The pond is back

The pond, an hour before sunset

As soon as I stepped off the Metra into the warm breeze, I knew I had to go fishing.

Turns out, I planned on it and had my gear in the car all ready to go. When I got to the pond I could almost feel the energy. The past few weeks it's been asleep, barely any movement or activity, not too many fish moving around.

first fish of the day

Today was different- every few minutes the surface erupted with what I can only imagine was bass chasing smaller fish. I had a black texas-rigged chigger craw tied on from yesterday, so I threw that out. Almost immediately I was getting hits- similar to yesterday, but harder. Pretty soon, I had a fish on.

Pretty much the next cast, I had another one! This one was bigger than the last. These fish were on their game today- they fought like champs, splashing water everywhere. I bounced and dragged the crayfish look-alike along the bottom, and when I paused it for a moment, that's when they attacked. They were so aggressive at one point I noticed a fish bit off one of the little legs!

I moved around the pond, trying different spots, and got hits in all of them. I found fish all over the place; close to shore, in the middle, at the surface, and at the bottom. Dragonflies were everywhere, I saw many of them getting it on. I watched them hovering just above the water, hoping a bass would come up and demolish them... but no luck. The frogs- the frogs that are apparently new residents at the pond - were close to deafening.

Oh, it's ON fishies

Looking across the pond, I could see dark shapes in the water near weeds... I wondered if they were fish. When I cast to the areas I saw these shapes, I could make out multiple bass dispersing. Crazy!! I wondered if the whole pond was shallow, and if they were just making their spawning beds everywhere.

I fished for about two hours, and hooked into 6-8 fish. I managed to land a total of 4, which is a much better number than I've been getting lately. The other fish were able to throw the hook, but that's ok... It was fun to tangle with them.

This little trip gave me a taste of the warm weather fishing season about to happen... I am giddy just thinking about it, after fishing through the cold months lucky to get a single bite per outing. With the forecast, it looks like things will stay nice; maybe this means the pond is on. I'll find out soon enough.

the biggest (full of eggs?)

Chris samples some instruments

The amazingly tiny and amazingly awesome sounding Korg Monotron-
my first and only analog synthesizer

As mentioned in the previous post, I have all but made the transition from fishing season to music-making season. For the most part, I stab myself with hooks far less when I'm playing with synthesizers. But don't get me wrong, I freaking LOVE fishing! It's just so darn cold out. Well, it's not that cold, but cold enough I don't want to stand outside for hours just to get a big fat skunk.

The other day I realized you could easily do round robin sampling in Kontakt 5. (Mini-music tutorial for non-music people: when I say sampling, I'm talking about taking sounds of real things, recording them, then making it so I can play those sounds back on my keyboard) That evening, I warned Claire she was about to hear me hitting a snare drum a bunch of times, and I headed into the garage.

I pulled out my hand Edirol R-09 stereo portable recorder, put it on a ladder, assembled one of my snare drums, and started smacking it with a drum stick. A few minutes later, I copied those audio files to my laptop, cut them up in Pro Tools, and loaded them in Kontakt. I recorded 3 velocity levels (loud snare, medium snare, and quiet snare) and 11 samples per velocity level. Using Kontakt's built-in group start options feature, I turned on round robin, and ended up with a pretty nice sounding instrument!

Garage Snare Demo by chrisbeckstrom

What you're hearing is MIDI notes in Logic triggering the sounds I recorded, which are in turn loaded into Kontakt. It turned out so well I had to sample some more stuff.

I love the Korg Monotron. It's a tiny, iPhone-sized analog synthesizer, which now costs about $39. I got it for Christmas last year, and it is pretty great. Most of the sounds I usually use in my music are either created by real instruments or samples of real instruments (i.e. digital). This is my one and only analog synthesizer, so far. A lot of people like the sound of analog stuff; I really like how imperfect they can be. Especially the Monotron...

