3 weeks ago
Saturday, July 19, 2008
A beautiful day at picnic point
Went fishing with nightcrawlers at the end of picnic point today. I caught five different species, and two of them were for the first time! I started off with a bluegill, which is what I was expecting to catch on the worms. Then I pulled in a nice little rock bass, about the same size as the largest one I caught on the Yahara. Next was my first smallmouth, at a whopping 5" long. Then I caught two fish that I was not expecting, freshwater drums (or sheepshead). The first was 12" and the second was 12.5". They were very interesting. The first was silver, but the second was silver with some red and blue hues, kinda like you would see in a soap bubble. Perhaps they were female and male? Next up were perch. The first one I caught was a PR at 10 inches. He had some serious bulk on him for a perch! Not long after that I caught an 8" one. I ran out of nightcrawlers then and had to call it a day. :)
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6 comments:
Gosh, I miss Picnic Point. That's a cute little smallie you caught. I know it's a little shallow from the shore, but that's a nice point to fish in a boat just off the weededge where it drops off. I remember catching walleyes there with a slip bobber and leech just before dark one summer night, and the only other boat out there was Steve Stricker's, a Madison area golfer who was an Illini great and is now tied for 15th going into the final day of the British Open. He's an avid Mendota fisherman. Lake Mendota is a fabulous lake. You're so lucky to be in Madison.
By the way, they catch huge yellow perch in the winter ice fishing. The natives get more excited about the perch than anything. If you're interested, you're more than welcome to borrow my ice fishing gear while you're in grad school. Maybe you could pick it up when you get the farmer's handles. I have an auger, 3 rods, a small one-man ice hut, and lanterns. I have no use for it here, though I plan to fish the unfrozen river hard in the winter if we don't have so many floods.
It's also great fun to ice fish Monona Bay, University Bay and other places for crappies and bluegill. Oh, I also have some tip-ups you're welcome to take. I caught a 33-inch northern on a tip-up with a big shiner as bait the first time I used it.
One final point, Tien is "Jeff". I guess when I log-in to this computer it automatically logs me in as my wife :)
I was going to say... WOW, now I know why you married Tien!! You probably met her fishing and the rest was history, lol.
Jeff that would be great to try ice fishing out there. We'll have to see how busy I am around that time of year.
When my powerlifting buddy Terry heard that I was catch and releasing 10" perch he got pretty upset. He said that was sacrilegious in this state!
The perch are tasty. One time when my father visited we decided to see how this perch ice-fishing was done, and we hired a guide named Ron Barefield.
http://www.lake-link.com/guides/guidepage.cfm?browserformat=False&GuideID=12
He took us where a huge colony of hundreds of fishermen were over one of the deepest spots in the lake. It was about 75 feet deep. Enormous schools of perch would circle the area and every so often the sonar would show solid perch under our holes and we'd instantly get bites. In between the schools we would use a jigging spoon and catch white bass a couple of feet from the bottom.
Then he fried some of the perch for us and you can imagine how good that tasted out on the ice. Ron is a great guide. When my father visited we would occasionally hire him to introduce us to a new lake. He showed us how to catch smallmouth on Mendota, largemouth on Monona, perch through the ice, and smallmouth on Lake Wisconsin and the Wisconsin River just above it.
If we visit Madison in the late summer or fall, I'll bring that ice fishing stuff. You can even catch panfish in Wingra Creek that way.
One of the real hotspots for enormous blugills in the early part of the season used to be Lake Kegonsa, part of the Yahara chain.
I tried to give a link to Barefield's website, but I see it didn't work.
Try this.
Ron's Website
I'm sure he's too expensive for a grad student anyway :)
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