Hitting Familiar Water With An Old Friend

Dave and I have been friends over 30 years (I think)...We both fished as kids and rediscovered our love of the pastime as adults.  I haven't fished much since my divorce and the shuffling around of my life and my belongings.  Neither has Dave.  We were talking one evening and we both decided we needed to get out and fish.  Didn't care where but we both needed to feel the tug of a fish on the line.

I believe this was the Good Friday holiday.  We were both off work and a spot we used to fish when we lived in Naperville and Aurora respectively was calling to us.  We got our gear together and followed the siren song to this pond where I caught my first five pounder and where we've both caught some nice largemouth bass.

We settled into a spot and started the process of figuring out what the bass wanted to eat.  The water was murky from spring runoff so I started throwing crankbaits with chartreuse colors thinking they'd be easier to see in the water.  They were easier to see but all ran too deep and brought back weeds, not fish.  Almost on a whim I reached for a lure-type I was ahead of the curve on in my angling circles; a jointed swimbait. Specifically jointed bluegill.  I knew the bass in this pond got fat eating bluegill and figured if they weren't biting loud-colored lures, maybe they'd hit a big-ol bluegill.  They had before.  And they did again!

Rocking my amber lensed, polarized Cocoons fit overs I saw this bass through the glare of the sun on the water and got excited!  This is my first non-ice fishing catch of 2017 and I got it on the same jointed swimmer that I caught my first of 2015 on.  Pretty cool! 

Dave likes to find lures different from what other fishermen are using. That said he had a crazy-jointed swimbait too in a smaller, minnow pattern.  Using a reel up and let it die retrieve Dave hooked up with our second collective bass of the outing.

A nice, fat-bellied, pre-spawn bass came up for a picture.  One each, who will hook up next?

Me!  I got another on my bluegill swimmer.  My second around 2lbs.  Fun catching, but the action was a bit slower compared to years past for this pond.  Still, catching is catching.

Dave would get one more, and here it is.  Another fat-bellied bass.

All in all we had a good outing.  Good conversation, good company, and good catching.  It was a Good-Friday after all.  We talked on the drive back to Dave's house about fishing, catching, and ideas for the next outing.  I was thinking about writing a non-ice fishing blog and then time got away from me.  This is the first blog for open water season for 2017 for me.  I look forward to many more this season.  There's plenty of open water time left and I look forward to fishing it.

Open Water 2015 - Not a bad start

You may have guessed by my lack of posts from the ice this year that I didn't do a lot of fishing.  I did do a fair bit of fishing just not a whole lot of catching.  I made the decision to spare everyone my mental wanderings of the days I didn't catch anything much to blog about. There were lots of those days.

This ice season the fish seemed more spread out.  Far less concentrated to areas, depth ranges, or pieces of cover.  It took many holes to find fish and many more to stay on them.  So as usually happens after ice fishing several months straight I start to want less vertical jigging and more overhand casting.  A quickly hatched plan got me out fishing with Martin Rogers (WackyBass on DuPage Angler) this morning.

O'Dark-Thirty rolled around and Wacky and I walked down to the first of two ponds we'd fish today.  The dew was frozen on the grass blades and we could see our breath.  I tied on several lures before I found the one that hit.  Spinnerbait slow-rolled, burned, reel-pause-reel, rod-movement to flare the skirt yielded nada.  Jerkbait got no love for slow twitches, fast twitches, let it sit there and make a sandwich between twitches.  Nothing seemed to work.

It was possible the water was too cold and the fish were sluggish.  It was possible the bass were spawning or pre-spawn.  What would bass want to clobber into the next block in pre-spawn binge or during spawn territorial strike?  How about a big-ol bluegill swimbait.

That did the trick!  A very nice first open water bass...heck, first open water fish of 2015!  It would be the only fish either of us caught all morning but what a way to start the open water fishing season!  In the excitement I forgot to weigh or measure her before I released her back to the cold water of the pond.  It doesn't matter, she was a quality fish and it made me hopeful for the open water season to come.

My First Two Frog Fish!

Why didn't anybody tell me how electrifying, how adrenaline pumping, how downright addicting frog fishing is?  To be fair I have watched videos and seen the blowups where the bass just wants to wallop the frog into oblivion and it sure did look exciting but it's another thing entirely when it happens right when you think your frog lure should be in just the right spot...BLAM!!!!

She choked it!!

Her length and girth calculated to a tiny bit over 4#.  What I know is the adrenaline I had running through my veins had me giddy and excited.  I released this beauty, fixed my Koppers Live Target Hollow Body Frog and tried to make lightning strike twice.  It did!