On my commute home yesterday, I recorded into Pro Tools almost every pitch the Monotron can make. It's difficult because there's no normal keyboard- it's a ribbon controller. You play it with your finger, or a pencil, or anything else, but it's hard to hit specific notes. I loaded up a tuner so I could get accurate pitches, and began recording. A short commute later, I loaded the samples into Kontakt, mapped them to the right keys, and started playing. This is the Kontakt instrument recorded dry, no effects:

Mono monotron by chrisbeckstrom

It sounds pretty close to the real thing, except the pitch-accurateness of it all. And it's next to impossible to play arpeggios on the Monotron. Turning Kontakt to polyphonic (I can play more than one note at a time) it sounds like a completely different instrument:

Polyphonic monotron! Playing jazz by chrisbeckstrom

I was pretty happy with myself! It still sounds pretty rich and analog-sounding, warm and gritty like the Monotron is. Then I added a low pass filter and an LFO to Kontakt, trying to emulate the other features of the Monotron. I tried a few filters, and they didn't cut it (pun intended)... But then I found the "Daft LP" filter. And I was in love. I'll just assume they're talking about Daft Punk, who I love. Here's what my instrument sounds like with an LFO modulating pitch and the Daft low pass filter:

Monotron w filter by chrisbeckstrom

Now THIS sounds like the Monotron I know and love!

I'm going to continue working on this, adding these knobs to the user interface, trying to get it as close to the real thing as possible. Why? After all, I have the real thing sitting right next to me! I'm doing this mostly to see if I can, but also it's really nice to play chords and hear the Monotron. Maybe I could disregard the Daft LP in Kontakt and send the sampled Monotron back out into the actual Monotron's filter. THAT would be cool.

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

Field Testing Homemade Lures

my lure caught a fish!

As the weather gets colder, I know my open water fishing season gets closer and closer to an end, and I'm starting to focus on other things. Yesterday on my commute, instead of spending the whole time researching fishing techniques and fall bass patterns, I created some music on my laptop. I've been thinking once it gets cold, music making and lure making will occupy my free time. Well, those things and cooking. I love me some cold weather cooking. But more on that later.

I've hit up the little retention pond a few times in the past few days, mostly to get some fishing in, but also mostly to field test out my homemade lures. I want to get an idea how slight changes in lure construction can change the open water action before I won't have a chance to test them out, except the bathtub.

this one caught a nice bass

The first lure I made caught a fish on the second cast- the smallest largemouth bass I'd ever seen. And I didn't even snag it- all 3 treble hooks were in his mouth! I managed to release the little guy unharmed- hopefully in a few years he'll grow up to be a lunker.

Some of my lures work great; others are clearly flawed. For the most part, it takes quite a bit to get the blades spinning on my inlines; I'm not sure exactly why.. I'm thinking it's a combination of weight distribution, and how freely the clevis can move around the wire shaft. There are one or two that spin, but they take the entire lure with them. My swivel is no match for this, and as a result I've had a lot of line twist issues.

I did however catch a nice sized bass on a spinner- I put a single red hook on it, and added a white twister tail as a trailer (I think that's the right terminology). Hard to tell whether the bass hit because of the tail action, the blade, the color combination, or my manipulation of the lure... But in the end, it's all the same! He ends up in a picture, and I put him back in the water.

good-sized bass caught on a homemade spinner

Overall the action at the pond has been pretty slow- the water is cold, and I haven't seen as much baitfish chasing as usual. Certainly not in he morning- I'm wondering if in the fall, it's better to fish later in the day when the water has warmed up and the fish are more active. Ken G said as much on windycityfishing.com, and he would know!

