Thursday, June 26, 2014

DuPage Angler Kayak Cadre


Five of us arrived at different times this evening.  Several came after work. I picked up my fellow DuPage Angler Alan AKA Fluke after he had arrived home and we headed with our kayaks to new water. We were fishing the Fox Valley Park District's Lake Jericho in search of Kayak Wars sized bass.



We were on the water shortly after six PM.  The sun cast a golden hue across the lake.  The five of us that made the trip, Ted (SoonerBass), Scott (CrankinKing), Titus (Titus), Alan (Fluke), and me met in a corner of the lake that was sheltered from the breeze.  Fluke and I arrived in time to see Titus hook up with a nice bass on a plastic craw.



I stopped throwing a crankbait and tied on a craw. We all tied on craws. Flipping and casting the lures yielded a few small bass but nothing that compared to Titus'.  I decided to tie on a Strike King KVD Heavy Cover Bluegill Swimjig with a 4" Big Hammer swimbait trailer and paddle away from the group.

Soon I was rewarded by a better bass!


  
A fine largemouth, nice and thick with a full belly.  A nice largemouth but it only measured 15.25" so it didn't count for Kayak Wars Points.  While I was paddling around CrankinKing scored his first ever kayak bass!



The sun was going down as we made our way around the lake.  We were casting and catching a few but no one had Kayak Wars points yet.





I paddled near Fluke and CrankinKing and pointed at the sun indicating how much daylight we had left.  Fluke looked my direction and said "Just a few more casts".




BAM!  Fluke hooks up with a bass over 16" and proves it on a bump board before taking his own picture to submit to the Kayak Wars website.  Scoring 10 points for DuPageAngler2 on a nice chunk!




BAM!  I hook up throwing my swim-jig again!  This time it counts!  A 17" largemouth bumps my DupageAngler2 Kayak Wars team up another 10 points.

Mine was the last bass of the night. We paddled down the shore to the boat launch and loaded up in the dark.  The Facebook chat was buzzing with pictures and reports of our trip.  We will be back. We'll bring another group and fish for the giants that are rumored to be in the depths of Jericho.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

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.