Wacky Bass

In the morning I'd waded the Fox and caught a single smallie. In the early evening I decided to try my local pond, on the off chance conditions might be better (read: warmer, less windy, and sunny) for another outing.

I've been keeping track of my fishing this year, and noticed that this pond trip would be my 27th time fishing since January 1. That's a lot of casting practice. Wow, I sure wish I'd been catching more fish.

The pond

I got to the pond, and it was beautiful! Not too much wind, the sun was out in full force, and I was comfortable in a t-shirt. Inspired by fellow WCF'er Drinkbourbon (Anthony) and his blog post about carp fishing (carping?) I thought I would bring along another rod to see if there were any carp in the pond. Everything I've heard about carp is that they taste bad but are awesome fighters. I like fighting fish.  I had half a loaf of white bread and a handful of corn from my freezer, hoping to at least fight a carp.

Apparently for carp fishing, one good bait is some bread, squeezed around a tiny hook, and left alone on the bottom. Ok, sounds easy enough. I grabbed some bread, smushed it around my tiny hook, put it in the water... and the bread slowly floated off the hook into the water.

Ok, I'll try again. I grabbed some bread, dunked it in the water, squeezed off the excess, smushed it on the hook, cast it out.... and the bread flew off into the pond while the hook fell inches from my feet.

Ok, seriously. How can this be so difficult!? I grabbed some corn, put it on the hook, cast it out... and the corn went flying off into the pond, hitting the surface with a little "plink."

Was I missing something? Determined, I grabbed some more bread, soaked in some water, squeezed it out, mashed it around the hook, and ever-so-carefully-and-gently dropped it into the water, and low and behold the bread stayed on the hook. Great! I stuck my rod in a hole on the pipe, and grabbed my other rod.

A few months ago I'd bought some hooks with a weed guard real cheap that seemed useful for wacky-rigging. A few weeks back I was fishing in Ohio with some family, and Uncle Kevin caught a long thick plastic worm (the only thing any of us caught that day). He donated it to the Chris Beckstrom tackle box, so I figured the least I could do was use it. I wacky rigged it on my weedless hook, cast it out, and let it slowly sink.

I went to retrive it, when I realized there was a fish on! After a short an uneventful battle, I pulled out a lethargic largemouth bass. I estimated about 12" or so.

Largemouth bass caught on a caught-and-then-donated
wacky-rigged plastic worm

I fished for a while longer, going through my entire tacklebox, with no more takers. I tried a 1oz swimjig, which I was amazingly able to cast right to the middle of the pond, but nobody was interested. After a few casts I noticed the green paint had completely come off the lead jighead. What the hell!? If I'm going to pay $5 for a jig, I think the paint should stay on. I should just make some myself...

I tried some corn for carp, but as with the bass, no takers. I decided I'd try again later; I was intrigued by carp- I'd seen a TON almost everywhere... Big ones at Busse, small ones in local creeks, it seemed like it would be a great time to tangle with a giant fish. In my head, I added it to my list of 2012 fishing goals.

For those keeping track, here's my updated list:

FISHING GOALS FOR 2012

• Catch some trout - DONE - I caught some small brown trout on the Rogue in Michigan
• Catch a pike
• Catch a walleye
• Catch some more smallies - DONE - The Fox has been relatively kind to me this year
• Catch a bass in the kayak - I still haven't done this!
• Newly added: Catch a carp - Maybe it would be even more fun on my new ultralight...
• Catch and cook some fish - I'm thinking perch from the big lake would be good for this...

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.

On the lake with the family

Katie got a great shot of the clouds

 Coming fresh off a morning fishing trip fishless, I was determined to catch some fish.

After getting back to the parents' house, grabbing some subway, packing up the minivan, and driving a half hour east, we were at Lake Nepessing near Lapeer, Michigan - the probable location of our fishing redemption! This was our third annual family fishing outing; we rented a pontoon boat, took it out on the lake, and snacked and talked and drank and fished. Not exactly in that order.

