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!

A Phone Call Is All It Took

I had the best intentions of getting off work and getting my hair cut.  I also needed to run to the grocery store and pick up some plug-in air-fresheners since I had a banana bread go wrong, ooze out, burn, and smoke up my house.  

So I just walk in the door to the grocery store and my phone rings.  It's Dan Byrne from DuPage Angler and Pondboy's DuPage Fishing Guide Service.  

Dan: Whacha doin?

Buying Air Freshener then getting a haircut

Dan: No you aren't.  Let's go walk a lake.

Ummmm....OK.  I'm buying the air freshener however.  You haven't smelled my living room.

A phone call was all it took for me to head over to Dan's then we head to the lake.  We each take rods rigged with Crabby Bass plastics and start near a water feature.  

I still had my Crabby Helgie rigged up from last Sunday so I decided to work that first.

I tossed the Helgie out into some light current generated by the water feature.  The bait sank to the bottom slowly.  I raised my rod tip a bit and reeled four or five turns of my reel handle.  The bait would have lifted off the bottom and glided up like it was trying to swim to the surface before running out of energy and getting  EATEN by a lovely crappie!

The funny thing about this crappie is I don't know how long it was.  We had intended to measure what we caught.  Dan asked me before we got out of the car if I had a tape measure.  I told him I did, and I do.  I just didn't use it.  My bad. 

After playing photographer Dan got to working a Crabby Bass 4"ring worm called The Zipper.  Pretty soon he got a bass to bite.

I rotated around Dan's position and began fan casting my Helgie.  I scored another nice crappie.

Dan rotated past me and began casting.  He was still working The Zipper with great success.  Many bass would eat The Zipper today.  This one was lucky enough to get caught on Dan's PivotHead sunglasses.

More rotating, more fish.  It was great to get on some nice crappie and bass.  I had just cast my light weight presentation directly in front of me when something caused a commotion near shore ten feet to my right.  I reeled in very quickly and flipped the 2" plastic bug called a Helgie right into the area of disturbance.  

My slack line swam for deeper water.  As the fish took the bait deep it pulled in all my slack line.  The circle hook slid right where it's supposed to and the hook found lip.  A drag-peeling fight was on and with 6# test monofilament line I didn't want to horse the fish in.  Boy was I pumped to get my thumb in this bass' mouth.

I checked the weight on my Boga-Grip Scale and she was a tiny bit over four pounds.

See the circle hook right where it's designed to go?  In between the top lip plate and the bottom lip.  Hung perfectly right in the corner of the mouth.  Little bait; Big Bass!

As we lost light I caught a few more crappie then started catching hybrid sunfish, left and right.  Dan had the last fish of the evening and it must have been hungry.  

The purple nub of plastic hanging out of that crappie's mouth is the top inch of a 4" CBL Zipper.

What a way to end a work day.  I'm glad Dan called.  

I'm happy the lakes and ponds are finally warming up.  Crappie spawn before bluegills, then come bass.  Depending on the water temperature something should be spawning and something else should be really hungry before they spawn.  That makes it an exciting time of year to be fishing.

Check out Crabby Bass Lures on the web.  I highly recommend the Crabby Helgie and I hear the Zipper catches fish too.  Pick your color, pick your scent, salt or no, glitter or no you pick and Chuck and Brad make it the way you want it.

What To Do for and Hour or Two

After a long and wonderful winter for the ice fisherman in me the open water fisherman was itching to cast.  I wanted to use a rod longer than my arm and stand up.  I wanted to flip the switch and have the ponds wake up, the rivers move to a wadeable level, and every lure I throw I want to get mauled by hungry largemouth and smallmouth.

Ok, now for how it's really been.  I've been out fishing a lot and have had slow but steadily increasing luck in ponds.  The rivers are still a bit messed up from the April rains that doused the area so I've been leaving them alone for now.

I clean my house for a showing, load my gear and my dogs into the car, and drive in the direction of a pond I know.  A pond where I can fish with two big dogs tied to my belt and not bother anyone or be bothered by anyone.  Only one thing goes through my mind on the drive.  What am I going to throw? What lure is right for conditions?  What's right for fishing attached to two big dogs.

I took a look at the water when I got to the spot and it was clear for a few feet then you lost visibility considerably, there were plenty of wispy weeds, and a decently strong breeze was blowing down the length of this rectangular retention pond.  It was decided.  I was going to fish finesse and fish small.  One #4 Gamakatsu Octopus Circle hook, one 23g Raven Sure Shot Lead Split Shot, and one Crabby Bass Hellgrammite in Black with Blue Flake color.

I knew there were nice bluegills in this pond and there were also bass but I didn't know what size to anticipate.  That was part of the fun of this style; I could catch a tiny little largemouth or a great big one but I was more interested in finding big bluegill.  

First fish and.....it wasn't a bluegill.

It was a little largemouth.  A decent size to keep catching fun.  If it wasn't this windy I'd use my ultralight rod.  That would make this type of catching all the more enjoyable.  Still the bass ate it.  When you find a bait as far down the gullet as this one was you know the bass are hungry and the bait totally fooled 'em.

I tossed the bass back, straightened my rig out and tossed it back past the weed edge.  I pulled my rod tip down to enable me to see the line on the surface of the water.  I watched two things to determine if I had a bite.  The point where the line enters the surface of the water is of utmost importance to watch.  If the you see the line move left or right you know a fish is running with your bait, reel in slack and set the hook.  The other place I'm watching is a few inches down my line from where it enters the water.  I learned this trick from a sight-fishing ice fishing champion that fishes with Schooley reels and no float or spring-bobber.

The trick was to watch the round spring-like condition of the mono fishing line as it lays on the surface of the water.  The sun would block my view of the point where the line entered the water so I'd reel slack but keep it spring-like.  When the spring straightened out set the hook.  

Sunshine my larger dog has never been fishing with me when I caught anything.  She was very interested in the bass.  I let her sniff one and she tried to grab it.  I corrected her quickly and she let it go.  I guess largemouth bass smell like the fish-based food I feed her.  I'll say this, Sunshine looked at every bass I pulled out of that pond as if I was holding a dog treat that I might give her if she was a good girl.  I didn't give her any, but I did catch a bunch.  Over 20 bass today, and a few gills thrown in.  

I learned after I missed what I thought was a good bite that I pulled away from the bluegills were taking two or three bites to get the 2" Helgie in their mouths.  When I was patient and let them take it I got beautifully colored bluegills too.

I had to be out of my house on a Saturday, I accepted that.  I knew what I'd be doing if the weather permitted.  Fishing happens and I like to be there when it does.  I kept my dogs and myself out of the house when it was being shown, I got out and got some sun and fresh air, and I got something I haven't had in a long time:

I got Bass Thumb!  

Welcome to open water fishing.  It's on until it gets solid later this year!  Let's go out and catch some fish!