She measured 4.33# on my Boga Grip and sealed the deal for me.  I have to build a frog-rod!  This is just too exciting a way to fish to not do it right!  Speaking of doing it right I wouldn't have landed the second fish if it wasn't for having the right line.  

I was throwing on my 7' MH casting rod with a Lew's Speed Spool 7.1x1 spooled with 30# Power Pro Slick braid joined by a Uni-to-Uni knot to 15# Seaguar Red Label Fluorocarbon. The fluoro probably isn't necessary for frogging but since I'm using my all around MH fast-tip casting rod I tie the leader on so I can throw swimbaits or cranks.

I have had these frog lures sitting in my tackle box for a few years.  I threw them a few times but never in the right conditions or with the correct level of patience to not jerk the frog at the first sign of the bass breaking the surface.  And bass DO break the surface.  They rocket up with the intention to slam the frog, stun it, and swallow it before it knew what hit it.  So I let them, I painfully waited for the bass to smash the frog, waited for the swell of water to recede, and waited to feel the weight of the bass before I crossed their eyes.

It's addictive!!  Will I do it again?  Absolutely!!!

Cat on a Crank

Just a quickie post.  I stopped at a DuPage County Forest Preserve on my way to pick up kibble for my dogs.  I just took my casting rod, tied on a chartreuse square-bill crank bait, grabbed a pair of pliers, and walked to the water.  I was only going to throw the crank around for 20 minutes then go buy dog food.

I saw a decent bass jump so I cast to it.  Three winds, four, five...wobble, wobble, wobble-SPROING bends my rod.

I got 'em!!  I got the....it isn't fighting like a largemouth. 

What I got was my first cat on a crank!  It ate all of the front treble hook and really surprised me!

I'm glad I stopped by and threw that crank around.  Releasing the fish after pictures I drove to buy dog food and headed home happy I got to go fishing and even happier I caught.

Open Water Success (finally!)

It's been too long since I last updated this blog.  It's not that I haven't been out fishing, it's that I haven't been catching much to speak of since ice out.  That changed Saturday for my friends Dave, Monique, and me.  Small pond bass finally got out of their spawn-induced slump and we had figured out what they wanted and how to catch them.

The first pond we stopped at has weeds just starting to form a shallow-water weed line.  Tall grass made casting challenging at times.  I threw a few crank baits early but nothing paid too much attention to them.  It was when I tied on a Z-Man Chatterbait in a bluegill color with a Crabby Bass Crawdaddy trailer I got some largemouth attention.

A nice chunk of a largemouth that hit my chatterbait around four feet from shore; near where a shelf drops off in the pond.  After releasing the bass I made the same cast and slow-reeled the chatterbait back toward the shore.  I was watching the fast-tip of my casting rod do a slow twitching motion in time with the vibrations of the chattering blade.  

My lure should be near shore so I should look down and slow my retrie.....Woah, there comes bass, slow way-down.  The skirt on the chatterbait flares, the claws on the Crabby Bass Crawdaddy flapped, the blade flashed gold, and a big mouth opened up and snatched my lure.

A longer bass and it may be a heavier one.  I didn't bring a scale or tape measure along to measure it.  I was just glad to catch it.  I would catch a few more bass here but fish eluded Dave and Monique.  We decided to hike our way back to the car and head down the road to another pond about the same size as this one.  

The shoreline was mowed and manicured at this pond.  Dave got out his first casting rod; a custom spiral wrapped casting rod with the same specs as the stick I was using today.  It was my way of welcoming him into using a baitcasting reel.  

He had a BPS Egg in bluegill color tied on and 10# Triline Mono spooled onto a Lew's Speedspool. His first cast with the new casting setup he sidearms the Egg in front of a bed of reeds.  I watched as the rod blank arched and loaded up with a bass on the other end of the line. 

A nice bass for his first of the year and the first using a style of reel he was just learning how to use.  Practice casting with rubber casting weights pays off in a day with only three overspins he had to pull out.   Much better than my first time out with casting gear to be sure.

Monique had been using a small paddle-tail swimbait in chartreuse rigged under a float.  I wasn't going to discourage her but I did gently suggest she lose the float and rig the swimbait on a jig-head and cast it.  Off she went to cast at the pond when Dave and I heard her yell.  "Hey, I think I got a fish!"  Soon came confirmation "Yeah, I got a fish!!!  Umm...help?!?"

It turned out all she needed was some direction in what to do.  Once she got her thumb in the bass' mouth she learned the fish generally calms down and gives you time to work the hook back out it. She handled it like a pro after that.  When I joked she was in good company kissing fish and brought up Jimmy Houston she looked confused.  I'll have to send her some links of him kissing bass or Sugar-Boogers as he calls them.  