I had been studying depth maps of the lake, and even uploaded a .kmz (google earth) file to my home server, so I could load waypoints on my iphone. (In the "maps" app, if you enter a URL in the search bar, you can load any .kmz or .kml file that's out there on the internet- or your own server. You won't get image overlays, but you will be able to see all of your markers.) There was a hump/sunken island right in the middle of the lake; on the east side, the depth went from 5' to 25' in about 10', and seemed like an ideal place to fish. I'd read reports of nice pike and bass being caught there.

We had several things working against us as we tried to position the boat in the sweet spot. First of all, pontoon boats are not easy to maneuver. Second, the lake was choppy, being stirred up by a relentless wind. Our big boat didn't stand a chance against the onslaught, and our tiny anchor just dragged along the muddy bottom.

After a few tries trying to get into position, we just decided to fish. We put the boat west of the hump, hoping that the wind would push us back over the hump, and we might have a chance of some fish. We dropped anchor, and although it didn't seem to stop our movement, it did slow us down a bit. It was about 3pm, so hopefully the fishing would get better as we approached sunset.

Walter is a pretty good ship's captain, for a dog

It was a great time, it's always nice to get outside and do some family stuff. I helped Katie (the sister) set up a dropshot rig with a nightcrawler, then decided to add a bobber. She just got her first fishing license, and this was her first time putting worms on the hook by herself. After quite a bit of convincing, she even cut crawlers in half so she wasn't using whole worms. Good work Katie.

We fished, we ate deviled eggs, tortilla chips, blueberries, subs; and I proceeded to empty a variety of IPA bottles. Good stuff, IPA's. The grocery store didn't have any Bell's Two-hearted IPA (you know, the label with a trout on it) so I got Huma-hopalicious, which I first enjoyed at our rehearsal dinner almost a year ago. (Whoa, almost a year ago!!) Fishing, and beer, two things I love. Oh yeah, and there was family too. :-)

We drifted around the lake, without much control over our location. The wind was relentless. Every so often, we'd get a tap or two, but nothing strong and no hookups. After an hour or two, I was frustrated. I remembered reading a post referring to Lake Nepessing as "Lake Not-a-thing." I thought about how skunk-tastic Busse Lake usually is, but my persistence has often paid off with big fish.

Eventually we repositioned ourself to be just upwind (I think that's the term) of the weedlines. The wind slowly pushed us back into open water, but finally we were able to land some fish!

First fish of the afternoon! That's Katie in the background

Small, and not especially feisty, but hey- at least we beat the skunk. Caught a few more little guys, but at this point honestly I didn't mind. As much as I claim to love fishing, I actually love catching, and if I don't have a choice I'd rather catch dinks than not catch monsters. Claire landed a veritable monster (it was tiny.. at least it was pretty) but unfortunately Katie and my dad weren't having too much luck.

Another itty-bitty guy

We saw some other boats fishing on the west side of the lake at the weedlines, so we decided to move over there. As we were approaching, we saw a guy on the boat posing for a picture, holding a fish. It looked big. As we got closer, we realized it was really big.

"What did you catch?" I shouted. The guy turned towards me, and we saw the full length glory of what he was holding. It was very big. "27 inch pike" he shouted back.

I won't lie, even though writing a second-hand account like this always provides the opportunity to get away with it. I was devastated. Up until this point, I was happy catching dinky little fish, it was fun, and we were having a good time. I figured that was the best we could do for now, and since nobody else seemed to be catching fish I didn't feel too bad.

But 27 inches of michigan pike, now that's something to be jealous of.

It was on. I grabbed a different rod and rigged a white spinnerbait, something I've heard pike are very fond of. I began to cast feverishly; oh man I wanted to hook into something longer than 3". We were in a perfect position, right at the weedlines, so I cast parallel to the weeds just along the edge. When that didn't produce, I tried casting perpendicular, from shallow to deep water. Nothing.

I switched to a medium diving crank. Did the same thing, and nothing. No follows, taps; nothing.

I looked back at the boat with the master pike-catcher on board. I squinted, trying to see what he had tied to the end of the line. I saw something spinning, reflecting the setting sun. It seemed smaller than a safety-pin style spinner, maybe it was a crankbait? For whatever reason I didn't shout out again to ask him what he was using. I didn't want to seem desperate, even though I was.

