Monday, June 30, 2008

The bass were biting and I brought my camera!

I decided that whenever I go fishing from now on, I must bring my camera. Taking pictures of the fish you catch is just as much fun as catching them! I admit, I went a little overboard tonight, taking pictures of even the smallest bluegill. The first 4 pictures are the star of the evening: a 16 inch largemouth that I caught on my first cast. All the other pictures are different fish, there aren't 2 pictures of the same fish. I ended up with 8 more largemouth, a few bluegill, and I finished the night with a nice little pumpkinseed.













Sunday, June 29, 2008

I caught a perch.

Yup, that about sums up my fishing outing yesterday. I caught a 7" perch. It had really bright orange coloring on its fins and looked pretty cool. I also caught a largemouth off a bridge, and had to reel him about 20 feet up in the air. Then I looked down and saw two big carp meandering along through the weeds. I cast my lure over one of them, reeled it in until it was just on the other side of him, let it fall down his side, and then jerked up hard on it. I hooked him in the side, but when he pulled away the hook came out. I didn't end up empty handed though, there was a 1 inch by 1 inch scale stuck to my hook, lol. I don't think fishing that way is legal...

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Lake Wingra's dam

The platform at the dam between Lake Wingra and Wingra creek is usually really crowded, but yesterday there was only one guy there with his gf. I got a good number of bluegill on both sides, the largest of which was 8". Don't worry Jeff, I lined up the tape measure with the tip of his head this time. He wasn't quite as meaty as the one I caught in Champaign though. I also caught two small largemouths (maybe 10" each).

I got talking to the other guy there and he recommended a good spot on Mendota to catch catfish. It's somewhere up by the Eagle Height's apartments, where he said he caught a couple 5 or 6 lb cats using worms.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Old fishing pics

All of these pictures are from the subdivision pond in Champaign, except for the 6 lb bass. It was caught in an even smaller subdivision pond down the road.

Pic 1 - two good sized bluegill
Pic 2 - 11 lb catfish being scientifically weighed
Pic 3 - the 11 lb catfish after I got him out of the water
Pic 4 - a typical sized largemouth from the pond
Pic 5 - a 6 lb largemouth, also scientifically weighed :)





















Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Fishing heaven is in a small subdivision in Champaign, IL

I was down in Champaign for a friend's wedding on Saturday. After the reception I headed over to a small subdivision pond that I used to fish at when I was an undergrad at Illinois. The sun had already gone down so it was a race against time to get as much fishing in before it got too dark. I was out there for about an hour, and the fishing was great. I caught 18 largemouths and one bluegill that was 9". The largest of the largemouth were 13". Most of them were 10-12". I was planning on switching to catfishing after it got dark, but changed my mind because I wanted to make the drive to Peoria that night.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Monona Bay

Went fishing along Monona Bay last night for the first time. I started off with a medium sized spinner but couldn't get a bite. I saw a few small bluegill swimming away from shore as I walked along; I figured I could catch some of them so that I wouldn't get skunked. I put the ultra light spinner on and pulled in a monster, a 3 1/2" bluegill. I thought I had the world record for smallest bluegill, but 10 minutes later I caught one that was 3 1/4"! I got a laugh out of that. I walked to the north side of the bay where the water looked deeper and switched to a rapala type minnow. I made sure to crank it extra fast at the beginning to make it dive down deep. I thought maybe the fish were all hanging out in deeper water and that's why the spinners weren't working. Sure enough I got a hit and reeled in a 12 to 15" largemouth. As I pulled it out of the water though, the knot came undone on my lure and the fish dropped back in the water and got away. I felt really embarrassed. I've been fishing for how long, and I can't even tie a fishing knot correctly? I felt really bad too that the fish had that big lure stuck in its mouth. I put a new lure on, and when I went to cast, something caught my eye floating about 50' out. My other lure! It must have come unhooked somehow. I spent the next 15 minutes trying to get it with my 2nd lure, and got it eventually. On the next cast I got another largemouth but it came off the hook right when it got to the surface. At least my lure stayed on though!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Enough of this wind!

Went out last night around sundown. The wind was bad on the lake again. I caught 1 largemouth, 3 crappie, and 2 bluegill.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Windy and no catfish yet

Went out to Wingra yesterday in hopes of catfish. While it was still light out I did some regular fishing and caught 3 largemouth, 5 bluegill, and 3 crappie. Once it was dark, I put chicken gizzard on a treble hook and threw it out as far as I could. I sat out there for quite a while, but nothing. It was windy with a front moving through, so maybe the fish weren't in the mood for chicken gizzard?

Friday, June 6, 2008

Yahara river at nightfall

Went out last night with a guy from work to fish along the Yahara river (the segment that connects Mendota and Monona in town). I liked the looks of it more than Wingra Creek. The water was crystal clear, there were no weeds, and plenty of big rocks along the bank that the fish hung around. The fish weren't particularly active though. The water was clear enough that you could watch your lure and see if the fish were going after it or not. A lot of the bass didn't seem to care. A couple of them must have been hungry though, because I caught two decent sized largemouth, one crappie, and two bluegill. I also had a carp try to eat my lure but he spit it out before I could set the hook. It would be pretty cool to catch a 20 lb carp sometime.

Monday, June 2, 2008

When little fish are biting, you catch little fish

Right around sundown the smaller fish were really biting on Wingra yesterday.

32 crappie + 8 bluegill + 5 largemouth = 45 fish total

I caught all of them on the small spinner exept for one of the largemouth on the gummy bear fish. It was a little over 12 inches, probably around a lb.

I bought some chicken gizzards & hearts... now it's time for some catfish.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Long day, but I'll take it

Yesterday I exlpored Wingra Creek from its start at Lake Wingra all the way to its end at Lake Monona. It turned into quite a long day! I was probably out there 5 hours at least. It was a gorgeous day but the fish weren't really biting. Too sunny perhaps? I made sure to hit all the shady spots but still nothing. I didn't see anyone else catch a single fish the whole day so I don't think it was my poor fishing skills that were to blame.

I was switching between the gummy bear fish (see last post), the little spinner, and the crankbait minnow, hoping that one of them would work. Finally, down by Fish Hatchery Road I got a bite on the gummy bear fish. I pulled in an 18 inch northern, which is the first that I've caught in years. It couldn't have been more than a lb but it made my day nonetheless. Considering that I didn't see a single fish among all the other fishermen, I'm declaring myself the champion of the day.

I finished up around dusk back at Wingra and caught a few bluegill with the spinner.

Next I'd like to try some live bait. I remember catching all sorts of fish with leaches when I went to Canada years and years ago. I also want to get a fishing scale to keep in my tackle box.