I thought I’d try my luck at River Bend solo.   Everyone else seemed to be busy and couldn’t get out.  The day was bright and sunny and it was fairly warm, in the upper eighties.  The bass were not cooperating at all anywhere, shallow or deep the first 3 hours.  I tried my creature baits, spinners, worms, and a couple of deep running crank baits and …nothing.  So, at about 6:00pm I got out my fly rods and tried for some bluegills.  They were not hitting on the surface.  So, I put my poppers away and tied on a white crystal wooley bugger, a white/chartreuse clouser minnow, and a black wooley bugger.  The winner was the white/crystal wooley bugger; I managed to catch eight bluegill of about 8 inches.  Then, about 7:00pm I noticed some bass were chasing minnows on the surface around the middle of the lake over 30-40 feet of water.  They were way too far for me to cast to so, I turned on my trolling motor to try to get near but without spooking them.  I managed to get close enough only twice before they disappeared  and caught two bass like the one shown.  Just before dark I went back to the shore line to fish on my way back to the boat dock and …nothing.   So, the day wasn’t great for catching fish but I still had a good time.  Oh , and by the way, I tried using the spro frog and the Cabela’s mini floating frog in the reeds and never got a single rise and I’ve tried them in the pond as well with very little results.  I managed two hits but no hook ups so far with them.  I must be in the wrong place at the wrong time for them.  As you can see I caught the two bass using the Yum stick worm in white/green.

It’s been far too hot lately to go fishing; heat index 105 and who needs that.  I’ll wait until the weather cools off before I go out again.

Tight lines

Jim

  Tried my luck again yesterday on the pond and did fairly well on the Cabela’s glow bug creature bait.  The crappie is 17” long and the cat is about 5 lbs.  Of course, they are both still swimming..”Catch and Release” as usual.  I did manage to catch 6 small bass and I missed a nice bass of about 4 lbs just as I was leading him to the net.  He spit that bug out right at me, kind of like, “Can’t catch me!”  Well, maybe next time we meet that’ll be another story.  I haven’t gotten a rise from that BIG bass that I missed a few weeks ago, in fact nothing seems to be in that spot at all for the last few weeks.  I’ll keep trying though, I’d really like to hook into that trophy again.  We’ll see.

Tight lines

Jim

Yesterday started out to be very windy, winds out of the NE at 20 to 30 mph and with heavy cloud cover, but I thought I would give it a try anyway.  The boat was not manageable in the part of the lake I like to fish first so, I move up to the East end to minimize the wind problem.  The area was much more calm there, but I couldn’t buy a bite there.  The fish just weren’t there, or at least, they were not biting in that area.

I saw some fish rising so, I got out my fly rod and finally caught a fish, using a new white woolly bugger, a small crappie and three very nice 9” bluegills.  After several more casts…nothing.  It rained.  I brought along an umbrella and waited it out.

The wind had now shifted and was coming in very strongly from the South.  I thought, ok, I’ll fish the South shore of the lake on my way back home.  It was getting on to supper time and my wife, well, you know, does not like me to be late for supper.

Fishing the shore line back was more productive.  I first tried my YUM shad stick worm to no  avail and the switched to the Strike KIng  Okeechobbe craw as shown.  It got results.  A couple of nice bass and another nice channel cat.  I missed three other fish but, I think that they were bluegill because they bit off the appendages of the craw, bluegill do that often.  As you can see my last hour on the lake was pretty good.  I had a good time as I always do, fish or no fish .

While fly fishing I tried a black crystal woolly bugger and didn’t get a single strike, so, it pays to bring along a selection of colors as color apparently does matter.  You’ll recall that two weeks ago, black was the only producing color.

Tight Lines

Jim

Roy and I planned to use my boat for this trip but, when I went to start my van…it wouldn’t start.  Reason…unknown.  So, it just happened that Roy had brought along his canoe, he said just in case.  Did he predict that my car was going to be kaput? 

