Testing new Pentax Optio W90 Camera

I LOVED my Nikon Coolpix S640!  Unfortunately, it didn't survive a recent fishing trip, even though it never got wet or anything.  I don't know why it quit, actually, but quit it did.

Figuring I need a sturdier camera for fishing trips, but one that takes good enough pics & video since I really use it for EVERYTHING, I decided to go with the Pentax Optio W90.  It is rated as waterproof to 20' deep for up to 2 hours continuous submersion, shockproof from a 4' drop onto plywood (interesting rating), dustproof, and cold-proof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (can you say ICE FISHING?).

It will take underwater pics and video.  As pleased as I was with the Nikon, I'm expecting SOME trade-off between picture quality and ruggedness with this Pentax.  But so far the pictures I've taken seem reasonably good.  Here's some examples of what I've taken so far:

White Bass from fishing today during lunch:

White Bass head: close-up (remember, click any picture to see the original size picture):

Here's a variety of colors of Uni Yarn on my fly-tying desk:

 And some flies I've tied recently...an Elk Hair Caddis:

 A Foxee Red Clouser (size 12):

 A Parachute-style dry fly pattern:

 And here's some backyard foliage, flower, and bug pics:

Pink Smoke Tree in fall colors:

 A couple of hot peppers on the vine:

 A Ladybug on the trampoline safety-surround net:

 Butterfly Bush:

 Phlox:

 I can't remember what these are.  Some sort of poisonous plant berries:

 Rose-of-Sharon:

 Weigala leaf:

 "Jumpy-Jumpy Grasshopper":

Fishing Report, Sept. 22-24, 2010

For the 2nd week in a row, I took Wedn-Fri off work to fish.  Weather was erratic, windy, rainy...to sunny, cool and windy.  The only constant was the wind, but the direction shifted, so that created its own affects on the fishing.
It wasn't quite as good as the previous week, but I still managed to catch 210 fish in the 3 days.  I managed 10 species again, but some of the species were different, compared to last week, and my total species in the past 2 weeks from one lake, fishing from shore, on strictly artificial lures, is 14 species!
This trip yielded the following species:

Smallmouth Bass to 12"

Largemouth Bass to 16"

Crappie to 10.5"

White Bass to 14"

 A DOUBLE of White Bass on a topwater lure:

Here's my buddy Jay with a nice White Bass.

Wipers to 12" (no pics of my fish)

Channel Catfish to 24.5" (all on artificial lures!)

Carp to 18" (check it...they HIT the slab spoon!)

Carpsucker...Foul-hooked on accident, but this counts, since it is actually legal to snag these fish.

Green Sunfish up to 7" long (no pictures taken).

And lastly, a small Yellow Perch around 7" long:

Another excellent fishing adventure, although no fly-fishing this time due to the heavy winds we experienced.



Fishing Log, September 15-17 2010

I took some time off work, and fished for 2.5 days!  Mostly I used spinning gear, fished one nearby lake from shore, and caught 10 species of fish.  I did do a little bit of fly-fishing and caught bass and white bass doing that, which was very fun.
Many of the pics didn't turn out very good, I'm not sure why.  I thought maybe the camera lens was dirty, but then later some pics turned out really good.  So I'm thinking maybe it had to do with water vapor condensation clouding the lens?  Either that, or it was having a tough time with its Autofocus whenever I used the timer to get myself in the pictures.

Anyway, for the largemouth bass and white bass, I often caught so many, I couldn't keep an accurate count.  So, each day I guesstimated what I caught for those species as closely as I could, without OVERestimating the number...so while I may have caught over 100 white bass one day, for instance....I ended up entering "70" in my Fishing Log.  Even so, I logged 299 fish in 2.5 days of fishing.  It was very fun!
Here's some pics (there were lots):

I caught a few walleyes, the biggest was 14.5":

I caught a small 17.5" Northern Pike (and it managed to cover itself in sand and mud before I was able to get the picture, as did a few other fish later on):

Smallmouth Bass up to 13"....in fact the biggest one hit a topwater lure:

Largemouth Bass up to 16.25".  They are always very fat and healthy from this lake.

I caught just a couple Wipers, biggest were probalby only 12"-13":

I caught a BUNCH of White Bass up to 14.25", quite a few on topwater lures, which is very exciting...and some on flies, as I mentioned before.

I even had a couple of DOUBLES of White Bass on topwater lures!

And I caught a Yellow Bass:

A 10.5" Crappie:

A couple really nice 8" Bluegills:

And a feisty Green Sunfish:

New Species for Me!

I went fly-fishing last night to a local public pond I've fished many many times in the last few years.  I sometimes think I just might know every fish in there by name!  It is a city-owned pond, and was originally stocked in about 2003 with Largemouth Bass, Crappies, Bluegills, and Channel Catfish.  That's all I've ever caught from there.
Last night I caught a 9.5" sunfish (a good 1.5" bigger than any bluegill I've caught there!), that is either a Redear Sunfish, or a hybrid Redear Sunfish x Bluegill.  Either way, its a new fish species for me!  I was excited!  I caught it on a yellow Boa Yarn Leech.  I also caught 5 crappies, 4 bluegills, and two tiny largemouth bass.
Here's the new fish: