The day started out to be warm with cloudy skies and a slight breeze coming in from the west.  I decided to try for some crappie and bass using the tube jig as shown on the cats mouth.  It seems that it was the only lure that the fish would respond to.  I caught 5 small crappie and a small  bass and the two cats shown.  I was only out for about an hour when suddenly the wind came up and I could hear lightening in the west and moving toward me!  I immediately got going back to where I keep my boat.  Just as I landed and turned my boat over the rain started.  I made it just in time. 

I only have a short distance to my house, about two minutes and I’m in my garage, when the wind and rain really began to come down hard.  The news weather report that evening said,” The winds were at 75 MPH and the rain was torrential.  We also had a tornado sited in a nearby small town.”

So, I just missed that storm by minutes. 

Well, that was my last outing for this season as the weather has been cold and windy since. 

Starting now, I’ll be cleaning all my rods and reels and straightening out my tackle boxes and putting things back where they belong. 

So, until then I wish you all a very happy holiday season and a happy new year.

Tight lines  Jim

  Ivan has finally recovered enough to go fishing again, but with caution.  The day started out very nicely with a slight breeze and a partly cloudy sky, what more could you ask for.  Ivan is recovering from two very serious surgeries on his hip and shoulder.  We had to ensure that he could get into and out of the boat without putting too much strain on his hip;  the solution:  sit down on the dock and slide  into the boat, and it worked just fine. 

We started out with the usual tactics, a stick  worm, a creature bait, a spinner, and a plug.  The plug worked for me, a Rapala DT 4 in silver and chartreuse and my old faithful Excalibur medium runner in white and red.  Nothing else seemed to work except those two plugs and they weren’t doing that great.  Ivan tried his plugs to no avail so, he switched to the fly rod with a small yellow popper.  He started to catch some bluegill with it and that surprised me.  I would have expected the bluegill to be deeper, but they were near shore and Ivan managed to catch five and missed a few more.

I kept up with the plugs and managed to catch five bass.  I had tried several different retrieves,  stop/go, slow near the top, fast/pause, and fast without the pause; the latter was the ticket.  That also surprised me.

Then the wind changed directions causing whitecaps on the water and coming from the Northeast.  Boat control was nearly impossible.  So, we decided to make it back to the dock. 

I was glad that Ivan had the chance to go out before the very cold and wet days set in  and they have almost immediately after our outing.   We did have an enjoyable fishing day as always.

I’ve tried the pond a few times the last two weeks and haven’t done very well.  Two days brought me only two small crappie, while another day brought me twenty crappie, but only one bass.  On another day I caught a few small crappie and two nice cats.   Three days ago I caught only one  crappie.  Where are the bass that are supposed to be fattening up before winter?!!!  I’ve tried every proven pond lure and shallow running plugs, but that one bass was it.

You probably noticed that I’m using pictures from a previous outing.  Well, its because I had forgotten to bring my camera.  Ivan tried to take one from his cell phone but it didn’t turn out well .  The bass shown are typical River Bend bass.  We were on the water for about four hours on this trip and again, it’s always fun to be on the water especially with a good friend.

Tight lines

Jim

A friend, Chris,  from long ago, was here to attend his brother’s wedding.  I hadn’t seen Chris since after he graduated from High School, about ten years had passed.  At the wedding Chris brought up the subject of fishing.  Well, as you probably know by now, it is the fourth most important thing in my life.  You can probably guess what the first three are.  We talked extensively on the subject.

He wanted to know if the fishing was still as good as it was when he was when he fished in the pond last.  I told him that it wasn’t but that it was still fairly good and that it still contained some quality fish, but not as many.  The land and shore around the pond has had much of its habitat removed due to new homes that were built on the lake front.  The new land owners are apparently not concerned about the fishery and had most of the lake shore  brush removed.  Fallen trees were also removed from the lake.

