A bittersweet evening on the ponds

Saturday evening my wife, son and I decided to go out to the ponds and see how things were looking. The bass should have spawned by now but would still be aggressive along the shoreline. the evening was nice (weather-wise) for a change - no tornadic thunderstorms, no cold rain. We went to the upper pond first. This is the bass and gill pond. We were the only ones there and the surface was calm. I decided to see if I could catch some bass on an old reliable lure. (More on that in a bit.)

The fish were right where I expected them to be - from 1' - 5' off the banks. And I could see by the swirls they were chasing gills away from their beds. I went with a topwater the entire time, and I really did forget how many fish I caught. All largemouth. Some smaller males and a bunch of nice , spawned out females. These fish would have gone another pound to pound and a half heavier a couple of weeks ago. Suffice to say I got around 20 largemouth - enough to tear up my thumb unhooking them.





Now - about the lure I used. You can see it in the mouth of the 2 bass I have posted here . The first person who comments below with the correct name of the lure - name of the bait and the lure manufacturer - will win a new Lucky Craft Pointer! 1 comment per person.

We decided to go to the lower pond and see what was happening there. This is the mixed bag spot - cats, bass, gills, crappie, trout, walleye. The way to find out who is hungry here by throwing a 1/16 oz. jig head with a 2" grub - everything eats it. Tonight was a really odd mixture of fish - maybe the strangest I've ever seen. I ended up with 14 walleye, 9 crappie, 2 gills, and 1 small bass. No trout or cats. A truly bizarre mixture, but fun nonetheless. I only fished here for around an hour and a half, until it got dark.





So - why the title - a bittersweet evening?? Well, I recently (last week) accepted a job offer from a different company and am in the whirlwind process of selling our house, buying a new one, moving the family, and starting a new job.

[HEY - that's right - some of you said you wanted to buy my house when I posted pictures from the pond across the street. Good bass fishing! Here's your chance!!!!]

Getting back to the point of the post - the ponds are located on a club property to a hunt club my current employer is a member of. When my last day passes - this coming Friday - I won't be allowed access to the ponds anymore. This may have been my last chance to fish these glorious ponds. Oh well you'll have to bear with me as I embark on learning some new areas and fisheries. I told you this would be a journey rather than a destination. And the journey continues!



The sun setting on the ponds, both literally and figuratively

Ponds, ponds, ponds

Sunday evening at around 6:30 - after spending a full doing whatever it is we all do on the weekends - I asked my wife "So - what do you want to do? It IS Mother's Day, after all" I was tired and really didn't feel like doing much of anything. Until ... her response - let's go to the ponds.

It's amazing how quickly I can spring into high gear when it involves something I want to do.

Within minutes we were driving to the ponds to get in an hour of fishing. The evening was beautiful and the ponds were calm. I had decided, even before we got out of the car, that I would spend the evening trying to entice bass on topwaters, even though I hadn't had a topwater hit this spring. Well, sometimes your intuition is just right. Sunday was one of those nights.

I started out with a 1/4 oz. white buzzbait and started fan casting an area of 2 to 2-1/2' deep. Had one blow up on the bait on the second cast but missed him. I'll spare you the play-by-play, but suffice it to say that the fish were ON. I landed 12 bass in an hour, from 7 pm to 8 pm. White buzzbait, Sammy, and a Lucky Craft wakebait - not sure of the model - that runs just subsurface and throws out a big V-wake. Its really close to a topwater because the visual strikes are just like a topwater - the bass blow them out of the water. The fish were a combination of egg-laden females and smaller , aggressive males. They were not quite up on the banks yet but, with yesterday's 90 degree temps, I wouldn't be surprised to see them tight to the bedding areas this week. Here are a few pictures from the evening.

And, yes Howard - it IS a nice shirt!!







I also tried something I had never done before - I tried to get some topwater strike video. Results were mediocre but i think I got a few good hits captured. I'll play around with those tonite and post them as a separate posting if they're worth watching.

The next 2 weeks should be gangbusters - get out and get after those fish! Here is a poor, low light shot of the field full of deer we passed on our way out.

Catching Dinner over Lunch

Even though it was fairly chilly today, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get after a few fish over the lunch hour. Jesse and I went to the ponds with the intent of catching - and keeping - some fish for his dinner tonite.