I felt a little bad at this point, as I was determined to catch a monster, and had stopped eating and drinking and talking with my family, and gone into fish-finding mode. I scanned the surface, trying to find anything that would belie the location of fish. I squinted through my polarized sunglasses, trying to see any tiny flash under the water that could be a fish, any fish. Nothing.

Eventually, we continued drifting around the lake, trying different spots. I threw everything I could think of- cranks, spinners, wacky-rigged senkos, tubes, minnow-tipped jigs- and nothing. I knew I could have probably landed some more baby fish with some nightcrawlers, but that was of no interest to me at that point.

The sun set behind the trees, creating a beautiful painting of a sky, a really great backdrop to our fishing. I wasn't going to catch a monster today. It would have been nice to catch a nice fish, and it was frustrating to see someone else catch such a specimen, but it was still a great day on the water. When you get down to it, you can't really beat fishing on a boat, on a beautiful day, with family, tons of snacks, and many many delicious beers.

Holloway Reservoir, Michigan

This will be the third consecutive year my family has gone on a Labor Day weekend fishing trip, a new tradition that came from my sudden obsession with fishing. My dad grew up fishing, but didn't do it much as an adult. Our fishing trips consisted of renting a pontoon boat on Lake Nepessing in Lapeer, Michigan, bringing mass quantities of snacks and beverages, and generally having a great time.

This year one of our family friends and angler extraordinaire Mike Muston invited my dad and me out on his boat for some morning fishing. I'd been salivating over his facebook pictures of beautiful trout, plentiful bass, and amazing looking walleye. Although I catch fish fairly regularly, there are gaping holes in my "species scoreboard," like smallies, walleye, and pike. Mike had been having good luck with walleye at Holloway Reservoir near Flint, so we planned the trip.

The day before, on Saturday, the family took a trip to Gander Mountain for gear and fishing licenses. This was one of the first times I'd gone to a store for fishing gear and had a really clear idea of what I was going to get. Tubes, of course, in a few more colors and sizes; a crankbait or two, I had only caught one fish (a bluegill) on a crankbait; some senko-style worms; some more fake minnows (I'd had lots of luck for bass - and gobies- with them); and some salmon spoons! I grabbed a basket and quickly proceeded to fill it up with goodies. As I put a 3/4oz moonshine glow spoon into the basket, I wondered if this was the lure that would catch me my first salmon. Or if I would lose it on my first cast.

5:30am, Holloway Reservoir

The next day, I woke up at 4am (which of course is 3am central time, but I tried not to think about that), got some coffee and donuts at Tim Horton's, and returned home. Mike was picking us up at 5am sharp, and I didn't want to keep him waiting! It was generous of him to take us along fishing with him, and even more generous to pick us up. I hoped he liked donuts!

My dad and I hopped in his truck, and set off on our pitch-black journey. It was so freaking dark. I guess it makes sense- Chicago is so close to the time change, that 5:30am in Chicago is really not too different from 4:30am eastern time; I'd been waking up at 4am central time, and it was basically light by 5:45... But not today!

Mike unloaded the boat into the water, my dad and I helping the best we could (I'm not very experienced getting normal boats into and out of the water). Headlamps on, spotlight shining, we set off into the dark. As we were headed toward a good spot at a point across the lake, the spotlight illuminated hundreds of seagulls (?) that proceeded to fly away. It was a very erie sight, seeing so many birds fly silently in the dark.

We got to the point, and began casting crankbaits, texas rigged worms, and tube jigs. Nothing was interested. Mike made me the trolling motor pilot, as I was at the front of the boat where the motor was. It was one of those cool foot-controlled ones, where the pedal controls direction and a little button runs the motor. After almost jerking myself into the water multiple times, I mostly got the hang of it. We went in circles a little, but hey this was my first time.

Then it started to rain. When we got to the boat launch, it was lightly spitting, but nothing serious. After a few minutes of unsuccessful casting, it started to rain in earnest. A while later there was enough light we could see the rain, and it was getting everything wet. Hey, it's a marine sport. There's water involved.