Well, we had a great day in spite of the van.  Shown here is the typical size bass that we regularly catch at River Bend.  I was using my shad colored stick worm by YUM and Roy was using a variety of lures including a crank bait, I’m not sure which one but it appeared to be a Rapala medium diver in the shad color.  As you can see he caught this bass using the yellow RAGE frog the he purchased at Walmart on sale for , I think he said, $1.79.

The day was very windy.  When we went to one of our favorite spots near some reeds the wind was making the canoe very hard to control but we still caught some bass.  I tried my SPRO frog in the reeds and got one good hit but, I over reacted and did not get a good hook set.  When fishing frogs you must wait until you feel the weight of the fish before setting the hook…I didn’t.  I reacted too quickly and, as a consequence, failed to get a good hook set.  I didn’t get another strike on the frog after that. 

Roy was doing well with his Berkley worm rigged Texas style and weighted.  I was having luck with the YUM un weighted, but in the wind, you again must wait until you feel the weight of the fish when setting the hook, and you must get the bow out of the line caused by the wind first.  Too much slack will definitely cause a poor hook set.

We decided to go to the other side of the lake in a more protected area and we did much better there.

At about 7:00 pm  we decided to call it quits, we each had 16 bass.  But Roy, tried that “one more cast” and caught another bass!  Well, he was a good sport and allowed me to take a few more casts to see if I could get even.  I couldn’t catch another bass with that battered old YUM stick bait so, I discarded it and called it quits anyway.  We had a good time enjoying each others company and had some fun.  That’s what it’s all about.

Tight lines

Jim

  If you’ve wondered where I’ve been the last couple of weeks, well, My wife and I have been with our son and daughter in law, Steve and Katie, where they have been busy bringing a new bundle of joy into the world, Alexander.  And, he is beautiful, 7lbs 6oz on 6-11-2011. 

Hopefully, in the future, I will have the privilege to take him fishing.  I,m already looking forward to it.  I just thought I would share this with you just to show you that I do have other interests in this world.  Katie is fine the baby is fine and the dad, Stephen, is also fine.  They have received many blessings recently.  Steve graduated from college with high honors and has already landed a job with the States Attorneys office.  And he likes his job and the people he works with.  What more could you ask for.

Tight lines

Jim

Today I started out at 2pm and fished for about an hour where I missed that big bass the other day.  I only got one fish to bite, a small bass, and some bluegill nibbles, as Roy puts it, “those rat-tat-tats”.  I was hoping that the bass I missed had stayed in the area as it is known that big bass will claim a territory of their own and stay there.  And, I  was hoping that she would be hungry again. That particular place is full of tree roots and brush that I have planted there in the past.  It’s full of snags, the perfect place where a big bass would make it’s home.  Well, apparently, she wasn’t in the mood or just wasn’t there.

I was using the same lures that I fished the day before thinking that would be what they wanted on this day too.  Well, I was wrong.  About 5 years ago I used to have good luck on the black/red, (black on one side and red on the other side) Gary Yamamoto stick worm.  Still nothing there so I moved on.

I remembered that a few days ago I had to place the lure right on the edge of shore, six inches to a foot to get results.  I began to fish the shore line doing just that and started to get some results using the black/red stick worm.  The bass in the net was the first of six bass.  Then there was a long dry spell of about two hours.  I switched to the fly rod hoping to catch a few bluegill or maybe a bass using a popper in the frog color.  I managed to catch only three bluegill and one small bass.

5:30pm.  Time to get  started back.  To fish the shore properly, you must move very slowly and thoroughly test every piece of brush along the way.  I was having no luck and was just about half way back to where I keep my boat when I got the cat.  As usual she gave up a great struggle before I could get her into the boat.  She flopped around in the net and out of it onto the floor.  So, I quickly got the picture and let her go.  She looked like she had eggs from the look of her belly; I hope she recovers and spawns ok.

