Emiquon in August

Alan and I arrived at Emiquon by mid-afternoon on Saturday.  It was the Labor Day weekend. Our goal was simple. We wanted to catch bass.  We heard from several of Alan's tournament friends and DuPage Angler's own Soonerbass this body of water off the Illinois river has some fantastic bass fishing. That was enough to get three kayak anglers to drive two plus hours to fish what you can see in the photo below has a generous expanse of matting grass before you get to open water.  

This was our first day fishing the lake so as we unloaded our kayaks we discussed our game plan.  We decided to paddle out the narrow, deep channel at the boat launch to the edge of the weeds.  We figured by the time we got to the edge of the weeds we'd have a chance to figure out if we wanted to go right or left. We knew there were probably fish in either direction so we made our choice and started fishing.  

Both Alan and I had rods with frogs tied on.  We figured out quickly that the bluebird skies and the bright sunshine would kill any frog bite so we'd have to adapt and adjust.  Alan scored the first bass throwing his favorite soft plastic.  It's the bait that gave him his forum handle; a green Zoom Fluke.  The bass wasn't huge but it took the pressure off Alan.  Now I had to figure out what to fish and how to fish it.

I caught a few and Alan caught a few more but none of my bass were long enough to count for Kayak Wars points.  It was fun catching them mind you but I like most anglers end up wanting to catch something bigger.  We did catch a beautiful sunset.  I'll end the first day play-by-play with that.

Day number two we unloaded our yaks and got in the water around sunup.  Alan noticed something yesterday that was reinforced at the boat ramp today.  He noticed boats all heading to one end of the lake.  Well they might know something we didn't so we launched our kayaks and began to paddle like crazy after the boats.

We got to another big chunk of weeds.  It looked like anywhere there was water that wasn't 12 feet deep there were thick matted weeds.  Boats were fishing the weed edge but they couldn't go deeper into the mats without clogging up their motors.  Our kayaks could.  Did I mention Alan and I both had frogs tied on MH rods, high speed reels, braid what you'd want to use frog fishing.  Alan got the first points fish before I got the hang of the retrieve the bass wanted. It was explosive!  I paused the frog for a second in a hole in the weeds and the bass just SLAMMED it!

I love frog fishing! I do!  We had several hours of bass after bass smashing up through the mats.  My Live Target frog was taking a beating. Both Alan and I were giddy from the adrenaline.  

What worked here was simple, just cast the frog, rod parallel to the water start to reel.  For me three turns of the reel handle then stop.......wait.......one, two, three stop........wait....SMASH!!! Wait to feel the weight of the fish then set the hook.  

Scott got in on the end of the topwater bite but his frog got nailed enough times for him to be excited about the fishing tomorrow.  The sun was setting on us as we paddled all the way back across the lake to the boat launch. 

We got something to eat and headed back to the hotel to pass out.  Day two was absolutely fantastic!  Big bass, beautiful surroundings, and sore arms from paddling our kayaks over the weeds.  It was a good kind of sore.

Day three the wind kept us in the hotel until mid morning.  It was blowing strong in gusts and spurts.  Paddling was hard but it would get harder; the wind was at our back as we paddled to yesterday's spots.

I managed more fish including this nice 4# largemouth caught on a Texas-rigged toad that I dropped into a hole in the weeds.  Fish were sparse but catchable today our final day.

Pretty soon we had to paddle back to the boat launch.  It was time to load up and drive home. Our three day totaled a bunch of bass.  I didn't keep count, I was just busy having fun catching. Scott and Alan both caught a ton too.  I'm guessing we'd all agree coming back to Emiquon is a real possibility.  

I'm sure as the ice starts to recede at the end of the ice season 2014-2015 our thoughts will turn to warmer fishing and our trip to Emiquon will come up.  I'd fish there again; it's a frog-fisherman's place to be!  It's very friendly to kayak fishermen and offers us spots to fish where the motorized boats can't reach.

Watching PWoody Catch

Last week I saw PJ (PWoody on DuPage Angler) post that the transmission in his car blew up.  I replied we should go fishing to get his mind off the car.

