The Clear Lake curse continues

Well I went to Clear Lake last week. I was going to go to the big lake but I didn't want to risk being turned around by the weather. So I packed up my stuff and off I went right at the crack of 10 o'clock.


















I actually found the cable I needed to extend the throttle on my kicker. So this was kind of a trial mission as well as a fishing trip. Needless to say it worked flawlessly and I actually managed to catch a couple fish in the process. Spent most of the day trolling for rainbow's to no avail. I did however manage to land this 3 pound smallie.

Now we'll talk about the "curse" part. Ya see I've fished this lake a couple times last year, and not only did it yield some nice fish it also ate at least one of my lures. To which my wife says "you loose lures all the time". I do not or at least did not until she started saying that I lose lures all the time. So far this year I have lost 2 more lures on that lake. One last trip that got broke off by a hammer handle, I had the bugger right next to the boat when he snapped off and spit the lure. So I marked where the lure went down on my GPS and dove for it on this trip. No I did not find it, so I am down 2 flicker shad- one small pearl white and one large chartreuse pearl.
This trip I hooked up on a nice bass using one of my favorite spinnerbaits- a lime chartreuse Terminator. Well I shouldn't have to tell you what happened .....yep snapped him off just as I got him to the boat. I dove for that one too with the same result...nada. And to make matters worse, as I was packin' up my gear gettin' ready to head home I snapped off one of my pole holders.
I swear if I didn't use this lake as my Lake X, I would probably stop going there. But since this is where I trial all my "improvements" I can't just stop. It's close enough to just hang it up and head home if something doesn't work, or doesn't start (knock on wood).

So not sure where I'll be fishing next week but I'll find water somewhere.

By the way my wife has since taken the curse off me.

Two lake day

Well started at Nyona Lake this morning. I treat this lake like Lake James, I go there once a year just to make sure I don't like fishing there. As it turns out I still don't like Nyona, I started going to this small lake (109 acres) 4-5 years ago. When I found out they stocked wipers there I decided to fish it and low and behold I caught a wiper. So now it's one of those lakes that I gotta go to every year hoping for a repeat. So anyway I caught a couple bass here on the old standby rocket shad. I fished Nyona til noon then picked up and headed North to Max. I was on Max for an hour when I caught a small smallie and hooked up a nice sized smallie, that I didn't land. I thought it was the start of another great day on Max. Then the wind started to blow, that didn't help at all smallies hate dirty water. So I tried to get on the up wind side and still catch fish and it did work just not very well. I managed 1 smallie,1 perch, and a largemouth with 3-4 sdr's. Sorry no pics today as it spit most of the day.
Not sure where I'll be yet, but I'll stretch a line somewhere.
Til next week, tight lines and be safe.

Fished Lake Michigan yesterday

Went up to Lake Michigan yesterday, I launched at Pastrick Marina. I was on the water by 7 am (late) and stayed til 7 pm.I had great weather and caught a Polish Limit, yep missed it by one.I was actually playin' around with my fish finder when my 5th fish hit. By the time I grabbed my pole and reeled up the slack, he had gotten off. Anywho I got some good video, and I had a great time.

threefer

For all my faithful viewers this has been a long awaited post. Three weeks ago my computers' hard drive went out, so it took awhile to get everything up and running. Then it was a matter of getting the time to write the post. So without further adue here we go.

Lake #1: Tippecanoe Lake

I fished this lake last year quite a bit and always did really well. This year has been more of the same but I'll let the video tell the story. By the way the video for whatever reason is much worse when I drop it on this blog site. When I download it at home and run it there is no "digital" look to it. So I apologize for the degradation of the video, however you get the jist of it I hope.

Lake #2: Clear lake

Now this is another great lake mainly because of the trout that's stocked there. It holds the state record rainbow and also the state record pike. So when I fish this lake I usually plan on some trolling. Well let me tell ya I had a great day on the water. I caught 2 browns on a hollywood flicker shad,1 walleye (undersized), 1 crappie, 1 largemouth all on a black and white flicker shad, and the biggest pike I've ever seen 20ft jet diver with dodger and fly combo.

Now you're probably wondering "where's the pike?" Well here's the story: I was trolling the 20ft. jet diver/dodger and fly combo for rainbow's. When my pole doubled over, I grabbed it and started reeling. The more line I got, the more he peeled off, so I cut the motor and reeled in the other poles with my other hand. I initially thought it was a rainbow but when it didn't jump I didn't know what it was, all I knew is that it was big. After a 10-15 min fight I finally got to see the size of this fish. It was the biggest pike I have ever seen. It was 4-5 feet long and hooked in the corner of his mouth. I started going over how to land him, I knew my net was too small. So I came to the conclusion the only way was to hand land him under the gill plate. After fighting him the aforementioned 10-15 min I thought I could try to land him. I put my pole down and grabbed the line and hand lined him closer to the boat. He apparently didn't like this idea and made another run. I think that's when it happened. I had to drop the line and pick up the pole to continue the fight. Then came the inevitable I got him back to the surface and the hook came out.

No pics, no state record, nothing but the memory. I was/am very sad. However it was another great day on the water.

Lake #3: Brookville Reservoir

This lake is 2 1/2 hrs from the house. This was the first time I had ever been on this lake. So I planned on going down Mon and staying overnight and fishing all day Tues. The only supplies I was going to bring was for cooking. I got to the lake and check in around 7pm. After that I had to catch supper, so I put on the kicker and started trolling for some walleye. Now this lake is the lake that all of Indiana gets it's walleye stock from. So I figured it would be a no brainer to catch a couple walleye for supper. WRONG, I started trolling and hooked up with a small crappie that I let go. I trolled for a while longer with no luck. Then all of a sudden the water started boiling with white bass. I had never seen a school of white bass this large it was truly amazing. Well needless to say I cut the trolling motor and started casting and within 5 min I had 5 white bass to clean. I caught my supper at 8pm and stayed in my boat Mon. night. I got up Tues had the rest of my fish made some eggs and went back out fishin'. I did alot of casting for too many white bass to count. The video should tell the story.

I also did some trolling for walleye and striper of which I didn't catch either one. I did however keep catching crappie, nothing really big so I just kept lettin' em go. I was trolling a clown taildancer, a purple and gold glass shad, and a silver and black jointed cotton cordell grappler shad. All three caught crappie and even a decent perch. I didn't catch any walleye or stripers but I will probably go back some time this summer. The white bass were phenomenal, a truly awesome fishery.

fished max yesterday

Got a late start due to thunder boomers and heavy eyelids. Got to the lake at 11 am fished for about an hour or so then the wind showed up. Fought it for the rest of the day. I did manage to scrounge out 2 smallies ( not a barn burner) spent most of the day playin with my new fish finder (AWESOME) and casting my new lures. I fished until 6pm when I started to feel the effects of the sun. I had suntan lotion on but still felt burnt. So I pulled out the boat and that's when the wind decided to lay down...figures. Didn't get any pics because of the weather, it spit on and off and threatened all day to really pour down, so I never took out the camera. So hopefully I'll get better weather next week and some pics. I don't know where I'm going yet but I'll be fishing somewhere.