A little further on I hooked into the nice bass shown and what a fight!  The bass was towing the boat toward the shore where I hooked onto it trying to get back to all the snags.  Who says bass aren’t smart.  I turned on my electric motor to get the fish away from the snags and into open water the same way as when I lost the big bass the other day.  This time it worked.  The fish jumped several times but I managed to keep a tight line so that she didn’t throw the hook.  Finally, I got her into the net.   I quickly set up my camera while I kept the fish in the net in the water so as not to hurt the fish.  I took the picture and let her go as fast as I could.  The bass was not hooked hard, in fact, the hook was in the bony part of the lower jaw and had not penetrated past the barb in the jaw bone.  The hook fell out when I got it into the boat.  Glad I had my new net.  And, by the way, I recently purchased the Frabill rubber net.  I had read that the nylon nets may hurt the fish by scraping off the fishes slime cover.  And it is snag free as it is advertised i.e.  the hooks don’t get fouled in the net.  I’d say the fish was close to seven lbs but, I think that the bass I missed the other day was even bigger.  Of course, “the big ones always get away.”Well, the slow day turned out to be a good one after all.  But, any day on the lake is a good one.

The day was cloudy, temperature in the mid 80’s, the lake level is full.  Ideal conditions.  Tackle: Abu Garcia Veritas rod and the Cardinal Soron reel, with 12 lb test Trilene XL line, and a wide gap Gammatsu #4 hook, black/red stick worm.

A piece of advice to all you old timers, like me.. “Instead of staying home and melting into your easy chair, get some exercise and some fresh air..”Go fishing!”  Bring some binoculars with you too; for you birdwatchers there’s a multitude of beautiful singing birds and water birds around the water.  If you can’t get around well, see if you can get some youngster to take you, (to do all the work)!  Have some fun outdoors.

P.S.  Thanks again Theresa, I caught the fish on the new rod and reel you bought me for my birthday last year.

Tight Lines

Jim

I went out again on the pond yesterday with the aim of trying some lures that I hadn’t used before but, had seen advertised in some magazines and  TV shows.  The green one is Cabela’s Aquaglow split tail grub and it definitely a fish catcher on the pond.  The problem is that the bluegill or maybe the small newly stocked bass bite off the appendages.  After that the lure is apparently less attractive to the fish.  However, when a good bass takes it, it is eaten.  I looked in my newest Cabela’s catalog to try to get some more of them but they are not in the book nor are they in any of the sporting good stores here.  So, I bought some Strike King “okeechobee craws” from Dick’s sporting goods store and they work even better.  They are green on one side and blue on the opposite side.  The appendages get bitten of them  too, but they catch fish.  They are coffee and salt scented and KVD lists them as a favorite.  Also shown is the Zoom baby brush hog with “super Salt.  They work well too.  They are now listed as best liked in my book too.  To fish them properly, fish them un weighted  and let them drift to the bottom.  Then use small hops and drag them on the bottom.  Sometimes, right next to shore near brush, they get hit when sinking.

The channel cats also like them as you can see in the pictures.  I managed to catch three 5 lbs. cats, one on the brush hog and two on the craw.  These are the first cats that I’ve caught on plastics in the pond.  That should tell you something.  The six bass I caught were dived evenly about three each on the craw and grub.

There was a lull in the action for a while so I got out a fly rod with a white crystal wooly bugger bead head size 6.  I came to a place where I can usually catch some bluegill and started a casting.  The nice 9” bluegill was one of 6 more.  I also caught one of the newly stocked channel cats and a small bass with the fly.

Well, all good fishing days must come to a close.  Near where I keep my boat I tried my “one last cast”.  Wow!  The biggest bass I have see in the pond took my okeechobee crab.  This fish startled me so, when I saw him jump I blurted,”Oh my Lord”!  I had cast cast into some very heavy cover and the fish was trying to bury himself into that cover as hard as he could.  I turned on my electric motor to try to pull him away from the cover and into open water but, before I could get him away he made another another mighty jump and threw the hook.

My new goal..”get him again” but, this time using braided line and my drag on tight.  I was using 12 lbs. Trilene XL line and had my drag set for fighting the cats which I did manage to get away from the brush.  But this fish just wouldn’t be stopped pulling line off my drag like nothing was going to stop him.