Plans were made and Tuesday and Thursday of this past week I went to ponds and watched PWoody catch.  

We went to a good sized pond I know that has big bass that roam the weedline.  We were working the same style and color crawdad plastics with a bullet weight but his was getting bit and mine wasn't.

Now the bass weren't huge but he was catching consistently.  It took me until dark in one of the last casts of the night to hook up with a bass.  I had abandoned the craw and weight instead throwing a Chug-Bug topwater popper.  The water calmed down and I slung the popper what seemed like a mile.  I was using my custom Medium Heavy power spiral-wrapped casting rod I had just finished building paired with a Lew's BB1 casting reel and the one-pound bass whacked . 

Too dark for a picture we packed up and headed home.  Plans were made for Thursday to hit some ponds PWoody had found near some office buildings.  

We arrive, stop, pick a spot to stand in and start working the same plastic craw baits in the same ways.  PWoody starts out nailing a decent largemouth.

I had not even felt a bump on my craw.  PJ threw his out past the lily pads and showed me what he was doing.  Slowly pop and drag the craw back to the pads.  If it gets to the pads pull it up to the surface and drop it back like a yo-yo for a few strokes.  Just as he yo-yos the craw he gets hit again and hooks a bass.

I walked the rest of the pond throwing craws not getting hit so I thought I'd try something completely different.  Something I bought two years ago but hadn't used.  I took off my craw and texas-rigged a Yum Money Frog on the same setup with a EWG hook and a bullet weight.  I wanted the bait to be on the bottom and the tungsten bullet weight would get it down there.  I wanted something to mimic all the frogs I was scaring into the water as I walked the pond edge.

I cast the Money Frog onto a lily pad on the other side of the pond thanks to my Lew's Speed Spool.  I pull the frog off the pad and into the water.  I tug, jerk, and move it and feel the plastic legs kicking.  Then I felt something else.  I felt the THUD of a bass clamping down on my plastic.  

PWoody had turned away for a minute.  He turned back in time to see me reel down and SLAM the hook home.  My rod bent in a graceful arc I wrestled the fish up onto the lily pads and dragged it up for a close up.

PWoody put it well the next day on his status on the forum.

I may have gotten lucky.  It could be the bigger bait caught the bigger fish.  It could be my t-shirt that declares "Fish tremble when they hear my name".  I don't care what the reason was.  I just know it felt good to latch into a decent largemouth.  It felt good to spool on 50# Power Pro braided line and go drag bass over a field of lilies.  But I did what I set out to do; to help a friend in a time where his mind needed to get off blown transmissions and other worldly problems.  I got to watch PWoody catch, and that was fine by me.

A new species

I spent the last few days in Florida.  While it was a pleasant trip it wasn't a pleasure trip.

I did manage to get out fishing with my friend Dave while I was there.  We walked around a small private pond in a gated subdivision that was full of .5-1.5 pound largemouth.  Fun to catch Florida-strain largemouth.  I didn't get to break out the 8" Mann's Jelly worms that I bought but a pack of 4" and 5"green pumpkin Zoom trick worms was what the doctor ordered.  Thanks to that plastic my friend Dave can add another species to his species caught list.

It looks like a cichlid to me and the best guess we had is it's a Tilapia.  I had one follow a ribbon-tail worm in on my final few feet of retrieve but Dave got this one fishing weightless worm in the classic Texas-rigged finesse style.

The proof is in the picture.  Many species fall victim to the one color plastic you should have in your tacklebox; a green pumpkin/watermellon colored worm/craw/tube/lizard/fluke/paddle-tail swimbait.....Other colors will work but something about that green fools fish. 

Another species falls to the green pumpkin plastic worm!

UPDATE: I do believe Mark, Dave's brother figured out what species this is.  It's a Mayan Cichlid.  http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/fish/freshwater/nonnatives/mayan-cichlid/  It may  be one of the Cichlids that are grown for Talipia based on the description of the meat on the Flordia Wildlife Commission.