We decided to move, and I did my best to troll us around the point to the other side of the little peninsula. I proceeded to get my senko stuck on a branch close to shore, but Mike's agile unhooking skills saved it. At one point later on, I somehow got my line tangled up in the trolling motor, but again it got unhooked. Not my finest hour for line issues!

At this point it was raining pretty good, but I remembered the saying "It doesn't rain on fish, only fishermen." I wondered if the clouds and rain would work in our favor, perhaps keeping our walleye friends active longer into the morning. I've read that rain often washes bugs into the water, which are eaten by baitfish, which bring predators closer to shore. So this could be good!

The rain wasn't helping the donuts though, the box was thoroughly soaked. Somehow the donuts inside were mostly dry, and still completely edible.

Mike decided to get to trolling some lures for walleye, so he set up some planer boards. I'd only trolled like this once, and didn't completely grasp the idea. At least we weren't using downriggers, those things are downright confusing. With 2 crankbaits on planer boards, and each of our rods in the water, we had 5 lines in the water. Mike mentioned we could technically have 9 in the water, as the law in MI is 3 per person. It's good we didn't have 9 in the water; I would have definitely tangled them all!

Dive-bombing fish-catching machine bird

As we were slowly trolling across the lake, we saw a bird flying- almost hovering- high above the water. Without warning, it dropped from the sky like a ballistic missile, and sped down to the earth... It hit the water with a huge splash. A second or two later (seemed longer) it emerged, splashes everywhere, a fish in it's talons. A fish! The bird triumphantly ascended back into the sky, holding it's prize. We watched it fly back to the treeline- maybe a nest.

We looked at each other. That was amazing! I'd never seen ANYTHING like that, except maybe on the discovery channel. Even then, it's hard to imagine it's real. I've been admiring birds in my posts, but this bird took the prize for most amazing catch. It was seriously like  some kind of weapon honing in on a fish so many feet below. A fish UNDER the water.

I guess if your life depends on catching fish, you either get really good at it, or you die.

At least somebody was catching fish! We alternated between slow trolling and casting toward the shore. There were a lot of fishy spots, but the fish didn't know they were supposed to be there.

At one point, we were trolling and Mike was slowing down the boat so we could cast. There was a splash, I looked at the planer board- "FISH ON!" I yelled.

And it was! Mike reeled in his line, and at the other end was a very feisty smallie. Although I would have loved to hook into one myself, I was elated that Mike landed one, and as a boat of fishermen we beat the skunk.

Mike and the first fish of the day

That was only the second fish I'd ever seen taken on a crankbait (the first one was that bluegill at Ogden slip a few weeks ago); this was also the first fish I'd seen caught while trolling. It's really helpful for me- until I see a fish being caught on a lure, part of me doesn't believe it can be done. I used to be that way with spinnerbaits- what the heck are they supposed to look like!!?? - but I've caught my fair share of bass with those guys. A little later Mike caught another bass, this time a largemouth, also on a crankbait. It was another little guy, and he said the first largemouth he'd caught at Holloway. 

2nd - and last- fish of the day

We were trolling again, and my dad suddenly jumped and started moving his rod- he had a fish on! His rod tip bent almost 90°, this looked like a BIG fish! His drag screamed in agony as something huge pulled relentlessly. Mike jumped up as well, I reached for the net. He reeled and reeled, trying to fight the monster on the end of the line, and suddenly, the tension was gone.

My dad reeled in, the drag no longer complaining... The fish was gone! When the line came back to the boat, it had been cut clean off. Damn! And it took his fancy lure too!

Although it sucked to loose a fish like that - which Mike was sure was a big'ol' walleye - it was great to get some more excitement. For about the next half hour we lamented the loss of our prized fish, especially knowing our wives wouldn't believe how big it was.

That was almost the last action of the day- we hit a variety of good-looking spots, trolling and casting; everything from wacky-rigged senkos to spinners to cranks to jigs, but all we got were a few more lost lures. One particularly fishy-looking inlet was being guarded by a large heron. I'd seen many herons recently, but none of them squawked and complained like this one! It cackled loudly, telling us to get away from its spot, but naturally we did not oblige. Didn't matter anyway, we didn't catch any fish.

