First Cast Five!

The 4th of July, Independence Day.  The day most Americans celebrate by cooking out, drinking a beer, and enjoying the company of friends. This year I had the pleasure of celebrating the fourth with my girlfriend Lupita, and my good friends Dave and Monique.

When Dave arrived and brought in his contributions to the day's cookout I noticed a container of nightcrawlers in his cooler.  When I asked he replied yeah, we've got our rods in the car.  I figured we could go fish after dinner.

I thought WOW, that's a great idea!  I've still got my rods at the house so I have one for Lupita. Now to see if she wants to fish.  Great!  So long as we let them go she'll give it a try!  Heck, I almost always catch and release.  Let's go fishing!!

We arrived at a nearby pond and Dave made the first cast near an outflow pipe where water was pouring into the pond.  His float went down.  I was showing Lupita how you make a worm-half without scissors when Dave hollers that he'll need a little help landing his fish.  I hurried over to find he had a NICE bass hooked.

Dave was fishing from the top of a spillway pipe and had no easy way to land his fish.  I leaned in from the bank and lipped Dave's fish.  It was 19 1/4" long and 13 1/2" around.  That calculates to 4.9#!  A first cast five for Dave!!

Pretty soon Lupita was calling out for assistance.  She'd been re-baiting her own hook after bluegills stole her worm and this time her hook found a lip!  Lupita caught her first fish!

It was a cute little bluegill!  I showed Lupita how to work the circle-hook out of the lip of the fish and she admired it's blue coloration and beautiful banding before releasing it back to the pond. Then she said something that did my heart good; I wanna do that again!

Pretty soon Lupita was baiting her own hook, making worm bits out of worms, casting an ultralight (which isn't the easiest type of rod to cast), and catching and releasing her own fish.  I actually got to bait up my line and catch a few fish while Lupita did her own thing catching pretty bluegills and letting them go.  That is until she cast near a line of reeds. Her float went down, she raised the rod tip and reeled in the slack hooking in her words "something heavy"!

It was indeed something heavy!  Certainly heavier than a bluegill! Lupita went from catching her first fish to having a multi-species day landing her first largemouth bass!  She lipped it like a trooper once I showed her how and was very interested in all the patterns and colors on a largemouth.  After a few photos she carefully set the bass into the water near shore and watched as in two flicks of the tail it was gone into the water.

Dave hollered to me that he'd landed a pretty nice bluegill.  He wasn't kidding!  What a beautiful specimen!  I'd love to have a bunch of bluegill that look like that in an aquarium.  I'm pretty sure that's not legal but boy would it be pretty!

Next Lupita hooks a nice sized slab of a bluegill!  I'd better get a worm in the water.

OH YEAH!!!  When you can lip a bluegill you know it's a biggie!!  This was the last fish we caught this evening.  The sun was going down, the mosquitoes were biting my girlfriend, and it was time to think about finding someplace to watch fireworks.

Sometimes a first cast fish is looked at as a curse on the trip.  Almost as if it was too easy and now no one will catch anything.  That wasn't the case however.  We had a great evening, caught fish, and had a fun evening with friends!  If Dave catching a big bass on the first cast helps all future fishing trips may he always catch a first cast five!

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!

Early December Crappies

The latest warm snap was gone.  The weather stabilized to chilly 40 degree days with 30 degree and lower nights.

Degree by degree the water gets colder.  Until the water gets solid there is always fun to be had catching crappies.

My friend Monique contacted me asking if I was going fishing this Saturday.  I was planning to go anyway and it's always nice to have company.  I felt bad ever since I took her and her son Alex to fish for early fall largemouth and she got skunked.  I was determined to put us on some crappies and that is what I did.

My first cast with a minnow hooked on the Custom Jigs and Spins gold metallic diamond-head jig  hooked a nice crappie.

A quick picture, a quick release, and a quick addition of another minnow to my jig and my float went down again.  This one was bigger.

Measuring at 11" this was a nice, thick, fat bellied crappie. Getting ready for winter added some heft to this fish and the fight on my ultralight rod was all that much more fun.

I bit off the ice jig I had tied on Monique's line and tied on another gold diamond-head jig.  The jig was the ticket for crappie today.  In short order Monique began catching crappie.

What is it with people I fish with kissing fish?  Never mind, the jig-switch worked and that was what mattered.  She still wouldn't impale a minnow but after a few fish Monique got the hang of lipping crappies and unhooking the jig from their paper-thin mouths.

After we caught a dozen fish we decided to call it a day.  The nice 10.25" crappie above is the last one we caught.

Another successful trip out for some crappie catching. I'm glad I could put Monique on some fish.  When quality fish come in enough quantity that they are catchable with the right methods it makes for a fun time out in nature.  

