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

Today I got up early with every intention to go to River Bend.  The forecast on the weather channel last night called for partly cloudy skies with rain in the late afternoon.  When I turned on the TV this morning the forecast was changed…showers and thunderstorms.  Not wanting to be caught out in my aluminum boat in a thunderstorm I decided to stay home and just fish in the pond.

I’m glad I did.  Shown are a 4 1/2 lb bass and a 3 1/2 lb channel cat both caught on a Blue Fox spinner.  You can see it on the cats mouth pretty well and is is also visible on the bass.  I generally use the Blue Fox for catching  crappie.  I lost count on how many crappie I caught today but it was exceptionally good today.  I also caught five more bass in the 1 to 2 lb class, two bluegill and I missed a bunch.

It did rain a little today and I was in my rain suit.  There were no thunderstorms, no lightening and no strong winds.  Who knows what  my planned trip to River bend would have turned out.  It’s funny but I have never caught a fish on any Blue Fox spinner at River Bend.  It’s a different ballgame there.

I did try using my YUM crawdad, a jig and paddle tail shad, a jig and a Mister Twister curly tail, and my fly rod with a craw fish fly pattern.  None of these worked today.  I tried  to change my spinner pattern to a larger Mepps, in yellow/white, and another blue fox in blue/ white.  The one I was catching all the fish with lost all its tail feathers and wasn’t as effective as it was before.  Well, it’s back to the store to try to find a replacement.

Tight Lines

Jim

Fishing on the pond this week has been improving.  During my last few times out I’ve managed to catch some bass in the 1 to 3 1/2 lb range,  The one shown is the largest.  The bass was caught on a pink jig head with a Shaw Grigsby shad paddle tail  But the majority of the fish have been caught on a YUM baby craw including a big bluegill of about 10”.  The crappie were all caught on the Blue Fox in line spinner except one of an exceptional size that was big enough to grab onto the Baby Craw as did the big bluegill.  Most of the crappie were in the 7” range with a few 9” thrown in.  The only time I’ve spent fishing for crappie is when there is a long period between bass bites.  Sometimes the Blue  Fox spinner will catch a nice channel cat or a bass as well.  There’s a part of the pond where in all my 31 years of fishing the pond I never caught anything.  It’s shallow and there’s no cover.  But, today and the day before yesterday that’s where I caught most of my bass!  You never know…  And the places where I have caught most of my bigger bass, I haven’t caught anything.

I did try some fly rod fishing.  I thought that a crayfish imitation and a minnow like fly would also work.  But it didn’t even get a rise, go figure.  I much prefer to catch bass, and big gills on the fly rod but there were no takers today.

The forecast is for thunder storms for the remainder of the week.  You might know…  Just when the bass and crappie are beginning the get active again I’ll be shut in. 

PS.  I didn’t take the bass out to the net until I released it immediately after I took this picture.  Catch and release is the way to go guys and gals.  You let ‘em go to breed more of them and maybe catch them again some other time.

Tight lines

Jim

After a very long wait, Ivan and I finally got to go fishing together.  We decided to go three days in a row.  At first we thought we might go south and fish fish Pyramid State park and camp there.  On second thought, we really hadn’t put much thought into it and were not properly prepared.  We both agreed that a three day jaunt might not be long enough to travel so far and really enjoy ourselves.  A day traveling there, a day of fishing in unfamiliar water, and the final day of traveling back does not give one much time to do any serious fishing.  I thought we might need a full week to really explore the lakes there and learn the area with some time to spare.

So, we decided to stay close to home, well nearly.  On Thursday we did travel to Lincoln Trail State Park near Marshall.  We hadn’t fished there together for three years.  We remembered the clear water, the beautiful terrain, and the bluegill fishing was truly excellent.  NOT ANYMORE!  What a disappointment.  The water was dirty, it had been lowered, and you couldn’t see fish like we could before inside the coves.  We found that people had left trash around the lake in areas where the lake could be fished from shore.  That doesn’t say much for fishermen who leave a mess  where ever they go.  There were beer cans, paper towels, and various wrappers and empty worm cans.  What a disgrace.

We decided to leave earlier that we had planned.  The bass and bluegill fishing was definitely poor and the condition of the lake was not to our enjoyment.