Started on the upper pond. Lots of gills, all just short of being prime filleting size. They were JUST a little smaller than we like to clean, so back they went. Small grubs were the answer on UL rigs. We got a fair number of bass - mostly males. Jesse got one egg-laden female that was probably 2-1/2 pounds, and I had a big fish break me off in the rocks.

30 minutes down, 30 to go. And no fish in the cooler.

The lower pond held a little bit of everything. Jesse continued casting grubs while I went to a small purple and white tube. ***Newsflash *** - trout like purple and white tubes. A lot. We caught fish pretty consistently for the next 20 minutes. Jesse put a nice crappie on ice, and I followed that up with a crappie, 'gill, and walleye for the box. I also got 3 trout in quick succession, and a bunch of undersized 'eyes.

So - I put 3/4 of the fish in Jesse's cooler. NOT that I'm a fish counter - I'm just saying. I'm thinking that a half pound of morels would be a nice gesture of appreciation.

Sorry no pics - didn't feel like pulling out the cell phone

FINALLY the ponds turn on

The ponds I frequent have been slow to give up their treasures this Spring. With the very late warming trend and a lot of cold rain, the spring seems to be compressed into a very short window this year. Which means - you better hit it hard when it gets good.

And I think it is poised to get good in northern Illinois.

My wife, son and I went to the ponds at 4:30 this afternoon. We fished the lower pond for about an hour and upper one for maybe 45 minutes. It was good - real good.

The lower pond is the one with the mixed bag of fish - rainbow trout, walleye, largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie, channel cat. The upper pond has bass, gills, and cats. Joey hung out and explored stuff on the lower pond, while Stacy and I threw UL spin gear with 1/32 oz. jigheads with 2" Lindy Munchies grubs. In the hour we fished, we landed 7 trout, 4 walleye, 1 crappie, a pile of gills. Hits were frequent and you never knew what was on the end of the line. Stacy suggested we try the upper pond to see if the bass were biting up there. Even though all we had along was UL gear, we went up to try the upper pond.

Well, the fish were ON up there, too. I threw a small (1/8 oz.) spinnerbait while Stacy and Joey threw 1/16 oz. Beetle Spins. the gills and pumpkinseeds were bigger than I have seen recently, and the bass were holding about 10'-15' off of the rock edges that they use to spawn. Most of the bass caught were smaller males, but I got a few nice ones, including one BIG egg-loaded female. An absolute blast on an UL spin outfit!! We probably landed 30 panfish and 12-15 bass.



(Sorry for the picture quality (or lack thereof) - its from my son's phone)

If you have ponds nearby, get out as often ans you can over the next month. It's FINALLY time to capitalize on the pond fish!

Thank God for stocked trout

Yesterday, Nov. 22, the temp in suburban Chicagoland topped out at 70 degrees. It poured in the morning on the way to work. But , rather than be dismayed by the crappy weather, my thoughts were "Hmm - this is a lot of 50-60 degree rain hitting the cold ponds. Ought to make the fish a little more active.

Luckily, around noon, the skies cleared up a little, and I made it out to the ponds for one last open water fling. Yes - the same ponds that kicked by butt the last 2 times I was on them. Driving out there, I felt like Charlie Brown, running up to kick the football.

I started out with - and kept on the whole time - a sz. 0 Mepps Aglia with a squirrel tail. The first 15-20 minutes were uneventful - no hits, no sightings. I was fishing the upper few feet in the water column over the deeper (10' - 15') parts of the pond. These areas have been good to me in the past.



First trout of the day






I moved around, and finally got a viscous strike in about 15" of water by the spillway. When the trout came in, it was being followed by another one. Hmmm. I landed the trout, took a picture on my phone (a first for me) and kept casting. then I decided to try another shallow area I had ignored earlier.

Well - the shallows were the key. I landed 3 trout, missed 3 others - including one BIG fish - and saw a few others. All were shallow, and related to wood / brush in the water. It was actually a springtime bass pattern. I have no idea why they were so shallow. Food? Warmth? No idea.



Another one comes in


This will probably be my last Illinois open water fishing of the year. And I really didn't want to end up the year with 3 skunks in row. I'm trying to get out to the Delta in CA or maybe FLA for a day, but we'll have to see how the cards fall.

Finally - please excuse the photo quality. It's a new phone that I am struggling to learn to use. I can barely make a call, let alone take pictures with it.

Finally - a Happy Thanksgiving to all. Enjoy your turkey day in whatever you manner you wish to celebrate.