Someone had also introduced shad into the lake and they have been doing well but at the expense of the bluegill population which has been declining since.  They tend to live on the same insect and plankton foods.   The crappie population, I believe, is declining as well but still has many stunted fish as they too share the same foods.  Before shad were introduced the bluegill population was very good and I had caught some 10 inchers with regularity.  I showed him the pictures that I had posted in the web site and he was impressed.  When he asked if we might go out fishing for a day before he returned to Mississippi I was happy to oblige.  But, I said”,  If you want quantity over quality we had better go the River Bend where the population of bass is much better.”  So, that’s where we went.

It was a “Blue Bird” day, not a cloud in the sky and the temperature was in the low 70’s.

I thought this was going to be tough and I was right. 

We got to River Bend at around 1:00pm and started to launch the boat and already things were going wrong.  As I backed the boat into the water the trailer fell off the ball  on the hitch.  So, I pulled  the trailer up with the safety chains, put the trailer back onto the hitch ball and started again, this time successfully.  This had never happened to me before and hopefully it never will again especially if I’m on the road.  After inspecting the hitch I still can’t determine why it fell off.

It is generally understood that the fall, when the weather gets cooler, the bass will begin cruising the shoreline forage again to fatten up for the winter.  This was not the case today.  We didn’t see any fish near the shore line at all and what bites we did get were over deeper water, 20 to 30 feet, and most of those from small bluegills.  I could see fish at  12 to 25 feet on my fish locater but nothing big.

I tried a couple of craw imitations by Yum to see if those deeper fish would give us some action but not a tick.  Then I tried a KVD Coffee Fluke in green and white…no results.  I tried it both deep and shallow but only got bluegills to take nips at it, we could see them come right to the boat.  I told Chris that if we had taken fly rods  with us  we could have had a ball catching them. 

Chris had been us in one of those pre rigged worms in black and white that I had been very successful with on previous trips.  I then put on a Yum stick worm which has always been a fish getter on River Bend.  I finally caught our first fish, a small Warmouth .  Oh yes, before we crossed to the other side of the lake, I did have a very nice bass on but he broke the line at the knot.   I was using the Yum stick worm.

After fishing with no success for the first hour we decided to move to the reed area.  Again no results.  I caught another warmouth on a spinner, an in line Mepps with a silver blade. 

By now it was 4:00pm so, I thought we should get to the shore I usually fish when returning to the boat launch.  The park now closes at 7:00pm and I don’t like trying  to park my boat on the side of my house in the dark.  So I like to leave the lake by 6:00pm.

We started back taking our time.  I caught our first bass.  This is my favorite shore line to fish and usually have more luck here than anywhere else on the lake but, only after the sun is declining in the West and the shore has abundant shade.  I caught a second and a third and missed three more with bad hookups.  I also had rigged Chris’s rod  with the same Yum stick worm that I had been using.  Finally, after a few misses, Chris had landed his first River Bend bass.  The bass shown is typical of the bass caught at River Bend.  He wasn’t “skunked”!

During the day I had tried some swim baits, spinners,  and crank baits briefly but with zero results.  The stick bait is usually a go to lure at River Bend.

We had a good time and that’s what counts.

Tight lines

Jim

The fishing has been on and off these  first weeks in October.  The wind has played a very important factor.  On the most part I have chosen not to go out in near gale winds and the days I have gone out in the wind, the boat was very hard to keep in good position.  Casting is also a problem i.e., accuracy is nearly imposable and the wind creates a very large bow in the line making bite detection another big problem.  

The bass bite has been very slow.  I’ve tried all my favorite pond lures and spinner baits but have had very few takers, 5  bass in the 12 – 14 inch class.  However the spinner did well for crappie.  I’ve managed to land approximately 40 crappie but, they have been small; hand size.  I switched to using a slip bobber with a black and green jig.  Bite detection is far better and the crappie seem to love the color, it’s a black rubber body with a green feather tail.  The catfish love it too as you can see.  This one is about 5 lbs and I’ve had several more like it.  The catfish bite starts just before I have to get back for supper, I guess they get hungry about the same time that I do!