Dave scored the last fish of the day on a really cool and odd-looking little plug.  A Heddon Crazy Crawler.  

It was great to finally have a good day open water fishing.  We had ice late this year so spring schedules got all out of whack as far as spawning has been concerned.  It's got nature all out of whack trying to adjust.  One thing we all caught that we hadn't intended was something that's been out in force this year; ticks.  Each of us found at least two ticks on us.  We did examine ourselves after we got home but it took a second look to find all of the little buggers.

Do please be careful and check yourselves as you go out into nature! Lyme disease is nothing to mess with!  

As the summer comes and the bass move to more predictable spots I'll be getting out in my kayak more.  I want to spend more time this summer yakking rivers and new bodies of water.  If I catch you'll know because I'll write about it.  Since I started this blog my stats counter has passed 18,000 page views.  I'm geeked to get to 20K!  Thanks to all of you for reading about my fishing!

Rippin' Lips with the Zipper

I got out on the ice early Saturday morning. Pondboy and I drove separately and DuPage Angler member JC1Crappies beat us to the pond.  JC1 drilled test holes before Pondboy and I arrived and was taunting us with pictures of crappie he was catching in the pre-dawn snow.  Pondboy and I dragged our sleds out onto the ice.

The snow we had earlier in the week was four inches deep for most of our walk to where JC1 was catching fish.  Pondboy got ahead of me but half way to JC1 he dropped to his knees and then fell on his back.  I yelled his name a few times before he popped up on his knees and resumed dragging his sled.  Once I caught up to him I found out he was making a snow angel.  I reminded him of our age and that I thought he could be having a heart attack.  He promised not to do any more snow angels unless I was close enough to know he was just playing around.

We drilled holes, flashed the holes, found bottom structure we liked and set up our shelters. Pretty soon after setup I was able to tease a mark up to my jig and get it to eat. 

A very nice sized crappie came up for a photo!  I thanked it for eating my jig and let it slip back into the cold water below my shelter.  The bite slowed and not many marks appeared on my Vexilar.  I decided to change tactics and stop using marmooska style jigs and use a bait that would call the fish to it.  Another DuPage Angler member CSimon caught a very decent perch from this pond two years ago.  This memory guided my lure choice.  I pulled out a Plano box and picked a Salmo Zipper in Hot Perch color.  

It wasn't long before the commotion made by ripping the Zipper up and down in the water column made light marks appear on my flasher.  I settled the lure down near the bottom and wiggled my rod to make the Zippper rattle lightly.  A mark moved in quickly.  I teased it up to mid-column before it bit.

A crappie ate my Zipper. Look how far down this fish's mouth the Zipper is.  This would be the way almost all fish would eat the Zipper today.  I released this nice speck and dropped in for a chance at another fish.  It didn't take long.

This guy T-Boned it!  That means he shot in from the side, opened his big crappie mouth and GULP!! This Zipper fishing is great fun!  I wonder if any other species will eat the Zipper.

That's what I figured.  Crappies and Bass are going to be feeding on small perch and this largemouth clobbered my Zipper!  I saw another mark on my flasher so I released the bass quickly and dropped the Zipper back down the hole.

ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!  The reel's drag squealed!  Bounce, bounce goes the rod tip with deep headshakes!  Three more runs later this estimated three pound bass whacked my Zipper and ran hard away from the hole when he figured out he was hooked.   That was tons of fun!

It was that much sweeter since I made the rod I caught it with.  The rod performed flawlessly after hardly being used last year. I just didn't have confidence in anything that wasn't a panfish jig.  I'm enjoying seeing the error of my ways manifesting in some great fish all caught on a baitless, crank-style jigging bait; the Salmo Zipper!

Most of my fish came on the Zipper.  A few fish ate my deadstick.  A deadstick is a rod that just sits there next to you.  Generally it's got a minnow on a ice jig floating under a slip-bobber all running down the hole.  I had the minnow positioned close to the bottom.  I was hoping to catch a decent perch.  All of a sudden Pondboy yells for me to come over to his shelter.  His deadstick got hit and he had a surprise for me.

The day's only perch.  It was a nice one too! It's always great to have a multi-species day that includes something other than panfish and largemouth.

The snow had stopped and the sun was out.  It was still a bit chilly but we'd had a great morning! I was pleased to call it a day after a lot of catching.  The key to my success today was simple; I thought outside of my little fishing box.  I used tackle that I had purchased to work with a rod I had built that I hadn't used.  It's great to get some confidence in a bait and I can say I now have fantastic confidence in the Salmo Zipper!

