Change of seasons

As you may have noticed, I haven't been fishing much lately. It's been cold, and the past few times I've been out haven't been especially productive.... Or comfortable! I waded the Desplaines last weekend, and although it was nice to wade, the water was ice cold and the fish weren't biting. I don't have fancy neoprene waders; my sweatpants and thin waders were no match for the frigid water. Especially when I went deeper....

The other day I stopped by the retention pond for one last hurrah. It was freaking cold out, but I managed what is probably my last bass of the year! On a homemade lure, no less. Those black fury knockoffs I've been making work pretty well. So far I know they can catch catfish and bass.

Notice the awesome hat- it was very cold that day

So far pretty much every post here has been about fishing (it's called "CB Fishes" after all..) but there is a subtitle in there: "...and cooks and makes music and stuff." I've posted a few recipes, and mentioned my music making in passing, but for the next few months I will probably be posting more about music and food than fishing. If all you want to read about are my misadventures in fishing, don't worry! Whenever I head out to wet a line I'll post about it, but realistically it probably won't happen much for a while. Come Spring, I'll be flooding the internet with novel-length fishing entries once again. I'll be making lures throughout the cold months, so I'll post about those adventures too.

So I've been changing gears, from one obsession to another. Fishing is a relatively new thing for me- as you can tell by my posts- but music as always been my main obsession. Before I had a full time job with downtime used exclusively for fishing, I was a freelance gigging musician/composer/whatever. Every moment of my time was spent thinking about music, practicing music, trying to get gigs, and making music. Since I've been gainfully employed, I've discovered the joy of hobbies. When my income depended solely on my effort, I had no time for non-musical endeavors.

Now that I don't make my living making music, my music-making activity comes in spurts. Right now I'm transitioning from obsessed-with-fishing season to obsessed-with-music-making season. The timing works out well; for the past two years, I've been releasing a freely-downloadable Christmas album. My lovely wife suggested I do it, and what a great idea it was.

If you feel like getting in the holiday mood already, you can play the previous two albums right here. If you like them enough, you can download them too!

Last year's:



The original, from 2009:




Lately I've been playing in Ableton Live, working on some holiday songs, sampling instruments in my garage, playing with Kontakt, my Korg Monotron, and generally being obsessed with music and music technology. Normally all this stuff happens in my headphones, and I'm pretty much the only one who hears most of this stuff (besides my students, who are occasionally forced to listen to my most recent creations).

Now that I've got a blog, I plan on sharing details of my musical adventures just like I've been sharing my fishing adventures. Fall and Winter are actually my favorite times to cook, so I'll also be posting lots of recipes. I've got a Bell's Brown Ale beef stew recipe to write up, as well as one for slow-cooked ancho chile pork. And one for Beckstrom Molé...

Pike fishing the DPR

Another great day to be out

I'd read - on the internet of course - that fall was a great time to get into some nothern pike. Astute blog-readers or facebook fishing album stalkers might notice that nowhere is there a picture of me posing with a northern pike. This is not on purpose; I'd kayak-fished the DPR a few weeks back with the sole purpose of landing one of those toothy buggers. But that was not to be. 

In my research, it seemed like somewhere - maybe anywhere on the DPR would give me a good chance of finding some. The Fox apparently had a tiny pike population, I'd never heard of pike in the big lake, and I wasn't even going to consider Busse. So the DPR it was! I'd seen some recent posts of people landing pikes on the DPR, so I tried to figure out a good spot. I'd heard that farther north or farther south might have better populations. Based on some recent reports, I chose Allison Woods as my spot, and loaded up the car.

Saturday morning I headed out a little later than usual. I'd heard that pikes either have really good vision or really bad vision; either way, apparently they're easier to catch when there is more light. Seems to contradict other fish, but hey, if the internet says it it must be true. Armed with a selection of white spinnerbaits, mepps black furies, and roostertails, I drove with dreams of pike in my head.

I got to the entrance at 6:55am, almost 15 minutes after the published sunrise - which is when the park "opens." It wasn't open, there was a gate, which was padlocked. There was no way I could open it. I don't blame the guy who opens it- there's probably just one guy who has to get up early and open every entrance to every Cook County forest preserve! I don't know if that's true, but that's the way it seems.

I put my car in park, turned it off, and did some google searching for last-minute pike information.

who or what did this?

After 20 minutes, my patience had run out. Maybe there was a different entrance, that was open? I backed out my car and headed down the road, watching the woods for anything paved suggestion another entrance. I found one, but it too was locked. Damn! I turned around and headed to the first gate.

