I fished on the pond with the fly rod this evening for a couple of hours after trying to catch some bass with my stick worms and the Zoom stick worm without results.  Just as before on my last posting, the bluegills were grabbing the tail of the stick worms.  I did manage to catch a couple of small bass on the fly but no luck with the larger bass.  Again, this is after another rain storm.  The weather was hot and muggy.  My guess is that the bass were not in a feeding mood because of the heat or the fish were waiting for dark to feed.  I also tried a  floating frog and missed one strike in the area where I could hear the frogs croaking.  I tried that for about half an hour with no other takers.  The water is very dirty and warm, I’m sure that has a lot to do with the problem.  Next week we’re supposed to have a few nice days with temperatures in the mid 80’s.  I’ll try again then.  You can see the fly still in the mouth of the cat in the top photo a black/white clouser to try to match the bass fry.

Tight lines

Jim

Thursday afternoon I decided to try for the bigger bass at River Bend.  There is, what they call “the hump”, an area that rises to the 3 foot level to deeper than 30 feet of water.  The area is surrounded by weed beds.  There are several open pockets between the beds.  According to all the articles that I have read, these areas should hold the bigger bass.  I’ve tried this area before and have caught bass there, but the bass  still averaged 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pounds on those occasions.  This time I would try several methods to try to entice, “the big ones” down deeper, graduating from shallow to 30 feet.

I set up my rods beforehand with the following:  Mann’s  hard nose craw, rust colored, rigged Carolina style.  A Yum craw, brown/red specks, Texas style.  A weighted Zoom trick worm , watermelon, Texas style  A Yum stick worm, grey/white rigged drop shot, 8” off the bottom.  An Excalibur in red/chartreuse, deep diving plug to bring along the top of the weeds 8- 10 feet deep, and a Rapala Shad Rap in the bass color, (I thought the bass would possibly be after their fry), also to bring along the tops of the weeds. And the results:  “0” after three hours.  All the lures mentioned above have caught bass at River Bend before.

I did try other plugs including the old Bayou Boogie, Rapala craw diving plug, Rapala suspending husky jerks in two different colors and a couple of other lures, and, oh yes, the old red/white “sonic”; proven fish catchers of the past. 

The day was partly cloudy with a 5 to 10 mph wind and the temperature was in the mid 80’s.  A beautiful day following a few days of heavy rain and high winds.  The water was very high, at least two feet higher than normal.  When I got to the area where there is a drain pipe, you couldn’t see the pipe beneath the water.  I always catch bass in this area.  And, sure enough, I caught my first bass of the day there at 5:10 pm.  I had reverted back to my usual lures, the Zoom trick worm and the Yum stick worm both weightless.  The bass was the usual size, about 1 1/2 lbs to 2lbs.  I tried the drop shot, 25 feet, no takers.  The plugs, no takers,  and all the rest of my set ups, but no takers.

I decided to try my fly rods with the wooly buggers and the cclouser minnow in the pockets of weeds near the shore: no takers.  I moved on to start back along the shore line at about 6:00 pm casting with my weightless stick bait and the Zoom trick worm, usually a sure way of catching bass at River Bend if you’re happy catching the normal size bass there.  The shore line on the west side of the lake is covered in shadow at this time.  But, no takers!

Moving along I spotted some surface activity; the bass and the crappie will coral the schools of bait fish or fry to the surface.  This was happening 100 to 200 yards off shore.  I put my trolling motor on low speed to try to get as close as possible to the disturbed areas but could get no closer than 50 to 60 feet before the fish would disappear.  So, when I did get to within that  distance I cast just off to the side of the commotion and landed my second bass of the day, about two lbs.  When I hooked a fish the rest were spooked and moved off to another spot where  they would surface again.  The areas were small and their next location was unpredictable but, I remained patient, spotted the disturbances, moved in to within casting distance, and caught ten more bass and missing that many more with poor hook ups.  I use a offset worm hook.  I’ve used a wacky style hook before but I get better hook ups with the offset hook. 

