I bought a new Motor Guide foot controlled trolling motor to help me with boat control this year.  The motor is different to control than a hand controlled motor to say the least.  It’s going to be a challenge  but, fun.  I took it out on the pond today on my two man pond bass tracker to see how it works and to try to master going out on one of the bigger lakes.  At first the motor got the best of me as I was over reacting the steering  while in the high speed mode as I headed to the area where I caught my first bass two weeks ago.  I ended up slowing down to the # 2 position of the 5 speeds that it has.  Things got better but I was still overacting.  After a while I got the hang of it  but, I still need to practice a lot more before I can master it to be sure.  The big problem was trying to beach the boat on shore.  Trying to move the boat forward fast enough to get the front of the boat on shore and steering it precisely, this I found not doable.  I ended up pushing the boat to shore using my long handled net.  I will try again but I’ll bring a long pole with me just in case.  The landing area is not much wider that the width of the boat so, there’s no room to spare.

I finally got to my destination and tried to catch bass in the same area where I got the 6 lb  bass two weeks ago.  Not a single strike.  I was using six rods, each with a different bait, A Blue Fox spinner, Shaws paddle worm, a Culprit worm in an effervescent brown/orange color,  a Rapala floating 3/16 oz  jerk bait silver/black, a new Zman craw dad in black w/red craws,  and a Yum white shad Coffee. 

Not a single strike.  So, I move to the other end of the lake and caught the bass shown, nice size but not nearly as big than the one I caught  two weeks ago.  And, again this was my only strike of the day.  I’ll admit that I only fished for about an hour but my expectations were higher.

I caught it on the Culprit worm moving it very slowly across the bottom rigged  on a red headed jig.

At last we had a day where I could go out and try out my new fishing outfit.  My daughter, Theresa, had asked me what I wanted for my birthday last November.  I told her that while looking through the Bass Pro and Cabela’s  catalogs, I saw what I thought would be a very good spinning outfit but one that I really shouldn’t indulge in; a little over my usual budget for fishing gear.  Most of my  reels are Abu-Garcia or Mitchell,  and, I have an assortment of rods, Berkley, St Croix, Bass, Field and Stream, Diawa, Shakesphere and a few other brands, but the new Abu-Garcia Veritas caught my eye as did the new Abu-Garcia Soron spinning reel.  Some of these outfits  are over 50 years old, but, taking care of them all these years keeps them fishable.

Well, my daughter, Theresa, got me the outfit but , with the stipulation that it was for my birthday and Christmas.  Now getting back to my story.

It was about 52 degrees and overcast with a strong wind from the South at about 25-30 mph.  I had to  cast into the wind or perpendicular to it.  I put on a 3 1/2 “ money minnow, shad color,  with a 1/8oz weighted  Gamatzu minnow hook.  On the second cast I hooked onto a really nice largemouth bass, and, you might know it, I didn’t bring my camera along or my  measuring stick.  But I know that the bass was at least 6 or 6 1/2 lbs., a real beauty.

I thought about tying him up while I went for my camera, but , decided not to for the fishes sake.  So, I let him go.  The genes in that fish will help keep the pond supplied with excellent offspring.  The new outfit handled that fish exceptionally well, I am very pleased with it, it’s the best spinning outfit that I’ve ever owned.  I know that there are many more  outfits that can cost up to ten times as much, but I’ll stick with things that are affordable, after all, I’m not the with the congress or using White House arithmetic.  Even though my daughter was paying for the outfit, I knew where to draw the line.

I had loaded the spool with PLine, 8 lb. test.  The rod action is fast tip medium action ad the # 240 Soron reel.  I cast for another 1/2 hour with only one small tap.  I tried a crawdad on another rod and a spinner on a third rod with no results.

Tight lines

Jim

Unfortunately, it was my only bass this evening.  I  really haven’t been out that much for the last couple of weeks due to the heat and other matters that needed to be taken care of.  The only time that I have been out is on the pond, (our sub-division pond), for a couple of hours after supper.  Actually, after I load the car with my stuff, drive down to where I keep my boats, and load the boat, I have about an hour and fifteen minutes to fish.  And, as it seems, I have not picked the best places to fish.  I have managed to catch a few small bass and small crappie and I’ve gotten them just before dark, at the last moment.  I don’t fish in the dark.  But, I thought I’d keep you up to date anyway .  The weather will be cooling off starting in September and that should start the fish moving again trying to fatten up for winter.  The action should pick up again then.

As for you folks that don’t mind the heat I’ll say good luck and I wish you tight lines, and I don’t mean from snags!

