Pond Catfishing

I haven't written much here as my life hasn't been all about fishing this year.  To be fair this year has been really strange for fishing.  The weather stays too cold, gets too hot, it rains too much dropping the temperature of the ponds and lakes but raising the level and flow of the rivers and creeks.

I did build a spiral-wrapped casting rod to replace the one I broke lifting a 2.5# bass out of the water and into my boat.  I have the parts to build a Micro-Wave spinning rod to replace the rod that was pulled from the boat attached to what I can only assume was a sizable blue catfish.  

It was with Catfishing in mind that Pondboy called and I accepted.  I headed over to pick him up and drive to a small pond we had been wanting to catfish.

Here I will link to the article on www.dupageangler.com where Pondboy gets to tell the story of his Catch of the Day channel catfish.

Catching Illinois Blue Catfish with DuPage Angler

Five of us from DuPageAngler.com took a drive to LaSalle Lake-State Fish and Wildlife Area in Marseilles Illinois this past Sunday. Our trip was successful as we drove to Marseilles with one intention. To catch Blue Catfish.

Here is the story of our day at LaSalle Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area.

(The link opens to an article on DuPage Angler)

Harrier Lake Last Day on Ice?

If we have to lose ice fishing until next year I'd hang it up happily after my day out on Harrier Lake this past Saturday.

Harrier Lake is part of the Pratt's Wayne Woods Forest Preserve in the DuPage County Forest Preserve District.  Harrier is unique in the system as a catch and release only lake.  This allows fish go grow and reproduce and sustain their own balance while giving the sport fisherman a great place to go catch a variety of species.

I met Pondboy, JC1Crappies, and Rocknfish from the DuPage Angler forums in the parking lot as soon as the gates were opened.  We parked, said our hellos and unloaded gear.

We were working off of a report given to Pondboy from a friend of his.  His friend had a great day catching walleye at Harrier last Sunday night.  Another DuPage Angler member JTC24 caught a fantastic 18" walleye a week or two ago at Harrier.  We went to a spot off a point on the lake and started drilling holes.

It was slow going.  I decided to turn on my Vexilar Double Vision underwater camera to see what was happening in holes we deemed interesting.  

I saw a perch.  Neat!  A perch.  I haven't caught one of those yet.  I hope I'll get one to bite today.

Nothing looked good and that was causing us to worry.  Pondboy walked around and talked up the other anglers.  We would tip them off if we found a bite and several said they'd do the same.  We got our first spot by way of one of these tips.

Quick holes were drilled and bait was deadsticked and jigged near bottom.  JC1Crappies scored first with walleye.

I got my Vexilar camera in line with my holes quickly by using the compass heading generated by the camera.  That enabled me to see my minnow and my jig on the video screen.  I switched jig colors to a more beige tungsten Fiskas jig.  Dropping it to the bottom I saw walleye ZIP across the screen and slam the wax worm and jig.  Camera fishing is cool!

More walleye came up for a picture.  I think the group caught over ten in total.

Mid-jig I heard a voice asking us to emerge from our shelters and bring our fishing licences. This wasn't the first county parks officer we would see today.  All of us were fishing legally and never mind proving it.  A quick chat and we said our goodbyes to the officer and got back to fishing.

Around 11:30 AM the light switch was flipped and magically the walleye vanished.  We were off to scout for a new spot.

If we were lucky we could follow the walleye.  We guessed going shallow near an underwater island would either find the walleye or find panfish to catch.  In five feet of water we found green weeds, decent light penetration, and schools of bluegill that came around every minute to three minutes almost like clockwork.

I shot this short video to show what it was like.  If I would have had a jig in the water it would have been in line with the bluegill in the background.  It would have been a safe bet that I would have caught that fish but I was using both hands to keep the cell phone steady for the video.

And now the bluegill pictures.

We were slamming bluegills in all sizes.  Some nicer sized gills came though and Pondboy or I would announce their presence on screen and on sonar.  predictably thirty to forty five seconds later the other shelter would see bluegills show up under their hole.  

Pondboy and Rocknfish had to leave to go to a family function.  As we were talking about it being time for them to go I got a text from JC1Crappies that he was on his way back with his son Brendon.

Two left, two more arrived and we kept catching bluegills.  Brendon bounced between my shelter and JC1's.  Catch a fish in one shelter, leave to go catch in the other.

