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...

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.

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 :)

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.

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!