The fishing has been a repeat of my last few entries.  I’m catching a few bass in the 1 to 2 lb class mostly on flies but with one exception, the Shaw Grigsley baby craw plastic jig.  I’ve also caught a few nice channel cats mostly on flies, the clouser minnow in green and white.  However, Larry Tegtmeyer, on one of his visits, gave me a few of the flies that he apparently designed and made himself.  One of them really has proven itself to be a real fish catcher.  Its a streamer.  He designed it so that it appears like a wooly bugger head with a rabbit strip body.  The color is  a white head, twin eyes, and a tan body of feathers and a rabbit strip.  I tied it on after all else had failed that afternoon.  When I cast it out I had an immediate strike from a very large bass.  The bass took off like a bat out of h… and caught me completely off guard.  The bass headed straight for the bushes hanging along the shore and got off.  I really didn’t do a good job of trying to properly set the hook being mainly concerned with keeping it out of the bushes.  Exciting, yes!   Moving along I hung into another big bass in the same area.  This time I set the hook.  Again, the fish took off for the bushes and underwater roots.  I could not stop it.  With my holding onto the line, not allowing the fish to take any more line, the leader broke.  I lost another big bass, the exceptional fly, and felt totally exasperated.  I still have another of these flies and I wrote Larry of my experience and sent him a picture of it.  I’m saving the fly so that I don’t lose it and so that I can use it to find other flies with a similar pattern.  I also told Larry that I think he ought to patent the fly design.  Thanks Larry, you are one heck of a fly designer.

Your Friend 

Tight Lines

Jim

I went out today for a very short time.  The forecast was for rain, but it wasn’t raining when I decided to try it anyway.  I went out in my two man boat and fished very close to where I keep my boats just in case it did rain.  For the first half hour I tried my favorite flies, the clouster minnow, the baby craw hard back craw, a frog popper and a muddler minnow without a single strike.  I moved on down the shore within casting distance to hug up my flies and popper right up next to shore.  Most bass will be near the shore on these dark cloudy days.  Still no luck.  I did take along two spinning rods just in case the flies weren’t producing.  One with a Shaw Grigsby paddle tail worm (the one I used at our outing on Sunset Lake last to catch bass).  No luck with that either.  I switched to my Shaw Grigsby baby craw and BINGO, I got my first bass of about 1 lb.  Just a few yards away I cast again and hooked onto another bass but it was coming right toward me and I didn’t get a good hook set; he got off.  A little further on and again, right nest to shore, no more than a foot deep I hooked onto the bass shown here; a nice 4 lb bass.  Just before I landed him the rain started and then it poured.  I had on my rain suit but when I heard the thunder I decided no way.  I quickly got off the lake, packed it up and went home across and down the street. 

Tight Lines

Jim

The last two weeks have been only fair for most species of fish.  I have yet to find a fish bigger that the four lb bass that I mentioned in another segment.  However the crappie are improving in size, not as many, but bigger.  I’ve been catching some in the 10 to 12 inch range with this one at 15 1/2 inches.  Not a good picture I know, but it gives you an idea.  The smaller crappie seem to have gotten off the nests and have scattered all over the lake.  The bigger crappie are hitting where I couldn’t buy a bite before.  They are in water a little deeper and not right next to shore like the small ones were before.  Of course, the deepest part of this lake is only around 5 feet.

I’m finally catching some bass.  Most of them are small, between 1 and 2 lbs with an occasional 2 1/2 lb fish.  I caught six of these fish just the other afternoon.  I was using the hard shell craw baby fly for three bass and the Shaw Grigsby baby craw plastic jig for the others.  Using the fly though also catches some nice bluegill as a bonus.  I got six of them at between 8 and 9 inches.  They fight like crazy and are really fun when you hang onto one.  The hook on the Grigsby  is too big for the bluegill to be caught.  Crappie will also hit the fly but I have better luck using the clouster minnow fly for them.

Tight Lines

Jim

Larry and I went out to Sunset Lake on Thursday.  We first tried all the most obvious places, i.e., shallow shoreline in reeds and weeds.  Not a single fish hit our worthy baits, flies: muddler minnows, clouster minnows, accardo poppers, betts poppers and Larry tried a floating ant.  We thought ‘ surely there are bluegills and bass on their nests and these are the most likely areas,aren’t they?  Being a purist fly fisherman, Larry didn’t budge from his fly offerings; but I did!  I tried a baby craw, a Shaw Grigsby paddle tail worm and an Excalibur crank bait that I have had success with before on this lake. All these to no avail.  We decided to go to the other side of the lake which has steep banks that drop off quickly from one foot to 20 – 40 feet of water.  Not the most likely of places at this time year.

