fleet, really,” said Capt. Lackey after the giant yellowfin was weighed in on Point Loma Sportfishing’s certified scale that was checked on Dec. 2 for certification. “When I think of all the captains like Bill Poole, Frank LoPreste and all the others who paid their dues down here, it’s just an honor to be part of catching such an incredible specimen. The whole fleet shares in this. I’m still in awe of this fish. It just sets the bar that much higher.”

Livingston, 63, of Sunland, Calif., north of Los Angeles, is a long-time angler who retired recently as a school superintendent. He called the fish “a fish of a lifetime,” and thanked Lackey and the crew for the job they did.

“It was my moment, my time,” Livingston said. “I’m certainly not the best angler, but I had enough skill to reel this one in. It was just my day.”

Bass Fishing in the Fall

Fall is a great time of the year to catch bass, if you're one of the many people who puts away those rods & reels during this time of the year, you're making a big mistake. Fall is the time for fishing and these fall bass fishing techniques will make you a much more successful bass angler.

Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year to be out in nature, especially doing what I love to do most, fishing. You can't talk about fall fishing without mentioning the beauty of nature. There is probably no better time of year to be out enjoying nature at it's best. To make you fall fishing more enjoyable, let's go over some techniques.

• Top Water - Fall is a great time of the year for top water fishing. Zara Spook, Jitterbug, and floating Rapalas are all good choices when it comes to top water fishing this time of the year. For the best results fish top water baits in the early mornings, late afternoons in to the evenings. The best time is in glassy condition, meaning the water is as flat as possible.

• Jerkbait - Bass make their fall transition along structures and contour lines. As they're moving along these structures, fishing a jerkbait can be a very effective strategy. Look shad busting the water or near the top of the water column. You can look for the shad visually or with your electronics. The bass school when moving along contour lines and feed on the shad. The bass will break the surface when feeding on shad and throwing a jerkbait into these schooling bass is a deadly. There are a lot of great jerkbaits out there, some of my favorites are a fluke or a Berkeley Gulp shad.

• Crankbaits & Spinnerbaits - Fishing Crankbaits and Spinnerbaits along the same contour lines mentioned earlier is an effective technique in the fall. The key with Crankbaits is that they look as realistic as possible, that is as much like the bass' normal forage as possible. When it comes to bass fishing in the fall, matching the color of the forage is always best.

So get out those rods and try some of the techniques just mentioned. As the water temperatures cool and oxygen levels increase bass become very active and are susceptible to all of the techniques mentioned. But most of all, go out and enjoy nature at its best.

How the weather affects fishing

All serious fishermen knows the how much the weather impacts fishing. The weather impacts the behavior of a fish, which in turn impacts fishing. Therefore, to be a successful angler you need to pay attention to the weather and how it relates to fish.

Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity, and barometric pressure. The part of the weather that we, as anglers, need to pay close attention of is the barometric pressure. The barometric pressure affects fish behavior to an amazing degree.

Fish can detect barometric pressure changes through their lateral lines and as the weather changes the barometric pressure changes. As the pressure changes the fish will tend to react differently. When the barometric pressure is stable, meaning that there are no fronts moving in or out of the area, the fishing will tend to be normal. On the other hand when the barometric pressure is falling (which many times means that the weather degrading or becoming worse) fish tend to become much more active. And when fish become more active the fishing tends to be much more productive. When the pressure is falling and bad weather is on the horizon, fishing can be epic.

A lot of people makes the mistake of looking outside, checking out the great weather, you know those great days with almost no clouds and and nothing but blue skies. This is when the barometric pressure is high, although these might seem like great days to go fishing, in these situations fish tend to be in deeper water and tends to be inactive. So when the weather seems to be great, the fishing can tend to be slow. 

The bottom line is that the weather and fishing go together to a much greater degree than you might think. Investing some time researching the weather and how it affects fishing will make you be a better angler.

Dropshotting For Bluegills

I was on a fishing forum the other day and ran in to this question, "Will a dropshot rig work for bluegills?". It's strange that I saw this question because I just tried this rig a few weeks ago in Lake Hemet.

Well the answer is yes, it works great. My wife and I were fishing for bass at Lake Hemet using dropshot, I was using a plastic worm and my wife was actually using nightcrawlers. Unfortunately, I only got a couple of bass that day. My wife were getting alot of strikes but none would take and everytime she reeled in, her crawlers are cut in half.

Looking at the water, we notice a lot of shadows darting underwater. So, I decided to downsize her hook and cut a nightcrawler in half. Sure enough, first cast and she hooks a really nice sunfish...then the second cast she hooks a nice bluegill. So I downsized my setup as well and we ended up catching sunfish and bluegills the whole time we were there.

