I managed to get a holiday booked, off to Playacar Mexico. Certainly looking forward to the break and while it wont be a fishing holiday there will be some opportunity to chuck some lures and maybe the odd livebat or two. Two weeks today...happy days
Bank holiday Monday, great weather forecast and not much else to do and cutting the grass can wait.
Had me second session for Mullet in three days. Why is it that nothing happens for an age, you then take a second to throw some ground bait in and then the float dips? This happened twice today, not just half hearted bites but the type of offer that takes the float down a foot or two, sods law, never understood that statement but that’s what it is I guess.
I managed one fish pictured here, I would give it around 3 ¾ but never weighed it. About 20 min’s later the float stopped its slow wind assisted drift from left to right then shot down. When I struck into the fish it went berserk and jumped clear of the water. It then tore off left, then towards me and then took a screaming run against a light drag for about 15 yards to my left again. I had the fish pretty much beat and was easing it toward the net when the hook popped out. Having had a real good look at this one I would say it was a good 5 ½ - 6 pounder, that’s showbiz as they say…. all summer to catch that one again. I don’t think it would have beaten my PB of 6.5 but would have been a great end to May.
Friday I took Robert Farnsworth and Kim, a client of Robert's from Nashville. Kim had never fly fished before, so after a brief tutorial we got in the water and started getting after them! Kim picked it up pretty quick and we started bringing some nice fish to the boat. Thursday night was a full moon and mayflies had a major hatch, so considering our conditions, we smoked some good fish! Robert brought this nice little brown to the boat chucking streamers. At the end of the day he broke off on a nice nice fish. We never got a look at it but it had the 5 weight rod bent in half!
I forgot to post Last Sunday but I took Lunsford Bridges, his son Todd, and his son-n-law Jeff. We fished for a half of day and the weather was great and so was the fishing! We had good low water and active caddis. All the guys caught lots of fish but Todd seemed to be in the groove and was crushing them one after another!
Thursday I went out for a joy ride with Amy and decided to wet a line in a little spotwhere I can usually can find a fish. The first fish I hooked took off line as if it were a bonefish and it busted off. The second fish I landed was decent, but nothing to get to excited about. The third fish I landed was the fish... It is one of the nicer rainbows I have actually caught myself in a good while...
I got invited by Sheffield's 'Canny' Chris Prior again to fish more water that we did not get time in the last outing, the numbers we took last time to the dry were untrue and i was hoping for some same action but with a clunk thrown in if possible.....
Chris had spoken to me on the phone and told me about a lad he had fished with that used vasaline instead of gink and said to bring some along to see what i thought! Well last time i had a sore ring from his spicy chicken so the vasaline purchase would be handy anyway!!
Off to the local chemist and i started to look for a small tub of vasaline, i did feel quite strange as i dont think i have ever bought a tub of vasaline ever as i don't really want to be known as a fudge packer!!
Anyway i purchased a small pot and walked out the chemist with all the Lady's thinking i was going to 'push some stools in'......
I met Chris at 11.30 and we were to meet up with Dave Percival and Chris Dore (river keeper) and have some snappin in duffers hut...
We all sat down to some right good food with Chris P serving a chili con with garlic bread, as usual Percival was taking the piss out of my trainers as this is not the usual dress in the hut, i did tell them to **** off as i am a Stokey Chav and not a Derbyshire 'shit kicker,' he set me up by telling me to put loads of a sause on my chilli, well i took a mouth full and my mouth was on fire with all the lads pissing them selves!! I spoke to Chris Dore the river keeper who has got a big job on his hands looking after this huge stretch of river they have, catching poachers all day must drive u mad, a sound lad who is again like my mucker Jan from the Peacock, is only to keen to help you out... he eventually took us off road in his 4x4 and took us through the scariest tunnel i have seen, a lock and key at each end and in pitch blackness we drove through to the other end...