By that time it was getting on toward dark so, I headed in before it was too dark to see what I was doing when I was putting my boat on the trailer and packing my gear.  The park would be closed in another hour anyway.  The park closes at 9:00 pm.

So, no big bass, but fun, and I’ll try again next week for the big ones and with different lures and methods until I succeed.  I’m a believer that “where there are small ones poppa and grandpa will be there too”.  Not to mention mama and grandma.  I let “all” my fish go anyway.  I’ll have my camera ready.  So, stay tuned for the next chapter. 

Tight lines

Jim

PS. When I had moved off shore, two fishermen in a boat were fishing along the shore line.  They called to me, “Hey, are you fishing for bass?”  I yelled back,”yes”. They must have thought I was crazy fishing in over 40 feet of water and moving out deeper.  They didn’t know I was chasing the fish at the surface and I didn’t tell them.  I wonder if they caught anything.  I did and was happy doing so, crazy or not!. 

And, I should mention I had my” Eagle” fish locator with me.  With it I could determine the depth and locate the open spaces of the weed beds.  I also spotted humps on the hump and gradual underwater banks varying in depth along with sheer drops.  All these areas should hold bass.  That’s why, next time I’ll try again with different set ups.  There were fish there, I could see fish on the graph, but they didn’t want what I was offering for one reason or another.  Got any suggestions?

I was about to go to fish at River Bend but thought I’d check the weather on the computer first: “40% chance of thunderstorms and high winds for the afternoon”.  I looked outside and didn’t see a cloud in the sky.  But, knowing Illinois weather, I decided to stay home and fish the pond instead.  I’m glad I did because 40% turned into 100% by six Pm.  And the winds were very strong.  I got off the pond pronto.  When I fish at River Bend I like to stay until dark around 8 Pm so, I would have been caught up in a very bad storm on the far end of the lake where I like to fish for bass.

And I had a good three hours on the pond anyway.  I caught four bass, two of them were dinks, but I’m glad to see them; it means that there is some spawning and there are some healthy survivors.  I also managed to catch 10 nice bluegills, eight and nine inchers on my fly rod using a #6 black and white clouser minnow.  In fact three of the bass were caught on the clouser .  The one shown however, I caught on the Yum craw, you can see part of it in the picture.   This fellow is about 2 1/2 lbs.  The bass and the bluegills were all in the same area.  Where I usually catch  bass I zeroed. The Yum craw, for those who read my web site, used to be my favorite lure on the pond.  Then suddenly, they quit hitting it.  This was the first bass that I caught with it in a long time.  I think that maybe, just maybe, the pro’s are right, “After  a bass has been caught on a lure they tend to recognize it as “not to be eaten by fish”!  as the bass grocery package might say.  I rigged the craw Texas style with an offset worm hook.  I’ve tried to rig it with a jig hook but, I find I miss many strikes that way or get bad hook sets.  Texas style is better for me.

Now they seem to be going after it once again…new generation of bass?  You decide.

Tight Lines

Jim

My Grand daughter, Evelyn, and I decided to try our luck fishing on the pond today.  We’ve had a lot of heavy rain in the last few days and the water was very dirty.  I thought this is going to be difficult.  But, it wasn’t.  I took her to the place where the bluegill were very aggressive the other day when they were pulling my Yum worms almost off the hook.  The bluegill are apparently still on their nests and even though the water is so dirty we managed to get a few fish to bite.  Shown here are two of the fish she caught all on her own .  I set her up with a jig in the rust a chartreuse color and she did well with that.  I had to reset her slip float a couple of times to get to the proper depth, but that was all.  She managed to cast fairly well on her own using a Zebco reel and rod with 6lb test mono. 

I managed to make a few casts with the Yum stick worm but with no results.  I tried with my fly rod just before quitting with a white wooly bugger and caught a nice bluegill.  Of course, when you’re fishing with a child, you must keep him/her aware of when they have a bite.  Evie was looking at the ducks and geese as much as anything else but responded well when the time came to set the hook.  When you take a child fishing you want them to catch the fish.  Always, keep that in mind.