Tight Lines

Jim

The day was very nice yesterday, about 85 degrees with a light wind so I decided to give the sub/div pond a try for bass again. I started out at about 2:45 P.M. in my two man boat. The first hour bought nothing but as I reached the east end of the lake I cast under some over hanging bushes and got my first bass, a 2 1/2 pounder. Continuing on I caught two more bass about 12″ long. Now it was going on 4:30 P.M. and I started circling to the north side and heading back west. Nearly half way back to where I keep my boat I hooked into two more bass but only landed one , another 12 “. Continuing on I caught one more 12″ bass. Reaching my favorite catfish area I thought I’d try for one and got a nice three pounder. During this outing I used a Kitani black and red worm, a green Riverside lizard, a frog colored tube by Riverside, and a Yum baby craw in pumpkinseed. All my fish were caught on the Yum crawfish except the catfish, I got him on a nightcrawler. I can usually catch a nice bass in that area but got no hits. I quit at 5:30 P.M. to get home for supper. By the way, Joe, the date on my camera is wrong, I’ll have to correct it. The water is still very dirty with very low visibility so I had to use the spray on bass attractant and fish the baby craw very slowly with an occasional hop. That’s when the bass hit it.

Tight lines

Jim

My daughter, Theresa and son-in-law, Timm invited me and a coworker of

Theresa’s, Gene Elmlinger, to meet and do some fishing at their place at Little Wolf, a 160 acre area in the middle of the Daniel Boone National Park. It’s a beautiful setting surrounded by mountains and fields and a small pond of about 1.4 acres. The plan was for me to meet a fellow fisherman, get acquainted, and perhaps plan further fishing trips in the future. Well, we did that and I greatly enjoyed it all. Gene is truly a dedicated fisherman, loves the outdoors and is dedicated to the preservation of our natural resources as am I. The weather was warm and humid the first day and hot and humid the second day but fish we did. The last count that I can recall we caught 18 bass and about 20 bluegill during the heat of the day and part of the evenings until around dusk. The bluegill were all about 8-9 inches and the bass ranged from 10-14 inches. No trophies this time but fun anyway. Gene caught 2 more fish that I did but I caught the biggest bass. I fished with my fly rod using a 1/32 oz hula popper and Gene used a road runner with a ribbon tail jig on his ultra-light spinning rod. We did get many more hits but didn’t land the fish. I’m sorry to say that the 1/32 oz hula popper is, I believe, no longer being made by Arboghast (not sure of the spelling) as I believe that it is the best popper ever made. Over the years I’ve caught many bass on it up to 5 lbs. I’ve tried other poppers but haven’t found one yet that can catch bluegill and big bass in the same outing in as good of numbers. Well, I’m certainly looking forward to fishing with Gene again and have invited him to visit me here in Illinois, he is a true sportsman, a gentleman, and a pleasure to fish with. Please enjoy some of the pictures that were taken on our trip.

Today is Saturday the 19th of July and I thought with a nice cloud cover the bass might be more cooperative. I was wrong, not a single hit on the waveworm, crawdad, lizard, or a green and chanteuse tube which sort of resembles a frog. I didn’t use a weight on it and it floated for a few seconds before it started sinking so, I tried to make it imitate a frog kicking along near or on the surface right up next to the shoreline. No takers. The time of day was 3p.m. til’ 5:30 p.m. (suppertime)! I did however catch 3 bluegill, a crappie, and two channel cats. Again, I used a worm under a float in case the bass were not taking. So I had a little excitement anyway. I’m adding a few pictures of the subdivision lake and two of the cats caught today. Enjoy and tight lines.

I tried my luck for three hours, 5-8 p.m., for bass and channel cats. This time I changed my baits to include: Riverside heavily ringed lizard in watermelon, a Kitani wave worm in black and red, and my old standby Yum crawdad in pumpkinseed. For cats I put on a live nightcrawler under a float about three inches off the bottom. The Yum crawdad got several light taps, probably bluegill or crappie nibbling on the legs. The waveworm got nothing. The green (watermelon) lizard got me a two lb bass with no other hits. The crawlers got me two nice cats about 3 lbs each. I released them both. Used a circle hook and a heavier line this time and sure enough the tried to get into the sunken branches and one reached a large branch but the heavier line, 14 lb test Trilene clear, held the one cat. I went over to where he was hung up and pulled the branch to the surface enough to where I could reach he fish and let him off the hook. Fun! That’s it for now. Tight Lines.

Went fishing for bass on these days.  July 3rd:  For the first time that I can remember I was skunked.  I did manage to hook up with two small bass but they both got off before I could land them.  I was using the Yum crawdad, spinner and swimin’ minnow, wave worm in black and red, black air tail worm, riverside craw, hula popper frog on my fly rod, a small black crawdad on my fly rod and nothing…  The 4th again I tried all of the above and nothing.  Tied on a Zoom ribbon tail worm (pumpkinseed) and caught one bass and missed three small bites, (could have been bluegill).  I thought I’d try for catfish with nightcrawleres toward evening and caught three; one approximately 2 lbs and the others about 3 lbs.  Of course I let  them go as usual.  And I did miss one that took off into a brush pile and broke my line (six lb test)  And I caught one bass on a nightcrawler, a small one.  That’s all the action for now.

Tight lines to all

He’s about twenty one inches long and nearly 6 lbs.