I went out this morning, my newly-constructed cork popper-style lure (or is it jitterbug-style?) on the end of my line. We had some wine yesterday, and I grabbed the cork, as I've been reading cork can be a great material for fishing lures. I ran wire through the middle, drilled a hole in a Bell's Two-Hearted Ale cap, and affixed it all together. Put a treble hook on the back, and added a bullet weight to the front. I thought it would help with casting distance and action in the water. I also cut up a bit of rope and secured it to the treble hook with some wire. Seeing it in the water, I'm wondering if the bullet weight was really necessary... We'll have to drink some more wine soon so I can keep experimenting. Also, the rope dressing doesn't look amazing- I need to learn to make my own dressings....

Rioja-cork and Bell's Two-Hearted Ale popper/jitterbug-style lure,
painted with nail polish and dressed with rope

Went to the grocery store to get some stuff; spent a few minutes in the makeup aisles looking for nail polish. I've heard it can be a great way to paint lures, especially the stuff that is supposed to resist chipping. I got some red polish that turned out to be orange, and some blue with glitter in it that turned out to be clear. This stuff is new to me. It doesn't look too bad on the lure, but I should probably invest in some more colors.

Working my Rioja-IPA lure, the action is pretty similar to the jitterbugs I have in my tacklebox- I'm guessing in the right situation, a bass would take the bait! Can't wait for that to happen.

I have a shopping cart all ready to go at Jann's Netcraft (a great website full of tackle-making stuff); just got to pull the trigger and check the mailbox in a few days. This is all pretty exciting for me! 

I'm pretty facile at taking found sounds - like fingers tapping on a table - and manipulating it until it sounds like huge epic drums; or warping samples from youtube to fit my every musical whim... But creating stuff out here in the real, physical world is a completely new thing for me. Using tools, working with my hands, this is pretty cool. I even got a flannel shirt- when I put it on, I strangely wanted to whittle some wood. I've been looking into making wooden crankbaits... Although it seems more complicated than assembling inline spinners, based on my limited success so far, it doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility.

Maybe I'll even need to set up a workspace, like with pegboard and tools and paint and the thing that holds stuff in place [EDIT: a vice] and a stool and stuff. 

I've already got a music workspace filled with musical tools- keyboards, microphones, audio interfaces, synthesizers, MIDI cables, audio connectors; I wonder if these two different kinds of man-caves can coexist.

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.

The Pond Hog and the Mepps

the HOG! Not an amazing picture, but she was an amazing fish

Yesterday I realized it had been 4 days since I had been fishing, and almost a week since I landed a nice fish... I decided to correct this travesty, and get in some fishin' on the way to work.

Woke up this morning at 5am, Walter as always was confused why I was up so early. He followed me down to the kitchen as I made coffee. It didn't matter to him that it was 5am, he still wanted to play fetch with his rubber beer bottle, so we did.

I gulped down some coffee (I really like drinking coffee out of coffee mugs, less so out of travel mugs) packed my gear in my backpack, and headed out. I was walking to the train today because it was supposed to rain. As I walked to sun began to illuminate the street, and I saw ominous looking clouds everywhere, not even a peek of open sky. Maybe this would be good for fishing. I was headed to the neighborhood pond though, and nothing seems to help or hurt the fishing there- it's always great!

The pond looked very clean for once, not too much scummy-looking weeds floating on the top, and none of the poop-like brown stuff bobbing around. Great! On my way I had decided on two goals for the pre-work mini-fishing trip: 

1) Catch a nice fish (pretty much a guarantee there) and 

2) Catch it on an inline spinner (mepps-type lure).

I've been inspired by windycityfishing.com member Navyfisher and his goal of landing 20 bass on a jig. He doesn't jig much, so this is his way of becoming more versatile. What a great idea!

As obsessed as I am with fishing right now, I know when it's -10°F outside there will be no part of me that has any desire to sit on a frozen lake waiting for a 5" bluegill to bite. That doesn't seem like a fun time to me, unless of course there was plenty of beer or coffee and friends. So I've been thinking about how I'll occupy myself during the winter. I'll probably make it "music season"- that is my main thing, after all, but it's hard to restrict myself to hours in front of computer screen when that's what I do all day at work... Especially when it's 72°F outside.