A quick walk around my ponds

On Saturday, we finished up the list of things to do around 3 pm. the day was markedly cooler than any other recent days - high was only 61. Heavy overcast clouds, and a persistent slight drizzle. A perfect day to stay inside. But...

I had not been on the ponds across the street since I fished during the high water period of August 8th. In fact, I haven't even picked up anything but a fly rod since then. So I figured I'd walk across the street and see what I could find.

My lure selection consisted of: 2 - 1/4 oz. swim jigs, a bag of trailers, 1 buzzbait, 2 small (3/16 oz.) spinnerbaits, 1 2/0 worm hook, and a bag of Strike King Ochos. I started out in the pond I fished during the high water . Nothing. I expected to get some action on the swim jig, or the worm, but struck out on both. I decided to try to lower pond.

Now, this may seem absurd, since I fish all over the country, but in the 7 years I have lived in this house, I have never fished this pond further than 1/4 of the way down the north bank, and not at all on the south side. I don't really know why, but I haven't. I worked this pond down along the north bank, still getting no response to my worm. tried the buzzbait - nada. Finally put on the spinnerbait. Got a short hit casting tight to the bank and parallel to shore. there was not much of a drop off, and the weeds were scattered, so the spinnerbait seemed like a logical search bait. Over the next 45 minutes, I got 6 hits and landed 4 more small largemouth. Nothing over 12". I guess you can't always catch big fish. It seemed like it should be a good day, with the lack of clouds and the drizzle, but it was sporadic at best. i saw what appeared to be a few swirls from (possibly) big bass chasing something, but they showed no interest in anything I had.












It seems like my Fall bass fishing goes like that most of the time. I've had some stellar big fish days, but a lot of skunks, too. Do you find any consistency in Fall bass fishing, particularly in ponds??

And then - PPOOOFFF - they were gone

I went out for the third day in a row on my subdivision pond. The water coming in has now been reduced to a normal trickle. I went out with my son at 1:00 pm today. Overcast, a light drizzle - perfect. Instead of the usual bass gear, I took an ultralight spin rod and a few grubs, Cubby jigs, and 1 UL spinnerbait. i wanted to see if I could get any of the ponds (sometimes) big bluegills to bite.

Well, they didn't.

So I worked my way toward the inflow. over a span of 20 minutes, I caught 5 largemouth on the Cubby, and 1 on the spinnerbait.

The largest was 10" long.

The bass have moved back to their summer haunts. the good news for the trip - the fish in the picture below. At least they are spawning successfully!




A hungry baby bass

This is why you ALWAYS fish when the opportunity presents itself!

I took a vacation day today. No real plans - just relax and do whatever we feel like doing. My wife and I went to our local coffee shop, ran some chores, ... Around 3:30, she was watching something on TV, so I walked over to the ponds in our subdivision. The water was high but just the right clarity, so I decided to go over and make a few casts.

These ponds are not the ones I write about and fish on over lunch. These ponds are right across the street from my house. In the 7 years I've lived here, they have gone from being occasionally good, to great, to mediocre, to absolutely sucking. Not really sure why. I fished them ONCE in 2009 (not even a hit) and not at all this year. Talking to the other guys in the neighborhood who fish, the word is that the pond on our side - the east side - stinks, and the west pond is OK.

Before I go on, a little background. Over the past 2 weeks, we've had in excess of 9" of rain here, and have been under flood advisories for most of that time. We had a HUGE surge of water pour into the ponds last week. The tiny creek that feeds the ponds - a rivulet, really - was up 5' and breached the roads. It is still flowing fast, but the water is pretty clear. so I gave it a try. On the way out the door, my wife asked why I was going - isn't it usually bad in the middle of the afternoon? My son wouldn't go either.

You can see my vast assortment of lures I l took along in my pockets - 1 trick worm, 2 swim jigs, a bag of trailers, a bag of Yum Dingers, and 1 spinnerbait. Fished the worm and spnnnerbait for 15 minutes as I worked toward the inlet - nothing. But, on the last cast with the spinnerbait, I made an inadvertent cast into the junk at the inlet and, as I was ripping it across the vegetation - BOOM - a blowup!. Hmmmmm...

I put on a 1/4 oz. swim jig and a Strike King trailer, and immediately got into fish. they were tight to the trash, on current breaks. To make a long story short, in the next 25 minutes I landed 8 largemouth, had 3 shake off, and missed about 5-6 hits. All were decent fish, with 1 being a REALLY nice bass.