I’ve only gone out in the late afternoon, around 2:00 or 3:00pm when I have shade on the West side of the lake and in some of the South side where there are trees over the water.  I’m very lucky to have the lake at my disposal anytime I want to go out.  And, I can choose when I want to go except when the boss, my beautiful wife of 54 years, says, “Don’t be late for supper”.  Oh well, I am sure that many of you fishermen/fisher girls would like to be in my shoes.

That’s it for now, tight lines

Jim

Well, we’re back in September again and the fish as you can see the fish are cooperating much better than they did in August.  This group of pictures show the results of my last three outings.  I haven’t been out much  in the first three weeks of September because of medical problems and travel.  and, when I have been out, it’s been for only about two or three hours at a time. 

I have had two carcinomas on my face removed and had some internal organs looked at as well.  When you get older, if you’re so lucky, things tend to need more attention than when we  are younger.   So, I haven’t been out near as much as I would’ve liked.  But, the fish have been cooperating much better as you can see.  (Reminder:  wear sun block)

The fish shown on the lower right was caught on a spinner, this time a Mepps, with a silver blade and with black and red feathers on the treble hook.  I caught seven bass on one outing with the spinner and the fish didn’t seem to want anything else.  And I caught a few small crappies in the process.  This was on my first outing in September. 

The fish on the upper right was caught caught on another two hour stretch toward evening, again, seven bass and a few small crappie, but this time on the Blue Fox spinner that I’ve had a lot of luck with before.  The fish wouldn’t touch the Mepps spinner.  The other three fish, including the new seven pound beauty, were caught on the Cabela’s  Aqua Glow critter bait as shown, this time in the brown/pumpkinseed color. 

The seven lbs. bass I caught yesterday.  I went out at about 2:30pm,  the sky was cloudy and the wind was blowing with gusts of 20mph from almost every direction.  Boat control was nearly impossible but, I did the best I could under the circumstances.  I thought the fish would be in heavy cover and I was right.  The fish were  in a small groups of lay downs and under overhanging brush.  I hadn’t caught a fish at all this year in the spot that I caught this bruiser.  I knew that there had to be a big fish or any fish in that area of laydowns and it took all summer to catch one fish there at that spot but, he was worth all the effort I put into that area after all .

At about 4:45pm the weather got worse:  heavy winds out of the North West and rain.  I was at the far end of the lake when the wind started to get really bad and my Min Kota (50) lbs. push didn’t allow me to gain much speed to get back to where I keep my boat but, I made it and got back home safely.  I had only three hits, yesterday and  one got away because I didn’t re tie after catching the big one, the not broke (improved cinch knot)  The other bass got off because I was busy trying to get the boat away from shore when the fish hit causing me to not get a good hook set.  You must have complete control of your rod and reel at all times and I still haven’t learned that!

Tight lines

Jim

It was a beautiful day, 84 degrees, clear skies, and a small breeze out of the North West.   I usually start my fishing in a cove near the boat ramp where there’s  a couple of nice points and the shore drops off on about a 45 degree angle to about 30 feet of water.  There’s an inside and an outside  stretch of  weeds and a shelf where some bass spawn in the springtime.  The weeds are tall and the tops are above the water.  I like to fish the outside edge.

I started out with my new Rapala tail dancer crank bait as I did during my last session here and caught  a nice two pounder, but this time nada. 

I saw some small bass swimming around near the shore near  the surface so, I got out my fly rod with a chartreuse and white clausen minnow thinking they’re  after those small minnows that are in abundance in this lake.  No, takers. 

so, I thought go to your go to stick worm, a Yum watermelon/pearl that has worked so well on previous occasions.  Nothing.  Well, I cast it out again and let it sink to the bottom while I was looking at my other pre rigged rods thinking what should I try next.  The stick worm answered my question:  a nice two pound bass had picked the stick worm up off the bottom. 

Well, I thought, lets try leaving the stick work to settle on the bottom while I use another rod, (two rods are allowed in Illinois).