I've been looking into lure making to satisfy my fishing addiction throughout the hard-water times this winter. I've seen lots of kits for spinner making, and for some reason I've been infatuated with inline spinners (most people refer to them as mepps, a brand name). They are so compact, and minimalist- at the most basic level they include a blade that spins around a wire shaft connected to a hook... and that's it! Anything else is fluff. Looking at the spinners I have in my tacklebox, I think I could make this.

The problem is I've never caught a single fish on an inline spinner! I've caught plenty of bass on safety-pin type spinners, and I will certainly try my hand at those, but there's something alluring about the simple and straightforward inlines. I like them. They look cool.

The other problem is I have a hard time believing a lure can catch fish until I see it catching fish. So I figured today was my day to find out if a mepps can really catch a fish, and if was worth learning how to make inline spinners myself.

So I put down my backpack, assembled my rod, strung the line through the guides, and tied on a Mepps black fury #3. I've heard great things about this lure, and it looks pretty awesome.

The Mepps Black Fury inline spinnerbait

I casually cast it out, immediately impressed by it's casting distance- it was easy to get it out to the middle of the pond. I began reeling in the slack, and I was stuck. Damn! I was a little worried about having 3 exposed hooks (most inline spinners seem to use treble hooks) because I didn't want to get hung up every cast. I tried to get it free, when suddenly my line started racing across the pond. Fish on! First cast!

My heart started racing, this felt like a big fish! I started reeling in, and realized my drag was set to loose- I couldn't get a grip on the line! My drag screamed in agony as the fish began to spool me. The fish was pulling out my line as fast as I could reel it in, and I was getting nowhere.

I bent my knees a little, the way somebody battling a 90 pound fish might do, and tried to pull the fish in by pulling up my rod. It was working! The fish came closer, and I was able to reel in more line. As I maneuvered it toward the pipe where I was standing, I saw it was a very good-sized largemouth, putting up a very good fight.

I brought it toward me, reaching for it's lip, when it jumped one last time and unhooked itself, quickly returning to the deep with a flash of olive green.

Ok, ok, that's fine- I basically already met my goal for the morning! This lure had immediately proven itself as fish-catching. I was surprised that the bass was able to get off from the treble hook, but perhaps it had only been hooked lightly in the lip or something.

2nd cast, 2nd hookup, 1st fish landed

I cast again to about the same spot, and paid close attention as the spinner fell through the water. I felt a tap, and once again I had a fish on! This one fought like the last one, surfacing at least 3 times, jumping out of the water, doing everything it could to escape the clutches of my new favorite lure. I pulled it in, and admired yet another great-looking fish to come out of this dirty puddle of a pond. It was about 11-12", not sure about weight (maybe I should get a scale next time I'm at the store...) Snapped some pics, very satisfied with my new favorite lure and my Friday morning.

A few more casts, and I was really liking this mepps. I was afraid it would get hung up on branches or weeds every time, and I would end up losing a $5 lure right away. Not the case. I didn't exactly drag it on the bottom though- I cast it out, let it sink a bit, then reeled in while I kept my rod tip pretty high in the air. I did a pretty steady retrieve- I noticed it didn't take much movement at all to get the blade spinning. Maybe that's why everybody loves these lures! I've got to get some more of these guys... Seems like people love mepps and rooster tails, but guys around here are obsessed with Sims spinners- made locally by a windycityfishing.com member! Got to try some of those.

A few casts later, I hooked into another fish. Really, the fish hooked itself! Normally I can feel a fish hit, but these guys today were just gulping up my lure and running with it. I only noticed when my line started swimming around.

This one was a little bigger than the first one, I was on a roll. These fish love my mepps! I snapped some pics, and returned the bugger to the water. As he swam away, I wondered if he would have a go at any of the little bluegill hanging out by the pipe- right where I released him.

