Another day, another fish.

April 6, 2012


Well after my 4 pound wonder I decided to stop by hidden lake for an hour since I didn't have to work on Good Friday. Between giving my mother a visit, and studying for a test it was a good break in the day.

I went alone for the second time this year and I knew the fish would be deep. Since I had the lure on the line from the night before I tried my DT-10 Rapala Purple Crawfish Crank Bait so I tossed it in. In the first few minutes I had a fish and was darn proud of myself. I talked to several people in and out of the area and nobody had a fish. That is three trips this year and I have not been blanked yet. I'm proud that I feel pretty confident with my abilities and I'm excited too keep on getting better and learning to get bigger and better fish. I hope my hot streak keeps on going!

Again its less the size of this fish but rather the fact I, on my own, figured out how to get one when nobody else was having much luck.

4 Pound Bass!

April 5, 2012


Well I've done it. I've crossed the 4 pound bass barrier. I was fishing with my buddy Chris (who knows alot about fishing) last Thursday. We were fishing at Deep Quarry Lake in DuPage county. He had caught two small bass on minnows, and I had caught one. It was getting late and we decided to toss a crank bait because at night fish tend to hit on sound rather than sight (they have very little sight at night). So I went with a DT10 Rapala Purple Craw Crank bait. Simple bait, cast and retrieve. I was trying to get it to 10 feet the whole way in by reeling at a brisk pace. I had about 15 casts in on this bait without any hint of life when this fat pre-spawn female hopped on. At first I thought it was probably a Walleye (a likely catch at night) just because of the little struggle I had reeling this fish in. It was not a huge struggle but I could tell it was a larger fish.

Once I got it up to the dock and realized it was a bass I was pumped! A beautiful large mouth bass weighing around 4 pounds was my largest cast ever. Chris snapped a few pictures for me and we gently got the hooks out of her mouth and put this pregnant fish gently back in the water. I hope whoever catches her next does the same thing because in DuPage county everything is so over fished we need catch and release only rules so our kids can be fishing too. It was a ton of fun and a once every couple of year fish for around here. I cant tell you how much fun it was because the fish was so unexpected at 8:10pm and where I was.

What a fun time!!

Herrick Lake and Bass Thumb?

March 29, 2011

I wanted to go ice fishing this winter, however there was only a one or two week window with 4 inch ice here in Illinois this winter. It was VERY mild. So my first opportunity to get out was the last Thursday in March. The weather has been wierd this spring, for a week or two it was 80's and sunny then it got down to the 40's and 50's for a few weeks. That means the fish did not know what was going on. On this day the wind was from the North East (wind out of the north a good fisherman does not sent forth, wind out of the east the fish bite the least) so it was a double down on bad news. Unpredictable weather and a bad wind combo I knew the fish would be deep. SO I tossed out there everything I could get as far as I could get it. NOTHING.

SO the sun was dipping low and I did not know what to do. The wind had slowed considerably and I said to myself 'top water'. SO out came my Zara Spook greenish minnow looking lure and on hopped the bass. My phone was in the car so no picture. It didnt really matter the fish was nothing to look at, a skinny 1 year old that weighted maybe .75 of a pound. But the key was I had done something that does not often happen, I didnt get blanked while going fishing alone. Apparently I've learned enough over the last two years that I can now fish some in adverse conditions figure out where the fish are (DEEEP) and catch me one. I was thrilled not with the fish but with the process in which I caught the fish! I did get my thumb knicked up a bit and my bass thumb has started for the year.

October on the Fox!

October 21, 2011

Funny story, so I'm putting in hard wood floors in my home and I was getting very frustrated so what do you do? GO FISHING!

Off to the fox I hustled to see what was in store in some late fall fishing and who should I see but my buddy Mike. Not kidding just a random Friday that I took off of work, got frustrated and ended up gong fishing, at the exact same time, at the exact same spot as my buddy Mike. Life has a funny way of tossing curve balls because Mike was out fishing while angry (FWA) because the lord had called his grandpa home just a day or two before.

So we started out meeting in Geneva fished by the dam he got a nice small mouth (I got nothing) after our usual spots there we moved south to the turd laundry (where a waste water plant flows into the Fox near Geneva.

