2023 Shore fishing thread.

[Bushleague]

Did one of these a few years ago so I thought I'd try it again. Post a photo of some fish you caught from shore this season, maybe a few lines about how you caught it and/ or some tips.

Got into a hot bite in a shallow bay last night, for a while I was catching a pike over 30" every 3-5 casts. Snapped a quick picture of this one which measured around 36", lost 2 or 3 that felt alot bigger.

RIMG0019 by , on Flickr

This morning I went back to the same bay but the big fish were gone. There was a rocky shore nearby that dropped off a little deeper so I decided to fish that. It wasnt a hot bite like the night before, but covering lots of water I did manage to catch a 42" pike. Being waist deep in the water with my camera in my backpack, and a very tired trophy fish on the line I didnt bother to take a picture, just got her on her way as quick as I could.

[Frank_NK28]

Those are some nice fish you're catching!

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by Frank_NK28

Those are some nice fish you're catching!

Thanks, its the culmination of about 6 seasons of trying to come up successful patterns and focus my efforts in intelligent ways. I find it more challenging to connect regularly year-round, but also more rewarding than just using the boat. Hopefully if people get anything from these threads, its that you can take shore fishing much further than just soaking pickerel rigs in popular, over fished spots, as you wistfully watch the boats drive by. Not that theres anything wrong with that, if you're catching that way I'd still like to see the picture.

[58thecat]

I don’t shore fish too often but will follow this thread, pick up a few new tricks....last time I shore fished was waiting for the boat trailer to come down the launch so tossed out a large mepps and got a beauty bull trout....go figure.

Should have just stayed there all day

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by 58thecat

I don’t shore fish too often but will follow this thread, pick up a few new tricks....last time I shore fished was waiting for the boat trailer to come down the launch so tossed out a large mepps and got a beauty bull trout....go figure.

Should have just stayed there all day

Lol, thats kind of what got me going in this direction. We'd go out in the boat all day, then stop for lunch or let the kids play on shore, BAM I'd manage to catch the biggest fish of the day from shore. After enough seasons where my best fish were caught from shore I finally decided to just go with it, its been working out pretty good.

On some level I think seriously paring down your options almost helps make it easyer. This morning I knew where some big fish had been the night before, with a boat there would have been alot of places I could have gone looking for them, from the shore there was really only one smart move I could make and it payed off.

[fordtruckin]

I generally only fish from shore but got a boat last fall. So I’m looking forward to trying something different. I’m tired of casting from shallow to deep and then getting a hook caught. Will be a bit different to cast to the shallows and reel in to deep water. Some killer pike your catching OP! Wish I could get that from shore instead of trout.

[WayneChristie]

I like shore fishing, grew up on it. I do like fishing the river from a boat but the shore is sometimes the best place to find the fish. (from, not on)

[Bushleague]

Had a doozy of a thunderstorm last night, so I wasnt expecting much today but I went out anyway. IMO the most important thing when shore fishing is to make sure you can cover lots of water. A mud shoreline is generally tough to fish from shore, I can work with sand, but my favorite is rock. If you've got a couple kilometers of this, and you can cover enough water, you will find fish.

RIMG0024 by , on Flickr

Close in the ice will have carved a shallow rock flat up into troughs and bars, and untill the weeds come in this is some of the best feeding cover in the lake. Fishing was slow, but fan casting my way down the shore I found a place where a deepish ditch had been scoured paralell to the shore. Maybe 4 feet deep and 20 yards wide, running a hundred yards or so. I got a few follows but the fish were very neutral after the cold front. Twitching a suspending plug back at a snails pace, through some sparse new weed growth, got me about 15-20 pike in a few hours. Nothing big, but it beat getting skunked, and post cold front the day could have been much worse.

RIMG0023 by , on Flickr

[fish99]

long skinny pike. they need to feed up.

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by fish99

long skinny pike. they need to feed up.

Its just a phase they go through, at least where I caught those pike. Seems like the smaller ones are more filled out, and the bigger ones look good, but somewhere in that mid 20" range they tend to be pretty lanky.

Not sure if its a growth spurt or graduating from one feed source to another, both theory's seem a bit far fetched, but its a thing I've noticed in quite a few lakes... getting better fillets off of a sqeaker than one thats a couple inches over.

[fish99]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

Its just a phase they go through, at least where I caught those pike. Seems like the smaller ones are more filled out, and the bigger ones look good, but somewhere in that mid 20" range they tend to be pretty lanky.

Not sure if its a growth spurt or graduating from one feed source to another, both theory's seem a bit far fetched, but its a thing I've noticed in quite a few lakes... getting better fillets off of a sqeaker than one thats a couple inches over.

the ones i have caught in pigeon this year are very skinny as well.
70 cm long and be lucky to weigh 3 lbs . not enough minnows to eat.