She enjoyed it for about an hour when she decided to go home, have some lunch, and then to play with her girl friend next door.  I asked her if she had fun and she said” yes.  I then asked her if she wanted to go again and she responded, “yes, but not today”.  I said,” ok, next time you might catch some more.”

Tight lines

Jim

We had a very strong storm, lightening, very high winds, and very heavy rain.  But, around 6:00 pm there was a large patch of blue sky and there was no wind so, I decided to give the pond a try.  I just got to the area where Roy had caught his first bass the day before, made two casts and caught this bass of about two lbs on the Yum pearl/black stick worm.  Then, off in the distance I heard a large boom…thunder.  But it was too close for comfort and I was in my canoe; it would take me maybe five minutes to get off the water.  I just finished putting my gear in my car and down it came.  We had more of the same weather  today so, no fishing.  If the rain didn’t return, I think the fishing would have been exceptional.

Tight Lines

Jim

This is Roy, a business man from Champaign, Illinois.  I met Roy while fishing at River Bend.  He was loading his canoe onto his car after a day of fishing and I had just loaded my boat onto my trailer.  I noticed that his canoe was a square back with an electric motor.  My canoe is also a square back.  I asked Roy how well he did that day and he replied that he had caught about as many fish that I did.  On that day I had put 40 bass in the boat. ( I thought, he must be a pretty good fisherman, I wonder what he was using for bait.)  I had talked to three other fishermen and they reported that they didn’t do very well.  So, I asked. ( I had been using the Yum pearl stick worm and the Zoom trick worm in water melon red. ) He said,”I was using a Kevin VanDam (KVD) caffeine shad in white.”

Well, I didn’t have any of those in my bag so, I should probably get some.  We got to talking about where he had caught most of his fish and it was in the same areas that I had fished earlier.  When I’m fishing a good spot i seem to catch maybe four or five bass and then they’ll quit so, I move on.  New lesson, change your bait and maybe you’ll catch some more.  As I said before I was using two baits, the Yum and the Zoom and it never occurred to me to try three baits.  Well, anyway, there must have been more bass there or maybe more moved into the area after I had left.  Probably the latter.  I do have a habit of moving on when I think that fishing in a spot is no longer productive.

Roy seemed to me a very fine gentleman and I thought,( I’d like to fish with this guy), having a companion in the boat with you can make it more fun if he’s of the same mindset as you are, a guy that really likes to fish, and who will share his experiences and techniques with you.  He agreed.

We set a date to fish in the pond, 6-10-10.

Roy came to my house ready to fish in the evening at about 4:00 pm.  We went in my two man boat.  We went strictly for bass.  I took two bait casting rods and a spinning rod.  I believe he had two spinning rods and a  bait casting rod with him.  I was using the Yum pearl and the YUM  water melon stick worms and A Yum craw.  He was using a Jitterbug and a KVD white caffeine shad for the most part.  He caught all of his fish on the shad except the cat.  He got the cat on a Zoom super fluke in smokin shad.

The cottonwood fluffs were all over some parts of the pond so, I avoided those areas and set out to my favorite hot spots on the pond minus my favorite spot where the cottonwood fluffs were very thick.

Roy almost immediately caught a bass, shown above,  a nice fish.  I had hooked a small bass and it got off right at the boat as I hoped it would.  I try not to boat very small fish and hope that they’ll shake the hook themselves, and it did.

As we moved on, fishing right next to the bank, it’s where I catch most of my fish, we kept getting bluegills grabbing onto our lures and pulling them down the hook shaft.  The bluegills are bedding now and are very aggressive.  They grab the worm or shad by the tail and run a short distance with it presumably to get it out of there territory.  I managed to hook one and he was a nice one at that.