Larry continued to cast his flies but he tolerated my switching  to a spinning rod using my Shaw Grigsby paddle tail worm.  I started connecting  with several small bass in the 1 – to 1 1/2 lb range.  I had five misses almost in a row.  I figured that the bass were hitting short, grabbing the tail of the worm but without getting the hook in their mouths.  I decided to cut off 3/4” of the worms head.  Then I started catching, 5 small bass in a row.  I did use my fly rod along the way using a rust colored crawdad imitation and caught a fairly nice crappie.

Larry tried the crawdad imitation too but without a hit.  Larry tried several of his bass flies when we did locate some fish but still could not connect until he managed a bass just before we decided to quit.

Well, better luck next time.  I plan to go again this coming Thursday and hope that Larry can go too.  This time we will not waste time and we will go directly to the place where we scored.

I’m finding Larry to be of fine character, a gentleman and generous to a fault.  He knew that I had purchased a new St Croix fly rod just like the one I had purchased before from Cabela’s.  He told me that I could have a Cabela’s reel that he was not using  to go with the new rod.  I used it and I really do like it.

Not only did he give me the reel but Cabela’s sent me a wrong fly line to go with it.  Larry purchased another line for me while he was in the Hammond Indiana area Cabela’s and said that he would return the miss sent one for me when he was in that area again.  Then to top all that he purchase pizza from Monical’s for our supper.  I said that I would pay for it but he was adamant.  He said,”You supplied the boat and transportation and that was enough.”  I advise him that I would pay for supper the next time-no buts!  I met Larry from his finding me on my web site, perchbugs.com and I’m glad I responded to his invitation to join up to go fishing together.

Tight lines

Jim 

I went out again today strictly for bass.  I decided to use some of my new “Shaw Grigsby” paddle tail worms, and their “baby craw” baits.  I did hook up A clouster minnow fly on one fly rod and a “anglers Dream” craw dad  fly on another fly rod. 

At first I was using Eagle Claw weed less hooks on the baby craw but kept missing hookups.  I’m not sure if the misses were bluegill or short bites from bass.  I switched the  hook on the baby craw to a small worm hook and then I caught my first bass, of about 1 1/2 lbs.

I was casting about two to three feet off the shore and moving the boat along paralleling the shore line.  A few taps but no hard hits.  I switched to my clouster minnow on my fly rod and caught a nice 4 lb bass.  Alternating between the baby craw and the clouster minnow I managed to get two more bass and a few small crappie and some bluegill.   The worm rig was left on the floor of the boat.  The crawdad fly got a few hits but no hookups, I believe that they were probably small crappie and small gills.

All in all I had a good day as are all days of fishing for me anyway , whether you’re catching fish or not.

Tight lines

Jim

Sunday Evie asked her dad if he could call grandpa to go fishing.  It’s a very good sign when a 6 year old “asks” to go fishing.  So, I think we have a real “fishergirl” in the making.  She’s becoming quite a good angler for her age and she loves it.  This time she said that she wanted to keep some of the fish to take home to eat!  Wow! That’s new for a little kid to want to eat some of her catch.  So, out we went and did pretty well.  She caught about 18 fish in about 1 1/2 hours.  The bluegill and crappie are just eating size and she kept just eight of them.  For bait she was using night crawler halves and a bobber.

We had an excellent time and I highly recommend that if you have a youngster in your family, “take them fishing”.  You’ll enjoy it and so will the child.  I believe that if you teach a kid to fish and they like it they’ll be less likely to get in trouble in their teen years.  I know that it helped me.  When ever I felt down or troubled or whatever problems I was facing as a kid, I would go fishing.  It most always helped me to clear my mind by thinking things through and having a good time doing it.

I still do that.

Tight lines

Jim

I took my favorite fishergirl out fishing the other day after coming to our house from kinder garden. When I mentioned fishing she got excited and was eager to go.  The day was beautiful, bright sun and not too warm.  We took my my little two man boat out and I aimed it to a fishing spot where I can usually catch a few bluegill and crappie.  And that’s what we got, a few.

The bite was very slow but we did manage to catch the two fish shown.  Evie has learned to cast pretty well for a six year old and fairly straight although, her aim may be just a little off.  Of course, with the bite being so slow, she became a little bored and would rather play with the water and not pay too much attention to her bobber.  This of course caused her to not see a few other bites and consequently missed a few fish. We decided to go back home and see Grandma instead.  Evie did want to steer the electric motor on the way back.  She liked that and did a pretty good job of navigating.

All in all we had a short but good time.

My advice here is if she’s/he’s not interested, don’t force it.  Just blame it on the fish for not biting that day.  And, if you’re fishing with a little one, leave your pole down or only use it if you’re both catching fish.