Fish #2, another victory for the mepps

I wanted to see how far I could cast this little guy if I really tried. There seem to be 3 underwater pipes or pumps in the middle of the pond that are always bubbling. I don't know if this is just to create oxygen for the stocked fish, or to give the water some movement, or they are just drain pipes from the neighborhood. Either way I've always thought they would be likely fish hangout spots, but I've never been able to cast far enough to reach them. I reeled in the mepps, leaned back, and made a pretty great sideways cast, if I do say so myself. The lure went buzzing and flying through the air, landing smack dab in the middle of the bubbles. Success!

Before I could even reel a single revolution, my line started moving. Another fish! This one was pretty slow. I tugged with the rod to ensure I had a good hook set, and a nuclear explosion of splashes surfaced and I caught a glimpse of a HUGE fish! It was clear in the middle of the pond, I couldn't quite see what it was, but it was BIG and it was attached to the end of my line. Oh yeah, it was ON.

After the initial jump, the fish tried to go deep. I reeled and pulled, trying to keep it away from the bottom where it could hang me up, trying to bring it to the surface. As it came closer I saw a flash of olive- it was a largemouth. A BIG largemouth. Definitely bigger than any I'd caught here at this pond.

Instead of the frantic runs and many jumps smaller bass used to try and get free, this big fish fought me with pure force. The sheer size of the fish made it difficult to reel in. As I pulled on my rod it almost bent in half, looking more like a horseshoe than a rod. It slowly swam around. There was nothing frantic about this fish, nothing scared. If anything, it was intimidating! It seemed to say "Sure, try and reel me in. Give me your best shot."

So I did- I brought the fish closer to me, dispersing tons of tiny bluegill, and finally it was within reach. I didn't dare pulling it up with my line alone; I envisioned the 6 pound line snapping at the slightest twitch from this goliath. Or maybe it was 10 pound. I was in no state of mind to do math- either way, I wanted to land this amazing fish.

I kneeled on the pipe and reached into the water, grabbing the monster by the lip. Most of the bass here will give one last violent shake when I do this, but this one conceded defeat.

at least 16" inches, and the heaviest fish I've ever caught

As I pulled her (I think the big bass are usually female) out of the water, I thanked her profusely for taking such an interest in my lure, and was astonished by her weight. This might be the heaviest fish I've ever caught, I thought, and kicked myself for not buying that cheap fish scale I saw last time at Meijer. I took a moment to admire the great fish- she had a beautiful dark pattern, a darker green hue than the smaller bass in the pond; her eyes were very dark with a little red along the edges; I noticed a few tiny bugs crawling around her scales... I wondered if they jumped on the fish when I pulled her through the weeds, or if they were some kind of parasites. 

I guess you don't get old without having some health issues, regardless of what species you are.

I held the fish next to my fishing rod to estimate her length, and I guessed at least 16" probably a little more. She might not have been longer than the bass I caught last Friday at Burnham, but she was definitely heavier. Beefy even. My forearm burned trying to support the weight. I made sure to hold her as vertical as possible, so as not to break her jaw.

I snapped some pictures, determined to get some great shots of this amazing fish. It's hard getting pictures alone, especially with such a big fish! Looking at the pictures later, I was a little disappointed, because they don't do her justice. But hey, that's what my fancy nouns and verbs are for.

After a few moments spent admiring my catch, I carefully placed her back in the water. She casually swam away, seemingly unfazed by her temporary capture. I thought about the mepps- it was a #3, not very large, certainly no where near the size of big safety-pin style spinners or even big tubes that I've used to catch big bass in the past. When I got to the pond earlier, I thought I might hook into a big bluegill or something. It blew my mind that such a huge fish would go for a lure that was so small. I could have fit my entire fist in her mouth! Granted, I have small hands... but still.