Chris Dore dropped us off and we shook hands and he wished us luck and we were on our way to the 'lost valley'...
The lost valley as known to the lads in Cress, and the scenery is just breathtaking, i think dovedale is amazing but this is well on par, and better with there only being a few walkers due to the harsh tarain...I read a article in T&S last week and a angler said that you sometimes get ur blinkers on while fishing and don't appreciate where you are, this is very true and its nice to just chill out and take it in (once u have caught!)
Anyway the fishing....
This is probably the nicest brown i have ever caught
The river was on its arse and in need of a just wash out, the fly life was very sparse and it was obvious it was going to be tough on the dry, we opted to go for the nymph to see if we might get one of those clunkers in there...
We started to fish with a single bug and work the section fishing the likely holes ect, as usual Prior was banging his jokes out having me in stitches!
The fishing was superb as normal and we were catching lots of small browns and rainbows, today was not going to be a dry fly day so we kept on bugging, around the afternoon i spotted a very nice rainbow at the back end of a run, we stood watching its movements and decided to drop a nymph in front of it, at first it seemed to be spooked but on the second cast the fish just came and hit the indicator and then hit the nymph! tightening into this fish drove it mad and i scrapped away with this clunk for a few mins, we dropped it in the net to weigh a cracking 2lbs of wild Wye rainbow, a smashing fish in fine condition, we had done just what i had wanted to do, a wild clunk from the C/L, i have seen well bigger but they would surely have to be stalked out at feeding time...
2lb wild rainbow in superb condition
All at the Ready, Chris was not smiling 10 mins after!!!
For me the fishing season runs from June to May and I usually like to take a few weeks off during April & May, simply because the fishing during this time, particularly May can be a bit dodgy with spawning fish.
On a personal level the last 12 months has been hard. Back in June my parent company made a decision to sell off the company I worked for. I had to make a decision about either continue working for my existing company or move to the parent company. In the end I moved to the parent company in August with a mandate to set up a new service, however progress has been painfully slow and it is only recently that all my hard work is starting to bear fruit.
As for Sue, I have never known someone to have such a bad run of luck, but I think (& hope) she has settled on what she wants to do for the future. Having given up trying to find a full time job, she now wants to run her own business selling AVON and Ann Summers. Sue's problem has been the 2 fold, firstly she spent 20 years in the motor trade and secondly she was a manager. Unfortunately, with so many people looking for work, it appears potential employers are seeing 20 years motor industry and immediately discounting her managerial skills. So Sue has decided to set up her own business, building a sales team for AVON and Ann Summers. There is some serious money to made if she can grow the team large enough and I have told her if it gets to the point where she needs to employ someone to deal with admin etc, I will be her man. That way I will have more time to go fishing! Unfortunately, that will be a few years away.
With such a tight financial year, it has meant I haven't been able to go fishing as often as I would like and that's one of reasons why I focused much of my time at Lands End during the winter. Ironically being on a tight budget and seen me have one of my best seasons. Having to limit what bait I take has allowed me to focus on how I approached a match. Previously I have been guilty of taking too much and confusing myself, but by looking at how other anglers approach their matches, such as Tony Rixon and Rod Wootton has allowed me to be more confident that what I am doing is right and I shouldn't keep chopping and changing.
Fishing has certainly kept me sane these last 12 months, although there has been some lows, as well as some highs.
The lows – Being dropped by Maver Veals wasn't unexpected and on reflection I should have dropped myself months ago, however I honestly thought I would back straight financially sooner and able to commit the necessary time.
The big low for me however was the Lands End Winter League. After the 6th round I was lying 3rd overall, but the last 2 rounds weren't kind. A draw on peg 55 Johns, although normally a decent peg, on the day the weather was getting milder and there was a real strong westerly blowing. So whilst everyone had some sort of ripple, my swim was flat calm and the fish simply didn't want to be there. The last round saw me draw the wrong end of Sydneys lake and as a consequence I dropped out of the top 7 and no money – gutted.