Funny how standing next to water is so calming.  You watch the ripples in the water move your float up and down.  Then it stays down.  Reel in the slack, rod-tip up, and give a steady pull to set the hook home.  Reel when you feel the wiggle and that's how it was today catching these early December crappies.

Oops...When did it become December?  ;-)  The URL will still stay November but the crappies remain.

Trying for Crappies

Temperatures rose to almost sixty degrees today as Indian Summer temperatures made what is likely their last appearance here in the mid-west.  I had made plans with PWoody from DuPage Angler to meet him at a pond near his home and try for crappies.  When I mentioned my plans to my friend Monique she jumped at the chance to come fish with us as she and PWoody are cousins                    by marriage and she enjoys fishing.

We all met at the pond.  I had heard from Pondboy that the bite wasn't happening for crappies today in his normal crappie spots.  That didn't bode well for us but we walked the pond anyway.

It is always nice to get out and fish with members of DuPage Angler and it was a pleasure to meet PWoody this mild Saturday morning.

We had figured live bait is best for crappie today so we came prepared with crappie minnows (fathead minnows of a smaller size, not actual crappie fry), wax worms, and red worms.

The standard live-bait rig I use for crappies is similar to the way I drift rivers.  In place of the circle hook I use an ice jig for weight and presentation and replace the spring-float with a slip-float.

None of us got skunked but none of us caught crappies; all bluegills, all day.

We fished for two or three hours until the scattered showers that were promised in the weather forecast came to pass.

It got dark in a hurry.  I guess if we'd have started walking to our cars when we heard the thunder none of us would have gotten as wet as we did.  "One more cast" was the mantra until the small rain drops turned into big ones.

As we loaded our cars and said our goodbyes the heavens let loose and gave us some rain to fill in a small part of the gap left in our ponds, lakes, and rivers by this past dry year.  

Autumn into Winter is a challenging time of year to fish.  The weather and temperature fluctuate and days get shorter.  Fish know the ice is coming.  Signs posted around this pond ensure the fish will be safe from anglers under the ice.  That's a pitty.  I'd love to search for slabs here this winter.  I will ice fish for crappie this winter, just not at this pond.

A Crappie Day Fishing

Thank goodness it has rained as much as it has the last week.  I could see the effect when I went fishing today.  The water level in this pond was a good foot higher than when I last walked it a few months ago.

I met my friend Monique to fish a pond that her neighbor, fellow DuPage Angler member Pwoody had good luck in.  Any pond that you hear has good size largemouth and crappie makes you go fish it at least a few times.  I had done that and only scored a bluegill and a tiny largemouth in all the time I had spent at this pond.  Still my hopes were high that we'd catch crappie as the weather has begun the slide from cool to cold and that's when crappies can turn on and feed.

Our first casts were with bass in mind.  We both had swimjigs with Big Hammer swimbait trailers.  This is a combination I've grown to love as it produces good hits when bass are willing.  Today they weren't willing.

Since science hasn't figured out a way to force fish to bite yet I decided to change course and switch to an ultra-light rod rigged up with a slip-float and a tungsten ice jig tipped with wax worms (waxies).

My first cast my float went down slowly, I got excited at what I knew to be a crappie bite and set the hook into nothing.  I set too early.  Reeling in and checking my waxies to be sure I still had them I cast my float right to the same spot I missed the fish in and sure enough the float slowly went down.  A short hook-set later I caught a black crappie!

It was about palm sized and decently thick.  If this was a lake with a creel limit I don't think this would have been a keeper.  I was fine letting it go to grow bigger.

I set up another ultra-light the same way for Monique and she was catching bluegill after bluegill.  Come to think of it I was too.  There was only the one crappie that bit.  Well since crappie school and roam an area I figured we should walk the shoreline a ways and try our luck at a different spot.

I quickly pulled in a small bluegill when Monique said what she had on felt heavy.  I turned and saw the fish flop in the water.  I only saw it's back but thought it was probably a largemouth bass.

I was wrong!  Monique caught the second crappie of the day.  It was the biggest crappie I had ever  had the pleasure of lipping.

After I stopped saying, "Holy sh#t that's a nice crappie" over and over I handed the fish to Monique for the picture with her catch.  Then I got out my Boga and weighed the fish.  2 1/4 pounds!!!  I've heard of bigger crappie being caught in southern lakes but I've never actually SEEN one before.

Plenty more bluegills were caught and released but we didn't catch another crappie and not one bass.  The best part is we didn't care.  We were both excited by that thick, black-speckled, slab of a crappie Monique had hooked and landed.

Fishing in the colder months of the soft-water season can be hit or miss.  The weather may be nice and the bite is off or the bite should be on but the weather is lousy.  Today was a Crappie Day of Fishing with blue-gill skies and temperatures in the 40s.  

Soon the water will be hard and this blog will take the turn to hard-water fishing.  Until then I hope to have many more crappie days fishing!

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.