And - THAT is why you always go when the opportunity presents itself. You just never know what will happen!




My Tackle pack



The inflow at the East Pond




1st bass




2nd Bass



3rd Bass




4th Bass




Best Bass - sorry fo the goofy picture - I had to do a self-timed and the grass is high!




These current breaks are where the fish were holding. Click on the picture to see it in better detail

The Cure to what Ails You

I needed to run a few errands today over lunch and, since I ALWAYS have a rod (or 3) in the trunk along with some tackle, figured I might as well try a few casts at the pond.

I hadn't been fishing for over a month. Usually, the pond slows down considerably over the summer as the water heats up and often turns the color of pea soup with the algae blooms. Catfish get fairly active, but bass are quite tough to find, especially without a boat. There are really only 1 or 2 spots to fish from shore.

But - I'd rather get skunked trying for a fish or 2 over lunch than do the usual eat-and-run lunch. So - off to the ponds.

My game plan before I got there was to tie on a Cubby and try to get a few 'gills. At least I can usually get a couple of them to bite. When I opened the tackle bag, an old (at least 20 years old) Rebel Teeny Pop-R caught my eye. I have not fished with one of these for eons, even though they used to be one of my favorite lures, especially when wading for smallmouth bass. So - I tied it on and tried to make a largemouth or 2 come to the top at noon.

The action of his particular lure was perfect. Nothing really replicates a perfectly tuned Pop-R. I have dozens of other popping lures but none sound quite like the old Pop-R's. I was having a ball simply casting and making the lure do different things - make it dive a little, slow pop it, run it across the water, ... Well, apparently a few little largemouth found it enticing, because I fished for 30 minutes and got 5 hits, landing 4 fish. 1 was tiny - 6". 2 were around a foot. The next was maybe 13-14" - a nice fish, especially on my 4-1/2' ultralite rod! And, my last one was a solid , chunky 16" bass, which surprised the hell out of me!

I feel rejuvenated, like I received a shot of adrenaline. Just being out there was great - saw a few really nice butterflies that I hadn't seen yet this year, and saw a buck in velvet. The fish were just icing on the cake.

Sorry - no pics - didn't plan on fishing so I didn't bring a camera.

Get out there and go fishing -it does a body (and soul) good.

What a difference a week makes

Well, my previous post detailed the effects of cold rain and falling temperatures. It is NOT a good recipe if fresh caught fish are on the menu!

The past week has remained cool, but is warming. And there has been no rain, until today. Even today's rain is a steady, warm rain and will probably be good for the fishing.

The bass are getting back to their previous positioning, but still are not quite as aggressive as they were prior to the shutdown. However, it seems like the bigger prespawn bluegills are moving shallower and are aggressive. They are still bunched up, so you have to move around to find them, but when you do, there are probably a bunch of them around that area.

Crappies are still shallow on the ponds - I thought they would be off the shallow structure by now. Everything is biting a little better each day.

Just goes to show that even after things shut down, they DO come back. Just give it a chance

Why you need to "strike while the iron is hot"

Over the past few weeks I've tried to detail the progression of fish activity on the local ponds as the largemouth get ready to spawn. I'm sure it gets a little boring and repetitious to read about catching 10 nice bass over lunch, getting a bunch with my son and his friends, ... It actually can get a little monotonous catching all these fish (Well, not too monotonous, but the suspense is missing from these jaunts, and that is a big part of the unknown). So, why do I continue to go out so often and catch what may be the same fish on the same patterns?

2 reasons: 1) Because I simply love to fish and don't care what I'm catching, and 2) because, inevitably in nature, weeks occur like last week, and put an end to your patterns and teh behavior of the fish.

Last week we got 2+ inches of cold rain overnight on Wednesday. Our local rivers and creeks flooded. The ponds, which are spring fed, turned the color of chocolate milk. And the fishing came to an abrupt and complete stop.

That's right - the ponds shut down. On Friday, over lunch, I spent the better part of an hour on the upper pond (the one full of largemouth and 'gills) throwing spinnerbaits and Senkos. There was about 3" of visibility and the water was cold. I got - NOTHING. No hits, no swirls, nothing. I didn't really expect much, but I had to try.