The gate-opener guy had just unlocked the gate, and was driving into the preserve. Awesome!

Within a few short minutes, I had a spinner in the water, near what looked like a canoe launch. There wasn't much current, and I couldn't see any weeds. I was pretty sure pike liked to hang out outside of current and in or around thick weeds. Wasn't sure how I was going to find them if I couldn't find those things!

Doing my best impression of a river angler, I tried to present my bait in a variety of ways, trying to hit where I thought a river snake might be waiting to ambush some unsuspecting bluegill. I worked my way down the shore, hiking through the woods trying to get back to river access. I had my trusty LL Bean boots, but wasn't prepared to wet-wade in the muddy mucky water.

I found a place that had obviously been fished before- people had put sticks in the ground in such a way they would be perfect to hold rods in place. But that wasn't what gave it away. The entire roll of monofilament line, THICK monofilament line (seemed thicker than 20# test) had presumably been dumped, and was wrapped in a mess all around the foliage near the water. I couldn't pick up every stray soda can or beer bottle, or every McDonald's cup; I wouldn't have been able to carry it all to a trash can (which I hadn't even seen). But the least I could do is prevent some poor bird from getting tangled in this and dying. I'd seen the results of littered mono before, and if there's anything I can do to prevent that from happening, I'll do it.

a big mushroom

Using my clippers, it took about 5 minutes to rid the bushes of the ridiculous length of line that had become intertwined, like some kind of plastic vine. I ended up pulling off a lot of leaves too, but at least the line was gone. I shoved the huge armful of mono and leaves into my backpack, hoping I'd see a trash can somewhere.

I continued to fish, but I'll cut to the chase. I didn't catch any pike. At one point I thought I might have had a hit, but it was small and was not repeated on the next few casts. In another spot, there was a huge splash and out of the corner of my eye I saw the fish. It did NOT look yellow (i.e. carp) but I have no idea what it was. Of course my mind told me it was definitely a pike, but I had no idea if pike ever jump.

Saw some scary looking animal tracks, along with some I recognized as deer, squirrel, and maybe possum or racoon. The scary ones were really big, and reminded me of Walter's paws, but much much bigger. I looked for accompanying human tracks, like the owner of a big dog, but there were none. I gingerly scanned the forest, hoping I wouldn't lock eyes with a coyote, cougar, or wolf. I didn't know if there were any of those animals in the area, but these tracks belonged to something.

Probably just a random dog, I told myself, as I entered the forest again to find another route to water.

big tracks

I did a lot of hiking, and for what it's worth it was beautiful and enjoyable. The few squirrels I saw were clearly fattening up for the winter, and I saw some other cool things. An awesome looking mushroom, a tree that looked half cut down.. but by an axe? or teeth? I don't know.

At a certain point my belly was grumbling, I was annoyed at my lack of fish, so I headed back to my car. Then I remembered there was a bridge over the river. I couldn't leave without casting there a few times, so I did. I climbed down the loose rocks until I was at the water, then casted.

Not getting anything, I figured there might be some panfish around. I was pretty sure this kind of structure was called rip-rap, and the internet says there are often panfish around rip-rap.

Sure enough, there was!

After catching this guy- on a tiny jig and grub - the lightening convinced me to head home. At least I wasn't skunked.

pumpkinseed... or is it bluegill? either way it's a fish

Kayak Fishin' the DPR

the s.s. goby slayer

Yesterday I studied a year's worth of windycityfishing.com posts about the desplaines, boned up on the behavior of pike, and set my alarm for early- I was going to hit the DPR and catch me some of those toothy buggers!

point me to some fish!

Woke up this morning, had my coffee, oatmeal, packed my gear, and loaded the s.s. goby slayer on the car. (That's what I call my kayak, since that is what I seem to be best at catching.) 

Made sure I had all my spinners and crankbaits, cause today I was fishing for PIKE! I'd never caught a pike, and I hoped this would be the day. The impression I got from the posts I'd been reading is that it wouldn't be too difficult to get on some pike, and I was super excited.

Wanted to stop a walgreens on the way to get some bug spray (I've heard the bugs are CRAZY on the river) but all three I drove by weren't open yet. Oh well, I had the little fan thing so it would probably be ok.

Got to Irving Park and Desplaines, where there was supposed to be a kayak launch. I saw a forest preserve entrance and a parking lot, so I figured that was it. I parked, and checked out the river. Lots of bugs, lots of rocks, lots of mud, and a pretty steep drop to the river. Well, I guess this is the kayak launch, let's do it!

