Madfishexpo Update

Went to the show this past weekend. Unfortunately, it wasn't as cool as previous years, the Madison Lakes Forum which is usually my favorite seminar was pretty plain although the bass guy gave us a few tips, such as using swim jigs and Waubessa as the best Bass lake in the chain. The Musky talk was kinda cool, mostly because he talked extensivily about lake turnover which is good knowledge to have no matter what you are fishing for. The Fly Fishing seminar was probably the most helpfull, mostly because the speaker went over what types of flies to use and when to use them. Charlie was excited about this, he lives within walking distance of one of the states best creeks, Black Earth creek. The trouble with Black Earth is there are a ton of trees and casting a fly rod is brutal. I would like to try my ultra light, at a meer 5'6" I think it would suite the situation quite well. The vendors were pretty much the same, it's irratating that places like Gander Mt. and Cabelas do not come to this show, but maybe that is on purpose to give the little guys a chance. The DNR had some pretty cool Madison lake studies that they were handing out, you can actually find the information here.

I picked up a new SouthBend Phase2 6'6" rod for $30, it's somewhat unique in that it is a Medium Heavy spinning rod. Since that is the case I actually threw my Shimano reel with 10lb braid on the rod vs. my Okuma. The Okuma I put on my Guide Series 6'6" Medium rod and will probably spool it with 8lb Pline, I might pull the 8lb off the fenwick and spool the fenwick with 6lb for an even more finesse presentation. That would give me 3 rods with Pline in 4, 6, and 8lb test, and one spinning rod with 10lb braid (Fireline). The new rig should make a good crankbait/heavy cover rod, being that it's medium heavy, it has a lot of backbone. I'm actually quite excited to try it out I don't think any of my rods are IM8 graphite. Graphite is measured in modules, most graphite rods are between IM6-IM8. IM6 is lowest (however not he lowest quality), usually IM6 are not as sensitive, but are more durable. IM8 rods are lighter, more sensitive, however less durable. Most of my rods are IM6, which is probabaly a good thing seeing how I tend to pretty hard on stuff. There is a good article about choosing rods and rod qulaity here.

Aside from the fishing show, it was also the the BassMasters Classic Pro Tournament, which is sort of like Pro Fishings Super Bowl. So whats the point, other than to annoy Foxy who loves to watch fishing shows? Well turns out that there is a new hot bait on the market by rad lures, it called the chatterbait. It looks like the only bait they make and the company is now back ordered for 2 months. I think I might order one or two at $7 a pop, it won't be too many. The bait has unreal action, kind of a cross between a spinnerbait and a swimjig. Fishing guy at work wants to get a couple also, maybe we can order together. I have a bad habit of loosing lures and at $7 I don't know if I could forgive myself, which is also the reason I can't be a Musky fisherman, those lures range from $10-$30 a piece. The other hot bait were plastic frogs texas rigged. I happened to read about this rig in a magazine on the way to vegas last fall. While in vegas I had the opportunity to stop at bass pro shops, and I picked up a couple packages of these frogs. It's hard to beat for about $4 you get five frogs and I caught 3 or 4 fish and had a couple more hits. They will probably become a much larger part of my arsenal this year. I would actually like to try using them as a trailer on a swim jig, I think the vibration of the legs and the larger profile of the bait could be a leathal combination. Berkley is also making a Gulp version of the frog which I would mind trying. The great thing about this frogs is you can fish them a variety of ways, burn them across the top like a buzz bait, work them over lilly pads, start/stop retrieves let them sink slowly, or add them as trailers to spinner baits and jigs. So many options, so little time.

Madison Fishing Expo

WOOHOO!!!! It's finally here!!!! The Madison Fishing Expo, is something I have been looking forward since the lakes froze. There are tons of vendors, and several really cool seminars. I usually attend the show with Charlie and my brother Celly has been also been coming. Unfortuantely Celly can't make it this year, and my other brother Chris will be in Mexico (lucky). My favorite part about the Expo, is there are usually one or two vendors that have fishing poles HALF OFF! And I am not talking about cheapy rods. My plan is to pick up one new rod for an Okuma Spinning real that doesn't have a mate, I haven't decided what size, but I might just take best available. I am also going to look at baitcaster reals, to replace my Abu Garcia Torno, depending on what kind of deals I find will determine if I pick one up. I'm planning on attending the Madison Forum, Fly Fishing Spring Creeks, Musky Fishing, and Bass Fishing seminars. Although, the Fly Fishing and Bass Fishing may be up in the air. I would normally be excited about the Bass Fishing one, but the speaker is the same as last year, who actually had two talks last year that were the same. Not to mention they really didn't apply to northern natural lake fishing. So thats it, be there or be square!!!