As we moved on Roy caught a very nice channel cat of about five  lbs on the shad.  We let it go as quickly as possible and I forgot to get the picture.  He was about the same size as some of the fish that I had taken pictures of earlier and are in my web site.

I had two fish break off my line, I didn’t see them but I believe that they were probably good size bass. 

Roy caught another small bass and followed up with another bass of about 1 1/2 lbs.  That fish I had caught on another day last week in the same place.  I could tell from the wound on it’s lip, I remembered where and how I had hooked it, through its lip and on the inside upper part of its jaw.  It was difficult to remove the hook and left two very distinguishable marks.  Roy gut hooked it but the hook did come out.  We hope the fish will survive.  By that  time it was getting late, nearing 8:00pm so we decided to head in before it got too dark.

Well, Roy did out fish me, four to one in the boat.  Next time…?

I was in town yesterday so I went to Dick’s and picked up guess what…some caffeine shad in white!

Roy works  in Champaign, Illinois.  The company name is “Strategic Farm Marketing.”  If you’re interested call Roy 217 202-7827 for an honest consult.

Tight  lines

Jim

The day was beautiful after a night of storms and tornado activity most of the night.  The sky was partly cloudy and the temperature was in the low 80’s…perfect.  As you can see from the photos above  the fishing was excellent as well. 

The first lure that I tried was the Yum stick worm in the watermelon/green color with red specks…that got no reaction.  So, I switched to the Yum in the pearl/black color…that got immediate results.  I was fishing in that area with the tree in the water where I caught and released  that 14 1/2 inch crappie earlier this year.  This area also holds some nice bass on occasion…but not always.  Fishing the pond last week got me absolutely nothing there.  But, today the crappie shown above charged the Yum to the surface twice, he came right to the top  of the water so I could see him but couldn’t hook him.  I pulled out my fly rod with the white wooly bugger and that got him, he was 16 1/4 inches long.  If that was the same crappie that I had caught early this spring he has grown some.  Well, he’s back in the water and I hope that he will grow some more.

The bluegill shown actually grabbed the Yum and was halfway in his mouth.  I was surprised, the crappie with its big mouth didn’t get hooked but the bluegill,  even with its much smaller mouth did.

The bass shown above were all about in the two pound class, maybe a little larger.  I caught seven of them all about the same size…no big ones today but lots of fun anyway.  I will say that they put up a good fight.

  I’m using a 6 1/2 foot Field and Stream, rod medium action  and a  7 foot medium action Abu Garcia rod with one a different worm on each.  I use the Abu Garcia Orra sx casting reel and the Rick Clunn RCX10 HB Bass Pro Shops bait casting reel.  Both these reels cost about $100. and are excellent for the money.  The rods cost between $30 and $40 dollars each.  I use 10 to 12 lb mono Trilene or Stren lines for most applications but will use fluorocarbon leaders or straight fluorocarbon when using the drop shot during summer in deep water.  That’s the most expensive line I will use.  This shows that you don’t have to be spending a fortune on tackle in order to catch fish and have some fun.

I use two 9’ St Croix fly rods that I got on sale from Cabela’s, an 8 1/2’ Cortland fly rod, a Cabela’s 9’ fly rod ($50. on sale) and a Pflueger 9’ fly rod all in the 5/6 or 6 weight and I use Cabela’s Prestige fly reels on the most part.  All inexpensive.  I’ve already indicated where I get most of my flies in other postings.  I also get most of my lures when they are on sale.

I take good care of my equipment and I still have and use rods and reels that I purchased 50 years ago.  My older reels are mostly Garcia and Mitchell, they used to make and still make the best inexpensive reels going in my book.  My spinning rods are a mix of brands that I have purchased since I was a kid and they’re all serviceable now.  I have about 20 of them.  I have maintained them, i.e., changed the tips, or rewound some of the guides, etc.  I even have the first bait casting reel, A South Bend, and a 4 foot long steel rod that was given to me by my father when I was twelve years old. I have to admit though that my newest rods and reels are the best.