My hope is that this fish has claimed this spot as his own domain and will remain in that particular area which is often the case for large bass in small impoundments.Time and some luck will tell.  I would love to hook up with him again and I’m almost certain that this bass is the biggest in the pond.

The day was very windy, 20 mph winds from the West with some strong gusts.  The sky was mostly cloudy and the temperature was about 89 degrees according to the weather report.  I was fishing from about noon until 4:45pm. To catch fish I had to cast into the wind and right next to the bank.  Otherwise, nothing.

Tight Lines

Jim

Ivan got his first day of fishing this year and it was a very special day for him.  He caught his very first bass on the fly rod!  He’d been looking forward to that for a long time.  His casting the fly has greatly improved and he is now able to cast the fly accurately about fifty feet.  The distance is important so as not to spook the fish.  He was using a small yellow and white popper which, I would guess, appeared to be a wounded bait fish.  The trick was to cast to about 6” to a foot off the shore next to the sticks and brush as shown in the picture.  Any further away from shore would not get strikes.  So, accuracy was extremely important.

I saw the look on his face when he discovered, not a bluegill, but a bass..pure excitement and delight.  I wish I had my camera ready for that moment, it would have been the picture of the year.  After that he would not put down the fly rod and I can’t blame him, catching bass on the fly rod is very exciting.  I didn’t rig up my fly rods because that was his territory that day.

I tried my new Spro Frog in the reedy area of the lake without even a follow up so, I went to my Yum silver and white stick worm and caught some nice bass with it.  I guess it’s too early for frogging the weeds.    However, this time, instead of fishing it shallow along the shore, I found it to be more effective if I let it sink to near the bottom.  Now that seems odd,  Ivan was catching bass and bluegill and even a crappie next to shore with a popper and I had to fish deeper.  You never know what or how the fish will react to baits on any given day.  That’s why we take several different rods, bait casters, spinning, and fly rods with us on all our outings..you never know. 

We ran into Roy on the lake, he was fishing solo from his canoe and was having a good day.  In fact, Roy out fished both of us using a big plastic worm, Texas rigged, on the bottom.  He didn’t mention the color or brand of worm but I know he uses Berkley”s ribbon tail in black fairly often when we go out together.

It was a wonderful day and it made my day for two reasons:  1st:  it was good to be out with Ivan again.  He’s had lots of problems orthopedic wise and 2nd: witnessing his delight in catching his first bass on the fly rod. 

I wish the day could have lasted longer but we did well with a total of 23 fish in the boat.

Tight Lines

Jim

Roy and I got back together again at River Bend last week and we both had a good fishing day.  Together we caught 39 bass and probably missed half as many more due to poor hookups.  Twice I had bass on all the way to the boat when the fish  got off…but, what happened, why no hookup?  I looked at my Yum stick worm  and discovered the hook point had never penetrated the fishes jaw.  I always slip the point of the hook under a thin layer of the worms surface  to make it weedless, the point never broke through, meaning, the bass held onto the stick bait by locking its jaws struggling to not let that morsel of food to get away.  Now that proves that Yum baits really taste like a delicious meal to the bass.  That also happened to Roy at least once that I know of.  And these fish really fight hard. 

We also noted that the fish were a little larger this year than from last year.  The biggest bass are still hard to find and have eluded us each time that we’ve fished there.  Roy did try some Texas rigged Berkley worms on the bottom but still caught the same size fish on average, the largest being about two pounds.   I pretty much stuck the my Yum stick worm fished weightless.  The bass would hit the lure after it had dropped about 5 feet beneath the surface and after I twitched it slightly.  Some bass were caught only a foot from shore.

I also tried fishing with a Spro Frog but got no results, I guess it’s a little too early for frogging.

The first three pictures show fish that I caught in the pond and all were caught on that Cabela’s glow critter that I was having good success with last week on the pond.  I tried it  while at River Bend without even a tap.  Another lesson:  One lure does not catch bass in  all locations.  The pond is very murky and shallow, while River Bend is clear and as deep as 40 feet.  We were fishing close to shore and, on occasion , we saw a frenzy of bait fish on the surface,  we’d cast there and catch another bass.