So, I was still seeing some smaller bass near the surface and I thought a fly rod with a popper might do the trick.  Nada.  I also tried a frog on one of my other rods on top on the weeds without a single strike.

My fish finder was seeing fish at the 5 to 13 foot level, so I tried a silver no lip crank and on another rod a bass colored shad rap still keeping the Yum on the bottom and moving it after each cast just a little.  After an hour of this without result I moved on.  This was going to be a tough day and it was.

Instead of going to the reeds or the hump I crossed over to the west side of the lake to get out of the wind that had come up.  This way the wind would be behind me as I worked that shore on my way  back to the boat ramp.  I usually do better on this shore.  There is a sharp drop of about 50 degrees on most of this shore and some brush and weeds near shore and it  gets the first shade in the afternoon,

I know where the bluegill hang out  on this shoreline so, I got out my five fly rods each with a different fly, the popper, the clauser minnow, a black ant, a purple/black wooly bugger, and a tiny Yum Craw on a # 6   octopus hook.  I got two taps…!!!  Wow!  nothing is biting!

I tried a couple more cranks, spinners, and creature bait…nothing.   But, the bluegill would come up and nip at the yum stick worm regularly.   So, I stuck with the stick worm the rest of the evening.

I hooked up with a small bass that got off at the boat, and one more bass just before getting to the boat ramp.

Total:  Two 2lb bass in about 4 1/2 hours…but I had fun!

Tight lines

Jim

As you can see, a happy little girl with all her trophy fish, (at least to her they are trophies and rightly so).  Evie surely does like to fish but has a little anxiety about hurting the fish and that’s good too.  We laid one fish on the shore to die because it had swallowed the hook and was dying.  I explained that “just like we sometimes go fishing and take the fish home to cook for food, we can leave that fish on the shore for a raccoon or some birds to eat for their supper.”  Evie gratefully accepted that scenario.  There are plenty of raccoons and opossums  in the area to make that come true. 

I had purchased some night crawlers at WalMart to use for bait, the bait of choice when taking kids out fishing at least until they learn to handle other more sophisticated forms of fishing.

She caught a total of  six fish:  a channel cat, three drum, and a warmouth, and a bluegill that she allowed me to bring in so I wouldn’t be “skunked”!  That was nice of her. 

You might have noticed how much bigger she has grown this summer. 

She also informed me that she was glad school was starting up tomorrow and that she was excited about that and seeing all her friends again, and that’s good.

Tight lines

Jim

Roy and I tried our luck at River Bend after a long lay off due to the heat wave.  The weather was great; a nice breeze, actually a little windy some of the time, cloudy skies; we even had some very light sprinkles, temperatures in the low 80’s..perfect.  But, the fishing was very slow compared to what we usually get there.  After trying several different lures, spinner baits, Roy  tied on a small white spinner and caught a nice bass almost immediately.  I quickly changed one of my rods to a similar bait, white/chartreuse, and caught a bluegill.  But, that was about it for the spinner baits.  We tried cranks, worms, creature baits, grubs, and stick worms.   Roy had a grub in a brown color that did well on the bottom near shore Texas rigged,  and I had to resort to the stick worm, a Yum watermelon/ pearl, to catch a few bass.  The score:  Roy 7 and Jim 4 bass.   We had fished for about 5 hours and left early, around 7pm.

The fishing was not great but the fun was.  It’s hard not to have fun when fishing with a good friend.

Tight lines

Jim

I went out at 4pm yesterday and fished until 8pm looking for bass but all I could manage was three channel cats and they were caught on the fly shown.  My first thoughts were to try surface lures and wake baits because that’s what all the experts say are the best bets for bass during the August doldrums.  I cast the frog in all the logical places, overhanging trees, over and around brush and logs in the water.  The lake is only 5 1/2 feet deep so you’d think that the bass would hear intruders in their habitat, but there was absolutely no action what so ever.