This is why you have to strike when the iron is hot. The weather can change everything overnight. And, in my experience, the weather changes in the Spring of the year are more dramatic and have a greater effect on the fish than any other time of year. So, when it is good, and the water temp is stable, and the natural progression of spring is moving along nicely - get out there as often as you can. You never know when Mother Nature will deal you a hand that will put any successful fishing on hold.

I'll be interested to see how long it takes for the bass in the ponds to return to their previous level of ferocity. I'll keep you posted, as I should be able to get out a few times this coming week.

Back to what I do best - fishing on the ponds.

My wife suggested that we go out to the ponds this afternoon. Never one to disappoint her (at least when she suggests we go fishing), I started putting gear in the car. I told our son he could invite one of his friends, so soon we were en route to pick up Josh. I don't think Josh had ever been fishing before - at least not ion a long time. We got to the ponds around 3:45 PM.

I'm always eager to go fishing, but when I take kids along, I REALLY want it to be good - to keep their interest up. I really wasn't very sure about this trip - I had done pretty well on Friday afternoon, but last nite there was a freeze warning, so the water was still cool. In the next couple of weeks, the fish will absolutely turn on to a frenzy, but you never know about the early season. Still, it was a nice afternoon, so we gave it a try.



The kids catchin bluegills at the pond




Joey with a 'gill




One of Josh's bluegills


We fished the upper pond first. It is shallower and holds largemouth bass and bluegills - lots of gills. While the kids ate their Subway sandwiches, I tried to put the fish on a pattern. I found a pretty good concentration about 2' down over 4' of water. they started getting hits right out of the gate. Josh had a few initial hiccups learning to cast and retrieve the spinning gear, but soon he was going just fine. I spent the time unhooking fish and taking pictures. We decided to try the lower pond around 5:30. But first, I decided to try a small spinnerbait along the exposed rock on the dam shoreline. I hadn't caught a bass in this pond all Spring, but it has a LOT of bass in it. I made a total of maybe a dozen casts, hooked 4 bass, and landed 2. the spinnerbait had to be slowly rolled in front of the rocks to get their interest. Like I said - 2 weeks from now it will be buzzbaits and bigger spinnerbaits burned along the weds, but for now, they're moving toward the shallows and wanted something a little slower.



My first decent bass from the ponds in 2010



Another nice pond bass


The lower pond can be hit or miss. It holds more species of fish - bass, crappie, channel cats, walleye, bluegill, rainbow trout. The walleye and crappie are more active in the cooler water, especially in the evening, so I figured we might catch a few of them. I was right. We caught a bunch of bluegills. In 1 small area, we got about 10 crappies. Walleye were caught as the sun dropped. We got a few smaller bass, and lost one good one. Finally, I threw a spinner and hooked 3 trout, landing 2. Josh got a trout on a small grub to end the evenings fishing adventure.





Joey with pond walleye




A decent pond walleye (they don't get very big here)



Josh's trout

Highlights of the evening included: my son sliding down the bank, into the pond (with his arm in a cast). It was shallow, but he got soaked from the knees down, and spent the rest of the evening barefoot. Catching my first nice bas of the year from the ponds. And, best of all, were the words Josh uttered at the end of the evening - "This is even better than video games!"

I love taking kids fishing!

I actually caught a few fish, and doing something that really DOES matter.

I made it out to the ponds this evening. Yesterday was beautiful and windy, with highs reaching the lower 70's. today was cooler and windy - low 60's I figured the ponds had a chance to heat up since my skunking on Friday, and I was after revenge. I started off on the upper pond, and immediately got into smallish bluegills on 2" grubs. Even though they weren't very big, they meant that the skunk would stay away. Any fish is good fish.



Even the little bluegills are good ones!


We went to the lower pond, and I figured the crappie and walleye might be receptive to the grub. I was half right. I got 5 small walleye, but never saw a crappie. Rounded out the evening with a coupe of gills from the lower pond, and 2 VERY small bass. The sunset was especially nice this evening, too.




****************

As you read in the blog post title, I AM trying to do something that actually matters to someone other than myself. I recently got a box of baits in the mail from a friend. Details aren't important. They were primarily Lucky Craft's. Now, I love fishing LC's, but I already have a lot of them. then, a phone conversation on Friday made up my mind for me.