On this outing we also got a surprise to see a very small Northern Pike of about 12”.  Roy had brought a small bass up next to the boat and lo and behold, the little pike was chasing the bass and wouldn’t leave it alone.  Roy finally lifted the bass out of the water and the pike disappeared.

The lake had 65 pike fingerlings put in it in 2002 but, I had never seen one until now.  Reportedly, smallmouth bass were also stocked in the lake but, I haven’t seen any of them either.

The day was beautiful, the air temp was in the mid 80s, partly cloudy sky, and calm or nearly calm surface on the water.  Occasionally we’d get a small breeze to put a small ripple on the surface.  We couldn’t ask for a nicer day and with the good company of Roy, I had a wonderful day .

Fishing the pond had a unique twist to it:  Casting a foot or two from shore got no results whereas fishing  6” from shore got the bass shown above plus a few more smaller ones.  I did the same thing two days later and caught nine bass in about two hours, the smallest about a pound and the largest about three pounds.  No other bait except the Cabela’s glow critter got results in the pond those two days!  I also caught a nice channel cat on that same lure.

Tight Lines

Jim

I’ve been a little lax on making entries in my web site lately so, I thought I’d better get it updated today while I have the time.  The weather has not been very cooperative in the last few weeks and so I’ve not really done a lot of fishing.  On the days that I have fished  the wind has been really strong and the air cold with North winds.  But, I have had some success.  These last few days have been warm but still very windy.  Using the fly rod has been a challenge in the strong wind.

The pictures shown are, of course, of  my most successful days on the water.  I originally wanted to out do my big crappie by catching a bigger one so, I concentrated on the crappie fishing first.  However, the best crappie I’ve managed so far is about 12 “ with most of them at around 8”.   Nothing to brag about there but, as you can see, I did manage to catch some really nice channel cats on the flies that I was using t o catch crappie with!  It is always fun to hang into a channel cat on the fly rod, they just never want to give up and when you’re using a fly rod with a 6 lb leader, you just can’t horse them in.  The two flies that I was using were a bead head white/crystal wooly bugger, and a soft shell craw,  as shown, both purchased from the “Fly Shack” at a good price on the internet.   I have caught more that 30 crappie and about 25 bass with a few bluegills as well using the fly or the bait caster but catching fish is the name of the game no matter what the size; it’s just FUN!

The critter shown, is  a Cabela’s Aquaglow split tail grub and it is a real fish getter.  I was using my Yum craw on a Strike King jig, a lure that I can usually depend on to catch bass  with but with no results.  I switched to the grub and caught three bass in a row in the same small area where I previously  tried the Yum craw.     So,  I guess the lure does make the difference on different days or maybe it was the color.  The presentation is the same drag, drag, hop, hop, drag, etc.  The two nice bass I ‘d guess weighed maybe 4 1/2 lbs to 5 lbs.  I release them as quickly as possible so as to not injure them .  And to that effect, I recently purchased a Frabill landing net made from that rubber material that helps prevent the fish losing the slime protective coat on the fish.  I am a catch and release  fisherman.  The bass were caught on on my bait caster, the Abu Garcia Orra SX, using 10 lb test Trilene XL line and a 6 1/2 ft Diawa rod that I got on sale at Dick’s Sporting goods.  A modestly priced outfit that does the job well.

The fly rod that I caught the cats on was purchased last year on the internet from Cabela’s .  It was on sale too, it was originally  a $100. rod and I got it for $50.  I always keep on the lookout for good sales both on Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s.  The grub was also on sale a Cabela’s.  I read somewhere, “The rod on sale today was the premium rod of yesterday”.  And that, I find, rings true.  Just because the old are being replaced with the new “and improved” dosen’t mean the ones being replaced are no longer very serviceable.  After all they were the new and improved models just a few years ago and proved to be very effective.

Tight Lines

Jim