The second day, Friday, we went to our local small lake at River bend.  Here the water is clear and deep even though the lake had been lowered approximately 5 feet.  Don’t ask me why because the lake was more fishable and attractive when it was full.  The county park had cut a trench to the river, (Sangamon) to let that much water out and I’m sure, a great many fish to boot.  Great planning and as cheaply as possible for sure.  I would have thought that someone would have thought of saving the fish by putting up a screen before letting out five feet of the lakes water, wouldn’t You?

However, the county did put in a beautiful dock with a large gazebo and ramp system with access for the handicapped.  The boat dock was also repaired. 

The fishing was fairly good.  Ivan and I both caught a few bass and some bluegill.  Most of the fish were  small with the largest bass weighing about 2 1/2 lbs.  They were all returned to the lake as quickly as possible.  The fish were cooperative in spurts.  We might catch four bass in quick time and then nothing for an hour.  Then another spurt of catching.  The day went that way but we really enjoyed the day and had a lot of fun trying.

On Saturday we went once again to The smaller lake in the park.  You can read about our fist foray to Shadow Lake in one of my earlier writings where I said,” It’s not for older guys”.  We were better prepared for our visit there this time, however.

As I had stated earlier, the lake is nearly inaccessible for fishing especially with a boat.  The shore is surrounded by steep drop offs… use your imagination.  There is one very difficult way to bring in a canoe and we had used it before but this time with a much smaller canoe.  I sold my 17’ Grumman and bought a 13’ golden Hawk fiberglass boat.  It weighs abut half as much  as the Grumman did.

The canoe being much smaller  would be easier to manage, right?  Well, it was but not as much as we would have liked.  Having been there before and learned by experience, we did have a much easier time of it.

But, UNLESS YOU ARE IN VERY GOOD HEALTH, don’t try it! 

We had a pretty good day of fishing, between us we caught about sixteen fish with the biggest nearly three lbs.  I did hook up with three other larger fish but they got off near the boat.  But, that’s O.K. because I had fun with them and they would have been returned to the lake immediately anyway.

Think positive but don’t over do it all you older guys, (I’m nearly 73 years YOUNG) and that’s the difference.  Ivan is nearly 64 years young.  We work at trying to stay healthy. 

Our fish were caught mainly with the Gary Yammato stick worm in green/light green, and the Excalibur crank bait, deep diver in silver, black back, and red gill stripe fished in a slow steady manner.   The bluegill were caught on a yellow Betts popper with rubber legs.

Tight lines

Jim

I haven’t been fishing as much as I’d like to this month.  Fishing in the pond hasn’t been very productive with a few small bass and crappie.  Even the bluegill, which will normally attack a small popper readily have not been cooperating.  The fish seem to be well fed though, judging from the ones that I have caught.  My guess is that they’re doing all their feeding at night.  I don’t fish at night anymore preferring the middle of the day until supper time.  I have managed to catch some nice channel cat with a blue fox spinner and that lure seems to be the only one working in the pond.  On the other hand, maybe I haven’t been patient enough with my fly rod.

However, I have managed to get to River Bend  twice.  My first day out, on a Thursday, was a good day.  I managed to boat 19 fish, a mixture of bass, warmouth and bluegill.  In that mixture were nine bass.  The bluegill and warmouth were caught on the fly rod.  The bass seemed to want only one lure, a “Baby Fat Rap” crank bait.  The only color that worked was shad blue, with a red gill slash, and silver sides.  My other cranks, stick worms, Yum Craw, Zoom worms never got a nip. 

My second trip to river bend, last Thursday, the 27th was just about a good.  The weather forecast was for a 50% chance of scattered thunderstorms in the evening.  The sky was partly cloudy and the temperature was in the mid 80’s.  I took the chance that I would miss the thunderstorms.

I’m glad I went.  Shown is a typical largemouth bass caught in River Bend.  Most of these fish average about 1 1/2 to 2 lbs but they are healthy and put up a mighty struggle for their size.  Of course there are larger bass in the lake but the largest bass that I’ve caught there is less than 3 1/2 lbs and very few of them.  On this day I caught eleven bass, three nice warmouth (about 1/2 lb each) a small bluegill on my fly rod using a small popper from “Discount Flies”  and a channel cat of about 2 lbs.  The cat was caught on my Baby Fat Rap.  And I caught eleven bass almost all the twin of the one shown in the picture.  With the exception of the channel cat, I could have left the Baby Fat Rap crank bait home.  The bass were not interested in the only lure they would hit on my previous trip there.