I’ a retired Air Force Master Sergeant, since 1974, and I’m having fun and you can too.  Of course I also have a wife, who was the girl next door,  and who understands me.  We’ve been married for 53 years and she is the best partner any man could ever ask for.  She IS the best and I am truly blessed.  I hope you are too.

Tight lines

Jim

On this trip to River Bend I decided to do a little experimenting with a few of my favorite lures.  The first thing was to find the fish but this time with a proven fish catcher, the Zoom trick worm, that I had been so successful with on previous trips.

The trick worm, rigged whacky style, as you have read in my previous trips produced 40 bass on one trip and 30 bass on another.  Today, almost nothing.  That theory about fish having memory may have had something to do with it, I’m not convinced but maybe…  I switched to the Yum stick worm shown above, again whacky style to see what that would do. 

The water in River Bend is fairly clear and I could see the bass chasing after the lure and I managed to catch 3 small bass with it right away so, I thought the fish are here, let’s try some plugs.  I had purchased two new lures, The Rapala Shad Rap and the Rapala shad rap jointed suspending lures in the bass color.  I was thinking young bass fry might be the ticket.  I tried them in the fast retrieve, slow retrieve and the stop and go retrieve with no results, not even a follow up.  The lures suspend about 4 to 5 feet below the surface and I could watch them as  they approached the boat from about twenty feet out.  The weeds are about 8 feet deep, three feet below the lures.  I was hoping that the would  get the attention of  some larger bass but that didn’t happen.  I decided to move to another spot.

While trolling over to a new spot with the Rapala I managed to catch two small bass and missed two other hits.  So, it does work, but in deeper water, the water here was about 25 to 30 feet deep.  After a few more casts with the Rapala to the deeper water I got no more hits.  O. K. , move on. 

Using the Yum (green) in the new spot I caught another bass right away and I could see bass following the lure but moving away near the boat.  The fish are here.  So, I pulled out my fly rod with the Betts popper that I had caught the 8 bass with on my pond.  I was casting from about 45 feet out to the shoreline where there were trees and bushes laying in the water.  That got the attention of several bluegill and caught me a warmouth bass.  I could see bass swimming in the area but they paid no attention to my popper.  The bluegill were small and were just grabbing the white legs of the popper, but no hookups.  I switched to the white wooly bugger, no takers.

I moved on to an area where reeds line the shore out to ten to fifteen feet from the shore and that parallels the shore for about 200 feet and I heard frogs croaking in there.  I again switched to my fly rod this time using my i/8 oz Hula Popper in the frog color…no takers.  I used the Betts next and got a fairly nice bluegill of about 8”.  No bass.  That can’t be right, I know that some bass must be in this area. 

I switched to the Yum in the pearl/black color shown above, Texas style, weighted.  I cast it out and just let it float down to the bottom.  The lure never reached the bottom before I caught a small bass of about 14”.  And I caught another and the another one after another for about five bass all about the same size.  Then it shut down.

I moved again across the lake to a sheltered cove where I usually catch bass on most of my trips to the lake and where I took a bass of 3 1/2 pounds a couple of years back; being the biggest bass I’ve ever caught in River Bend.

I again tried the poppers, the Rapala’s, and the trick worm.  The trick worm got me one small bass.  I switched to the Yum, pearl/black,  and caught five more bass right away.

And something funny happened.  I was playing a bass in and he let go of the worm five feet from the boat, he got off.  Then he immediately went after the worm again right in front of me!  I hooked him this time and then I let him go.  A few more casts later I was playing another bass in to the boat, he spit it out  just as before, and before I could lift the bait out of the water, he hit it again!  That’s twice!  The bass must be hungry.

