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.

This past week I’ve gone out for only a couple of hours in the evenings, 6-8 P.M.  The best I could do was catch a few small bass and a couple of really nice cahnnel cats.  The fish are reacting mainly to the small Yum crawdad on my flyrod, but these are small bass; the cats were about three lbs each  ( fun).  The wind has remained strong and I have missed a few bites and a few got off next to the boat due to poor hookups.  I lost two because of the line breaking at the knot, a palomar knot.  So, I’ve switched back to a double cinch knot.  That knot breaks too but not as often.  I have been retying the knot but I guess not frequently enough.  I’m using 6 0 8 lb test so maybe I should go to a heavier line.  I have also caught a few bluegill and crappie, but these fish are scattered and not reacting well to any lure.  My miracle minnow yields nothing at this point except for the aforementioned.  Well, tight lines to all you fishermen.

I thought I would go out and try to stir up some bass.  I hadn’t caught very many as yet so I put away that miracle lure, the black and silver minnow and put on a wave worm, a Yum craw, (the large one in brown), a green and black senko, a small Berkley craw, and on my fly rod the minnow, just in case.  The results were poor at first with a catch of only four small bass with a few misses.  Later in the evening, about 6:00 P.M., things got hot with tha black and red wave worm.  I cought five bass ranging from two lbs to six lbs and I misses a few other good strikes due to the high winds which impeded my sensing the bite until too late.  I did hang onto another really big bass though as he went into some tree limbs, (limbs that I put into the lake last year), and my line broke.  I had to quit at 7:00 P.M. as we were expecting a video cam call from my son, David and our grandkids.  Well that’s it for now.  Wishing you tight lines.

The wind has been blowing very hard lately and there has been some rain so, fishing has been for only a couple of hours on some days but restricted to areas where the wind allows.  Haven’t really been doing very well though as the temperature has also been up and down like a yo-yo.  I have caught a few bass using a Yum crawdad and a black and red wave worm.  Only one fish was of any size, maybe three lbs and the rest were maybe 12″ or so.  The crappie have almost completely shut down.  I was going to try a couple of hours this evening but we’ve had a very bad day with rain and even sleet!  No fishing today.  If the wind ever dies down I’ll try some of the bigger lakes nearby.  None of the lakes are REALLY NEAR BY and because of gas prices I won’t be going far.  There are only one or two options that are really within reach.  We’ll see…  Wishing you tight lines.