On the positive side, I had some seriously big weights in the last 12 months, 5 tons, 4 double tons and a personal best 335lb. I also managed a personal best match weight of 218lb, which was a club match record, well up to last month anyway. Whilst that was a memorable match, probably my best result was at Rood Ashton, fishing against 18 locals, who normally approach the lake with the method feeder and pole/paste. According to the locals my pellet waggler approach wouldn't work because the lake was too shallow! 45 carp for 133lb and a convincing match win proved otherwise.
Of the 37 matches fished, I've picked up in 24, which has been very helpful, collecting more money than I have paid out and during December to February I picked up 10 times from 11, its just shame that during March a run of poor draws halted that little run.
So what about the future? Being a glass half full type person, I am hopefully that the next 12 months will see Sue and I back on a even keel. Both our jobs are showing signs of going in the right direction, so hopefully in the not to distant future I can commit to more fishing.
Weight – 44lb 13oz Catch – 72 Skimmers, 1 Tench Weather – Sunny, blustery at times
A trapped nerve in my back, prevented me from fishing last weekend. I had booked today off with the intention of going to my club water, however Sue needed the car (I'll be glad when she gets her own). I decided to still have the day off and got Sue to drop me off at the duck pond for an afternoon session.
When I arrived, someone was already in the bus stop swim, but the water level had dropped about 1ft, so I chose the slip way off the dam wall, which would offer the most depth at 2ft.
Nothing complicated today, a roach 4x12, .11 bottom & 18 silverfish pellet hook & double 5 elastic, fished at 11.5-13m towards the island and 11m down the left hand margin towards the road wall. Initially started feeding 4mm pellet & maggot via a toss pot, but soon reverted to catapulting 4mm. After a slow 10mins I started catching nearly every put in on double red maggot. After 40mins I ditched the maggot switching to soft pellet and the skimmers kept coming , although after an 2hours the swim was slowing, which coincided with the wind picking up.
A switch to corn helped and for the remainder of the session, I kept swapping between pellet and corn. When the main swim went quiet, a look down the left hand edge produced the odd fish, including a lost carp when the hook pulled, but most fish came at 11.5m. A 2½lb tench went a welcome change from the skimmers which went up to 1¾lb.
In the end I had to get Sue to pick me up earlier than intended , because I was running out of 4mms, having fed 2pts. Whether the drop in the water level had concentrated the fish in the deeper water, I'm not sure , but this beat my previous best silvers weight from the venue by 9lb.
The tide dictated another early start this morning leaving the house at 5.30am I double dropped two coffee’s and off I went. Today was the first Mullet session of the year, overcast with the threat of rain it mattered not,it was great to be up fishing at this time and not driving to work as has been the case lately with lots of early starts.
I decided to change from 4 pound to 6 pound line this year due to some obstacles I encountered last year, 11 inch Drennan waggler due to the strong wind and my usual mix of bait. I will keep it short, two bites one fish lost and this one landed 4 pound 10 oz. A nice start to the Mullet season with a solid fish which fought well and went back easily. The threat of rain became a reality so off home for some breakfast I went.
This week was a race against Memorial Day weekend to get 3 floating dock projects done. Like usual we battled the rain, but this week a new dimension of heat and sun was added to the mix. Whew boy was it ever hot!
So Monday we headed out towards Secor bright and early. We finished up a floating dock, added a sliding board and jump platform to the swim platform and built a platform and staircase to the rope swing. No clouds in the sky for this scorching hot day, but of course we got rained on, even without clouds??? The rain was welcomed though with the heat, and the jump platform and rope swing got several trial runs....You know just to make sure everything was working smooth for the season. Doesnt this just look like the absolute perfect pond setting:
Then tuesday we headed out towards Henry, Illinois to convert a stationery dock into a floating dock. We met up with my food plot guys out at the property as well. They have been hanging deer stands, trail cameras, and put in several food plots on this property for our client. They finished planting the last food plot just as a thunderstorm came rolling in about 2:30 in the afternoon. Here is a pic of the clover plot: We also put in a couple acres of round up ready beans, and disked up and prepared some fall plots for late season planting as well. A couple Texas Hunter tower blinds, several ladder stands strategically placed, and a handful of cuddeback cameras and this property is ready for some serious hunting this fall!
