Fishroom or not to Fishroom...

As a kid growing up in my parents house... condo, three bedroom condominium in Prospect Heights, IL I had the second largest bedroom.  In that bedroom contained four or five 10gallon aquariums, a 20L, 20(not as long but a little taller than the 20L), 45gallon, 58, 120, and my pride and joy a 6' x 24" x 24" equating to 180 marvelous gallons of with I could create many biotopes.  Now that I am after all these years finally a home owner I wish to create a space dedicated to aquatic pursuits.  My wife and I have discussed putting up a small add on to the garage where I could practice my aquarium keeping proclivities. Like any infected aquarium-holic you are forever looking for more space and larger aquariums. It's Becoming apparent that I am eventually going to need a public aquarium to quell my affliction, maybe. I have to have enough room for my 180 gallon on one wall and my 120 gallon plus a rack of tanks on the other wall as well as a number of smaller tanks for quarantine, breeding, newly hatched youngsters and grow out tanks, whew!
     Having an aquarium other than one in the house is not an option as we have no wall free to accommodate aquariums. The other thought was that since my wife's Tahoe does not fit in garage maybe I can use part of it to keep my future charges. Although much work will have to be done and some significant hurdles overcome to make that happen. 

This is our spare bedroom.  Small and its current use allows for few aquariums much less large aquaria.

Our front room, no wall space at all.

Front room opposite view, still no where to add an aquarium.

This is our back room.  Tons of room but already claimed by family.  The seemingly bare wall with stenciling would be a great spot for my 180 gallon tank but would interfere with stencil.

So, here is our garage.  Not large by any measure but if insulated and heated for fall and winter and perhaps engineer a way to take the edge off the heat in summer...  I could have a good size fish room!  

I find myself between a garage and a small add on space to cure my fish room ailment.  Will keep updating as this standoff unfolds.

2012 Fishing Pictures

I' m sharing a few pictures here from the few fishing trips I took last summer 2012, including a muskie fishing trip my father and sister took early last fall.

Here's the launch at Hamlin lake in western Michigan.  Hamlin is created by a dam on the Big Sable River just before it enters Lake Michigan.  Hamlin is separated from Lake Michigan by a few hundred yards of sand dunes as seen in the background of the above picture.

In these photos we are making our way through Lost lake.  A very clear, shallow section of Hamlin lake that is nearly cut off by a group of islands.  There were many old tree stumps strewn about the bottom of this lake with their root systems exposed.  Needless to say it was idle speed across the lake to get back to Hamlin.  Probably a rich spawning and rearing location for many species including the Large and Smallmouth bass.  A line of Heavy Thunderstorms had just rolled through.  We sought refuge nearby just before the storm hit.

Here I've caught a Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris) on a Senko 4" worm hooked Wacky style.

This was a small Northern Pike (Esox Lucius) I caught while casting a number 7 size blade, bucktail made by Musky Mayhem Tackle.  The pike was 22" and released immediately after photo.

This was a nice 17" Largemouth Bass ( Micropterus Salmoides) caught on a Nightcrawler under a bobber.  The gentleman holding his prize catch is Mr. Jack "sprat", as my wife calls him.  He and his family are like family to us.  A great time had by all!

Jack and I were tasked with bringing home fish for a fish fry otherwise we would have released the Largemouth and Smallmouth in next photo.  Despite what many think the Largemouth tasted as sweet as any other fish we roasted over the coals that evening!

This was a 19" Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus Dolomieu) I caught on a 4" Senko worm fished Wacky style.  An incredible battle this fish gave me on a light spinning rod with an extra fast action and a Diawa SS real.  Its drag got a good work out that morning!

This musky (Esox masquinongy) was caught by my dad on the St. Croix river dividing Minnesota and Wisconsin near the Twin cities.  It smashed a top water lure, Top Raider I believe.  It measured 44" and was released immediately.

This Lil guy fell to a Cowgirl bucktail that my sister was throwing in hopes of attracting one of the St. Croix's monster 50 plus inch muskies.

Finally, I thought I would throw in this Picture from the year before, again on the St. croix.  My sister holding her largest musky 44".  Released!

That's it for this last open water season of fishing.  There were a few more trips that were planned but put on the back burner due to work schedule and health issues.