Then I tried a mini Rapala floating jerk bait both on the surface and by swimming it.  Again, no takers, not even bluegill which will usually come up and try to grab it.  I also tried the Rapala square bill wake bait in silver, again nothing.

After a couple of hours of that I decided to go to my stick worm, the KVD watermelon/pearl, and the blue aqua glow bug that I’ve had good success with.  Again not takers.  When using the aqua glow bug, however, I did get a couple of taps so, I tried the fly rod with the crystal wooley bugger (shown) and cast where I got the taps thinking maybe I’d catch a nice bluegill, instead I  got my first channel cat.  The first cat was a little smaller than the ones shown.

So, still hoping I’d catch a bass, I stayed with the aqua glow bug and each time I got a little tap, I’d go with the fly again and got another channel cat.  That happened three times.  I continued this pattern until about 7pm without any further results.  I decided to head back to where I keep my boat casting the aqua glow from one to five feet from the shore and never getting another hit.  I did use the fly rod as well because I saw some fish rising but, never got another tap until I was right where I keep my boat on the fly.   I believe that tap came from a bluegill.  I cast there again a few times but came up empty.

I’m glad that I carry a variety of fishing rods, otherwise I would probably have been skunked.  I had two fly rods, two spinning rods, and four bait casting rods all rigged with baits that I’ve had success with before.  Being prepared is generally a good idea.  The two rods that I had the plugs  on was the only difference.  I did try casting the the open water areas with the plugs as well as around the brush, every thing that the experts say to do, however, nada.  Well, I’ll keep trying whenever the heat outside isn’t going to cause me heat stroke.  Yesterday the temp was in the mid 80’s.

We’re supposed to have thunder storms today so, I’m home for the day, but, so far, no rain and we do need it badly.

Tight lines

Jim

We finally got a small break from the heat wave that’s been covering a lot of the country this past couple of weeks.  It’s been so bad that I couldn’t stay outside for more that a few minutes without getting soaked with sweat.   I especially have to be careful with asthma and a very light complexion.  In fact I have another appointment with my dermatologist next week to have some more lesions, carcinomas , removed from my face by surgery.   The fortunes of not having enough information about the causes of skin cancer long ago, when I was young.  Now, even when taking precautions, such as, sun block, big hats, and such, my past is catching up with me.  I know one thing though, I can’t give up fishing, I just have to wait for days when I won’t be too exposed to the sun.  Yesterday, started out to be cloudy but the clouds dissipated and today I’m paying for it. 

I did manage to catch nine bass, a crappie and a warmouth bass.  My first bass was caught  on a Rapala husky jerk as shown and the crappie was caught Rapala DT 4 in silver. But the remainder were caught on the Gary Yamamotto stick bait in watermelon/cream.  But, you had to let is sink until it nearly reached bottom.  I found fish on my Eagle fish locator at i3 to 15 feet so I tried the outside edges of the weed beds located on the West side of the lake where I caught most of my fish. 

I did try fly rodding for gills during a lull in the action, a long lull, But only managed to get a few short taps from bluegill that seemed to be scattered over deeper water.  I tried going deep and on top but got little except for the warmouth.  I also tried my Cabela’s aqua glow creature bait that I’ve had good luck with on the pond but, again, only got a few small taps from the gills.  I used my Blue Fox in line spinner making a few casts where I got the crappie but got nada.

I started my day at about 1 pm and first going to the reeds thinking I might catch some bass with a frog, Cabela’s baby frog.  One bass did come up grabbed the frog, and immediately spit it out,  I watched this happen near the boat.  I tried to set the hook, first getting a tight line and feeling the fish, but the frog was out of the bass’s mouth in a split second.  After about 45 minutes, the were no more takers on any of the lures that I tried.  So, I moved on.

At seven pm I decided to call it quits.  I know that’s when the fish become more active, but, being out in that sun a good part of the day, tired me out.  I was ready to quit and so I did.

Today we’re into another heat wave.  I’m just going to have to be patient and wait until some cooler and cloudier weather comes along.

Tight lines

Jim