A pair of weekday bass

The second and bigger bass of the day- caught on a Sims Spinner

Got up a little early so I could hit the pond this morning. Coffee, OJ, bagel, some cereal (a huge breakfast compared to my normal morning sustenance of black coffee and nothing else); hopped on the bike and was at the pond in no time. Although it was 6:15am, it was still dark, and I liked it.

Saw a few little splashes topwater, so I figured I would try some of my own topwater. Threw out my cork lure, which some windycityfishing.com folks called a "Mardi Gras Popper." I saw a bluegill follow it to the pipe. A few fish - bass, I'm pretty sure -  actually took a swipe at it, but missed. Awesome- that means there's hope for it! Wonder if I should add a second treble hook to it to get some hookups...

Switched to a yum power worm, texas rigged, and managed this little guy. He fought like a much bigger fish:

Continued working the worm to no avail. Last week Dan Sims- of Sims Spinners- sent me a few of his famous inline spinners. What a generous dude! I immediately proceeded to lose the white one on a branch, seemingly the only branch in the whole pond. I rarely lose lures in the retention pond, it sucks to lose one of those nice spinners! I tied on another one, a dark purple with white dressing, and threw it out.

The sun was rising and beautifully illuminating the varied colors of the trees. The sky was like a perfectly calm, crystal-clear pond itself, which contrasted with the dark and weedy pond I was fishing in. Of course there weren't any bass in the sky, so I was fishing in the right place.

A few casts and I kept getting tons of weeds, and I was having some line issues. I was using a swivel, but I began to think it was just the crappy line I got at Meijer. Perhaps I shouldn't skimp on good line- that is my only connection to the fish after all. I should try out that Fireline stuff. It's just so damn expensive! (Not to say I don't like Meijer- quite the opposite- I love Meijer! I can get all my groceries, including obscure Mexican ingredients, and stop by the fishing aisle and get some gear, all in one store.)

Third cast, it hit the water and suddenly got stuck... in the mouth of a hungry bass! This one was much bigger than the first, but surrendered immediately. I reeled it in like a big log. She (?) wasn't a monster, but calling her a hog wasn't a huge stretch. About 14" long, I had confirmed for myself what everyone says: Sims spinners catch fish.

Returned her to the water, and continued casting. Nobody else wanted to play, and soon I had to head to the train to attend to my adult responsibilities (i.e. work). A nice, short trip to the pond, and this time the fish cooperated to some extent. I considered this my apetizer to the main course of hitting the Fox sometime this weekend. The weather is supposed to stay perfect, and I definitely want to get in some more river fishing now that I have a pair of waders. 

I'm sure I can fit in some fishing in between celebrating our one year wedding anniversary this weekend, cause I have a pretty awesome wife.

Thursday morning bass thumb

Cold Morning at the pond

Fish #1

In a fear that my fishing season of 2011 was quickly ending, and I needed to catch more fish, I left early for work and stopped at the pond Friday morning.

It was cold! I could see my breath, and the water was motionless. The tons of little fish that always congregate by the pipe were nowhere to be seen. There were some weeds, but there was no activity on the pond.

I started casting my mepps black fury #3 (which had been so successful there a few days ago). After 10 minutes without so much as a bump, I wondered if I was at the right pond! Usually the fish here lined up for a chance to be in my Facebook profile pictures, but not today.

I switched to my beloved tube jig, a 3" green one- the same one that landed me the 18" largemouth at burnham a few weeks back.

Again, no takers. Although my phone said the temperature was rising, standing there in the cold, casting to what seemed to be an empty pond, it definitely seemed colder. Every turn of my reel sprayed me with icy cold water from the pond. Normally I don't notice this, but due to it's frigid temperature today I was painfully aware!

I thought back to a similar situation, at the same pond, where the bite was completely off. I wonder if it was the fish responding to a cold front or something. The Internet tells me sometime soon they should be going crazy stuffing themselves for winter, but apparently that wasn't happening today. That previous difficult morning I busted out a Texas rigged plastic worm to land my few bass. Drawing on my very limited experience, I switched out my mepps for a wacky rigged brown worm, I think 6".

On the third cast, I let the worm sink to the bottom, and sit there for a minute. I tried to reel in, but I was hung up on some weeds. Then the weeds started to move, picking up steam as they tried to escape the line.

Fish on!

At this point the fish knew it was attached to something. It was not happy about it.

In this little pond there seem to be two kinds of bass: smaller ones that jump out of the water like circus performers, and big monster bass that fight my rod with pure force, heading for the bottom. This fish was in the latter category,

After a short fight, I landed it, and admired the spunky little bass. Not the smallest to come out of there, but definitely not the biggest. Well whatayaknow I beat the skunk!

Fish #2

I took some pictures of my catch with the lure still attached, the way I've seen some master-angler-types roll. I'm not sure if they do that because they can get a picture sooner, or to show what lure they used to catch the fish.

After returning my little buddy to the ice cold water, I continued casting. Was I figuring out a "fall pattern" for the bass in this pond? I don't really know what that means, but if means figuring out how to catch fish here in the fall, maybe I was.

A few minutes later, I hooked into another nice bass, again on the wacky rigged worm. I was becoming a big fan of that presentation - to use another fancy fishing term. I think I used it right.

I snapped some pictures, again trying out the new-to-me lure-in-mouth pose, and released the fish.

"thanks for playing!" I said. And I meant it! I hope it doesn't hurt fish too much to get hooked in the lip, because I sure like taking their pictures.

And with that it was time for work. I collapsed my collapsible rod, hopped on my bike, and headed toward my train.

New water, no fish

This morning I got up slightly early so I could check out a body of water near my house I haven't been to yet. It happens to be near the metra station, so it's almost on the way... Almost!

Rode there on the bike (Claire's bike), pulled my 5 piece collapsable fishing rod and reel combo out of my backpack, and got a white spinner in the water. I was probably too late for the early bite, and I probably should have varied up my lures... But I only fished for about an hour, so I stuck with my trusty white spinnerbait.

bike fishing!

I saw lots what I think were carp very near the surface; they almost looked like a pack of sharks the way their dorsal fins were breaking the surface. I've never seen carp that active; I don't know much about carp, but most of the time they seem pretty chill. Then again, who knows if it was even a bunch of carp... I'm notoriously bad at fish identification! A couple of months ago I ran into some jumping carp, and id'ed them as walleye.

I moved around quite a bit, doing what I think is called "fan casting"- systematically casting in such a way you cover a lot of water in a short time. I didn't really think I was going to catch any fish, but I'd rather be fishing than not fishing.

Apparently there are a ton of birds at this body of water, and I saw the biggest heron I've ever seen! I took a bunch of pictures, but only one of them turned out, and you can't really tell how big it is... But I would estimate a wingspan of 5'. (Keep in mind my length estimations are also completely bogus. No sense of what a 12" actually is... )

big heron

I don't feel too bad not catching anything there this morning, as I haven't studied the contour maps too much, and didn't really hit that many spots.... And only used one lure! I know there are some 15' holes within 30' of shore, combined with a very quick drop from the shallow water- I will be locating those next time. 

It's a very pretty body of water, filled to the brim with a variety of wildlife. That's one of my favorite things about fishing: even if you don't get a single bite, there's always plenty of cool stuff to see.