I just completed cleaning all my fishing rods and reels and I’ve even put the lures on them that I use on the first day.  That day I’ll start out with the fly rod as I did last spring when I caught the big crappie shown.  If you’re not a fly “rodder”, try a small spinning outfit with a slip bobber and a jig for crappie and bluegill in 2 to 3 feet of water around some brush on the north side of your pond or lake, the fish will likely be there as it’s the warmest part of the lake in spring.  Keep trying in the warmest areas, that’s where the fish will be.

During the winter I also purchased several new flies and fly lines.  “Discount Flies.com” and “Crystal Fly Shop.com” had some very good buys,  and  they both generally do, try them.  Also try “Anglers Dream Fly Shop”,  they too have flies on sale.

I get my poppers from “Breambugs.com, they also have some very good buys.  In fact, “Discount Flies” was so concerned that I had a problem with a fly hook breaking off that they called me on the phone to see what the problem was.  Now that’s customer service.  My motivation in reporting the problem was to inform them of a possible quality control issue.  They called me to ensure that they were concerned and even thanked me and the bad fly was replaced.

Crystal fly shop has some good buys on Rio fly lines and they ship free.  The “Fly Shop.com”  is also a good source.

You also need to check with “Cabela’s”  they have had some really good sales on many items.

Tight Lines

Jim

As I have said in past entries, “when the ice is on the water it’s time to clean up and reorganize all my fishing gear in preparation for the next spring season.”  I’ve already done my fly fishing gear.  I read somewhere that after cleaning your rods with water, “try Pledge furniture polish to get back that new rod look”, and it works.  My rods look as good as new.  I cleaned all the lines with line cleaner and changed all the leaders.  During the season I found that adding 18” of fluorocarbon as a tippet it saves the leader and the line is so much thinner that the line lays out better and seemingly gives the popper or fly better action.  Of course fluorocarbon  is also mostly invisible to the fish and that helps to get more strikes, “I think, anyway”.  Fluorocarbon also sinks, using too much will cause the wet flies to sink faster so, if you’re using dry flies…?  I’m also looking at my fly shop sources for sale prices on flies, lines, and leaders.  Many shops have lowered their prices on these items, so, if you’re interested, now is the time to buy.

I’ve also finished cleaning my bait casting rods and reels in the same way.  As you must have surmised, I’m not just strictly a fly fisherman.  When I go fishing I go to catch fish and I bring along several rods and reels and the baits required for the specific fish that I am pursuing.  Fly Roding, however, is my first choice.  There is no more fun that catching a big bass on the fly rod or for that matter, a big bluegill, or crappie, or pike.  Of course if you have read several of my fishing experiences in this web site you will have found that channel cats will also hit flies.  My biggest cat on the fly was last years 7 lb channel cat caught on a bass streamer fly.  That fish didn’t want to give up!  And the biggest crappie that I’ve ever caught was caught on the fly.  I might add, that all the fish shown in this web site are still swimming as far as I know.  I am almost strictly a “catch and release” fisherman.  The only time that I kept any fish was last season , spring, when I took out my 6 year old granddaughter, she wanted “to cook some for  supper”, which we did.  And she liked them!  So did I.

I’ll be working on my spinning and spin casting rods and reels in the coming days and weeks.  I’ll keep in touch

Tight Lines

Jim

I was fishing fishing in the pond whenever I could the last week in November and the first day of Dec. for about two hours on  one day and 3 hours on two other days in the afternoon from 1 – 3:30 or 4:30 PM.  The fish were responding mainly to spinners, especially the one shown here, a Storm Wild eye on a pin spinner,  It was the only color(green perch) that the bass would respond to.  One bass was caught on a pin spinner/curly tail jig in dark/light  blue, the 18” bass shown here.  Using the spinner was the key if you dragged it just on the bottom with enough speed for the spinner to have some spin on it.  Looking at the tip of my spinning rod for vibration I could calculate just how fast to move it to get hit.  Faster or slower would get no response.

The crappie were hitting on the storm wild eye as well as the flies.  The bluegill I caught on the olive color and the white color wooley bugger fly #6 fished with very small jerks with the hand doing the work, not the rod.  The fly had to sink to the bottom to get the attention of the crappie and the bluegill and a couple of small bass to boot.

Another observation, the fish were hitting on clear sunny days and were not responding to any bait on the dark days with a few small crappie as the exception .  The wind also created a different pattern, when the wind was up-nothing, but a calm wind-hits, as long as the sun was shining brightly.  And, the best times were the last hour of  bright sunlight.