So yes, the dropshot rig works great on bluegills, you just need to downsize your tackle and bait.

Could Be A New World Record Blue Catfish!

The 130-pound Blue Catfish caught by Greg Bernal in Missouri will not only break the world record by 6-pounds, but could break 3 other records.

If the report was correct that Bernal caught this big monster on 40 lb monofilament line then this big fish will break the IGFA's (International Game Fish Association) Blue Catfish all tackle world record, line class world record and the Missouri State record.

According to Bernal, he fought the big monster for 30 minutes and took him another 30 minutes just to get it in the boat. The big blue catfish is awaiting confirmation by the IGFA, Bernal said that he would mount it on the wall next to the 74 lb blue catfish that he caught previously.

Lake Fulmor - July 14th

This was the last day of our visit at Idyllwild. Checked out of our cabin at 8:00 am, had breakfast in town and headed over to Lake Fulmor to spend the rest of the day before heading home.

We've never been to the this lake before, but have heared a lot about how beautiful this place is. As we drove up and saw this lake, I would have to agree. Though is not the biggest lake, it sure is the most beautiful pond that I have ever seen.

We pulled up the parking lot accross the lake and find that there were only 2 cars there, which was awesome meaning we'd pretty much have the place all to ourselves. We walked accross to the lake and saw that there were a lot of structures such as weeds, grass, submerged trees and boulders. Although trout is the main fishery here, this definitely have the look of a prime bass & bluegill lake, the only problem is that the water on the whole lake is green from the algae bloom which happens in the warmer months. This explains why we did not get one bite in the 2 hours we fished. We just about tried everything: frogs, spinnerbait, senkos, jigs, dropshot and even tried live nightcrawlers for nothing...not even a nibble. I would guess that the best fishing here will be in the colders month, winter and spring. I would not recommend coming here in the summer for fishing, unless you just want to come up and enjoy the tranquil surrounding and relax.

Anyways, stayed here for a couple of hours and headed home. Although we did not catch any fish, Lake Fulmor is the definitely a jewel in the mountain. We truely fell in love with this fond and will definitely come back here in the future.

Lake Hemet During the Earthquacke

After the 4th of July holiday, my wife and I decided to go away to Idyllwild for a few days. We got the on Tuesday morning, check in to our cabin and just checkout the town the rest of the day. Beautiful little town..

We got up the next morning and headed down to Lake Hemet, which was about 10 miles away from where we were staying. Got to the lake late in the morning, rented a boat and started fishing some the small coves we found. We fished from the boat until a little after noon when the wind started blowing hard.

When the wind started howling, it really made it hard to control the boat so we decided to turn the boat in and fish from shore.

We headed outside the fenced in area and drove over to the end of the lake and found this little cove all to ourselves. Started fishing for bass for awhile but to no luck, but then started seeing lots of frys on the swimming around, they I see this shaddow on the water chasing each others. Got the light gear out, tied on a small hook and cut up nightcrawler.

First cast, hook a nice sunfish then another, the another. It stayed that way for a couple of hours, it seemed that we found and spawning bed for sunfish and bluegills. 

We were on a hot bite for awhile, with fish on every cast until the earthquacke hit. I've never experience an earthquacke while fishing. All we heard was this rolling noise, cracking rocks and birds flying. We weren't really sure what was going on till the ground started shaking, which was pretty cool. Anyways, the bite somehow turned off after that, so we headed back to Idyllwild.

It was fun fishing a lake for the first time. Weather was nice, it was warm but not as hot as it usually is this time of the year.

Sightfishing Dixon Lake

Decided to fish Dixon Lake on Friday, a day after a full moon. Got to the lake about 6:30 am, got the boat and I was on my way. While I made my way over to Bass Point, I reached in my pocket for my polarized sunglasses and realized that I had left it at home. I was very angry at myself at that point, what is sightfishing without the polarized, especially with this lake being a little windy.

Anyways, I had no choice but to make do without them. So, I started fishing bass point, could not see any fish but went ahead and did some blind casting with the spinnerbait. Managed to get 2 bass right around 2 lbs. Headed over to bass cove and saw a lot of fish over 5 lbs just cruishing around, just could not get them to hit. I pretty much fished this area almost the whole day, managed to hook 4 bedfish here and also caught some on flukes and jigs.

At around noon the wind picked up and my battery went dead, so I had to paddle back to the boat dock. If any of you fished Dixon Lake before, you know how hard that wind blows. So paddling back to the dock when you're on the other side of the lake is no fun at all. The gentleman at the dock asked me if I wanted a new battery put it, but after all the paddling, I was beat. Decided to call the day, with 9 fish caught & release, all solid fish. My take was that, it was just the first leg of the spawn and will continue during this month, Dixon is always one of the last lakes to spawn around here. Lots of fun, hope to get back again next week.