So anyhow Allen and I worked with Ed Reed Excavating to pick up this massive dock and put floats underneath it. Was a much bigger project than anticipated, but even with the hour long thunderstorm and several turkey spottings we were still able to get er all done. Once put in the water we built a big gangway, some bench brackets, and anchored er home onto some big 6x6 posts. While Ed was there we had him dig out the beach, place a few loads of sand, and even dig out about 100 foot of shoreline from the dock to limit the weed growth and attract some fish! Let me just say that Ed I think is part tractor. Its like his brain is operating that machine like we move our hands and fingers! Wednesday Justin and Allen delivered a whole truckload of feed trained smallmouth bass to Ipava, some feed trained largemouth and hybrid bluegill to Fiatt, and some walleye, hybrid bluegill, and smallmouth bass to Washburn. I had the pleasure of sitting in the office and trying to answer some emails, voicemails, and other crappy office stuff. Then I headed out to pond consultation at 4 pm over near Mapleton. This consultation was a bit different than most. The 3 acre pond was built rock solid 14 years ago, the fish were big and plentiful, the vegetation was native and diverse, and the homeowners around the lake were generally tickled pink with their little gem of a pond. The reason I was there was well I guess just to reassure them that their pond was perfect.....a very rare thing these days.
Thursday we headed to Mapleton to build a fun floating dock for Troy. His 4 acre pond is well aerated and boasts some serious fish potential with his aggressive stocking strategies over the last 2 years. Cast a line out and you could catch any one of the 10 different species of well fed fish! Anyhow we started building the 16x16 floating dock with 7x12 gangway at 8 am. I headed out to Drakes appointment with the Ear, Nose, Throat specialist at 9 am and returned just in time for lunch. Justin, Allen, and Troy were going to town the whole time and by 4 pm we had the dock done, mounted, and even a nice little jump platform finished for Owen by the time he got home from school. Even with the chilly temps he just kept jumping off!
Friday hasnt come yet, but I will be electrofishing a 5 acre smallmouth bass pond at 6 am, and then heading back over to Oak Run for some more electrofishing and fish management work. Straight from Oak Run I am heading out to the lake for the entire weekend!!! Got tons of work to do out there, but if I can keep my eyes open I will be fishing after dark! Hopefully I will get some good fish pics. Texas Hunter fish feeders is looking for some kids fishing pictures for their 2011 catalog and I could use some for some stuff as well.
The 80° blue water is just a couple of miles off the beach, and the action has been fairly steady for striped marlin, blue marlin, and a few sailfish. However, this is the time of year for these kind of results. It is hard to imagine, for the 30 calendar days starting about May 12, there can be better blue marlin fishing anywhere in the world, as compared to what we have here on this coast. A few years back I made a study about our marlin fishing in May. The blue marlin out numbered the striped marlin by about 10 to 1, plus there were also a few blacks caught. The sport fishing fleet averaged 7.5 strikes a day, with almost 4 fish a day brought to leader. Historically during this time period, we average a blue marlin per boat, for every three days on the water.