Got the yak down to the shore, almost fell in about thirty times on account of the super sticky mud, but I was ready to launch. Pushed off, and I was on the water. I had this crazy idea I would start getting some bites- it was a little cloudy, there was a storm coming, the pressure was falling, it seemed like everything was good for fishing. Apparently, not the case.

where I should have launched

I paddled upstream, so once I was tired I could coast back with the current. Soon after I paddled under the Irving Park bridge, I saw what was clearly the actual kayak/canoe launch. Looked like a great place to launch, no steep incline, and much less chance of falling in! Awesome. Remember that for next time.

There was a ton of fishy-looking spots, lots of submerged timber, fallen trees, overhanging branches; lots of those pools and eddies I've heard so much about from river fishermen, the places that hold fish. Things were looking good to find some fish- the only problem with so much cover is figuring out which were the best places to hit.

There was also more trash and debris than I have ever seen on any body of water, even Busse! Seeing all the beautiful pictures of the river online, I was not prepared for the onslaught of waste that filled the tree branches and banks. Things you might expect, like plastic bags and some bottles, and other stuff like a condom in a branch that made me scratch my head. How!?!? 

Under the Lawrence bridge I saw some homeless dudes, and I have to say it really weirded me out... I wondered what they thought of this yuppie dude with many $'s worth of fishing gear hanging out in a kayak while they struggled to avoid the elements and feed themselves.. I could go home to my air conditioning and shower and fridge full of delicious food; they didn't have that option.

shouldn't there be some fish here?

Every so often I would stop at an especially fishy spot, tie a line to a branch or stump, and cast away. I mostly threw 1 oz. (I think) white spinners, and some crankbaits. Amazingly, in the course of the entire 3 1/2 hour trip, I only lost 2 lures! It's a lot easier to get your lures back when you can paddle out to them and unhook them. 

After a while I needed to get to the shore to take care of some business... As soon as I stepped out of the kayak, my foot went straight down and the mud came up to my knee! When I pulled my foot back up, my croc was gone. I reached my arm deep into the mud, and two minutes later pulled up my shoe. Awesome!

hangups aren't so bad
when you can paddle to them

No bites, no nibbles, many hangups, but so far no lost lures. I kept paddling upstream, every spot looking fishier than the last. After a few spots with no bites, I started to get discouraged. What the heck! There are supposed to be fish here! I saw a lone carp looking for a snack in some shallow water. In one particularly promising spot, where the current was mostly blocked by logs and branches, I thought there must be fish here.

I was right! I found a bunch of tiny minnows, and there were a few slightly larger fish chasing them and eating them! I'd never seen this before, and it was pretty cool. This spot had tons of cover, a change from shallow to deep, a change in current, lots of forage in the form of baitfish and crawfish I saw along the bottom; how could there NOT be some pike or bass nearby?

I hung out there for about a half hour, and tired a few different lures. I even busted out my magic green tube jig, hoping for at least some bites. Even without bites, it was cool to be on the river in the s.s. goby- every five minutes or so a plane would fly overhead.

this one flew right over me

I started to hear some thunder... My lovely wife texted me to suggest I'd better get a move on, the storm was coming. Crap! I looked at the radar and it wasn't looking good.

yikes!

I turned the boat around, and headed back down the river. The sharp eruptions of thunder were getting closer together, and it was freaking me out! I started to see lightning.. I wondered if my paddle was made of metal...

Little drops of rain started pinging the water, and I intensified my paddling. I had been casually casting my white spinnerbait as the current pushed me down the river, but now I stowed my rods and paddled in earnest. My arms started to burn- I'm not used to this much physical activity! The rain started to fall harder, and the breaks between thunder and lightning got shorter. Oh jeez!

After what seemed like a very long time of what seemed like paddling very fast, I made it to the kayak launch. (Turns out I was only going 4 mph, but that was much faster than I had been paddling.) About that time the rain started to fall like crazy, and I decided to land there, and bring my car around. Hopefully nobody would steal the s.s. goby slayer.

Walked quickly to the car, made it back to the launch, and loaded everything up in record time. Almost as soon as I got in the car, the sky opened up! Good timing. Thanks wife! I was soaked, my arms were burning, my legs were covered in mud, and I didn't catch so much as a bluegill... I was pretty frustrated I didn't even get a hit from any of my pike or bass friends... but I couldn't wait to get back on the water and go fishin'!

No fish here? Really?