On a similar note, I have been pretty down and crabby this week. Sorry Foxy!!! My new job is much more stressfull than what I am used to, not to mention I have been busting my butt getting things ready for our NARK meeting this week. I am traveling to Wausau to meet with the other Net Admins from all of our campuses to discuss IT topics, I have two presentations, that I am not really prepared for. I also think the recent snow has reminded me that the fishing season is much farther away than the January weather had indicated. The weather here has been pretty annoying, too warm to ice fish and to cold to open water fish BOOOO. Usually, I would revert back to my winter time hobby of DOD, but gaming just doesn't seem to be filling the gap this winter. I am however, looking forward to Foxy moving to days possibly in the near future. Boo is becoming more than a handfull, and between work and fatherhood I think it might be stressing me out more than I am used to. Maybe this night away at the NARK will do me some good, along with a date night with my wife which I have been looking forward to since before VD. I am also hoping to get on the hard water one more time before the ice thaws with charlie, hopefully next weekend.

Grandpa Jigs

Welp, I promised a picture of Grandpa Jigs and here is a picture of Grandpa Jigs. The jigs are made from real deer tail hair and he uses a powder paint that gets baked on. The jig heads are made from lead and come in two different sizes, 1/8oz and 1/4oz (I think :S) . The colors are (head/tail) pink/white, yellow, orange, chartreuse, and green/yellow (aka the packer jig). I know I need to get down to my grandfathers house and learn how to make these, and the sooner the better he is 83. He is pretty much done fishing now, no more spring/fall trips. He may go on a couple day trips, but he's gone as far as to give my dad his boat. I would like to thank my grandpa for all the jigs he has made us and for really introducing myself and both brothers to fishing. It was quite special to me to be a part of his last trip, after so many growing up, the last one will always be the best one.

Equipment List

Last weekend while driving to the the Garden show, which (as usual) was a little more fun than expected. We happened to drive past a very old driver. I said that if I ever get that old I'm taking the boat out to the middle of the ocean and calling it quits. I then said to foxy that she would have to BURY one of my fishing poles instead. She thought I said MARRY, and agreed to it. So now she's stuck marrying one of my fishing poles if I die before her. She decided that it would be easier to be married to a fishing pole than a man, I suppose I can't argue with that. Anyway, here is my fishing arsenal for her to choose from.

Boat
1987 Bass Tracker w/ Mercury Classic 50 (45HP)
--MinnKota 65lb 24v bow mount Trolling motor
--Coming soon Eagle 502c color GPS/Fishfinder combo

Baitcasters
St. Croix Premier 7ft Medium Heavy w/ Quantum Accurist Reel spooled with 20lb fireline-- Flippin/Pitchin stick

Fenwick HMX 5'6" w/ Pinnacle reel spooled with 10lb Power Pro-- Tube/worm rod for fishing cover

GuideSeries 6'6" Medium w/ Abu Garcia Torno spooled reel spooled with 20lb Fireline -- Spinnerbait/crankbait/buzzbait rod

Star (custom) 6'4" Medium Heavey w/ Abu Garcia C3 reel spooled with 60lb Fireline -- Musky/Northern Rod (This was my flipping stick, but I broke about 6" off the tip, went to Dorn's and had them put a new tip on it. I really don't use it much, but maybe this spring I'll try and land one of those elusive Muskies I've heard so much about.)

Spinning Rods
Fenwick HMG 7ft Light w/ Guideseries 8bb reel spooled with 8lb Pline (flurocarbon) -- Jigging, wacky worm, finnesse rod

Guideseries 6'6" Medium Light w/ Okuma Avenger reel spooled with 8lb Pline -- This is a new rig I just created, I think I might start using it for bass techniques, and using my Fenwick for walleye/pan fish and other finnesse techniques.

Southbend Phaser2 6'6" Medium Heavey w/ Shimano Sidestab reel spooled with 10lb Fireline -- This is going to be my crankbait/spinnerbait/grub rod. Picked up the rod at the fishing show and moved my Shimano to it, it is somewhat unique in that it is a medium heavy spinning rod which are not too common, it's also IM8 graphite quality.

Guideseries 5'6" Ultra Light w/ Guideseries 5bb reel spooled with 4lb Pline -- Pan fish rod, works good for walleyes too

White River Fly rod/reel 8' 5/6 wt -- I don't know much about fly fishing, I've got one trout on this rod and have used it fairly extensively for gills. Someday, maybe I'll learn how to fly fish.

Misc. Equipment
Cabelas Advanced Angler Backpack Tackle system -- I got this before I got my boat, I used to do a lot of shore fishing and figured this would be perfect. It is pretty nice, but space is limited and I am running out of room. I may look for some sort of insert I can put into one of the front compartments to store additional plano boxes.

Plano, Waist belt type tackle system -- Foxy got me this and I really like it for taking to Columbia, ice fishing, or just a quick shore fishing excursion. It holds enough stuff and frees your hands up.

I am not going to list all my lures individually, but here is a general sum of what I use, Scum Frogs, Spinner Baits, Crank Baits, Buzz Baits, Tubes, Worms, Plastic craws, Bass Jigs, Plastic frogs, Gamakotzu Hooks (been starting to use red).

I use a lot of top water because our lakes have lots of thick weeds, I also use a lot of texas rigged worms and tubes. Tubes work great for Small mouth on Mendota.