I was talking to Mollie Simpkins on Friday. She is a friend from the D.C. area, and she was telling me about her commitment to participate in, and raise money for, her 4th consecutive 3-Day walk for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Her personal fundraising goal is a mind-boggling (to me) $30,000!!! Feel free to see her story on the following link: http://www.the3day.org/site/TR?px=1298634&fr_id=1472&pg=personal So, while I donate to her cause personally, I decided to do something else - I am running 5 auctions this week on eBay. ALL the proceeds from these auctions will be donated to support Mollie's efforts.

4 of these auctions are for bass / walleye lures, and the 5th is for saltwater big game lures. So I am going to ask all of you reading this for a favor - if you know anyone who may be interested, have them use the following link to view the first eBay auction. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320516045124&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT Anyone viewing the auction can click on the link that shows Seller's Other Auctions to see the others that are running. I'll post the results on here, and anyone who wants to can see the donation after it has been sent to Mollie can see it on her page.

It's only a small gesture, but together all the small gestures can make a difference in this world.

Thanks for your help

A Day to Remember at the ponds

I decided that I needed to get out to the Old Reliable ponds over lunch today. Even though there was a lot of sunshine, it was pretty chilly, with a stiff wind stopping the suns rays from feeling very warm. I went with the usual lures - a 1/24 oz. jighead and 2" grub, and the old reliable Cubby under a small weighted bobber. My tally after 40 minutes of casting:




NOTHING

NADA

ZIP




I hooked one nice largemouth but didn't bring it to hand. No bluegills. No crappie. No walleye. No trout. No catfish.

The weather here has been very cold over night, but I figured something would bite. Something ALWAYS bites here. Not today. Remember - this is the place that I go to over lunch and often bring 10-20 fish of mixed species to hand. I crimp down the barbs on my hooks just so I can shake off the trout and not have to land them and have them thrash around.

Maybe I was getting a little too cocky with these fish - the fishing gods have a way of getting even with us when we do. Or maybe, as I look back on it, it's just the way fishing is. And it's why we keep coming back - to try to figure these critters with the pea-sized brains. Well, today the pea brains kicked my butt.

But I'm planning on going back after them as the water warms.

And I WILL remember this day, because I din't like to get blanked!

I did remember my camera today, and got a few pictures. One I like one in particular. I hope you enjoy them.





Emerging may apples - spring is here!




A sapling gnawed off by a beaver




Great contrasting color

Let the Games Begin!

I couldn't stand it anymore - the forecast was for 70 degree + weather today. No snow. I HAD to get out and fish. But, I have very vivid recollections of getting shut out and completely frustrated on days similar to this in the past. You know the days - the unseasonable warmth after a long winter. The sun's rays belie the frigid water temps - ice out was only 2 weeks ago. But I HAD to give it a try. So I hit the ponds over lunch.



A picture of the best fish I've ever caught - the first one of 2010


Well, the weathermen were wrong. It was a nice day, but the wind was howling out the SW, and the temp never scared the 70 degree mark. But the SW wind was blowing the water from the very shallow end of the pond toward the deeper water around the dam. I figured the fish might be along the dam as well. They weren't, but I found willing bluegills in about 3' -4' of water. A Cubby mini-mite suspended about 18" below a bobber worked it's usual magic. The waves imparted all the action you needed. 10 minutes yielded a hit per cast, and 5 small-ish gills brought to hand. I have never been so happy to see small bluegills.

I decided to try the lower pond for the next 20 minutes. This is the pond that holds trout, crappie, and walleye as well as the usual 'gils and bass. It took a few minutes to find the fish, but I did figure them out, and ended this part of the afternoon with 6 nice bluegills, 1 crappie, 2 trout (about 16" each) and a surprise largemouth that was heavy and between 16" and 18". The hook slipped out just as I was ready to lip him (her?) and get a picture, so you have to take my word for the largemouth.



Crappie




Trout

It looks like there will be plenty of posts to come from the ponds this spring and summer. I want to follow Butch's lead and try to incorporate at least 2 non-fish pics into the posts as well.

Looks like the summer of 2010 has begun!



I'll leave you with a few pheasants I saw on the way out. Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them.

Back to the "Old Reliable " pond

I've been getting antsy to get out and do some fishing - ANY fishing, really. The weather in Illinois has flat out stunk on the few days I've been home. But, on Wednesday, the overcast, misty weather didn't seem like it would get any worse, so I snuck out to the ponds for an hour in the late afternoon.

