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.

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.

Bass Start Early

One of the things I have learned in the few years I've been fishing is that fish feed at night and the morning bite is usually better than any other part of the day.  Today was no exception.

Dave and I got to the pond we would fish before six AM.  We worked our way to our favorite spot and began calculating how we were going to fish what we could see.  It looked like some weeds grew where I knew there to be a ledge.  I tied a 2/0 Owner cutting point EWG hook to the 15# fluorocarbon with a simple palomar knot.  

I was wanting to fish a Rage Tail plastic called the Shellcracker.  In two times out fishing I've had two bass grab the bait on the drop and on both occasions I didn't get a hook in the fish.  I dragged them up to the surface and watched them let go of the bait.   This time I rigged it up weightless, Texas rigged, and texposed. 

I cast out into the dim light conditions and saw my bait land past some weeds.  I worked it like a stick worm, let it fall then raise it up.  Once I hit the weeds I flipped, flopped, hopped the little bait like a fish out of water on top of the weed growth.  When I reached a hole in the weeds I let the bait flop right in, twitching it once.  

-tap-

Reel down and WHAM!  BASS!!

See, I told you bass start early.  I didn't know if it was luck or not but this bass hit pretty much like I thought it would; on the drop as the "dying brim" floated and twitched it's way to the bottom.  I cast out in a different direction bringing the bait to the weed edge again.  Again flopping, hopping, then drop........Bass!!   

Same cast, same retrieve, and same result.  Dave got one too!!  Nice double!!

The sun was lighting the sky but it still hadn't broken the horizon.  More early-shift bass bit our bait.  Then the finesse plastic bite stopped.  We kept casting but stopped catching.  As all good fishermen do Dave started switching baits, tying on other lures, other colors, other presentations until he found what the bass were wanting.  Swimbaits!!

Dave ran out of Big Hammer Swimbait tails so he decided to pull a Stange and rig up a 5" Berkley Flatback Shad on a Strike King KVD Heavy Cover Swimjig.

First looooooong cast, I hear the swimbait hit the water.  I hear Dave say $h!+, I think I'm snagged.  Then I see it jump and toss it's head back and forth....BASS!!!!!

This would be the biggest we caught weighing in at 4.25# on my Boga-Grip.  She did lots of acrobatic jumps and pulled drag on Dave's spinning reel four times to gain back line.  Here's what she was trying to toss with each jump.

See how completely this bass ate the 5" swimbait tail and the extra inch of swimjig?  The swimbait paddle tail is in the bass' stomach.  This is the textbook definition of the term "She ATE it!"

Needless to say I switched to a swimbait and began to catch bass too.

I didn't keep count but Dave figured I caught 12 and he hooked seven including the 4.25#.  My largest was 3.5# but not a bad morning at all.  

After a short hike back to my car Dave and I loaded rods in the hatchback then headed to his house to enjoy a homebrew.  We flipped through pictures on our phones of the fish we caught and marveled that all fish bit only two styles of lure.  

Early morning the bass were favoring smaller fish sized plastics.  After the sun peeked over the horizon the only thing that caught fish was a larger fish sized swimbaits.  Less than half of our fish were caught once the sun was up.  The bulk of our bass came early.  Bass start early, so I need to start just a bit earlier.  If I get to have this kind of a productive day I'm happy to start early too. 

How to Hook a kid on Fishing

It was a chilly morning on Saturday.  You can tell that Autumn is taking its self seriously as the weather is chilly and the leaves are turning colors this very early day in October.  I was going to meet Monique, a friend of mine from high school and her son Alex for some bass fishing.

We met, loaded up the car, and headed to a pond I know.  This is the same pond I used in my 
Inch by Inch - A Measured Approach to Fishing post.  I knew we'd all have a good chance to catch bass here.  It was only a matter of figuring out what they wanted to bite today.

It was a post cold-front day and the air temperature had dropped.  I knew this time of year can be tricky for catching largemouth bass.  On one hand they eat lots preparing their bodies for the coming winter.  On the other hand there are plenty of opportunities for cold fronts and shifting barometric pressure to make a pond that normally has good bite turn into a big puddle of bass with lockjaw.

As Monique, Alex, and I approached the water I explained we wanted to take it easy, not walking too hard and make a long cast from ten or so feet away from the water's edge.  I have learned both from other fisherman and personal experience that big bass can park right off a spot you walk up to and once you spook them you'll never catch them.

