AML Stay 7/7-7/14

[Jason VandeKopple]

Just got back from my weekly stay up at AML and what an amazing time it was! Water temps started the week around 75 and worked up to 80 degrees. We moved fish in both weeds and rocks; fish were mostly in weeds around Vermillion bay but were mostly on rocks out east. Also moved a good amount of fish in weeds around the stanton bay area. Double tens, double eights, and walk the dog topwaters were best producing baits, but had action on suicks, dawgs, and cranks. Just wanted to give a huge shout out to Herbie, Scott, Mike, Travis, and all the other guides and dock-boys up there. They continue to be amazing hosts and will definitely go out of their way to make your trip better and put u on fish. The fish fry on wed and the lure give-away was always a lot of fun and we actually got some decent musky lures this year. We never thought of going anywhere else, but after seeing some of the guides from other lodges we know AML is the best lodge on the lake. I'm not gonna name any names, but we saw multiple other guides back-trolling their guests on the spots, but still casting at the same time. This of course means the guides' bait is going through the spot first which shows they are worried about catching fish themselves and don't care about the clients. At AML, the guides care about putting the CLIENT on fish and will work their butts off to make the day a remarkable one for the CLIENT. We didn't land any monsters, but a lot of fish in the 42-46" range. Lost a couple real good fish in the 48-51 range and saw a true monster around 55xFAT.

[DanR]

We didn't land any monsters, but a lot of fish in the 42-46" range. Lost a couple real good fish in the 48-51 range and saw a true monster around 55xFAT.

Sounds like a good trip with lots of action. Let me guess, the 55" fatty was near the end of the trip, right. They always do that on purpose.

Last year around the same time of year, my friends and I had a 54-56" gigantosaurus up on a Thursday afternoon. I never saw her, but I called where she would be. We had seen a few smaller fish tucked right around the lee side of islands and points. As we came across a different big point, I said, "be ready guys, this is always where the big one comes.". Nothing. But then I said, "hmmm, usually right off the tip. Tell ya what, let's take a few more casts up the lee side since that's where we saw the last two fish on the other spots.". About 2-3 casts later, my friend up front goes, "Here comes one. Oh my god. (then his voice went up about two pitches) OH MY GOD!!! What do I do?". And I said, "same $&@!'n thing you do on any other fish.". My friend in the middle right about then goes, "Holy f$&@, that $$@!'n thing just kept coming. Like it never ended.". So the guy up front is awestruck, looking at me saying, "if that one this morning was 51-52", THAT thing was waaaaay bigger.". Then he looks down in the water, and the fish had come back on his bait which was still in the water. LOL. So I told the guides about that fish in the hopes someone could catch her. I guess Cal saw her a few times, but then about a week and a half later...POOF she was gone never to be seen again.

Any particular colors in the different sections of the lake working better this year up there Jason?

Dan

[Jason VandeKopple]

Sorry for the late response, but it was the usual colors for us. Black/nickel, black/black, black/purple, etc up by the lodge and out east. Brown/gold, gold/red, brown/orange down south in the dirtier water. The big girl did show up very late, in fact it was one of the last spots on the last day. It is amazing how big those fish can get up there. We see a good amount of 50 inchers up there, but those 54"+ are a whole different animal and are scary when you see them coming in.

[DanR]

Jason, thanks! I saw your video on the AML Facebook page. Very cool. If you don't mind me asking, what camera/video equipment did you use to capture that footage? I've been wanting to do something like that.

Thanks,
Dan

[Jason VandeKopple]

I use the GoPro 960hd. The video was shot in 960, but I am going to switch it down to 720 as that makes the video full screen (won't have the black border on the sides). I am thinking about getting a Contour headcam as those don't have as wide angle of a lense as the GoPros. The GoPros have a very wide angle lense so the footage looks really far away. I am really happy I bought it though as it is very cool looking at the footage from all the fishing trips.

[DanR]

I use the GoPro 960hd. The video was shot in 960, but I am going to switch it down to 720 as that makes the video full screen (won't have the black border on the sides). I am thinking about getting a Contour headcam as those don't have as wide angle of a lense as the GoPros. The GoPros have a very wide angle lense so the footage looks really far away. I am really happy I bought it though as it is very cool looking at the footage from all the fishing trips.

How long does the battery last, and how big of an SD card would you need to film all day at 720P?

This is just so freaking awesome. I assume you have it attached to your hat, and running all of the time? It takes video in quicktime, so I could load it right into my Mac (I just got the Mac, and am really still learning how to use it)?

Thanks man,
Dan

[Jason VandeKopple]

How long does the battery last, and how big of an SD card would you need to film all day at 720P?

This is just so freaking awesome. I assume you have it attached to your hat, and running all of the time? It takes video in quicktime, so I could load it right into my Mac (I just got the Mac, and am really still learning how to use it)?

Thanks man,
Dan

The batteries last about 2.5-3 hours (I have 3 batteries) and a 32gb card is what you would need. It is attached to a head strap so it is just like wearing a headlamp; little uncomfortable at first but you will get used to it. I don't have it running all the time; I stop it while moving to different spots and stop it after any follow, close call, caught fish, etc. If you don't stop it a good amount, the video file will be huge and it will be very tough to find the action you had during the day. Stopping it right after fish action makes it really easy to edit the video as you only need to watch the last 30 seconds of the video clips to see which clips are empty and which have action. It really is cool re-watching all the clips, but I wish I had a better editing program so I could zoom in on specific parts of the clips.

[DanR]

The batteries last about 2.5-3 hours (I have 3 batteries) and a 32gb card is what you would need. It is attached to a head strap so it is just like wearing a headlamp; little uncomfortable at first but you will get used to it. I don't have it running all the time; I stop it while moving to different spots and stop it after any follow, close call, caught fish, etc. If you don't stop it a good amount, the video file will be huge and it will be very tough to find the action you had during the day. Stopping it right after fish action makes it really easy to edit the video as you only need to watch the last 30 seconds of the video clips to see which clips are empty and which have action. It really is cool re-watching all the clips, but I wish I had a better editing program so I could zoom in on specific parts of the clips.

Jason,

Thanks for the tips. Here is what I wound up doing. I got a Contour Roam, as it's the cheapest decent camera I could find. I got a hat from Hatcams.com, which has a universal mount in the bill of the hat, so the Contour Roam screws right on (no headstrap). I'll look like an idiot, but it's worth it.

I want to film everything, so I'm going to do it in 720P. 1080P is just so massive in terms of file size, I just can't see it being possible on a "budget". The amount of space on my hard drive and constantly swapping out micro SD cards just seems onerous. I've done some test footage, and 720P upscaled to 1080P on my 60" Tv still looks pretty good and is more than fine on a smaller computer screen.

The Roam battery is supposed to last 3.5 hours. My buddy's boat has a cigarette lighter charger, so I got the plug in charger. So my plan is to "quick charge" between spots, and get almost a full charge back when we grab a sandwich around mid-day.

Excellent suggestion on stopping and starting after follows. That for sure means the action will be at the end of every clip, and easier to find. I hadn't thought of that.

As far as video editing, I've never done it before. But I'll learn it when I get home. I will probably use iMovie, as I heard its pretty easy.

The last thing I need to do is install the polarizing lense into the Roam, and test some daytime footage with that. I think like Polarized glasses, it will help to better see the fish in the water.

I'll keep you guys posted.

Dan