As you know from reading this blog, I'm very in-tune with the fish in these ponds in the springtime. Well, Fall is a different story. I've caught some BIG bass here in the Fall, but have had difficulty patterning them. I really didn't care on this little venture - I just wanted to get out and cast a line. In addition to the usual array of fish found here - largemouth, bluegill, crappie, walleye, channel cat - there were a nice amount of big rainbow trout stocked a week ago.

I spent a little bit of time trying to catch a trout or 2. I used a Mepps spinner, and had 2 different trout slash at it, but they struck short. They were nice sized fish, and will be a ball to chase through the ice or in spring. I went back to one of my "go-to" baits - a 1/16 oz. jighead with a 2" silver grub - and started casting to the shallow dropoffs.

No great story to tell about the results - I got 2 bluegills, 2 small walleye, and 1 little largemouth. What is truly amazing is how good it felt to un-hook a few fish, no matter how small. The water looked nice, ducks were flying, and it was a great day to spend a few hours on the pond.

Don't forget, folks - Fall Fishing can be great!

Wolfy

A perfect evening

Yesterday - Friday June 12 -turned out to be a nearly perfect day. Weather was good - a little on the cool side, but missing all the weather elements I hate - no downpours, no horrendous winds, no scorching sun. One of the guys I work with - Jesse - had dropped his boat in the pond over lunch - he was coming back the next morning to get a load of 'gills for his pond. We fished for about a half hour over lunch to "scout" for him. Gills were plentiful on small grubs. I mentioned that I might come back in the evening, and he said to take the boat if I did.

My wife Stacy called at work and suggested we grab a pizza and go to the pond for the evening. Now, she goes along with me quite a bit in the spring, but rarely is she the one who suggests we go fishing. She likes to fish, but it has to be perfect conditions -no bugs, not too hot or cold, not much wind, and the fish have to be biting. That's a pretty tall order of circumstances to fill for one outing. Well, the everything came together last evening.

Stacy with one of the crappies.

I usually fish these ponds from shore, but having a Ranger to tool around with the trolling motor was a nice change of pace. Plenty of room for me, Stacy, and Joey. Joey didn't feel like fishing - he took a few casts and caught a few fish, but mostly he just watched us and read. No problem. We started fishing with 1/16 oz. jigheads and dark 2" grubs, and never looked back. Stacy started catching a fish on just about every cast. If she didn't land one, she had a hit on probably 90% of her casts. Same with me, even though I was experimenting with different baits. One interesting aspect of the evenings catch - very few largemouth, and none of any size. a few of them are still guarding nests, but most have moved off beds. The most interesting catch stat, in reviewing the evenings tally, was that we caught about 20 walleye. Most were the small ones - 8" - 10" - but 4 were around 15". We both fished UL outfits with 4 pound test, making every catch fun!





Another small walleye from the pond





The end of the evening showed a tally of an uncountable number of bluegills, around 20 walleye, 8-10 crappie, 2 pretty nice rainbow trout, and the catfish shown, that Stacy caught in the first 15 minutes. I'm not really sure what it weighed, but it was all her UL gear could handle. Some of the guys have told me they caught cats over 10 from here, but this is the biggest one I've seen personally from this pond. She got it on a 2" Yamamoto grub and fought it like a pro. Fittingly, it slapped me with it's tail when I put back in the water.

Stacy's catfish (She doesn't like to hold these)

No bugs, no wind, lots of hungry fish. I LOVE days like that on the water. The thing is, you have to spend a lot of time when it's NOT like that before you finally run into the great days. We had a blast fishing together as a family, and nothing beats that.








A contented son enjoying the evening

Picture Perfect

Got 'em all - over lunch!!

I haven't been out to my ponds recently - been on the road for work, and when I've been home, it seems like the grass is two feet tall and calling my name. I did walk across the street to my subdivision pond on Sunday evening with my new 2 weight flyrod. I was quickly reminded that a 2 wt. is a specialty rod - not very effective in the wind or if you need to make a cast over 30'. Luckily, the 'gils were close, with a few crappie mixed in, too. It doesn't take much to put a GOOD bend in a 2 wt. rod!