I changed tactics.  I set up a drop shot rig using a #6  circle hook on 8 lb Suffix fluorocarbon line with a Gary Yammato black/red stick worm.  That got me my first bass of the day.  I was drift fishing with it along a sand bar; just letting the boat slowly drift along the deep edge of the bar in about i5 feet of water.  But it was my only fish for about 45 minutes and three  separate passes along the bar.  I made three more passes along the bar with my Baby Fat Rap, the one I used the previous trip, no takers.  I tried using using a “ Rage “ top water lure, speeding it over the shallow surface of the sand bar and got the attention of two bass that hit the lure but got off without a good hook up.  I decided to change tactics again and now its about 5:00 PM.

I set up the Gary Yammato stick worm, black and Red, weightless and started working the shoreline on my way back to the boat landing.  Several bass chased the worm right up to the boat but wouldn’t take it.  I changed color.  I switched to the green and black stick worm and “Bingo”  I started catching bass.  I landed ten more bass and missed that many with poor hookups.  Most got off right at the boat. 

I really had a  good day after all.  The moral of today’s story is,  go fishing when you can and keep trying until you find the solution.  Of course I thought that the Baby Fat Rap would do it all over again like the last time, but it didn’t.

I got back to the landing at dusk, loaded the boat onto the trailer, got my sensitive equipment, tackle boxes, rods, battery, Min Kota motor, camera, etc., into my van and just when I had finished, “Boom”, the rain started, the lightening flashed and the wind blew fiercely.  I escaped the deluge just in time.

Tight lines

Jim

The day is August 8, 2009 and I’m late adding this memorable day to my web site.  First, my son Stephen is not a dedicated fisherman like his old man but, occasionally, we will go out together just to be together.  This is a blessing, enjoying the outdoors with your son and talking of thing like: do you remember…, what do you think about…, have you heard from…, I’m worried about…, and, among other subjects, “I want to go back to school.”  This is wonderful news to me and my wife of 52 years, Patty.  That brightened up my day and we discussed his future while fishing, to almost no avail, fish wise.  The fish, a couple of small bass and crappie just did not want to cooperate but we didn’t care.  We had a great day just being together.

Stephen has passed all his entrance exams and his former credits were all transferable.  He has entered school again and has already begun his classes.

That was one of the best fishing days of my life.

I’ve been doing a little fishing mostly during the middle of the day with a few evenings when possible.  The results have been slow on the most part.  I just can’t seem to find the larger bass.  You’d think that in the last two hours  before sundown that the bass would come out to feed but…

I have managed to catch a few small bass, 1 lb or less, with only one  keeper.  The bluegill have also been slow even on flies and I’ve had no bass at all on flies.  The only lure that seems to get the fish interested is the Blue Fox in line spinner in a blue color and silver spinner.  I have caught several channel cat on it and some small crappie (where have all the crappie gone)?

I’ll tell you; they’re scattered all over the pond.  I tried to find the crappie in the evening as well, hoping that they would be schooling up near dark, but no luck so far.

I don’t like to fish after dark which is when the fish are apparently feeding.  Shown is a sample of the fish that I have caught.  The bass is a 1 1/2 lb and the cats are 2 1/2 to 3 lbs.

Today Danny Mc Clughen and I hooked up again.  I hadn’t seen Danny for two years.  He told me that he was very busy working and that he hadn’t been fishing at all last year and only fished sparingly the year prior to that.  He telephoned me to see how I had been doing and if I was still fishing as much as I used to.  I replied that I had and had my on and off days, but mostly good days.  Any day on the lake is a good day!  We decided to get together again.

Danny had been bothered with muscle spasms the last time we went out which , he said, was due to being cramped up in the boat and that he would rather fish from shore where he could stretch out.  That last time we went out we were in my two man boat and there was no way to stretch his cramped muscles in it. 

We made plans to go out anyway, but this time in my G-3 14 footer.  He could stretch out in it when the need arises.

We went to River Bend.  The day started out with my catching a small bass.  The fish surprised me with the battle he put up, I thought  it was much bigger until I landed it.  It was a 12 or 13 inch fish and very healthy.  I got him on a Rapala floater in black and white.  Then we both went through a very long period with little action.  I think we went about 1 1/2 hours without a single strike.