Brendon had caught the bluegill in the picture above when we both saw a perch on the video screen  eyeing the jig I had left dangling.  Would I catch my first perch?  Yes, yes I would.

It was cute and pretty tiny.  Not a keeper even if we could have kept it.  It had the cool orange fins on the bottom and the stripes, add that to my list of species caught.

The sky was taking on a rosy hue in the west.  JC and I decided we should move closer to the parking lot to our morning spot.  Walleye like all fish follow their forage.  Our bet was that the conditions in the evening were similar to the conditions in the morning.  That would bring the walleye back to that area.  It did.

It was now almost dark.  We packed up our gear and dragged it to our cars where we found the Forest Preserve truck waiting for us to get off the lake.  

I fished from park open to close, dawn to dusk, all on 6-8 inches of ice.  Personal totals for the day were around 15 walleye, over 30 bluegill, and a perch.  Like I said, if that had to be my last day ice fishing for Winter 2013 I would pack up my gear happily!

Secretly, I'm hoping ice stays safe for one more trip out...but don't tell that to the open water guys. 

A crisp morning on the Fox

The last text I received from Dave Saturday night mentioned the fact the temperature would hit a low of 50 degrees overnight.  It still felt like 50 degrees at 6:00 AM when I pulled into Dave's driveway.

We loaded up the car and headed off to the Fox for some much needed walking in the water.  Our first steps were greeted by smallmouth bass jumping across the river from us. Busting the surface after bugs or minnows or whatever they were interested in.

Dave was drifting crawlers and I was minnow man today.  When a fish busted the surface near me by luck I shot a quick cast to the perfect spot.  My float went down, my hook sank home.  First fish on the board and a healthy 15 inches to boot.

Dave quickly picked up a few channel cats on his worms but didn't feel they were photo worthy so they were released without their photo op.

This 4-5 pounder got the full paparazzi treatment without the TMZ questions.

More cats and a 12" smallie were caught but it was chilly.  The air was still cold and the sunshine at that hour of the morning didn't warm us enough to make us want to stay in the water.

After dropping off Dave I still had over a dozen minnows and some worms left over.  What could I do to get rid of my extra live bait?

Off to the Naperville Riverwalk to fish the DuPage River West Branch.  I scored a few rock bass and this nice smallmouth bass in front of the small groups of people out walking the Riverwalk this crisp morning.

I changed spots and that was when I missed my white whale.  I drifted a minnow down at about a foot and a half when my float went down.  I waited and then pulled to set the circle hook.  It felt heavy, It looked big!  I saw the side of the fish as I pulled it from the weeds by my minnow. It opened it's mouth, let my minnow go, and rolled back under the grasses mid-river.

I threw almost every minnow and crawler I had at the area that fish was in.  That or another fish kept grabbing my minnow or the worm by the body and ripped it off the hook.  I did catch another good sized rock bass but the bait thief didn't stop.

Don't start calling me Ishmael or anything but I spent an hour casting at that one section of river trying to get my hook in that fish.  Color me obsessed; I can live with that.

A chill to the car window and a nip to the air on this early September morning.  Fish were caught and released while the stresses of the work week and a very well fed bait thief drift down the river.

9/9/2012 USGS Fox River 10.87 ft 269 cfs @ Montgomery Gauge

9/9/2012 USGS DuPage River West Branch 7.64 ft 76 cfs @ Warrenville Gauge

Creek wading with Jason and Dave

Sunday morning came around and fishing plans were made to meet.  O'dark-thirty rolled around and we arrived at the spot just in time to see the sun come up.  It was a bit chilly for a day in the middle of August; the air temperature was in the 60s as we made our way down the bank and into the creek.

We got on fish quickly but they were all juvenile largemouth bass.  Time to move out of the first pool and take a walk to the next fishable spot.  

This stretch was full of bluegills and creek chubs.  Dave played the part of the Gillmaster calling out 'Gill' each time he set the hook figuring he was on a bluegill and he usually was.  Time again to walk downstream.

Here some small smallies mixed in with some rock bass and made the catching more interesting.

A downed tree in a deep hole is a great hiding spot for smallmouth bass.  They love rocks, gravel, sand and the like but they love wood too.  All three of us took turns drifting crawler halves past the log.  Finally my float went under, I set the hook, and zzzZZZZZZZzZzzzZzZZZ my drag went crazy.  My heart rate quickened.  I knew I had a larger fish on and I knew that the conditions were right for smallmouth.  It turns out what I hooked was a common carp with broad shoulders, thick through the body like a football.  I'll take it.  That's part of the fun drifting live bait; everything eats it.