Muskie Rig Retooled

The Ole Muskie Rig/2002 Crestliner Fishawk 1650

Finally, the Ol' Muskie rig has its sonar unit replaced. We had a Lowrance X 135. It was a 5 inch LCD display with gray scale. It was a very nice unit that served us well for nearly 10 years of chasing big pike and monster Muskie across the north. It played a part in many catches in those ten years. Including numerous pike up to 40 inches, a 48 and 52 inch muskie my dad caught as well as many that were hooked and lost. A couple incidents come to mind.
      Like the time we were on Lake Vermilion. I believe it was September 2008. It was late morning warm but not hot, beautiful weather. We were casting baits towards beach front property while sitting in 6 feet of water. Between shore and our boat was a menagerie of aquatic vegetation. Halfway through our first run down the beach my dad set the hook into something massive. The rod jumped as the fish bulldozed it way through the salad. All dad could do was hang on and wait for the opportunity to gain back some line lost. Eventually, without perception of time the fish showed herself. That was an awe inspiring, knee weakening moment. This Muskie was as big as the 52 incher he caught a couple years prior, possibly larger. The head, the breadth of its back the immensity of this beast was incomprehensible. As I went to slip the net into the water she made another lighting run through as much vegetation as possible. We slowly made our way over and ever so gently lifted the line up to the surface only to find a mangled yellow and green spinner bait swinging at the end of the line! I felt sick. My dad, let's say was less than happy, but what made it all so unbearable was on the very next cast he made he reared back into something very heavy! It soon came up to show itself. It was another Muskie and it was huge. Not as big as the first but in the 48 to 50 inch range! As suddenly as she struck his bait it started doing the classic alligator death roll. This maneuver promptly pried the hook from its purchase. She slowly sank back into the depths as if taunting us to give chase as we looked on in complete and utter disbelief. Two monster muskies one right after the other struck, hooked and lost forever. What's the chances? How? Why? What the bleep just happened? After some choice words we decided it was best we go get some lunch.
     When we came into this bay with the beach shore line I saw on the sonar long strands coming off the bottom indicating an aquatic plant sought by fisherman for its ability to attract large predatory fish. We established the deep edge of this "cabbage" as it is know and started our run there, eventually working toward the inside edge where we found these leviathans lurking.

Our original unit a Lowrance X135.  Was a great unit for nearly ten years.

      A few years before that episode we were casting for muskies on the same lake but in a different bay. This bay had a long deep weed edge that meandered its way across the mouth of the bay.  We found ourselves at dusk approaching the far side of the bay.  I was casting a Big Fork twitch bait into the vegetation and I would rip it through whatever it became hung up on.  This technique is good for shedding debris on your lure as well as eliciting strikes from predators including muskies. I was right at the edge and ripped the bait through the remainder of weeds when my rod doubled over and my line ripped of my reel with authority. Even though I was using gear made for this it still took forever to bring the fish up and see what it was.  After what seemed an eternity I saw in the remnants of waning light a dark glossy back ripple the surface hinting to the immensity of the monster that rests peacefully tethered to my rod and reel.  A small respite and the animal was back in the deep.  Before we left our cabin that evening we hadn't taken steps to be ready in case we actually hooked a fish.  For the last few days it was a veritable desert.  Not so much as a follow or strike.  No sign of a live fish anywhere.  So, our recovery tools had been stowed and not at the ready as hell was breaking loose.  The battle was ragging as my father struggled to get the cradle so that I may slide the fish into it and immobilizing the fish, sort of in order to cut the hooks out of the maw of the beast.  That was the plan.  That plan was dissolving quickly.  The cradle finally free and at the ready.  In the water it was slipped and luckily enough the muskie was surfaced again for a rest.  I gently dragged my rod toward the cradle as my dad lowered it to except what was the largest muskie either one of us have been face to face with.  As her head approached the cradle I became suddenly aware of eight of the nine ginormous hooks wriggling around to find something or someone to sink into.  I told my dad to watch the hooks and as the words, "the hooks" echoed across the lake the muskie's head crossed into the cradle.  At the moment she felt the netting and went berserk driving nearly every hook into the cradle's netting including the treble hook she was fastened to.  What happened next is to this day one of the most awesome displays of power I've ever been a witness to.  Now Mrs. Muskie is firmly attached to the cradle at one end and about four plus feet of her sticking out one end unencumbered.  Seeing this I tried to flip or hold her body while my dad picked up the head end.  I couldn't really get a hold on her and her thrashing about and shear weight made it impossible to control and get into the boat.  As we were in the midst of trying to bring her aboard she performed a lightening quick death roll and dive at the same time and made hast for the deep water again.  I grabbed my rod thinking she may still be hooked but there was the crank bait swinging from the cradle.  I realized that the beast pulled the hooks free from her jaw!  Incredible, I mumbled.  I was not upset we lost her because I got a good look at her and she swam off on her own power.  Its when I was extracting my lure from the netting of the cradle that I noticed it.  The one and only hook holding her to my line was broke clean in the gap off the hook's shank!  These were no small gauge hooks and good luck bending them.  I was in shock and awe at the power that was on display just moments ago.  I left that brawl happy though I lost but for me I"ll take it.  What an experience.  That next morning we drove a hour and a half away to by a net worthy of safely capturing these monsters of the north.
     What I learned about that spot that week using the Lowrance X 135 sonar was that the weed bed made some small fingers or zig zags while the last one having sharp, deep inside turn with a long finger protruding well out into deep water.  That inside turn was holding large fish all week and those fingers in general were holding muskies of all sizes all week.  That inside turn was the spot on the spot.  Two mornings later on that same inside turn my father hooked into what turned out to be a 52 inch muskie with a 24 inch girth.  Just shy of 40 pounds.  We got her for some photos this time.