The majority of the bluegill were in the 8 – 9 inch class, the crappie were mostly 8 –9 inch with the exception of the one shown here at 14 1/2 inches.  The bass are 18” and 15”.  They were the biggest bass but I caught a few more smaller bass with both the fly and the wild eye rig.  I also lost several larger fish because of poor hookups.  I guess I caught 40 fish on the good days and maybe 15 on the bad days, a mixture of all the the fish shown here.  Whatever, its always fun to be out there trying to catch the “Big One”.

Tight lines

JIm

“I had to go to Baldwin Michigan in October for a few days and my friend from Nashville happened to be there fishing for Salmon on the Pere Marquette River. Roger invited me to fish with his group one day and we caught some nice fish. I think I landed seven and lost as many. I had a beautiful 27” Brown Trout on until he had different ideas. The fish in attached photo weighed 20 pounds and I caught it using the nine weight fishing an egg pattern. It was a good day, but probably would not had the opportunity had I not been there working. Sometimes working is good!”- Larry

This is my friend Larry, an expert in the art of fly fishing.  His rod and reels are really the best.  As you can see here he really put them to good use.  Personally, I have never caught a freshwater fish like this.  As Larry describes above, he must have had a really great fly fishing day.

Congratulations Larry.

Tight Lines

Jim

Fishing with the fly rod week 2 Nov 09 was almost a repeat of week one.  I managed to get to fish three days for 2 1/2 hours to 3 hours in the late afternoon.  The fishing was really good on all three days with the best day being Saturday.  Using the white wooley bugger was effective on Wednesday, the olive wooley bugger was best on Friday and Saturday.  The rainbow trout fly (From Discount Flies.com) that caught most of my fish one day the week before didn’t get much attention at all.  Well , that just shows that fish have their preference from one day to the next.  To back that up, why is it that one day the fish like the white wooley bugger one day and the next day I have to change to an olive color.  Last week the white one caught nearly 50 fish where the olive was best on Saturday with 42 fish including bass, bluegill and crappie. 

So far this week it’s been cold and raining, no fishing.

For you fishing readers, if you would like to share some of your fishing experiences, I’d like to hear from you.  Especially Illinois fishing since that’s where I live.  Just make comments and add your own experiences with Bass, Crappie, Bluegill, Pike, Walleye or whatever fish you pursue.  I really like to fly fish for big bluegill and bass.  Do you have any suggestions?  As you can see in my web site I have featured some nice 9 or 10 inch bluegill but I sure would like to find some bigger ones.  The largest one that I ever caught was on a fly the day before I entered the Air Force; it was 13 1/2 inches long on Onota Lake in PIttsfield Mass.

Tight Lines

Jim

This was one of the best days of fishing I’ve had all season.  The majority of my fish were all caught on the fly rod.  The cat on a white wooley bugger, the bluegill, about 25 of them, were caught on the wooley bugger and the tiny Yum craw, the drum was caught on a black rabbit skin streamer and this bass was caught on a Blue Fox spinner.  I also caught a 5 lb bass the other day on a Storm Wild eye jig attached to a pin spinner ( didn’t have my camera with me)  The bluegill were all in the 8 to 10 inch range, really nice and lots of fun.  These fish and about 30 or so crappie all caught on the tiny craw.  The crappie were all in the 8 to 9 inch range. 

I stuck with the fly rod for the most part only going to the spinner when trying to locate fish and that it did.  It’s funny but I was catching the majority of these fish in locations where I haven’t caught almost any fish all summer.  This was the best fly fishing day I’ve had in a very long time.  I was kept busy for about 3 1/2 hours almost without stop.  Wish you guys were with me, I’m sure that you both would have done just as well.

Hope all is well with you.

Tight Lines

Jim

The last two weeks I’ve been trying to “catch the big one”  in the pond.  I have heard for a long time and from many sources that fall fishing is the time to catch the “big one”.  So, that’s just what I’ve been concentrating on.  I’ve tried all my go to baits: the stick worm weightless and with a small split-shot sinker, (the water is only about five feet deep on average), in  colors, light green/white, black/red, and brown/tan…I purchased a shallow baby shad rap in white/yellow without a single hit…several Mepp’s spinners of various sizes and colors…Wardens rooster tails…and Blue Fox spinners…ultra light Rapalas…Yum baby craws and Shaw Grigsby craws…Strike KIng jigs with craw and tube trailers…Berkleys swimming ribbon tails in shad colors and some fly patterns like the Woolley Bugger and the minnow patterns and with the fly rod the “swimmin minnow and tiny craw.  The winner is…the Blue Fox spinner.  BUT no big fish .