Golfing with Woz

I played a round of golf once at a charity tournament I got suckered into donating to.  I recall the entire time as we drove around the water hazards my mind drifted from where my shoulders should be in relation to my feet during a golf swing to where I'd like my feet to be; standing next to the hazard fishing it.  Based on the size of some of the blowups I remember seeing I recall thinking golf courses must be good places to fish.

I took a personal day off work today.  I had to use one personal day or I'd lose it at the end of the year so I picked today because I was going golfing.  I made plans to meet Woz from DuPage Angler at the golf course early in the morning on a cold day in mid-November.  The morning air temperature was 38 degrees; it was cold.  Woz and I grabbed our bags and our sticks and walked around the clubhouse to our first hole.

Our first hole was a water hazard.  We both were throwing 4" swimbaits.  Woz scored a fish in the first few casts.  He caught a second one before I felt and saw a three pounder swipe at my swimbait then roll away.  The angling equivalent of a slice I suppose.  Woz finally caught a bass he felt was worthy of a picture.

I noticed a difference in the offerings we were giving the fish today.  I had a Strike King KVD Heavy Cover Swimjig in Bluegill color with a Big Hammer 4" swimbait in a similar color.  Woz was throwing a swimbait on a keel-weighted swimbait hook but his swimbait had some chartreuse that made the bait POP in the water.  I switched to a white-chartreuse swimjig with a Big Hammer trailer and BAM, I caught a bass.

We walked the perimeter of the hazard chatting and casting.  Stopping every so often to hold a bass up for a picture.

I was using my 7' custom MH spiral-wrapped casting rod today.  All fish were caught with it and I have to say I put it through it's paces.  It caught some nice sized bass.  Not once did it feel like the reel was being twisted from my hand.  I'm sold on spiral-wrapping casting rods.  All the casting rods I build for myself in futre will be wrapped this way.  I had no way of knowing but it was about to be tested again.

There's a measured five pounder.  She was thick and girthy and fun to catch.  Then again so were the other four pound plus bass we both kept pulling out of the hazard.

Yes, I have to say I may have been a bit hasty in my opinion of golf.  It is not a "good walk spoiled" as the saying goes.  Rather a game requiring permission to play, time available to play, and a partner to walk the links with.  I mean I like a Jason holding largemouth bass selfie as much as the next person but let's face it.  More pictures make a blog more better, especially when it's fish pictures.

The Quest for Bronze

I had a problem.  I haven't spent nearly enough time in the rivers and creeks this year.  I hadn't caught a decent smallmouth bass yet in 2013 and the weather was getting cooler.  Plans were made to wade.

Dave caught the trip's first fish; a decent little smallmouth on a worm. I'd get the next smallie on a minnow.  A better fish.

Then another again on a minnow.

Dave realized the fish were preferring minnows today and scored a nicer fish after making the switch.

I saw the copper flash of the side of the fish as it hit my next cast.  I thought it was another decent smallmouth.

It wasn't. It was a decent rock bass.  Time for a rock bass selfie.  (at least I'm not doing the duck-face)

Cast after cast, minnow after minnow we'd pull bronze out of each hole we fished.  The morning was a success in numbers and in quality fish landed.  We knew we'd be happy if we had to call it quits right then but one more hole looked so inviting we had to cast at it.

More quality smallmouth came up for a photo.  Dave had his rod tucked into his wading belt.  His float ten feet from our position.  He asked me to help get a Plano box of floats out of the back pocket of his wading vest when I noticed his float was down.  I grabbed his rod and line between the reel seat and the big sripper guide and pulled tight to set the hook.  Dave took over and reeled in the best fish of the day; 16.5" long 9" girth calculated to 2.25# of bronze!

Dave and I were both happy with the quality of fish today and the excitement of the last catch hadn't worn off before my float went down.

Dave set the tone for my fight when he said "Holy $hi+, that's a GOOD ONE!!"  The fish made two runs.  I used my 7' custom Micro-Wave spinning rod as leverage to steer the fish away from a fallen log.  The fish jumped but I saw the #4 Gamakatsu Octopus-Circle hook was set firmly in it's lip. 

Bronze!  Big bronze!  18" long, 10.5" girth would calculate to 2.75#. WOW!  My biggest smallmouth of 2013 and a little smaller than my personal best.

I was complaining earlier this week I hadn't gotten out and caught my favorite species of fish.  I was complaining I hadn't put on my waders much and walked in moving water this season.  I decided to change that today and I'm glad that I did.  

I was on a Quest for Bronze, and bronze was what I got.