I cast for a while longer using the mepps with no takers, so I switched to a crankbait. This was another lure that I rarely use, but know many people use it extensively. After many casts without any hits (and plenty of weeds) I called it a day. I didn't beat my 6 bass in one trip record, but I did catch my first inline spinner fish, and caught what was probably the biggest and heaviest fish I'd ever caught. 

Not too shabby for a Friday! Let's see what I can do on Saturday and Sunday....

First texas rig bass

First texas rig bass, and he/she's a beauty

I'm obsessed. When I'm on the Metra on the way to work, I read fishing forums. I often hit up the big lake before work, since it's only a 10 minute walk. I sneak out on my lunch break to get few casts in. I routinely stop by my retention pond honey hole on my way home to catch a bass or two. I literally have dreams of catching smallies and salmon. Right now- I'm writing this on the Metra, on my iPhone, at 5:02am- because I'm on my way to fish burnham harbor for a few hours before work. I woke up at 4am- and I'm totally ok with that.

I'm a crazy person! I am clearly obsessed. I figure at some point, when all the water is frozen, I'll have to take a break from fishing... So I figure I'll just keep being crazy until then. Let's not even think about ice fishing just yet.

On my bike (well, Claire's bike... My amazing home-painted camo bike is not exactly "functional"...) I pass by the pond twice a day. How can I pass up a few casts? Yesterday I decided to allow myself 20 minutes, and then leave.

When I got there I noticed the water level was very high, almost putting the pipe underwater. There was a lot of gross looking stuff on the surface of the water, that looked a lot like poop. I don't think it was, but I made a mental note to wash my hands extra long later. I also noticed a distinct lack or visible bluegill- usually they are everywhere, positioned facing the pipe near the top of the water column, hoping for an easy meal. Not today.

I already had a tube jig on the end of my rod, so for speed sake I kept it on and cast it out. At this great spot, it's rare not to get a hit in the first few casts. Sure enough, on my third cast, I let the jig sink, then noticed my line slowly moving. Fish on!

No big attack, no wham, just a casual "hey that looks good, I'll eat it." I set the hook, and that's when the fireworks began (the "oh crap!" moment). Got the bugger to shore- a very nice looking, beautifully dark-patterned 10" largemouth.

First fish

Snapped some pics, and carefully replaced my friend in the water. The commotion from the fight brought hundreds of tiny gills to the surface. "what was that!?" they seemed to say.

Cast again, and got a bunch of extremely tentative bites, but no hookups. This was weird- usually the bass in this pond attack the lure like a ballistic missile, but today they were almost gentle.

It was very hot, few clouds, and lots of sun. They were taking it easy. I remembered all the hints and tips I'd been reading on my commute, and thought about cover. I know they like the pipe and he little fish attracts, but it's hot.. If I were a fish, I'd want to find some shade. I scanned the surface, which was covered with little patches of weeds... And one big patch. That's where I would be.

I decided to try a different lure. I rely too much on the tube jig- I want to be a versatile angler, not a one-trick pony. I tied on a Texas-rigged plastic worm, about 6" long. I figured that would help me avoid some weeds too.

I cast, and overshot- the work landed with a plop, right on top of the weeds. It didn't sink, it just lay on the surface weeds.

That's ok! I got some great hits the other day at Ogden Slip when I gently pulled my lure into the water from the sidewalk. I did the same here- moved my rod just enough to pull the worm to the weed edge and drop it in the water. I hoped the bass hiding there would see an enticing meal silhouetted against the sunny open water.

A few very soft hits, but they didn't want to commit. Seemed like they didn't want to leave their comfortable weed shade, even for a big ol' tasty worm. Ok, I got a great tip from Navyfisher on the WCF forums about "deadsticking" for finicky bass. Of course I had no idea what that meant until I googled it. Basically you just leave your bait/lure sitting there.