Plus, this was done by boats that were basically geared for sailfish, and found themselves sadly under equipped when the marlin hit. Some boats, like the See-Ya from Cabo San Lucas, spent the fuel money to get here to sample this action, and being they specifically targeted marlin, had a great month with 24 marlin brought to leader. Plus, there was an insignificant difference in fish caught between the pangas and the cruisers, proving the fish doesn’t care how fancy a boat you are on; only the hook in the corner of his mouth. For this last week, the super panga Huntress, with Captain Francisco, only caught 1 sail at the 16 mile mark, in what owner Mike Bulkley described as “beautiful blue water”, but had several marlin strikes also. The Huntress was handicapped by a couple of earthquakes the day before, which really hurts the fishing. Mike also told me there was a lot of the bait stealing bufeos (boo-fay-ohs) in the area. Almost identical, but much lager than a porpoise, they are false killer whales, near the top of the food chain, and can shut off a bite also. Santiago, on the super panga Gitana, says “fishing is good right now”. He fished three days with John Fuller of Chicago, with friends Ben and Sam, releasing 7 sailfish, and catching a 180 pound blue marlin. They also had 5 more sailfish and 2 striped marlin strikes, but missed them. Inshore action was tough this last week, as we had huge waves hit the coast from a storm several thousand miles away. The waves were actually washing up into the beachside restaurants, whose tables are on the sand. But, from tracking the waves on the internet, it sure brought in the surfers from all over the world. Ed Kunze
In three days of walking along the surf, I've caught and released 15 snook. Most have been small. The largest fish was 26 inches. I've also caught some nice spotted seatrout, blue runners, ladyfish and skipjack.
I fished about 30 minutes south of Sarasota the first two days. I fished along Casey Key the third day.
I saw more snook the first two days. I estimate that I saw 300-400 snook each of the first two days. I saw maybe 90 snook along Casey Key.
I've been fly fishing the surf for snook for the last 25 years. It's certainly one of my favorite pursuits. It's great sight-fishing and load of fun.
I estimate that I've caught nearly 5,000 snook over the years. My best day in terms of numbers was 41 snook. Last season, I averaged 19 snook per trip. I'll have to have a couple of great days to get my average up this season.
My best day ever took place last August when I caught and released 15 snook to 20 pounds. That included six snook of more than 28 inches. The largest was nearly 40 inches. I also caught and released three redfish to 32 inches and jumped three 100-pound tarpon.
Of course, I didn't come close to landing the tarpon. They simply were too much for my 6-weight TFO TiCRX fly rod. Still, it was fun.
I wasn't sure how this season would be. We had a very harsh winter and experienced a large snook kill because of cold water. Fisheries scientists estimate that 10 percent of the snook along Florida's west coast were killed.
It's too early to tell what affect the kill will have on the beach snook season. I can tell you there are good numbers of fish out there, and the population should increase daily.
My best months are still to come. I like June, July and August best.
If you want to try this yourself, you'll need a 6- to 8-weight fly rod, floating or intermediate line and a leader with a 20- to 25-pound shock tippet.
As far as flies go, I use nothing but my Gibby's D.T. Variation, a fly that has accounted for several thousand snook over the years. It was the fly of choice on that once-in-a-lifetime day last summer.
Other required equipment includes a cap or hat, sunscreen, quality pair of polarized sunglasses and water.
I like to arrive at the beach around 7:30 a.m. I usually fish until 1 p.m. Best sight-fishing is from 9:30 to noon.
When the summer wind is gentle and from the east, it's time for me to grab my fly rod and head for the beach.
I'm certain success is not based on number of fish caught. I am certain it's based on the enjoyment you get from a particular outing.
That happened to me today. This was my third day in a row fly fishing for snook along the beach. It also was my worst day in terms of number of fish caught. I totaled three small snook and a ladyfish. Not great by any stretch of the imagination.
However, I had a great day.
I saw an abundance of wildlife: ibis, snowy egrets, blue herons, osprey, pelicans, terns, skimmers, cormorants, frigate birds and others.
I also saw a magnificent spotted eagle ray gliding along in the shallows of the beautiful Gulf of Mexico.
When I first stepped onto the beach at Casey Key, I saw an angler in a skiff battling a large tarpon. I also saw three schools of tarpon.