As we moved along we came to the very spot where Larry T. and I were fishing earlier this year.  I caught three more small bass in the 1 to 1 3/4 lb range and Danny finally caught two more of about the same size.  He too was surprised at the the strength of the fish.

Once again we went into a dry spell, no fish.  We arrived at a place where I usually catch some bass and there’s usually a big bass in this one particular spot , but today, not a tick.  On the way there though we did manage to catch a crappie a bluegill and another small bass.  

It was getting late so we decided to start back when, in the middle of the cove we were in, we saw bass chasing minnows on the surface making all kinds of commotion.  We headed for the fish very slowly with my electric trolling motor so as not to spook the fish.  Danny caught two more bass and I caught one before the bait fish moved on under the water where we couldn’t see the direction that they were headed.  We chased them down again and we caught two more bass.  Then they disappeared.

When we arrived in the boat launch area we spotted more top water commotion and went to it.  Danny caught two or three more fish (bass) and I caught one and I caught two nice sized crappies. The bass and the crappies were apparently both chasing the minnows in the same area. When Danny was out fishing me with his 2” floating Rapala I decided to put on my old faithful Excalibur crank bait (clear and chartuse) and as usual, It caught my last three fish for the day.

All of the bass were approximately between 12” and 15” and the crappie were about 12 and 13 inches.  All the fish were returned to the water as quickly as possible.  No exact measurements were taken .

In all, we had a good time together and we plan to go again when time and work permits.

Tight lines.

Jim

The fishing has been a repeat of my last few entries.  I’m catching a few bass in the 1 to 2 lb class mostly on flies but with one exception, the Shaw Grigsley baby craw plastic jig.  I’ve also caught a few nice channel cats mostly on flies, the clouser minnow in green and white.  However, Larry Tegtmeyer, on one of his visits, gave me a few of the flies that he apparently designed and made himself.  One of them really has proven itself to be a real fish catcher.  Its a streamer.  He designed it so that it appears like a wooly bugger head with a rabbit strip body.  The color is  a white head, twin eyes, and a tan body of feathers and a rabbit strip.  I tied it on after all else had failed that afternoon.  When I cast it out I had an immediate strike from a very large bass.  The bass took off like a bat out of h… and caught me completely off guard.  The bass headed straight for the bushes hanging along the shore and got off.  I really didn’t do a good job of trying to properly set the hook being mainly concerned with keeping it out of the bushes.  Exciting, yes!   Moving along I hung into another big bass in the same area.  This time I set the hook.  Again, the fish took off for the bushes and underwater roots.  I could not stop it.  With my holding onto the line, not allowing the fish to take any more line, the leader broke.  I lost another big bass, the exceptional fly, and felt totally exasperated.  I still have another of these flies and I wrote Larry of my experience and sent him a picture of it.  I’m saving the fly so that I don’t lose it and so that I can use it to find other flies with a similar pattern.  I also told Larry that I think he ought to patent the fly design.  Thanks Larry, you are one heck of a fly designer.

Your Friend 

Tight Lines

Jim

I went out today for a very short time.  The forecast was for rain, but it wasn’t raining when I decided to try it anyway.  I went out in my two man boat and fished very close to where I keep my boats just in case it did rain.  For the first half hour I tried my favorite flies, the clouster minnow, the baby craw hard back craw, a frog popper and a muddler minnow without a single strike.  I moved on down the shore within casting distance to hug up my flies and popper right up next to shore.  Most bass will be near the shore on these dark cloudy days.  Still no luck.  I did take along two spinning rods just in case the flies weren’t producing.  One with a Shaw Grigsby paddle tail worm (the one I used at our outing on Sunset Lake last to catch bass).  No luck with that either.  I switched to my Shaw Grigsby baby craw and BINGO, I got my first bass of about 1 lb.  Just a few yards away I cast again and hooked onto another bass but it was coming right toward me and I didn’t get a good hook set; he got off.  A little further on and again, right nest to shore, no more than a foot deep I hooked onto the bass shown here; a nice 4 lb bass.  Just before I landed him the rain started and then it poured.  I had on my rain suit but when I heard the thunder I decided no way.  I quickly got off the lake, packed it up and went home across and down the street. 

Tight Lines

Jim