So I recast to the top of the weeds, pulled, and dropped the worm an inch in front of the weeds. It slowly fell to the bottom, and I left it there. It sat for about 30 seconds, and then once again my line started to move! My first Texas rig catch!!

After a quick fight, I landed another beautiful bass, this time a light-patterned skinny one, about 8". I wondered about the huge variety in patterns- if all the bass here from from this pond, wouldn't they have similar patterns? I wondered how many of the bass came from other bodies of water.

The next cast I got stuck on a branch, snapped my line, and called it a day. 2 bass in 20 minutes on the way home from work? First catch using a new technique? I'll take it.

I'm Obsessed

Geese at the spot

Didn't have time to hit up my new spot on the way to work this morning, but I did give it a once over to check water levels, weeds, etc. I have nightcrawlers in my backpack, just in case I have some time to hit up some water today. There were some geese hanging out at my spot. I saw them last evening too; I wonder if they are there because they eat the fish, or because there's water to swim in, or because the grass has lots of tasty bugs... I need to learn more about birds!

I also need to learn more about the trout and salmon that swim around lake michigan, because I DEFINITELY want to hook into some of those guys! I caught those 3 rainbow trout at burnham a few weeks ago, and they fought harder than any fish I'd ever caught. Maybe that's why those fly fishermen love trout so much. And they're tasty to boot.

amazing! this guy is my hero
check out his blog here

There are some pretty amazing posts on windycityfishing.com of fall and winter salmon/trout fishing on the lake. Check this out- caught by GEO at Northerly Island - which is 15 minutes from my work. (Click here to view the full report)

At this point I'm pretty obsessed with fishing- I'm wondering if I'll calm down about it once winter hits, when my open water fishing opportunities become much more limited. But it seems like a lot of guys can catch perch, salmon, and trout from shore throughout the winter. That's bad news for my other interests!

I'm tentatively planning on gearing up "music-making" season in the next few weeks, transitioning from all-fishing all-the-time to a nice balance of recreational creative music-making and some fishing. Maybe some smallie fishing... or maybe some salmon and trout fishing... Whups, there I go again. Maybe the cure is to fish MORE! Maybe I'll get tired of it.

If so, I might get cured soon! Planning on hitting up the Fox this weekend, hopefully for some smallie; the weekend after that my lovely wife and I are heading to Flint, Michigan to hang with my family and do some fishing. This will be our third annual "fishing trip;" we rent a pontoon boat, hit Lake Nepessing, Lappeer, MI, and catch a lot of sunfish. Maybe we'll get into some bass, or maybe even pike this year!

Beautiful Lake Nepessing, Lapeer, MI - Fall 2010

More bass at the little pond

commute home 10" bass, not too shabby

Turns out there is more than one bass in the little pond!

this guy needs to cut back

Stopped by for 20 minutes on my way home from work, landed 2 nice big bluegill and a great looking 10" LMB. For the first time I ever I saw a ton of minnows near the surface, perhaps having a feast on all the stuff washed into the pond from the storm that had just passed.  I watched the surface and saw big wakes moving around, then the baitfish freaking out. I cast just past the wakes, reeled in a little, and caught three nice fish.

The bass I caught was definitely not the one I caught earlier, but could have been the one my friend Mark caught a few weeks back... So there are at least 2 bass in there, but based on the number of wakes, I think there might be more!

Nice looking bass

Big fish in a little pond

Conditions: Mostly cloudy, very little wind, 74°F, a storm front moving in

my new honey hole

Decided to hit up a small retention pond on the way to the train, and it was definitely worth the stop! I'd fished there once before with some friends, and caught insane numbers of hand-size bluegill, and one dinky LMB. Pretty sure the county stocks it with bluegill to keep mosquitos under control. It's a somewhat nasty looking pond, with lots of scum on the top; I think all the runoff from the neighborhood drains into the pond through a pipe. (I think that's the point of retention ponds, right?)