Tight lines

Jim

Went out in the pond yesterday in my canoe.  As far as fishing was concerned, it was basically a repeat of the last time I went out.  I managed 11 crappies, a 10” bluegill (very nice), and two nice channel cats, one 2 1/2 lbs and one 3 lbs.  The big surprise was finding a Canadian goose trapped in a beaver trap. 

I was casting in one of the small coves where I usually can catch some bass and bluegill.  The cove is surrounded by bushes that reach out into the water.  Then I found out why there was no fish in that area; a goose was back in the bushes flapping around and making all sorts of commotion.  At this point I wasn’t sure what was splashing back in there so, I decided to investigate.  The goose, by the time I got near it was all but totally exhausted.  It’s head was lowering into the water and would soon be drowned if I didn’t hurry and get to it.

I beached the canoe and took off my shoes and socks and weaved my way into the brush and got to the poor bird before it expired.  At first I didn’t know what the bird was trapped in as I have never done any trapping and had never seen a trap like this one but the goose was solidly locked up in the trap by the neck and very tightly.  I could not get the trap opened as I didn’t know how the trap worked mechanically.  So, I pulled out the metal stake that was anchoring the trap and took the it and the goose onto dry land being careful not to make the trap any tighter or to turn the it in a way that may further tighten the trap or twist the neck of the bird; that would surly have killed the bird.  I the noticed that one of the birds legs was also trapped but I managed to free it without doing any further harm.

I could hear one of my  sub division neighbors mowing his lawn so I decided to get help to free the bird.  I told him of the situation and could he get a crowbar and maybe a tire iron to help free the bird.  He responded immediately and came down with two crowbars and a pry bar.  But trying to use the pry bars was not working.  My neighbor recognized the trap as a beaver trap but was unsure how it worked.  After examining the device he managed to release the tension rings that apparently slide up on two parallel bars that were holding the birds neck.  To widen the two parallel bars he used his strength while I tried to slip the birds neck out.  At first try the bars didn’t open wide enough but on a second try we managed to get the bars spread just enough to free the bird.

The goose of course was in the panic mode and burst away from his tormentors as fast as possible.  We took that as a good sign that apparently the bird was bruised but not permanently damaged.

Watching the bird go back to the pond was a relief to both of us, we did our best for nature today and for that I’m glad and so was my good neighbor.

Tight lines

Jim

4-29-09 Went out today and tried for bass.  I started with a Frenzy crank bait with no luck.  Switched to a swim bait, a shad colored paddle tail, again no hits.  Went to a Zoom worm, pumpkinseed color, again, no takers.  No hits at all! 

Went back to the fly rod with one of my new bead head muddler minnows and started catching some small crappie.  On my other fly rod I tied on another new lure, the new Zoom swim minnow.  It is the same as a swimmin minnow but the color is a light mint green and white.  I caught some more small crappie and then hooked onto one of the channel cats shown, a nice 2 1/2 lb fish.  A few minutes later, in the same area I caught another 2 1/2 lb cat but on the muddler minnow.  Moving on down the lake shore I managed a few more crappie alternating with my Zoom worm and the Zoom minnow and caught a few more crappie and a small bass on the worm but I missed him at the boat.  Further on I caught another channel cat on the Zoom minnow.  I did catch a nice bluegill on the Zoom minnow as well.

All in all I managed to put twenty three fish in the boat in about 4 hours time.  Better that the last time but no really big fish.  My guess is that the bass aren’t ready to get on their beds as yet and for the most part they have lockjaw.

Tight Lines

Jim

Larry Tegtmeyer and I went on our second fishing outing this last Friday, the 24th of April.  The wind was a BIG problem and boat control, especially in my little two man boat, was a real problem.  Larry was using his white muddler bead head fly and a black leach fly most of the time.  He managed to catch a 2 1/2 lb channel cat on the leach pattern and I believe the count of 13 small crappie and a couple of nice bluegill, 9", for the day.  Not bad for fishing in a windstorm.  I tried for bass at first with my spinning rod using a zoom worm and a yum baby craw.  No luck at all.  I reverted back to my fly rod and went for the crappie using the white muddler that Larry so graciously gave me on our first outing.  I ended up with 11 small crappie.  So Larry got the better of me again with the biggest  and the mostest!  We still had fun and enjoyed each other’s company.  Oh yes, Larry gave me a small fish counter to use.  I believe he doesn’t trust my counting ability except when he’s catching the most fish, (ha, ha)!  Well, next time, maybe I’ll catch the most and  the biggest even with the fish counter!  Larry is a fine fisherman and fly fisherman and I’m looking forward to our next outing.

Tight Lines

Jim