More holes and more fish.  Catching was picking up as the sun got higher in the sky.  The smallmouth bite was turning on and aside from a couple of catfish and the occasional rock bass we were mainly catching smallies.

Getting back to the car we took off and stowed our waders, had a good drink of water, and reflected on a nice morning that bled into the afternoon and likely could have kept going until evening.  It was a great day to be outside in August.  We were in a beautiful setting but I find most rivers allow you to lose yourself and forget that civilization is just past the riverbank.  I sure do enjoy creek wading with Jason and Dave.

A SIDE NOTE:  I knew it was getting close but I just checked my stats page and my humble little blog has passed 5000 page views.  Thanks for reading everyone!  I'm enjoying writing about fishing and can't wait to see how long it will take to reach 10k.

Wading, Catching, Chatting - The Movie!

Ok, so the title is a bit dramatic but I finally got the video edited in a way that pleased me so without further ado I present Wading, Chatting, Catching - The Movie!

If you like movies about rivers, wading, channel catfish, or smallmouth bass this is the movie for you!

If you don't at least you can watch my friends and me fish, chat, and catch all set to a quirky beat that my Avid software provided for me once I picked it.  Hooray for technology!

In case you missed the first report about this trip you can find it at this link.  

Also most of the video footage and some of the still camera shots were captured by PivotHead Video Recording Eyewear.

7/29/2012 USGS 10.88 ft 279 cfs @ Montgomery Gauge

Dave's first wade

Dave got waders and as anyone who fishes and gets chest waders knows you start to get an itch to wade once you have them.  Today was the first day off we could get out on the Fox and wade.

The morning sun was lighting the morning sky as we stepped into the river.  I pointed out the need to shuffle-walk to Dave.  There are big rocks, bricks, cinder-blocks, and boulders of all sizes in the Fox river and shuffling is the best way to not trip right over something and fall in.

Dave also took to the river drift fishing rig setup well.  It always takes a few moments to mentally change gears and realize the best way to catch fish isn't always the frantic-lure-chucking method.  The drift method allows one to slow down and enjoy the surroundings as well as use real food to help attract and catch fish of all species.  If it swims and holds to bottom cover as expected it can be caught using this method.


After explaining how to read current and where are the better places to drift we both began working current seams and bridge pilings.


As luck and good fishing karma would have it Dave scores first with the first fish; a cute juvenile channel catfish.

The Fox has been "ON" for catfish based on my wading Sunday and again this Wednesday July 4, 2012.  The In-Fisherman has an article in a recent magazine where the writer states by observation he's found the best time for catching channel catfish is in whenever the Junebugs are active in your region.  That makes sense to me as I saw my first Junebug of the year this past Sunday.


My Junebug theory held true when I hooked into a good sized channel cat while drifting a worm.

Dave appeared to be off and fishing the wrong cover.  I figured I'd let him do that for a few minutes then point out where he'd have a better chance of catching fish.  I said I figured I would do it and not that I did because this happened:

I really wanted Dave to hook into a smallie as they are my favorite river pursuit however one can't argue with what turned out to be another 20 fish day.


I did catch a dink smallie but Dave was the Cat-Master of the day.  He also must be reading my blog or listening to my stories because before he removed the hook from the fish he'd be sure to give it a touch with his index finger; You touch it, you caught it.


I hooked another big cat, let it pull drag and tire out then brought it to me in the water, lifted the cat's head out by the Trilene XT 6# Mono and slid my hand under the fish's belly to be able to lift it up when...Snap....bloop....no more fish.  At least I touched it! ;-)

The above video shows Dave hooked into the final big cat for the day.  He handled it well and brought it in for the photo.

We worked some more river but only got bit by the cute little juvenile cats.  Catching is catching though so beating the skunk accomplished we waded to shore and left the river.  


We were sweaty, warm, a bit tired, and thoroughly exhilarated from Dave's first wade.

Later, after a nap I headed back to Dave's neighborhood for their annual Fourth of July festivities.

Dave's wife pulled me aside and let me know how much Dave had enjoyed being out, wading, and catching in the river. Dave pulled me aside and said the same thing.

I'm glad he enjoyed himself. I'm happy that I was able to get a friend involved in a way to fish that I enjoy. This was Dave's first wade but it won't be his last!