The hilite of the day was when a large tiger shark swam into the surf and made its way down the beach toward the public swimming area. I was fighting a snook at the time and I thought the shark was homing in on my fish.
By the time I got to the swimming area, the water was vacant -- except for the shark. A lifeguard was slapping his surfboard on the water in an attempt to persuade the shark to leave.
One problem: The shark obviously was sick or injured. It was lying on its back in two feet of water.
A small fish swam around the shark.
"It just gave birth," some on in the crowd said.
Wishful thinking. It was a cobia, a species that's known to hang out around sharks. I have no idea why they do that, but they do.
The scene was pretty funny. Everyone was suddenly a shark expert.
"Yeah, it's a 10-foot mako," someone said.
I overheard a fellow saying, "That shark was hooked by a fisherman just up the beach. It apparently swallowed the hook and died."
There was a shark tournament over the weekend. Although the tourney was catch-and-release, the shark could have swallowed the hook and been injured in the process.
It could have been any number of things.
"You need to get it out of the water," one man told the lifeguard. "That's shark's dead. Get rid of it so we can swim."
I was amazed by the hot tempers. People don't like to be inconvenienced at all.
Suddenly, the "dead" shark righted itself and began to thrash its large tail. It slowly swam away from the beach toward deeper water.
Last time I saw the shark, it was at least 100 yards offshore.
The red flag was still flying at the lifeguard station.
Got to make sure the shark is gone.
I fish the beach quite often during the summer and see plenty of sharks. And they're not all little sharks. I've seen bull sharks, hammerheads, lemons and now tigers. I've seen them within a few feet of the beach.
One thing I've discovered is most beach-goers are oblivious to what's happening in the water. Most pay no attention.
I don't swim in the gulf. I've seen too many sharks over the years. I know the odds of a shark attack are great, but I'm not taking that chance.
This week can be summed up with two words repeated over and over again: Electrofishing and Rain, electrofishing and rain. I guess I could throw a few other keywords into the mix like fish stocking, rain, consulting, rain, carp, rain, and you guessed it: RAIN! I mean come on is it ever gonna just stop raining?
Despite another soggy week here in Central Illinois, we were still able to get out and get most of our work done. Every day started out before the sun came up and every day ended well after the sun went down. I just might have bitten off a bit more than I can chew, but some way some how I am going to get everything done- eventually. Here is just a recap of the weeks highlights:
Monday I took some clients to go see the new golf course in Metamora. My dad and older brother are building the clubhouse and I am hoping to stock some fish and come up with some management plans for all the ponds throughout the golf course. Lots of water, gonna be neat! Then I headed over to Dallas City to meet up with Dan Molsen and talk about his ponds on his fairly new property. Turned out to be a pretty good meeting for me, Dan is the president of a fundraising firm for non-profit organizations. I have a non-profit organization called Hooked On Fishing Park and am always looking for ways to raise funds so we can take even more kids and seniors fishing. Last year we took 800 folks fishing and this year we have over 2500 kids lined up to come and catch fish at the park. Needless to say Dan provided me with some real good advice on how to get volunteers and support! Gonna be an awesome summer at the park, anyone looking to help teach kids how to fish or help out in anyway please let me know.
Tuesday Allen and I headed out super early to Vermilion Fishing Club near Oakwood, Il to kill some nuisance vegetation and electrofish for their 120 acre lake. The lake is very unique to say the least. It is actually a private power plant cooling lake that fluctuates quite a bit depending on the water needs of the plant. Boasts a world of unlimited potential for growing monster fish, just needs to start turning the trash fish biomass into something a bit more desired. The lake is full of these pesky yellow bass, gizzard shad, and common carp. I would estimate that 3/4 of the fish biomass in this lake are not desirable species. Currently working on the management plan to convert that biomass into something a bit more desirable.