The largest fish in the last two weeks was a bass of about 2 1/2 lbs.  No channel cats and  no crappie bigger than 9 inches.

I did take out some live night crawlers with me the other day, leftovers from my last outing with my granddaughter.  But, I didn’t have the heart to use them because when a bass takes them they usually swallow it and that is not good.  I don’t want to hurt the fish since I return nearly every fish that I catch.  However, I’m almost certain that night crawlers could catch the most and biggest fish based on fishing trips that I’ve made in the past when I intentionally went out to bring home some fish for a meal.

For those of you that do want to keep fish, and I have no animosity to those who do, I will suggest that you bring a blower with you to inflate the night crawlers so that when they are laying on the bottom the tail end floats up.  Air escaping from the worm is also an  attractant.  This old method really works especially in dirty water.  You will not only attract bass but bluegill, catfish, crappie, carp, and any other fish in the lake.  Worms are probably the best bait around if fished properly.  So, expect to lose a ton on worms on fish you don’t want to catch.

I’ll keep trying but time is running out for this season for me.  And another factor that has impeded fishing lately is the rain and strong winds and the unseasonable cold.   Maybe the weather will get a little better before I pack all my tackle away the the winter.  River Bend is a destination that I’ve put off while the weather has been poor.  Boat control on the lake is hard enough without the high winds and the cold air and rain doesn’t make a trip there promising. 

Tight lines

Jim

Saturday, 10, 4-09, I went out on the pond Saturday to try out some old ultra light spinning tackle for some crappie.  Surprised, I caught a nice 3 1/2 lb drum as shown.  I was using a very old Garcia Mitchell 308 spinning reel with a Bass 6’ ultra light rod.  The drum was strong and took a while to bring it to net.  I continued to search for the bigger crappie but had to settle for several of the hand size.  The lure, and ultra light Rapala, sinking jerk bait was effective for a couple of small bass as well.  As you can see I was using a snap swivel leader to help prevent line twist but it also had a negative effect on the lures action.  The water was very stained so, I kept it on any way.  The next time I go out I’ll try it without the swivel to see if it makes a difference even in stained water.  The lure is so light that I’m sure I’ll have to use a small sinker to get some casting distance.  The problem with that is the pond is only 5 feet deep and that will require me to fish the lure more rapidly than I would normally.  See you next time.

Tight lines

Jim

I went out again today but only for about two hours on the pond.  The temperature was 60 degrees and the wind was gusting to about 15 mph.  I followed the shoreline, again using my trusty Blue Fox spinner.  Boat control was difficult with the wind trying to blow the boat into shore.  This made paralleling the shoreline very difficult.  To counter this I moved out from shore, stopped my electric motor and drifted toward shore while casting to the shoreline.  I was using a faster retrieve to get rid of the bow in the line caused by the wind.

This method was the key.  I caught six bass from one to three lbs , six small crappie (hand size) and one bluegill all on the Blue Fox spinner.  I did try my craw and my jig and minnow  (Mr Twister) without success.

I was happy.  Got home for dinner just in time(as usual) and just had a good day.

Tight lines

Jim

The Blue Fox spinner was the winner again today, 9-27-09.  In addition to the YUM Baby Craw that also brought in six nice bass in the 1 1/2 to 2lb range.  The Blue Fox once again proved to be the best all around fish catcher though with a bunch of crappie and a couple of small bass.  A straight retrieve and a moderate speed seemed to be the key.  Trying sort burst of speed or burning the lure was not productive with the spinner.  With the Yum craw I used the hop and pause method; a slow drag did not seem to work.  With the craw, instead of using a worm hook, I’ve been inserting a long shank jig into the hollow body of the craw with the hook just barely penetrating the head of the lure.  Using that method I’m getting a better hook up ratio.  However, the bait easily gets torn up when catching fish, so bring plenty of them with you.  Also, spraying YUM scent into the craws hollow belly seems to make the bait more effective.

Shown here are the two best fish of the day, two channel cats and both weighed in a nearly 4 lbs.  Lots of fun, cats never seem to want to give up.  So let the fish work on the drag, be patient and get them to net. 

Note: I don’t keep the fish and handle them as little as possible.  As soon as possible I just lift the net, put it in the water, and turn the net over to release them.  This helps to ensure that the protective slime on their bodies is less affected by handling and gives the fish a much better chance of survival.

Tight lines

Jim