Coming out of the inlet, Mike hooked into a nice fish. He reeled in, and a foot from the boat it threw the hook and quickly vanished into the deep. It must have been at least 12-14 feet long, a huge beast of a fish, probably a muskie-alligator gar-bluegill hybrid*. But since we didn't get a picture, we can't prove or disprove what it was.

Glancing at our time various phones and watches, we realized it was time to head in. We didn't want angry wives. Slightly defeated, walleye-less, without a picture of a smallie caught on my tube jig, we headed back to the boat launch.

It wasn't bad- to the contrary, it was an awesome fishing trip: we saw an amazing fishing bird, a belligerent heron, a healthy looking smallie, and the first LMB of Holloway. It's always great to fish with other fishermen and learn. There's only so much you can get from the internet and message boards. Or blogs.

But if you can't make it out, might as well read about it!

* It definitely was not a muskie-alligator gar-bluegill hyrbrid. It was a good-sized bass.

First Burnham Bass

SPOILER ALERT: I caught a bass! It was a hog!

Sprung awake at 4am, quickly made some coffee, got dressed (in that order- priorities!), and checked on my crockpot tamales. They weren't ready yet, so I grabbed something else to eat, put together my gear, put on my headlamp, and hopped on the bike in the darkness. Made it to the station just before the train arrived. Soon I was in the city- which was still dark- and I headed to a bus stop that would take me to Burnham.

on my way to the bus stop at 5:30am

Not wanting to waste any precious fishing time, while I waited for the bus I assembled my rod and tied on a chartreuse spinnerbait. Why not start with something that isn't a tube jig? Hopped on the bus, and a few short minutes later I was at 11th and Columbus, a short walk from the water.

It was hot! I checked the weather, and my phone told me it was 92% humidity. Holy crap.

I began casting, and noticed some fish close to the wall. They were bigger than bluegill or rockbass- they looked like largemouths to me. Awesome! I'd never caught one there. They were clearly not interested in my spinner- whether I jigged it, burned it, or slowly start-and-stop retrieved it, they just watched it go by. I switched to a texas rigged worm, which got me a nice bass last night. Nothing. Switched to a tube. Nothing.

A guy walked past, and asked if I caught anything. I said no, and then he said "Hey look at that, there's a coho right there!" I ran over to where he was - directly over the pipe - and saw a magnificent-looking fish. It looked big, silver and blue colored, and majestic. It was definitely not a carp, or a bass, or anything else I'd ever seen. It was awesome! I'd been doing lots of research on salmon, and it was amazing to finally see one.

He gave me some tips on catching cohos- he suggested big heavy spoons, cranks, and rattle traps, and said I'd have better luck on the other side (north of solidarity drive). The coho was gone, so I packed up my stuff, and headed over, rattle trap tied on. My heart was racing. I figured hooking into a fish like that would probably destroy my little collapsible rod, but I wanted to do it anyway!

Well, no such luck. I set up right at the pipe on the other side, and nobody wanted anything to do with my lure. I did see some more of those same fish, apparently cohos. So awesome looking. I actually had a dream last night I caught one; that's how excited I've been looking at pictures and reading old reports. Big, big, powerful fish.

I tried throwing a few different mepps inline spinners, some cranks... I realized the few spoons I had were in a different box at home. That's what I get for not bring my entire collection of gear with me at all times! I saw some big fish hanging out by the pipe... Some were carp, and I think I saw at least one bass, but there were definitely some fish there I hadn't seen before. Maybe they were salmon....

I tied on a gulp minnow on a red jig, and threw it out. Hey now, I got a fish! Could it be a big 40 pound coho salmon about to give me the fight of my life?

Nope, it was a goby.

only the most talented anglers catch gobies....

Not a tiny one though, and at least I caught a fish. In my book catching a goby is still catching a fish! I wondered what gobies taste like... They're so easy to catch, and nobody wants them in the lake, it seems like the perfect solution would be to catch them all and eat'em! I imagined grilling gobies on skewers, maybe with some peanut sauce on the side. They seem nasty. I bet they taste horrible.

