Blue Fish Bite

Three years ago, there was a conference in Manhattan. I stayed at a dorm in downtown. Oh, boy, I could not hold my fishing instinct and brought my fishing reel and rod with me. I put the rod in a document tube which I carried to bring my poster. It was a perfect disguise!

The dorm was close to the Brooklyn bridge and Pier 17. So, every morning, I woke up really early and went fishing to pier 17 on the East river and the Battery park. Make long story short, I didn't catch any. Who cares? I did have such a great break from the nonsense of academic discussions. But on the second day, I got a strong bite although I failed in hook-setting. When I reeled in my swimbait, I was totally shocked. See the pictures below.

Before

After

You can imagine my immediate reaction, "holy %$#&!!! Is there shark or something?" I showed the half-cut lure to a biologist, and he told me that it might be Blue fish. Later, I found out that blues are notorious for its razor sharp teeth, and they are abundant in the East river. I think that I was lucky enough not to hook one. It was so close... At that time, I didn't have any equipment to land and handle blues. I could be really screwed.

After that, I have had a couple of chances to fight with blue fish, but I didn't land any. They are good fighters, although people say that they are not good eaters. Well, well, I hope to taste the nasty Blue fish someday.

For your information:

Fishing at Manhattan piers is allowed from sunset to 7am. That's what I heard from an officer when I went there three years ago. In the morning, many elderlies came to exercise to the pier 17. You need to watch.

300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds

Very succinct and entertaining presentation. You will like it.

Fried Bass with Chinese-Style Spicy Sauce

Believe it or not, bass is considered as junk fish in Korea, as carp is treated as junk fish in the US. Carp is delicacy in Asia. The other day, I saw a news that Illinois would export Asian carp from its Mississippi river to China . I believe that this business will be successful.

Anyway, bass is an invasive species and is not considered as a food fish in Korea. While staying in the US, I tried different recipes to cook my catch. I smoked, steamed, deep fried, grilled and so on. Among them, I found frying is the best. When it is coupled with Chinese style spicy sauce, it is even better.


Ingredients:
Bass (gutted and scaled), flour or corn meal, onion half, green onion 1/2 head, Jalapino pepper 1, garlic 1/4 clove, Sauce(Sugar 1T, black pepper 1/3t, Korean or Japanese soy sauce 1T, Oyster sauce 1T, rice vinegar 1T, rice wine 1T, sesame oil 1/2T).

Steps:
(1) Make the sauce first. Mix up all ingredients well.
(2) Clean and rinse the fish.
(3) Pat down the fish with paper tower to get rid of extra moisture. If desirable, make cuts on the fish (see the picture above)
(4) Roll the fish on flour.
(5) Put enough amount vegetable oil on a frying pan and warm it up.
(6) Pan-fry the fish fully and put it on paper tower covered dish. We need to cool it.
(7) Now, vegetables. Chopped up vegetables to small pieces.
(8) On another frying pan, stir fry chopped vegetables at high heat.
(9) When vegetables are almost cooked, pour the sauce on the pan. Wait till boiling.
(10) Move the fish to a serving dish and pour the sauce over the fish.
(11) Enjoy!

Silly bandz for Two Piece Rod

It is sometimes annoying to carry two piece fishing rod. Much easier than one piece rod, though. If the upper part is loose, its tip part could be broken. I did it one time. Good way to carry two piece rod is to tie them up using band.

I have used grocery rubber band. One problem of rubber band is that it sticks on rod and leaves residue especially when it contacts with sunscreen. Sunscreen chemically reacts to rubber. Rubber band could damage your tackles. It may not be a big deal. But here is an alternative: silicon band. Silicon is very stable material and does not react to sunscreen. If you have used rubber bands for your rods or tackles, you may want to try silicon bands.

Here I put pictures on how to tie up two piece rod using silicon band.


Step 1. Put two parts together.


Step 2. Wrap the rod around the largest guide.


Step 3. Wrap two times (you can adjust according the length of band). Don't make it too tight. It could damage your guide.


While fishing, you can put the band on your wrist. Fashionable fisherman, huh. If you find your kids or nephews playing with silly bandz, you may want to borrow a couple of them for your use. Ah, I found that a local sporting goods store is selling silicon bands shaped in MLB team logos. These must be cooler than cow or horse shape.

Warming causes cooling?

Recent weather pattern in the mid-Atlantic region is just like roller coaster ride. A week of extreme coldness and snow, and a week of spring-like warmness and rain. Last couple of days were really warm, and last month heavy snow were almost melted away here in upstate New York. I was even considering to go fishing (well, it didn't happen). What's going on?

Climate change is suspected to be behind the roller coaster weather. Sounds like non-sense? Let's assume that you agree on that the average temperature of atmosphere is going up, then here are some brief explanations which I summarized from various sources:

• Higher surface temperature increases total amount of vapor in atmosphere. More vapor ends up with higher precipitation.
• Higher surface temperature increases the power of low pressure system. Surface air rises more easily. Stronger low pressure system in the middle altitude pulls down arctic cold air or up equatorial hot air.

I overly simplified explanations to provoke interest. Climate is so complex that there are still many things that we cannot understand.  Although we agree on the large amount of uncertainty, it seems evident that climate change took a certain role in this roller coaster weather.

Lake Trout

Well, well, it snowed today here upstate New York... D%$# it! I really don't want to call it a season yet. I will go out one or two more times before freezing. During the off season, I decide to revisit dusty pictures of my old catches.


When: 04/25/2007
Where: Lake George, NY
How: trolling small minnow bait

It was my first lake trout and the only one. Capt. M and I went out Lake George on a still chilly Spring day.  We put tiny minnow bait and trolled around at the east side of the lake. I was in charge of watching rods, while Capt. M was controlling his canoe. I occasionally checked each rod for fish. After one hour, we reeled in and found big trout was hooked! I was a dumb. Actually, I brought an ultra light rod, and the rod didn't show much change of bending (as I insist).

It was a beautiful fish. Unfortunately, it was deep-hooked. Imagine that the fish was trying to swallow the tiny minnow bait for long time. It was exhausted and didn't give a good fight. I brought the fish home and later smoked it for picnic. Its flesh was pink and very tasty. It was quite close to Salmon.


By the way, Lake George was gorgeous at sunset! The view of high peaks from the lake at sunset is truly magnificent! If you live upstate New York, Lake George is definitely the destination that you don't want to miss. Ah, Lake George has also healthy population of large and small mouth bass.

Rod Tip Fixing Kit

I received a package from St. Croix. The rod tip fixing kit was simple, including new tip guide, glue and instruction.

I didn't know that it was that easy to remove the broken tip: put it on fire for a few seconds. Then, I cleaned up the tip part. I put new tip guide on the part. Well, I found that new tip was visibly short to my rod.

I called St. Croix, and they told me that there was design change (model TRS66MF2): tip part for newer version is shorter than older one. They promised to send me a new tip guide for my "old" rod.

If you have followed my posts, you may know that I am a budget angler. I try not to spend much on equipments. From my experience, in case of rod and reel, my recommendation is to buy low-end models from top brand tackle makers. Name brand provides reliable services, which you may need once or twice in your fishing life.

Update (11/8)
I received new rod tip from St. Croix today. Wow, it took a while. Its length matches with the original tip guide, but it is bigger than the original one at a glance. St. Croix seems not to have the matching part for my rod. If it is the case, they should have noticed me before I ordered. Very disappointed about my favorite rod maker. I will try the new tip guide anyway to see if it normally functions and worth for $5.