From there we went back to our cars and went to Batavia dam which was barely flowing over and you could walk out on the dam. I was tossing a medium sized jig head with a cream grub with blue sparkles in it and hooked two smaller Walleye's! These are the first two walleyes of my life. I was confused when I pulled it out of the water (expecting a small mouth) it had real teeth and apparently you cannot lip the fish. You have to grab it near to the back of the gills (it has a spur on the back of the gill flap that can cut you if you are not careful). Another reason why I didnt really know what kind of fish I had reeled in was because of how green the fish were. I've seen pictures of walleye and they always have that tan/green to them kind of like most small mouth. But these two were as green as a largemouth and not very big so it took me a minute to learn a little about them from Mike who is always a source of knowledge. He was there to tell me all about them which is great. One easy way to identify is that on the bottom of their back fin is always a little white spot, often times that is the first and easiest way to identify them, also they have bigger teeth, a poky top fin and cloudier eyes.

Moral of the story, go fishing with somebody who knows what they are doing and eventually you will learn something that might stick!

Rock Lake on Labor Day

September 4, 2011

A lovely labor day in lake mills Wisconsin resulted in much less fishing that I would have liked! However I did have a morning to go where I casted off multiple lures and was blanked by those darn fish!

Later that day I did end up landing me a decent sized bass (nothing to write home about but a catch is a catch!) 1.5 pounder and overall was happy with the results.

I find that I'm getting blanked more and more in fishing as I get more experienced. Pretty nice work here and anytime I get a fish I'm still happy.

Rock Lake once more?

September 17, 2011

Well this was about the last trip up to Rock Lake this year with any serious chance of catching some fish! I hauled out a few good looking fish and have become much better at understanding the lake. The last two years I've learned quite a bit about fishing and Rock Lake is probably one of the principle spots that I fish (about 50% of my fishing time is at the lake).

What I've learned is cast near structure, 90% of the fish are in 10% of the water. Of that 10% of the water that hold fish most likely they are near structure (duh!). But if you cant hit structure with your lures/baits/whatever is on the end of your line, you are not in the right spot so MOVE.

These couple of fish came from the weed's, tossing topwaters over the weeds, plastics through the weeds, or a crankbait through the top of the weeds are good ideas. Fish near the end of the year are active in the warm water and will hit the baits with ease just keep working at the spots and they will come. Not a bad fall catch up at the old Rock Lake. Love getting two year old bass at the end of the year.

Herrick Lake in September

September 9, 2011

Went out fishing at Herrick Lake with my buddy Mike. The lake is very weedy come the end of the year and he loves to fish with a buzz bait on top of the weeds. We each caught a few small bass on the technique and it was a fun outing. The big one (as it always does) had alluded use one more day. Mike however did get a 4-5 pounder out of the lake earlier in the month. So its fun to know that they are out there!!

The Wife with a Topwater on a Baitcaster?

July 3, 2011

My wife goes fishing with me now and again. She is no pro (well neither am I) but she usually gets her line out there and catches no fish (sound familiar?). Anywho she told me she wanted to try my new rod and reel. The rod is a premier St Croix rod and the reel is a bass pro special baitcasting reel. On this particuar rod and reel was a top water, walk the dog (Zara Spook to be exact) lure. You can imagine my next line:

'Honey this is like one of the hardest baits to cast and retrieve wouldn't you want to try something a bit easier considering you have never caught a fish?'

Her response is about as predictable as my question:

'No, I can fish with that if you can!'

'Alright I said just dont get frustrated when you bird nest the line your first time.' I responded.

Needless to say she was better than me (not really but she did not bird nest once and was far better than I was when I first tried that particular fishing technique). What was crazy was the hit she got on her third cast, it was a big one! The wife jumped back with fright, I was yelling reel, reel, reel and out she drug (well I grabbed because she was a bit frightened) a nice 2 pound or so bass from Rock Lake.

As you can see it was later in the dusk time and she did not want to hold it. However I was impressed with the fish and I've given her props for wanting to try something new despite me not being terribly encouraging. Nice work Kyki keep fishing with me pleeeaaasssee!