This is the 52 inch muskie my dad caught two mornings after I had one of these girls on.  Lake Vermilion, Minnesota, August 2005.

this is the newly installed Lowrance Elite 5 GPS/sonar combo.

     The last year we had that sonar erratic behavior gave way to a complete dysfunction, the head completely stopped working. When you would turn the unit on nothing but a line traversing from left to right at the midway point would appear.  It was time to invest in a new unit.  The Lowrance Elite 5 GPS/Sonar is installed and ready for action.                                                                                                                                                                       

Hudson's first visit to Crab Tree Nature Center

once a swamp it was dammed up to produce a shallow lake that attracts a wide array of water fowl. including Loons.

Today the Haigh's made their way to Crab Tree Nature Center in Barrington, IL where we enjoyed the warm sunny weather on a Saturday. Finally! Hudson had a blast riding off-road in his buggy. He also saw up close a Turkey Vulture, frogs, one even started croaking, commanding our boys attention for awhile. He enjoyed watching Fathead Minnows and a Green Sunfish. The Green Sunfish was cautiously curious while the Fatheads were actively swimming about the crystalline waters of their 55 gallon aquarium.  This was a wonderful morning spent getting outside and enjoying nature.  We saw Great Blue Herons with their stalking gate hunting for fish and frogs along the emergent vegetation much as their ancestors had 65 million years ago.  Also, present and accounted for were Cranes.  A huge bird.  Finally, an Osprey!  What a site to see just outside Chicago!  Cant wait for our next day trip!

Pimephales Promelas or Fathead Minnow

Lepomis Cyanellus or Green Sunfish

Hudson in his off-road buggy

Turkey Vulture otherwise know as Buzzard

The place is crawling with frogs!

 

  

The Central Americans...

This is a Parachromis Loisellei.  They resemble juvenile
Parachromis Dovii from Lake Arenal, Costa Rica.

Here is a pair of Parachromis Friedrichsthalii.  The male is below the female of the species.

Finally this is Amphilophus Trimaculatum.

I'm between aquariums right now for the first time in 26 years, I've always had a least one aquarium usually more than one. When I started out I was given an old 20 gallon tank with shiny chrome trim around the rim and slate bottom as well as the corners. Needless to say it weighed a ton empty and was a chuck of granite once full of gravel and water.  The beast was short lived as were my hopes of recreating nature on a small scale.  A day or two after I poured the gravel substrate and filled it with life giving water, I noticed the seam joining the glass and slate weeping and dripping onto the cloth I had laid underneath the enclosure.  With every drip the certainty that I would never have an aquarium all my own loomed near.  In my darkest hour a reprieve, a rope of hope thrown to my dream, salvation had laid its hands upon me, glory was within my grasp.  My benefactor, my parents saw what it meant to me and purchased a brand new 20 gallon All Glass Aquarium from now extirpated Noah's Ark Pet store.
 
        Ultimately I ended up with a 180 gallon (6' long) aquarium, a 120 gallon (4' long), a 58 gallon (really an all around great aquarium if you don't have a lot of space or just don't want to deal with a large aquarium.), a 45 gallon tank ( kind of a tall aquarium, better suited to fish that use the vertical water column, for example, Angel Fish or Crappie if you prefer native specimens.), Two 20 gallon aquariums (great all around aquarium doesn't take up much room, however, it has a nice rectangular foot print, great starter tank!), and finally numerous 10 gallon aquariums strewn about as needed. They were the work horse aquariums, seeing duty as hospital tanks, quarantine tanks, fry rearing and food, using them for the basis of homemade filters and filter sumps.

    I had some really neat setups in these aquariums, in my 180 gallon tank I set it up as a Central American cichlid community aquarium.  I collected together a spine of limestone boulders running the length of the six foot aquarium with a substrate of aggregate gravel, resembling perhaps a rocky outcropping in a Central American lake or stream.  I purchased juvenile Parachromis Frederichsthali, Parachromis Loiselli and Amphilophus Trimaculatum, the new tenants quickly took purchase within the limestone structure and immediately started to bulldoze the gravel surrounding the boulders.  Within the spine of milky rugged limestone boulders the juvenile Freddies, Loiselli and Trimacs created territories and of course engaged in the usual bickering over territory.  Territorial disputes ultimately ended in a show down of sorts.  At stake was the ownership rights of prime breeding habitat and the annexing of new territory through superior ferocity.  After the initial onslaught a relative calm spread throughout the landscape allowing for other activities to move to the forefront of piscine proclivities.