Something special I use are "Grandpa Jigs," my Grandfather has been making jigs for 30 years or more. They are extremely nice deer tail hand made jigs for walleye fishing. I will post a picture. He has mostly stopped making them now, I REALLY need to go down and learn how to make them. He has about 1700 that he will spread through our family, then no more grandpa jigs left. I think he would be extremely happy if one of us 5 grandchildren picked up the hobby.

I have an Okuma Spinning reel without a mate, I may pick up a new spinning rod at the fishing show. I am also very disappointed in my Abu Torno, so if I find a new reel at the fishing show for a good price, I may replace it. I think I might sell the old one to celly or chris, it's a decent reel, but I just get a lot of backlashes with it and it annoys me. I suppose I could try mono on it and see if that improves the castablity, or power pro for that matter.

So thats the arsenal, look bass here I come!!!!

Links Explained, and Fixed

On the right side of the page are a few links. First off, I would like to thank cw for pointing out the broken ones (one of which was his website). Anyway, all is good in the world of html and all links function as they should. Also, I have to apologize this is the second time I've written this and I shortened it up a bit. Stupid pop-up blocker wouldn't let me pass and so I shut it down, then the page reloaded and I lost everything and had to start this post over. I hate computers.

Lake Link -- LL is probably the best resource for fishing information about the midwest. It's also probably the best fishing website I have used or seen. I believe the LL owners would love to become the wikipedia of fishing, and hope they do because honestly there isn't a much better site for fishing then LL. They are making some major changes towards the end of the month, can't wait to see the new site.

Frenchys Pit -- Ahh the pit, been hangin around there for going on four years now. We are now running two day of defeat servers and two DOD:Source servers. It brings me great pride to be such a big part of one of the elite communities and servers on the web. If you are into to FPS video games check us out.

4loveOknit -- So Foxy decided with her friends I knit, thats it and stichkommander to start a blog about knitting. Actually, this blog probably exists because of their blog. Anyway, I am proud of her thus far as she has been very patient with it and actually has not asked for help yet. They all three seem to really enjoy the experience, keep up the good work gals!!!!

cw.com -- Good friend, Fellow geek, and fellow gamer. This is my good friend cw's site. It's actually been up for several years and has lots of great things about his life, family, humor, tech everything. Always a good read, be sure to check out his other site www.codefuture.net.

madisonienne -- CW's Wifey's blog. Madisonienne has a great sense of humor and it really shines in her writing. This a very entertaining blog, even though it contains much about knitting it's still quite entertaining.

cm.com -- Good friend, fellow Frenchy's Admin, Fellow Angler. CM's site has lots of funny stuff, video clips, etc.. Also if you ever want to pimp and xbox CM has some great instructions for adding a power button to one of your controllers. I do hope he contributes his angling experiences either here on my site or on his. We shall see.

K, Ima watch a movie. Be Cool, thats the movie.

Who, What, Where, When, Why

The 5 "W's", remember that from school. With my first post I'll try and answer the 5 "w's" the best I can. I remember something about throwing How in there too, but I figured "with a blog" pretty much answers How.

Who: MadGator - aka Cory - I am just a regular guy, married with a daughter. I work the UW Colleges system (UW Two Year Community Colleges) as a Senior Network Administrator. I spend most of my time there working with Servers, Firewalls, Computers, and various other computer type technologies. When I'm not at work I am spending time with my wife and daughter, every moment of which I greatly cherish. What time I have left I usually spend either Fishing or Playing DOD (both of which I'll get into later). That's pretty much who I am, Cory, Husband, Father, Angler, Gamer. Pretty much sums it up.

What: Well primarily, I am hoping to turn this into a fishing journal. Using our W rules to document my various fishing excursions. I will also be filling in the gaps with various life musings and news. I will at some point be posting this blog on Lake Link, in hopes other Madison area anglers will read/write/comment they're angling experiences.

Where: The obvious is the Madison Chain of lakes -- Mendota, Monona, Waubessa, Wingra. I also on occasion will fish Rock Lake, Lake Wiscsonsin, Lake Columbia, Mississippi River. We recently purchased some property up north in the Lake Camelot Community, this will give me access to a couple more lakes as well. I occasionally go on fishing trips so documentation of those will also be included, possibly with much less detail.

When: I do most of my fishing during the spring/summer/fall seasons. I am not much of an ice fisherman, but will venture out on occasion. I am aslo starting this prior to the 2006 fishing season, I had actually wanted to wait a bit but there will be some things coming shortly that I wanted to document.

Why: I love to fish. I read a ton of articles, website, magazines about fishing and attend a couple seminars a year. One thing I have come across as a common theme is to document your angling results and to use that documentation to better yourself as angler. If you are interested take a look at Lake-Link and you will see what I am talking about. I don't think that this will ever become what Lake Link is, but I do hope that it's my own personal version of LLs mission. This is actually my second attempt at blogging, I tried using bloglines before, but just really didn't like the interface. The whole idea of trying again has really be sparked by my wife and her crazy knitting friends, they have started a knitting blog and it has inspired me to try once again.

First Post Done!