Anyway, over lunch today I got out to the ponds I've been writing about . Weather is cool and a little overcast. The pond was as clear as I've ever seen it - easily 4 feet of visibility. Maybe the loads of rain we've had all spring washed the usual crud out the overflow?? Gills were shallow, and I saw more than a handful of largemouth cruising the banks, right on the edge of where the water was too deep to see bottom. [This always seems to be a "magical" area, whether its 1 foot down or 10 feet - wherever you can no longer see bottom seems to be a zone where fish cruise. Try it in your water!] I caught a few 'gills right off the bat near the overflow. I went to the end of the pond where the deeper water comes up quickly to a mud flat, and caught 4 small walleyes in 5 casts with a Beetle Spin. Cool . Still, I was seeing more fish than I was catching. It was time to quit fooling around. Out came the Cubby Mini-Mite and the weighted bobber. (NOTE - the rod I had along was a 4-1/2' UL spinning rod)

I've extolled the virtues of the Mini-Mite / weighted bobber combo in the past, but it never ceases to amaze me. I fished a brown Mini-mite about 4' under the bobber and, after I found the depth they were holding at, caught fish constantly. I got about a dozen gills, 4 crappie, 4 largemouth - 3 small, 1 about 14" - , a 17" very healthy rainbow trout, and, on my last cast, a channel cat that I weighed at 6 pounds, 2 ounces. The rainbow came from about 6' of water; the cat was 4' down over 15' of water. Everything else was in 4' - 6' of water.

When I fish these little jigs, I use a simple technique: cast out and let the jig settle under the bobber. If there is any wave action, I'll often just let it sit and let the waves impart the action to the jig. Then, reel in about a foot of line fairly quickly - you want the jig to rise toward the surface on the retrieve of the line. then - stop. let the jig "swim" back down. Let it sit for a few seconds - 4 or 5. Repeat. Practice in shallow water where you can watch the action of the jig based on the retrieve you make. I PROMISE you it works.

I got all 6 available species of fish - bluegill, walleye, largemouth bass, crappie, rainbow trout, and channel cat - in my pond over lunch today. I'll take that over the usual diner food any day!

(Of course, I left my camera at home. I REALLY need to get another camera and throw it in my car, just for these occasions)

Wolfy

Times they are a-changing (with apologies to Bob Dylan)

Last week, the fishing at the ponds peaked. Bass were ultra-aggressive, attacking almost anything they saw. I took numerous "rookies" out there and, if they could hit the water with a cast, they could catch a fish. We threw pink Sluggos and watch the bass attack them. It was awesome.

Joanna with a nice pond bass

A happy Megan with another nice bass from the ponds

Yesterday(Sunday) I went to the same spot. Fished hard, first with reaction baits (spinnerbaits, buzzbaits), then more subtle baits (flukes, Senkos). I got one hit on a spinnerbait. I saw the swirls where bass were chasing bluegils away from their beds. The fish are now on beds, and the bountiful season that is the springtime warmup is now over. I'll still be able to catch fish here, but I'll have to work harder for them and employ different techniques. The day before - Saturday - I spent 2 hours with a co-worker working the larger pond hard to see what we could come up with. Jesse fishes bass tournaments and has fished hard for ANYTHING for years. He got on a pretty consistent bite with smallish square-lipped crankbaits. The bass were holding out from shore, and were spawned out. Still nice fish, but much lighter in weight. I played around with different baits, getting a few on spinnerbaits and other stuff, before I finally relented and put on a crankbait. (I'm pretty pig-headed about immediately going to the "hot bait" that the other guy in the boat is throwing). We caught fish, but it was obvious that in the past week, everything had changed.

Jesse with a crankbait bass. No eggs in this bass!

Times they are a-changing. Just like they do every year.

My wife just shakes her head every year wen I continue to be amazed by the greening of the landscape in springtime. Same for the leaves changing color, or the first snowfalls. I always react like I am amazed (because I am) even though I love the outdoors and have witnessed these changes for my entire life. I am just as amazed at the changes in the fishing patterns due to seasonal movement. Now that the bass have spawned, I'll key into the bluegills as they set up shallow. Out will come the flyrods. Then, in the midst of the summer doldrums, the channel cats will get really active.

Something is always changing, and I'm always amazed (Some would say easily amused!)

I hope I never lose that awe of the changes of nature. I'm pretty sure I won't.

Even though the bass were not going crazy on my ponds, I did manage to catch some other fish. I got 5 walleyes, a few crappie, a bunch of bluegills, and one un-common resident of the ponds - a green sunfish. Take a look at the size of the mouth on the picture. It is noticeably bigger than the usual sunfish, with the exception of the warmouth. Nice coloration on these panfish.

Green Sunfish

Keep following for the progression through the seasons and more fishing. I'll try to get some fly fishing in for trout in the near future.