I think the moral of this story is, “ If you don’t have the right lure with you,  you may go home empty handed!”.  My suggestion is be prepared and experiment until you find  the key.  During this experiment I used a lot of time to find the right lure and the right method.  I will never go fishing without a good worm selection.  I forgot to mention that I also tried a “hard Nose” crawdad rigged Texas style along that stretch of reeds and did catch another warmouth and missed two other hits before I switched to the Yum.  I have experimented with Yum Craws and lizards on other occasions as well and have done fairly well with them but at different times and under different circumstances.  Read my files and you’ll see what I mean.

By the way, the trick worm shown is one that was pretty torn up and I repaired it according to an article that I read in “Bass Master” magazine,  I used a soldering iron.  You can see that the bait is now reusable and it saves you money.  So, don’t throw them away, fix ‘em.

Tight lines

Jim

I had reset all my fly rods as I said I would in my last posting and set out on the pond after an early supper.  I said that I would set up 5 rods but set up six instead, the last with a sinking tiny (fly rod size) Rapala minnow.  I tried it first where I saw some surface activity but with no takers.  I switched to a white hula popper and again no takers.  Then I tried a floating Rapala minnow without success.  I could see the surface activity still happening and I was casting just beyond or in front of the activity where I thought the fish were chasing the fry of the spawn.  I then tried a Betts popper in silver/black and managed to catch a large bluegill.  Well I tried all my new lures and this one seemed to be the one.  I continued with the Betts and managed to land a few more bluegill and another small bass…so, I switched again to a  white/crystal wooly bugger. 

Then the action began; a big fish hit it.  The water was exceptionally murky with about a foot of visibility so I didn’t know what I had on the end of my line, but it was big!  I did see some silver flash and thought at first, “this must be the granddaddy of the bass in the pond.”  But, the fish didn’t fight like a bass.  He made a very long run to the middle of the lake and then turned to head for the shoreline.  I didn’t want him there so I turned on my Min-Kota trolling motor and headed out to the middle of the lake trying not to put too much pressure on the fish and breaking my 6 lb tippet.  I managed to ease the fish back out to the middle and away from possible snags.  Then he came up to the surface and I recognized the fish, a drum. 

No matter, the fish was putting up a mighty struggle.  He made several more long runs and after nearly  a half hour I got him next to the boat and into the net.  I didn’t weigh him but I’d guess 7 or 8 lbs.  What to you think?

It was fun to say the least.  I quickly set up my camera which was already prepared on the small tripod and got the picture and let  him go.

Continuing on I changed my fly rod to the Betts popper that I had caught bass with on my previous outing while going back to where I keep my boat.  The sun was on the horizon and would be dark very soon.  On the way back I manage to land two more bass of about 12′” and a big bass that bombed my popper and made a beeline toward me.  I couldn’t get a good hook set because of that and he got off,  I’d guestimate he was over 3 lbs as I did see him briefly but, who knows!  When a bass makes a very large explosion hitting your lure don’t we all think, “he was the big one that got away?”

Tight lines

Jim

Again I went out after having an early supper.  My super wife has been accommodating me that way, she knows that it is better for me to be out fishing rather than to be sitting in front of the “Boob Tube”.  Not that there’s anything wrong with watching TV but when there’s good fishing to be had…let’s go fishing.

The results have been about the same as that evening on the 28th.  Some nice bass and some nice bluegills.  I did try the trick worm but got nothing.  You’ve heard of “match the hatch” well,  yesterday evening I saw fish that were working the surface away from the shoreline and it dawned on me that these are the offspring of the bass and bluegill that the bass are after and probably the bigger bluegill are foraging the fry as well.

So, this evening I’ll reset my five fly rods with minnow imitating flies and poppers. I’ll leave the trick worm home and concentrate on the fly fishing with one exception, a light weight spinning rod set up with a floating mini Rapala.  I’ll also set up one of my fly rods with a “Swimmin Minnow” , the one I had so much luck with last year, (read through my files), it can be deadly on a fly  rod.  It’s good on a light spinning rod too but, I don’t like the splash that the float makes when using the minnow that way.  Well, I’m on my way to set up my rods now, I’ll let you know.

Tight Lines

Jim