Alex had an orange skirted spinner bait tied on to his line.  One cast parallel to the shoreline to the left, one cast parallel to the shoreline to the right, and one cast straight in front of him and BAM!!!

Alex called  he has a fish on.  I looked over and his Ugly Stik was bent in half and the Shakespeare reel that came with the combo was ticking and straining to handle the fish on the other end.  Alex was patient.  This wasn't his first fish and he played it perfectly bringing it to the shore when we realized how large this bass actually was.

Once the fish was on shore I ran to get my scale from my tackle bag.  Third cast and Alex hits a weighed 4.5 pound largemouth!!!  Way to go!!!  

Alex hits again while I'm still tying on lures for Monique and me.  Second fish on the orange spinner.

I show Monique how to throw a spinner bait, fan cast, count the bait down in the deeper part of the pond then reel and watch the tip of her rod twitch with the rhythm of the willow blade.

We all rotate around the pond when Alex hits fish again.  The orange spinner catches another bass.

It took some time for me to dial in what the bass wanted but I figured it out.  They stopped liking spinner baits and started hitting swim-jigs.  My first bass came on a bluegill colored 1/2 oz Strike King KVD Heavy Cover swimjig with a 4" Big Hammer swimbait trailer.

I dug into my tackle bag an found two more swimjigs and set Monique and Alex up with 4" Big Hammer trailers.  Alex wasted little time before he nailed a largemouth with the Big Hammer.

I hit the final bass of the trip after reeling in all the way across the pond and being surprised by a bass grabbing my Hammer mere feet from the shoreline.

Monique was still fishless.  We tried changing swim-bait trailers on her jig, changing retrieve, I even made a few accurate casts to spots that should hold willing fish but none bit.  Today Monique would be skunked. Fortunately for Alex he wasn't.  Alex had the most fish of the day and his first fish was the big fish of the day.  Honestly a 5 pound largemouth is a giant in the northern regions of the USA.  A 4.5 pounder is truly a fish to be proud of.  Based on Alex's comment when his mom posted a picture of his big ol' largie on Facebook he enjoyed catching it.

How do you hook a kid on fishing?  Make sure the kid is in the best position to hook a fish to measure others against for a long time.  Make sure the kid catches something they can tell their friends about until the next time they go fishing.  Alex said he enjoyed himself and restated it again on Facebook.  I'd wager he's hooked.

Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em!

I went out with my friend DaveO today.  We generally hit a pond or two in the time he has available then get him home to his family.  Often I'll keep fishing trying other ponds and working on working with a lure I am learning or one I'm learning to love.  I'm learning to love Big Hammer Swimbaits as trailers to swimjigs.

In spite of the heat Dave and I each managed two bass total, for two ponds fished.  Technically I got three since I did touch my bass that spit the jig back at me on the shore's edge.  I figured it was fine that I got him as close as I did and lipping him would have been unnecessary.  I gave him a push back toward the water and he flipped and swam back to the bottom of the pond.


After dropping Dave off at home I stopped and had a bite to eat.  It was noon and 97 degrees and sunny.  I had to wrack my brain for spots I could fish but where I could also sit in the shade.  I decided to to to a gill pond I know about and try out my new 7'6" Bass Pro $20 ultralight.  They still have some left and at $20 it's a nice rod and an OK reel.

I had fun catching gills and I got some beautiful ones but I had something pulling at my insides.  I needed, I needed to Hammer some more.  I needed to Hammer some more bass!

Off to a different pond where I know there to be biggies.  I parked and worked the sides of the pond I can walk without homeowner involvement.  Once I rounded the corner I sailed my Big Hammer parallel to shore and settled into the thump-ba-dump-ba-dump-ba-dump I feel through my rod and line when the tail of the Hammer is moving back and forth and making that lateral-line stimulating thud, thud, thud.  My making up words for the tail movement on the Big Hammer swimbait was interrupted by a WHAP!  I set the hook, reeled in, then boat-lifted this beauty who flat out wouldn't let me lip her.

The length from the butt-cap on my rod to the second wrap for the hook keeper is 17.5".  Not a bad bass.  That got my need to Hammer out of the way for today.  I picked this lovely up and eased her into the water then eased myself into my Subaru.  A good time was had by me, my new ultralight, and my Big Hammer.