Wednesday Chef Todd and I went out shocking a couple lakes while Justin and Allen went out killing nuisance weeds for a few clients. Chef is surprisingly good at electrofishing whenever I need an extra hand. We started out a 4 acre pond in Metamora where we dialed up some real nice bass, redears, and crappie. Chef called that little scenic pond a gem! The kicker to that story is that the new owner was told the pond was 60 feet deep, but in reality it had an average depth of 7 feet and a max depth of 13 feet.
Then on Wednesday afternoon we headed out to Oak Run Lake near Dahinda to electrofish. This 600 acre private lake is completely full of fish, and some big ones to boot. I am sure there are still some memberships available and actually would recommend one if you like fishing big water. We are working on a plan that is going to transform this lake back into a World Class fishery as opposed to just the really good fishery it currently is.
There are a few changes happening in the lake as it gets older, but one of the main ones is that most of the original structure in the lake is gone. The lake really didn't have much structure to begin with. Because of this, the fish have moved around a bit, but they are still there you just need to search around for them. Crappie, Bass, Bluegill, Catfish, and Walleye all had good size and numbers. Here are some pics of some monster walleye:
There are quite a few real big bass, but a vast majority of the bass are about 11-12 inches long. In all honesty, the average size of a mature adult bass in Illinois is 11.75 inches long. Most folks dont realize this, but to grow a bass past 15 inches long is not common, very very few bass ever grow bigger than that. The biggest limiting factor to growing bass bigger than average is overpopulation. If you want them to get bigger you need to thin them down just abit. Kind of hard to talk bass fisherman into killing bass, but it is a very necessary evil. Back in the old days folks were meat fisherman and fish grew big, nowadays folks are tournament anglers and recreational fisherman and sure there are more fish around, but they have been caught multiple times, are overcrowded, and they just dont grow in these big lakes like they used to. Here are some good pics of monster bass though:
Catfish is another species doing real well at Oak Run. Lots of real nice 3-8 lb fish!
Crappie and Bluegill are very plentiful and just average for their sizes. Lots of 9-1o inch crappie, in fact there were so many 9 inch crappie that they are going to need to eat lots of them! For the bluegill I was actually surprised with the numbers of 7-8 inchers. Ideally I would love to protect all the bluegill for 2010 and give them a chance to really get going, but that probably isnt realistic. Bluegill are the backbone to growing big bass, crappie are not.
Here are some nice carp pics. I would rate the lake as one of the top carp fisheries in Illinois. Size and numbers are both real strong. Keep in mind these are 250-300 lb men holding these fish:
Obviously there is quite a bit of Carp biomass in the lake, but we are all working on a plan to start reducing that annually and the fishing is only going to get even better as the carp biomass gets transformed into something a bit more desirable. There is no fish that ruins bass, bluegill, and crappie more than the common carp. They just absolutely devastate habitat and take up precious biomass. I estimate that half of the lakes fish biomass is being wasted in the form of common carp. We have some ideas for a longterm management plan.
Thursday the heavens opened up and it really rained. I was able to squeeze in a lake consultation super early thursday morning before heading to Drake's Easter Seals appointment, but had to cancel my afternoon plans due to the rain. Mon-Wed was just scattered rain workaroundable, but we had to reschedule our electrofishing surveys planned for Washburn Thursday afternoon and Northern Illinois on Friday because of this downpour. So instead I took a load of big male only bluegill to a new pond up near lacon (in the rain).
That pond is going to be the best one acre ice fishing pond ever come winter. Here is the ice fishing stocking plan: 500 big male only bluegill, 500 hybrid bluegill, 200 big female yellow perch, 100 walleye, and 25 smallmouth bass. Sounds interesting doesnt it?