I decided to go back to the pipe, where I knew I could at least catch some rock bass if nothing else was biting. As I walked down the steps, I see two guys fishing. They asked me about the pipe, so I showed them where it was. Actually I wasn't completely sure that's where it was, but after a while we saw water flowing which confirmed my location.

Turns out these were two of CPD's finest, out for some fishin'. Joe and Steve gave me tons of great tips; they fish the area often, apparently usually by McCormick place. They heard about the pipe so they came down to check it out.

Steve had softshell crabs under a bobber, Joe was going through his arsenal of lures, and I threw wacky rigged worms, texas rigged worms, and eventually resorted to my 2" green tube jig. Steve's crabs kept getting eaten by tiny rock bass- he caught one that couldn't have been more than 4" long.

At one point, Joe switched to a 4-5" green tube jig, and saw a bunch of bass right in front of the pipe. They were there, but not interested! I was about 20' to the left of him, doing some tube jigging near some weeds. It's validating to know other serious fishermen use tubes. And then...

BAM! Fish on!

I saw a flash, and I knew it was a bass, and I knew it was a big'un! This was awesome- I hadn't even seen bass here before, let alone hooked into any. Even if he threw the hook- like the one at Busse last sunday- it was still a first for me.

After a very quick fight (I was terrified of losing the fish!) out of the water came the fish, thankfully still attached to my line. A VERY nice largemouth! My first Burnham bass, which I am counting as part of Lake Michigan... so let's just say it's my first Lake Michigan bass.

17" of Burnham Harbor / Lake Michigan largemouth bass
caught on a 2" tube!!

Joe and Steve came over to look- Joe estimated the fish to be about 17" and 2 pounds. I'll take his word for it, that sounded right to me. Amazing! No fish, and then this HOG of a largemouth. Beautiful coloring, a big fat belly, and giant dark eyes.

We noticed some stuff on its belly, Joe guessed it was some kind of parasites. You can kind of see it in the picture.

After Joe was nice enough to snap some pictures for me, I (as carefully as I could from the wall) dropped the fish back into the deep, extremely thankful for its interest in my lure. That's when I realized Joe was using basically the same lure, with no luck. I'll just chalk that up to fickle fish changing their mind about what they want... But either way I was beside myself, so happy to catch such a sweet fish here- 10 minutes from my work.

We continued fishing. Steve's bait kept getting stolen, and Joe cycled through a variety of different lures. At one point he put on some crab as well. The guys gave me tons of tips and suggestions about salmon, baitcasting setups, the best lures, all kinds of stuff. Although I have gotten a wealth of information from the internet and message boards, I especially like talking to other fishermen in person- when they're nice enough to share their secrets. These guys didn't seem to mind I was such a newbie, and were happy to offer their suggestions.

The more they told me, the more I lusted after salmon. I need to use a bigger, stronger rod and reel, and get some more spoons... But I can't even imagine catching a fish like that in downtown chicago. I've heard stories of long fights ending in broken rods or snapped leaders... It's all so epic! These BIG missiles of fish, these predating eating machines, who come in looking for tributaries but settle for battling fishermen.

I stopped daydreaming and came back to reality... I wasn't going to catch a coho or a king today- it was hot, I'm sure the water was hot, and I had to head out anyway. I bid my new fishing buddies farewell, they said I'd see them there again once salmon season started in earnest.

A great morning out on the water, some great new friends, and a big ass fish to use as my facebook profile picture. Fishing is awesome.

Evening at Ogden Slip

Sunset at Ogden Slip

One of my students has been wanting to go fishing with me for a while- apparently I post about fishing a lot on Facebook and make it look real fun- so today was the day I obliged him. I figured it would be good to put him on some fish, and so far I haven't been skunked at Ogden Slip. Set a meetup time of 5:30pm, and hopefully we would catch some fish!

not bad!