Lake El Capitan-Thurs. April 29

Got up at 4:30 pm and started my drive to Lake El Capitan. On my way there, it started raining and the wind was picking up so I had a feeling that this was not going to be a fun day out in the water. El Capitan get pretty crazy when the wind is blowing, and the forecast for the day was high wind.

Anyways, met up with a couple of friends there at about 5:45 am. The wind was not bad when we got there and the rain seemed to have stopped. We launced the boat and started fishing a cove, we managed to hook 1 on a fluke.

We then made our way back to the north end of the lake. The water level was way up so a lot of sunk down trees around. We pretty much spent the whole day in this spot to get out of the wind and fished around the trees. We caught a lot fish tight to the banks on frogs, flukes, dropshot and flylined senkos. We fished from 6:30 am to 1:00 pm and managed to catch & release around 25 bass, all were solid fish between 2 to 4 pounds.

Fun day and definitely one of my better day at Lake El Capitan.

Lake Dixon 3/22/10

Dropped my nephew off to Wild Animal Park to meet his grandparents, while I headed down to fish Lake Dixon. Got there around 10:00 am, the lake wasn't as crowded as I thought it was going to be. The lake is usually very crowded during springtime with fisherman looking for those big spawning bass, but it is still pretty early in the spawning season for Lake Dixon. Lake Dixon is usually the last lake in southern California for spawn.

Anyways, I went cruising around in the shoreline for spawning bass. I saw some early spawners but definitely not a full blown spawning season yet for the reason being that the water is still cold. I did see a couple of big females cruising around on the north side of the lake.

As I walked down the shoreline, I found and worked a bed with a female and a male bass on it. I could not get the female to bite, but the male was very aggresive. The small male bass had taken my lure about 4 times without me setting the hook hoping that the female does not get spook. By the 5th time, I finally got frustrated with the male and set my hook on him and released him a few yards down the shoreline. So I walk back to try and work on the female bass only to find that the male bass was back, that's when I decided to walk away and do some blind casting with the spinnerbait instead.

Ended the day with a couple of small bass caught on spinnerbait and senko worms. Fun day, it was warm and little breezy at the lake. Hope to come back in about a month for the full-blown spawning season.

KVD Wins The Bassmaster Classic

Source: ESPN.com

Kevin VanDam puts on another clinic; he started big and finished big as he wins his 3rd Bassmaster Classic title. With the great career that he has built, there is no doubt that he will go down in history as the best angler ever.

Kevin VanDam grabbed the lead with a limit weight of 19 pounds, 8 ounces. KVD said that he was using a trio of baits to effectively cover the range of water in the area he was fishing. With the lake temperature remaining in the low to mid 40s, KVD said he found the fish mostly concentrated in small areas, which explains why he fished that same area in all three days of the tournament.

Congratulations KVD, you really are the greatest.

Japanese Angler Ties World Record Bass

Source: ESPN.com

The IGFA has officially certified and approved Kurita's application for record status a little more than six months after the catch. The IGFA's regulations require that a record fish weighing less than 25 pounds be surpassed by two ounces or more. Technically, Kurita's 22-pound, 4.97-ounce largemouth bass from Lake Biwa in Japan is tied with a bass nearly 1 ounce lighter that was caught 77 years ago in Georgia.

Many believed that a world record will be coming out of California, all were stunned to learn of Manabu Kurita's catch in July of 2009.

The largemouth bass is native only to the eastern United States and transplanted to every state except for Alaska as well as other parts of the world including Japan.

The previous record was caught in 1932 by George Perry in Lake Georgia. It's one of the longest standing records in the IGFA, lasting over 77 years.

Congratulations Manabu Kurita on a great catch.....

Trout Fishing - Lake Poway 1/2

Woke up at about 4:30 am, packed up some food and off I go to Lake Poway to try my luck again with the trout.

Got to the lake around 5:30 am, driving up to the parking lot to find out that it is almost full. Looks like it's going to be a busy day, which turned out to be just that. After getting my permit, I started walking the very limited shore access due to high water level and the numbers of anglers fishing the shorelines.

Finally, I settled on a spot just before Boulder Bay and pretty much stayed in the spot for 6 hours. Ended up catching 3 small trouts soaking Powerbait in rainbow color. Left the lake at about noon, never did see many people catching fish. I think that I only saw 1 fish in a stringer while walking back to the car.

A very disappointing day for me, 3 fish in 6 hours, but it beats working so I take it any day.