[Bushleague]

After not catching anything substancial for about a week I decided to go after walleye this morning, luckily I brought a pike box with me. Fishing alone from shore, packing light and staying mobile I dont take alot of pictures, there was a nice couple fishing this spot today, and they were kind enough to take some pictures for me. Also worth mentioning, all fish were caught on an Uglystick, an old Mitchell 300 that Cranky gave me, and 10 lb mono... not the tackle I would have chosen for this caliber of fish, but its what I had in the trunk and it did the trick.

A few pike ranging from 37-40".

RIMG0027 by , on Flickr

RIMG0030 by , on Flickr

I didnt measure this one, but he's noticably bigger than the others, which were around 38". I'm always heasitant to call one 40" without getting a decent measurement, but I'm comfortable claiming that this guy is pretty dang close. As you can see Fish99, once these fish get past that mid 20" range, they fill out nicely.

RIMG0034 by , on Flickr

[fish99]

nice fish must be go0d forage in that body of water

[Bushleague]

Despite the cold front, and dirty water, I managed to get a few hammer handle pike and a handfull of Walleye on spoons this evening. Kept this guy for a late supper.

Since my gear is in the picture I'll mention it, an Ambassadeur 6500 on a 10' MH steelhead rod. This rig casts beautifully, but is pretty unwieldy, I much preffer an 8-9' rod for a baitcasting rig. I dont mind going longer on a spinning rig, I think because I typically use fairly heavy spinning reels it ballances out better. The 6500 is still a pretty light reel, perhaps if the butt was longer it would feel better.

RIMG0043 by , on Flickr

[58thecat]

A true angler always wear Crocs....which is the final piece to the puzzle of landing big fish!

Well done

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by 58thecat

A true angler always wear Crocs....which is the final piece to the puzzle of landing big fish!

Well done

Thanks, and yes, Crocks are pretty much vital.

Starting to feel like a one man show here though, which wasnt my intention. You guys all got boats? I cant be the only one fishing from shore this year.

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

Thanks, and yes, Crocks are pretty much vital.

Starting to feel like a one man show here though, which wasnt my intention. You guys all got boats? I cant be the only one fishing from shore this year.

Hmmmm if I had open shoreline like that I would ahhhh heck who am I kidding I would launch the kayak

But it looks wide open there and can turn grumpy real quick.

[mooseknuckle]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

After not catching anything substancial for about a week I decided to go after walleye this morning, luckily I brought a pike box with me. Fishing alone from shore, packing light and staying mobile I dont take alot of pictures, there was a nice couple fishing this spot today, and they were kind enough to take some pictures for me. Also worth mentioning, all fish were caught on an Uglystick, an old Mitchell 300 that Cranky gave me, and 10 lb mono... not the tackle I would have chosen for this caliber of fish, but its what I had in the trunk and it did the trick.

A few pike ranging from 37-40".

RIMG0027 by , on Flickr

RIMG0030 by , on Flickr

I didnt measure this one, but he's noticably bigger than the others, which were around 38". I'm always heasitant to call one 40" without getting a decent measurement, but I'm comfortable claiming that this guy is pretty dang close. As you can see Fish99, once these fish get past that mid 20" range, they fill out nicely.

RIMG0034 by , on Flickr

Good looking fish there bud!! And love the cross!!

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by mooseknuckle

Good looking fish there bud!! And love the cross!!

Thanks! And the crocks really are a vital part of my gear. I fish a few places where I dont need to wade, except to land/ release a fish without banging them up on the rocks, but most of the places I fish wading basically a requirement.

Early on I use waders but I hate hiking any distance in them, the minuet I can stand to wet wade its straight to crocks. Thats basically my cue to giver, that point when I first ditch the waders and can cover more ground is often when I catch a lot of my bigger fish from shore.

[Bushleague]

Daughter caught this one on a Len Thompson spoon.

RIMG0039 by , on Flickr

[crazy_davey]

Great thread BL!

[Bushleague]

No pictures for you, but after almost a week of just catching small pike and a few walleye from shore, I gravitated more been fishing out of the boat or canoe with the kids. We've been getting into some good walleye bites and picking up the odd small pike...

Yesterday I decided to throw a few casts from shore on the way to work, and ended up catching a chunky 33" pike, the biggest fish I've caught in a week or so. Gave it another try from shore today and got a bigger one that I didnt measure.

All of which is to say, even though the water's warmed up quite a bit, and the weeds are starting to get a big gnarly, if you keep a hook in the water long enough good things will happen... and they are just as likely to happen to the shorebound angler as they are to the guy in the boat.

[ShoreAngler]

PCR, Chain lakes or crawling lake which is better out of the three?

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by ShoreAngler

PCR, Chain lakes or crawling lake which is better out of the three?

Not in my neck of the woods, but first thing I look for is how much fishable shore I can access. Use Google maps to figure this out as well as look at what type of shore it is, rock, sand etc..

The next thing is to look at the location of accessable shorelines within the lake. Early in the season your looking at where the shorelines are in relation to spawning areas, at this point that becomes less important and proximity to deep water starts to become more important, so consult some topo's. Beyond that, points, inflows of any size, and anywhere the bottom makeup changes is a good starting point.

Go get em.