Friday I had a Hooked On Fishing Park meeting, worked on office stuff, and then went to Canton to plant some white water lillies, yellow and blue iris, and some other plants for a pond turned wetland. Got wet and muddy with the rain, but was gonna get wet and muddy anyways. Then off to the lake to spend the night. Before going to bed I worked a bit on our VIP dock. This is where we film all of our underwater videos and have trained the fish to eat from our hands. Rainbow trout, smallmouth, stripers, largemouth, crappie, walleye, and bluegill will come eat right from our hands. We filmed some real good footage that wont get edited for a long time.
Here is a video from last year at the VIP dock:
Saturday Justin and I headed out at 5 am towards Cuba. We had 9 lakes to electrofish for a client. Bill lives up near Chicago, but found his dream fishing property down here in God's country. His lakes are full of trophy fish of all kinds of species. Here is a pic of the biggest fish we found on the property:
Anyhow, Bill had some of his employees come down to get some time out of the office and help sample the lakes via angling. All the rain and flooding and fronts moving through didnt make the fishing easy, but they still caught some real nice fish. We were able to catch some real nice fish as well. By far the best redear sunfish fishing lakes I have ever seen! One pounders are just everywhere and occasional beasts like the second pic below are not that uncommon:
One of the lakes was completely full of these monster redear x bluegill hybrids. These arent stocked fish, but since the water is pretty murky the male redears just get kind of mixed up when fertilizing eggs. The resulting natural hybridization is just really cool and those fish just grow abnormally large!
With 9 different lakes, we are coming up with specialized management plans for each one to focus on each lakes potential, existing habitat, current fish population, and Bill's goals for each one individually. The lakes range in size from 4 to 31 acres. Some of the lakes will be managed for taking guests fishing for lots of fish, some of them will be managed for experienced anglers to have a chance at catching a monster fish, and some of them will be managed for toothy critters like tiger musky, pure musky, northern pike, and walleye. Here are just a few more pics. Electrofishing 9 lakes in the same day is not an easy task by any means so we just didnt have much time to take pics, but here are what we got:
Sunday I actually had trouble waking up in the morning. We were a bit late for Church and had to come home early cause I couldnt keep my eyes open. I literally crashed for 3 hours until Brook made me get up to head out to a friends cookout. I could of kept sleeping all through the night. Anyhow we went out for the evening and had a great time and ate lots of great food. I am actually not a very social person, but Brook enjoys spending time with regular people and not talking about fish for a change.
Looking forward to this upcoming week! We will be building a dock in Secor with a waterslide on Monday, building some bench seats around a dock in Henry on Tuesday, and building a dock in Mapleton on Thursday. The rest of the week will be spent killing algae, watermilfoil, and curly leafed pondweed. Gonna be hot, but bring it on, I am ready for swimming season and Memorial Day Weekend!
Wednesday Justin and Allen delivered a whole truckload of feed trained smallmouth bass to Ipava, some feed trained largemouth and hybrid bluegill to Fiatt, and some walleye, hybrid bluegill, and smallmouth bass to Washburn. I had the pleasure of sitting in the office and trying to answer some emails, voicemails, and other crappy office stuff. Then I headed out to pond consultation at 4 pm over near Mapleton. This consultation was a bit different than most. The 3 acre pond was built rock solid 14 years ago, the fish were big and plentiful, the vegetation was native and diverse, and the homeowners around the lake were generally tickled pink with their little gem of a pond. The reason I was there was well I guess just to reassure them that their pond was perfect.....a very rare thing these days.
In three days of walking along the surf, I've caught and released 15 snook. Most have been small. The largest fish was 26 inches. I've also caught some nice spotted seatrout, blue runners, ladyfish and skipjack.
I estimate that I've caught nearly 5,000 snook over the years. My best day in terms of numbers was 41 snook. Last season, I averaged 19 snook per trip. I'll have to have a couple of great days to get my average up this season.
I'm certain success is not based on number of fish caught. I am certain it's based on the enjoyment you get from a particular outing.
When I first stepped onto the beach at Casey Key, I saw an angler in a skiff battling a large tarpon. I also saw three schools of tarpon. 