Left work, grabbed some Jimmy johns, hopped on the #29 to navy pier, and in a few short minutes I was at the spot. Pick arrived a few minutes later. I warned him about the no fishing sign, the security guard, and the imminent threat of hard prison time if we were caught fishing there, but he was game! So fished we did.

We didn't slay'em, and they weren't huge, but we did catch some fish. Over on the north side of Ogden Slip, the part where the security guards have a standing order to keep people from fishing, I ended up landing the first beast. A fair sized, maybe 10" largemouth that gave a great fight. Nice! I got in on, you guessed it, my prized tube jig. A few weeks ago that tube saved the day, catching a myriad of species- including catfish- so of course I had to bust it out first.

Pick's rock bass

Soon Pick had a fish on, an awesome looking rock bass. The rock bass at this spot have the most gnarly coloring, so gnarly at first I didn't know they were rock bass. Figuring my fishing guide duties were satisfied, I proceeded to catch a bunch more bass.

Actually we had to move right after Pick's first fish. A guard came over (not the cool one who is ok with us fishing there) and told us we had to leave. I figured I had two choices: fight it, as we certainly were in the right and should be able to fish there, or just say ok and move. I didn't want to spend any precious fishing time arguing, so I just said ok and we headed over to the other side.

We saw some weird looking fish coming toward the surface, looking like they were eating the algae. Of course I had no idea what they were.

There were no fish (besides tiny bluegills) over on our side, and it was difficult to cast to the other side. I needed some more weight. I switched out my tube for a wacky rigged dark purple 6" senko- with a bullet weight. I've never seen anybody rig a wacky rig like that, but hey I needed more weight!

Sure enough I was able to easily cast all the way to the other cement overhang so the worm was actually on the ground, then lightly yank it so it fell off the edge into the water. I've read about crayfish living in the piles falling into the water and the bass are accustomed to the sound, so I thought maybe that would get their attention.

Around this time Jeff Nolan of Bridgeport Bass (and Sun Times contributor) showed up on his boat with his dog Molly.  Always cool to run into a friend! Especially since he hipped me to the spot. He told us about a big fish he fought for 20 minutes last night right at that spot, and at the last minute it snapped the line. Oh man, I would have loved to see that. I started to dream of hooking into a coho some random weekday after work, and that's when I noticed some resistance on my lure. Snagged again, I moved to get it free... And it moved! Fish on!

check out the pattern on this guy

It was another nice bass- not huge, but a good fighter. After a quick fight, I got on land.. As he flopped around I saw my senko fly into the air, plop on the surface, and do that awesome horizontal sinking thing they makes them such great lures. Although I much prefer to have my line attached to then when they do that.

I was happy to catch a bass in front of the maestro, then I noticed he was also throwing a wacky rigged worm. I told I hadn't seen him with his wacky rig, I just wanted to try it.

It's so great to catch a fish regardless, but it's even better to successfully land one using new techniques! This was my first wacky-rig catch, and it was definitely working. I caught two more nice bass, both around 10", both on wacky rigged worms. One was on a senko, the other on a random brown worm I happened to have. Is this what "dialing in" is? If so, maybe that's what I was doing.. Finding out what the fish wanted today, and using that info to catch them.

I felt bad Pick wasn't catching tons of fish, but at least we had some action. We decided to head back to the first spot - in front of the no fishing sign- and try and catch us some more fish.

I caught one more bass over there, bringing my total to 4 bass for the evening. 1 on a tube, 3 on a wacky rigged worm. See, I DO use more than just my beloved tube jigs!

On Jeff's suggestion, I wanted to try the water under Lake Shore Drive (he had just landed a nice fish over there), and Pick decided to call it a day. I headed over there, tried the wacky rig and the tube, but nobody would commit. It was getting late anyway, and I had to catch a train, so I called it a day as well. 

I packed up my stuff, walked to the #140 bus stop, and waited. A real nice evening of fishing, and always great to have a fishing buddy or two!

Maybe Pick will get obsessed with fishing like I am. What if his work in my class suffers because of fishing... Would i lower his grade, or raise it for fishing extra credit? I think it would probably depend how many bass he caught.

what a cute little guy (the fish)