       Quick growth along with territories to defend from interlopers, created beastly specimens, both male and female.  As territory was defended, lost and gained, hierarchies as well as personalities were defined, much as the limestone itself was created in layers over time and under great pressure. Super specimens eventually populated the limestone reef.  Bright bumble bee yellows bathed in gold patches contrasted by coal black blotchy vertical bars in the case of the Freddies, patrolling their territories next to similarly cast Loiselli except more gold less bumble bee yellow with purple iridescence, these gaudy sentinels defend with teeth and fin against the last mega fauna populating the limestone reef, the Amphilophus Trimaculatum. With its olive green flanks, dark rose-red breast and three large spots midway to the back surrounded by iridescent green gold. An aggressive full bodied bull in a china shop.  The Trimacs held their own well against the hoards of Parachromis and created a nesting site underneath two boulders to rear their young.

      Soon my aquarium of brawlers and killers resembled a playground of undisciplined brats with stay at home moms and out of work dads, overly protective of their delinquent progeny and inclined to start a confrontation with the first slanted look that comes their way.  At first there was a shimmering mass huddled within the confines of each of the parents excavations.  As the days passed the huddled masses became a cloud of bounce and dart fry.  Over time the masses became smaller and smaller.  However, as their numbers shrunk the individuals increased in size with the different schools of fish scud running along the bottom trying to evade the many predatory eyes keen for an easy meal.  At about one inch the dozen or so remaining fry in each hatch was given away to another aquarist who had the room to grow out the little guys to adulthood.  There were many spawns to come over the next year and some of the more elusive youngsters managed to find places to hide from the piscivors primed to devour anything that resembled meat. One ingenious Trimac found his way through slits in an old under gravel filter that I no longer used.  An under gravel filter is made of plastic with grooves for gravel to sit in.  Slits are molded into these plastic panels to improve water flow thus increasing the available amount ammonia, nitrite and nitrate to the bacteria within the gravel of a healthy mature aquarium.  Ammonia and nitrates are detrimental to the successful husbandry of fishes and other aquatic animals.  Finally there is a riser tube anchored into back of the under gravel filter.  This is used in conjunction with an air pump or power head creating the all important water flow.  This spunky Trimac would swim up and down the riser tube in the back corner of the aquarium.  I tried a few times to capture him before he out grew his safe dwelling but as you may know these fish are quick and with little room to maneuver and a short distance for the little guy to take cover from me he was soon stuck.  Too big to renter above the gravel and would eventually be too big to operate in the under gravel filter.  A dire future for my intrepid charge.  I eventually had to tear out the under gravel filter to retrieve my spelunking friend.  At that point I gave all the Parachromis species and Trimacs away to an enthusiast I know who had 2000gal troughs in his basement as well as outdoors during warmer months.  They would now have much more room to grow to maximum size.  This is one example of many insightful and unique experiences with just this aquarium alone.  Not to mention the more than a dozen other aquariums with amazing stories to tell.

And so it begins...

Below is a video of me going rod to fin with a Machaca while fishing in Costa Rica's Lago Arenal.  Machaca have teeth similar to a piranha and are a powerful fighters.  I was fishing with Capt. Ron out of Nueva Arenal.  http://www.arenalfishing.com/

Here you will find stories, experiences and a few ramblings on fish and fishing. I will chronicle the events that have led up to and going forward the roll that fish play in my life. Even though the word chronicle would lead you to believe that this would be in chronological order I must tell you I will skip around as if putting together a puzzle and only being given a piece at or two at random every week or every other day.

Know in Costa Rica as Gaupote they also go by Rainbow Bass, wolf cichlid or the Latin name, Parachromis Dovii.  This specimen is a juvenile male caught from Lake Arenal, Costa Rica.

I live, breath, eat and of course sleep fish and fishing. I blame my father! He maybe more extreme than I when it comes to anything fishing, but I have branched off from his obsession and added another obsession all my own, fish keeping. In addition to fishing I also prefer to live with them it seems. As if owning a boat, using vacation time strictly for fishing and using remaining time contemplating more fishing excursion wasn't enough. It seems I have to share my home with fish; fish on the wall, fish in a glass enclosure. I even went so far as to hijack my honeymoon to Costa Rica to ply the pacific surf for raging roosters and the many islands and coves of its largest man made lake, Lake Arenal (above) for a GRANDE GUAPOTE! Some say its an illness...but I prefer to describe my affliction as a healthy interest bordering on the manic.

 The Machaca as if bred from a Piranha crossed with a Tarpon. It is armed with teeth much like a Piranha and the fighting capability of the Tarpon. Lake Arenal, Costa Rica.