I bike past the pond everyday, and many evenings I stop by to check out the water level, amount of weeds, and see if there any fish around. Tons of little gills are usually positioned about a foot in front of the pipe, especially after rain. Surprisingly I've never heard or seen any frogs.

Decided to wet my line at the pipe, I was sure to get some baby gills. Rigged a small hook with a bullet weight and crawler (I don't think that's the standard way to use a bullet weight, but it gets caught on weeds less than split shot- and there are tons of weeds here). I wanted to present the bait near the bottom, where the larger fish tended to hang out.

I cast out about 20' from the pipe, and immediately got a big hit! Missed the hookup because it took me by surprise. Second cast to the same area, and BAM! fish on!

If this was a gill, it was a big'un! It was great to have a battle with a sizable fish at such an unlikely location right on my way to work. THIS is why I have a collapsible rod! My backpack rod is 5'6" (same height as me) and pretty lightweight- it makes even the smallest fish a joy to catch.

My adversary was determined to best me, and gave a great fight; it's speed was pretty remarkable- it wasn't coming in without a fight! As I reeled it in, I got a glimpse of the fish- a bass! I saw the flash of what little sun there was reflecting on it's shiny scales and realized I had a good sized LMB on the line. Sweet! I shouted and I'm not ashamed to admit it- giggled - as I pulled in the monster. Fishing is awesome, this is so great- you really never know what you'll catch! And so close to home, on the way to work. Freaking awesome.

I pulled it in, and the many little bluegill right by the pipe dispersed franticly, trying to avoid what must be one of their main predators in the pond.

big fish in a little pond! booyeah!

What a great looking fish! It looked very healthy, a little surprising considering the apparent condition of the pond and all the runoff that ends up there. This largemouth would be a pretty good catch at Busse or Burnham, but coming out of this little pond it was a trophy!

I snapped some pictures and held it next my rod to get a rough estimate of it's length- I measured the length of my rod butt this weekend for this very purpose. My pond trophy bass was about 12-13" long, relatively slim for having a veritable buffet of tasty bluegill nearby. I wondered if there were a bigger bass in there that competed for the food... I'd read that in small ponds there are often many little fish and a single, huge, top predator. I wondered if I was holding the top predator, or her skinny wingman.

Either way, I was elated! I shouted some more, so excited to land this beast on my second cast. I paused to admire my adversary, its hefty weight and muscle, a true big fish in a little pond.

I carefully carried my new friend back to the water, and gently placed the bass back in the water. A few seconds later it sprang back into action, and with a quick splash of the tail disappeared into the murky water.

Great! Two casts, one big fish, not bad for a Tuesday morning. This great fish also ended my bass skunk, which had been going on for a week or more.

I texted my wife to share my trophy catch, and looked at the time. I still had half an hour before my train arrived, so I quickly re-baited the hook and recast.

I proceeded to pull out around 15-20 mostly very good sized bluegill over the course of the next half hour. Every cast a fish! I could get used to this. I remembered the previous trip to the pond, and how small most of the fish were. A combination of no fishing pressure and plenty of food seemed to be providing the perfect environment for relatively large bluegill. I wonder if the bass in the pond eat the small gills, and the bigger ones get more food and grow larger.

biggest gill of the morning, ~8", check out the beautiful dark pattern

Either way I was slayin'em! The largest one was at least 8", again bigger than any of the fish I caught at Busse this weekend. It seems like water clarity definitely affects the patterns and color of fish; out of this zero visibility murk came the most stunningly beautiful fish!

After a while duty called, and it was time to pack up. I put my nightcrawlers in my backpack, took apart my rod, put my tackle and tools in, and began walking to the train.

Fishing is great! Perfect way to start the day. I looked forward to battling the pond bass another day, and wondered if these fish would be able to survive the winter. Either way, I would be back soon to battle the feisty fish in this little muddy puddle.

All fish C&R to fight another day

nice bass for a tuesday morning on the way to work