New Pond, Familiar Lake

There are stories passed down between fishermen when they meet as acquaintances.  Most involve tales of how big the fish were or the quantity caught the last time the angler was fishing. Once there is trust established by this conversation the "sharing of the spots" sometimes occurs. I was fishing the ice on a lake I fished a lot last year.  I had things figured out so I could find the crappies I so love to catch last year so when we didn't have early winter and didn't have the extreme cold, and snow the fish weren't in the same places as they were last year.  

The story that got me to even try this new body of water was due to the expert words shared by a fisherman that his buddy's friend said if I walk x-number of paces off this landmark on the shore of this new pond nearby I'd find a 17-foot hole full of crappies. Hmmmmm....the buddy's friend says, huh.....well what the heck.  I took the week off to ice fish and relax.  So fish on this stranger's-buddy's, friend's, recommendation I shall!

This week has been pretty warm; in the 40s during the day and around or just below freezing at night.  I was happy to see I had "that many" inches of ice.  (1" increments were etched in my old hole-scoop; it broke)  I'd guess that's at least 6-7" which is plenty safe even in the warmer temperatures.  Now to drill holes based on the coordinates provided by...well, you've been reading.  You may be guessing how this will go.

I drilled more than 40 holes in this new pond.  I drilled near the landmark, set number of paces off the landmark, deep into two lobes where the pond juts off in directions; basically all over the pond.  I didn't catch my target species but I did get to increment my species caught and species caught through the ice by one.  Please welcome the Yellow Bass to the number of species I have caught freshwater fishing in my lifetime.

While pretty, the Yellows were also kind of tiny.  They did fight well for their size but after two hours, 40+ holes, and only two Yellows to show for my morning I decided to cut my losses and fish the nearby familiar lake where I'd learned about this little gem of a pond.  (can you feel the sarcasm?)

I traveled light to this lake.  It was warm and from what I learned the other day fishing I would need to be mobile and it was too warm for me to be stuck in my shelter.  My ultra-light custom ice rod, my fishing bucket that held my flasher, auger battery, jigs, larvae, and plastics, and my ION auger all were placed in my small Otter sled.

I found I could kick my holes open from the other day.  That will save me time.  I found my holes over five feet of water and dropped in a jig tipped with a waxie.

Bam!  I got a quick hit on my first drop.  A nice perch came up for a photo.  I wonder if...

Well, fish do school and look at that.  More than one nice perch from the same hole.  I wonder if I can do it again.  Nope.

I jigged up a crappie!  One of my favorites!  I wonder if there's anything else down this hole. There wasn't.  I had to go fish another hole; several actually.  What did I find in those holes?

A few hours of catching and I had my fix for the day.  I caught fish on both live maggots and artificial plastics.  I switched from live bait after I started catching more small bluegills than anything else.  The plastic I fished was the Trigger-X Moustache Worm.  It's like fishing a stick-worm wacky-style in concept; in practice it probably resembles some kind of bug.  The fact that the two, wispy tails cause the bait to sit horizontally makes it a large target. Most fish will think twice about the size of their mouths before attempting to tackle this bait and that was the idea.

Now while I don't recommend following every recommendation a stranger's-buddy's, friend makes regarding life choices fishing is another thing entirely.  All it took was the suggestion that this new pond held fish to push me over the edge to fish it.  I had been "Google Maps scouting" the pond for a while now.  I would have fished the new pond eventually but it took a recommendation from a strangers-buddy's, friend and now that I've fished it I doubt I'll fish it again.

As for the Familiar Lake, I'll be back always looking for for more fun catching. More fun fishing, and more species diversity.  All fish got to swim away with nothing more than a cool lip-piercing and photo to show for their topside visit.  

I never did find that "crappie hole" as described by a guy I didn't know.  I didn't suspect I would.  I had to fish the New Pond for the same reason people climb mountains; because they are there, because they pose a challenge, a puzzle to unlock. I had to return to the Familiar Lake for the same reason.....and because there are fish in that lake.  Catching fish is ALWAYS more fun then searching for fish!

2015 First Time On Ice

ICE!!!  We finally have ice!!!

Living in northern Illinois I often watch ice reports from North Dakota and Minnesota.  Those are the first states I see ice reports from.  I start to get excited when Wisconsin and Iowa have ice thick enough to fish.  I wait semi-patiently while weather gets cold, skim-ice starts to appear on ponds and lakes, my fellow ice anglers and I turn into weathermen as we watch extended forecasts waiting for the water to get thick enough for us to feel comfortable walking out on the water.  This year we had a few weeks of cold, then warm, then cold, then warm, then frigid, then finally frozen!

This past Saturday was my first opportunity to get out and ice fish.  My friend Alan was just as excited as I was and we met shortly before sun-up to take our first steps into the 2015 ice season.

I started drilling holes; the first to test ice thickness which was 7-10", the rest to find weed edges, and the depth transitions I knew should hold fish.  Alan followed with my Vexilar flashing depths and checking for fish activity.   As often happens to the person following the hole-driller Alan hooked up with his first fish of 2015!

Ok, a little underwhelming but the skunk was off Alan.  I kept drilling holes with my ION until I heard Alan say, "Hey, a big mark is chasing my jig."  Yeah it was!!  Alan set the hook when he felt a mushy sensation and was rewarded by his straight line reel handle spinning backwards and whapping his palm several times before he could use his hand as drag. With pressure on the line the fish knew it was hooked and began to massively bend Alan's panfish rod toward the hole.  After five minutes of back and forth Alan turned the fish and got its head up the hole.

Alan seriously upgraded on his second fish for 2015!  A very nice largemouth bass with a tiny, perch-pattern Fiskas jig tightly embedded in its upper lip.

We decided to set up my shelter over this hole for the obvious reason being held by Alan above. We were sitting on top of 7-8' of water right off a transition down from 5'.  It didn't take long before I was able to jig up my first fish of 2015 using a small Salmo Chubby Darter lure.

While it isn't a huge crappie I'm glad my first fish of 2015 was a nice chunk of a speck.  I enjoy catching the wily crappie and I released this pretty example back to the cold water to swim, eat, and spawn.  

It turned out this would be the only fish I caught my first outing of 2015. Alan started moving around a bit bouncing from hole to hole outside the shelter when he hollered for me to come check out what he caught.

Alan hooked into a very nice perch!  There is probably a good reason the perch-pattern jig caught the nice largemouth bass earlier today.  This perch was also released to eat, spawn, and grow.  I feel it's the right thing to do in small, un-managed lakes and ponds and so does Alan.

The sun was high in the sky, the ice surface was getting sloppy, and frankly I was tired.  We called it a day around one o'clock.  It was a great day getting out on the hard water!  Alan had a fantastic day of catching and while I only caught one crappie it was enough to get my skunk off as well as give me a taste of ice fishing again.  It had been too long since I last walked on water to do one of the things I enjoy most.  I'll be sure to get out again soon.

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.