Sometimes I hate my radio

The weather looked good (not great)and fish were being caught. So I made the 3 hour trip to Pastrick Marina in East Chicago to try my luck. I got there really late around 7ish, I like to arrive and set up in the dark and head out at first light. I headed out full well knowing I only had until around 3pm to catch what I could and get off the lake before the storm hit. Well after the first hour the reports started coming over the UHF of a storm headed our way. The skies were dark and stormy looking over Chicago area so I believed it when I heard we might only have a couple hours to fish before it hit. After an hour my first rod went off, I got up and raced to it, turned the handle 4 times and the fish came unbuttoned. OK, 0 for 1, is not a great start especially when I'm in a good area and using almost the same lures everyone else was using. How do I know this? Well that's easy; they were all talking on the radio saying where they were, what they were using and how many they had in the box. The only thing they were doing differently was they had more rods out. Since I was by myself I could only run 3 rods. After a couple hours with no mention of the storm, I asked for an update over the radio. It seemed the storm was going to miss us to the south. So I trolled in and out of the pack and back the way I came. I finally had my rigger fire around 3pm. A nice coho that by all rights should've come off. I was checking another rod when my rigger rod went off. At first I was just going to try and land the fish with the line from the other rod trailing. But I didn't want to risk the fish getting tangled in it so I just threw it in the boat and untangled it after I landed the fish. When I finally got the fish in the boat I noticed the hook had come out and luckily got hooked in the gill plate. I'm sure it came off and got re-hooked while I was messing around with the other rod. So there I am 1 for 2 and the day is getting late so I decided to troll in towards the marina. After another couple hours my rigger rod went off so hard the rod tip slapped the water. By the time I got to it the fish was gone: 1 for 3 is just horrible for someone with sharp hooks. Generally speaking I don't miss fish once they're on I get 'em to the boat. Now I have messed up the landing part and let 'em come unbuttoned but that's a whole other story.

Lota miles for that one lone Coho

 

 Man did I work hard for that fish, well since my dues are paid maybe the next trip will be more bountiful.

Tippy again

I went back to Tippy this week and once again smashed 'em. Lots of largemouth, silvers and even a sunny on a smash shad.
The notable things that happened on this trip: crashed my boat and broke off the head housing on my trolling motor on the culvert I have to pass through just to get to the lake, saw a deer on my way in to the lake on top of a beaver dam, jumped onto a swim raft to stop the boat from hitting it and when I jumped back into my boat I lost my footing and ended up in the bottom of said boat, had a 24" pike follow in a deep #8 x-rap -- so switched poles and lures and had the same pike hit a hollow body swimbait on the first cast -- he only bit the tail and didn't touch the hook so I put on a stinger and only had him follow it after that.
This was a trip and a half.
Still caught fish though.

cookie cutter silvers - they were all about the same size

I wonder what next week will have in store for me?

Largemouth, Whitebass and Crappie

That's what I caught at Tippy this week. I started in the wee hours of the morning and caught fish all day, as a matter of fact I stopped counting after 20. I would like to say they were eating anything put in front of them but the fact of the matter is they were only interested in 4 lures. I caught all my fish on a strike king jerkbait, an x-rap deep jerkbait, a sexy dawg topwater and a spinnerbait. The bass just hammered them all day, I even quit early because I was exhausted. It was really a great day.

I caught more that a couple that were all this size

 I was waiting to get a really nice largemouth to get a pic of but the one I would've gotten a pic of I didn't even get into the boat. Right at the end of the day I caught and lost the biggest bass I have ever seen.
 I was casting when I felt a hit so I set the hook and started reeling the fish in. As the fish got closer and started to come up I was looking down when I saw an open mouth coming to the surface. If you put your thumbs and middle fingers together to form a 0 that's how big his mouth was. I could've put my fist in it, he was at least a 5 pound bass, but I'll never know. As soon as he was within inches of the surface the hook popped out and he went straight back down. Like I said it was the largest bass I have ever seen, the sight of loosing that fish still haunts me.

And it rained, then they were done

I went back out to Max for 2 reasons:
1-I wanted to drive and try and find the lure I lost last week.
2-I was trying miss the rain by going an hour and a half to the west.
Well I failed on with both reasons, I put my mask snorkel and fins on and swam around on the GPS mark for 20-30 minutes in 65 degree water. I got pretty cold and the only thing I had to show for my effort was wet clothes and water in my ear. After I changed it was time for some fishing. The lake did not disappoint yet again this week the jerkbait bite was on. This week I used a Rapala X-rap in Hot Steel it did pretty good and the fish did smash it, but I really want my Strike King jerkbait. (which actually came in the mail today : ) : )) So after fishing for most of the day I ended up with 12 or so decent bass. I caught smallmouth, largemouth, one rock bass, but no walleye this week.

eating lunch at the truck

From what I've heard, the black dots are a sign of a healthy, high population.

had 1 saved in the livewell for this double

 These fish were caught before the storms really hit. I did catch a couple after the storm, but they weren't hitting like they were.

Snuck out

That's right, after a month of working 6 and 7 days a week I finally got out to do some fishing.
Since Turkey season I have been helping a buddy with his business because in the spring he has a hard time with help while everyone is still in school. The bad thing is it leaves me no time to do anything but mow lawns and work, either for him or at my real job. Well last Wednesday looked like rain, and since the work is with concrete, when it rains we don't work. I didn't get a,"we're working" phone call and since the forecast was for rain, I took the initiative and went fishing.
Let me tell you I had a grand day, lots of fish of many species. Here's some pics

smallmouth

rock bass

bad pic nice largemouth

the release of the largemouth before realizing I should've checked the pic quality

legal walleye

As you see I caught all sorts of fish on a relatively cool and windy day, but man did I have fun. The only bad part of the day came when it was time to load up and go home. I was making a couple more casts before I hit the dock when disaster struck. Yup, my line broke and I watched as the lure I had been catching most of my fish on that day brake off, fly through the air, and land in 8 feet of water unattached to my line. The trifecta of bad things was: lost the lure, first day using the lure, it was a ten dollar lure. So to make myself feel better one of the first things I did when I got home was order 2 more. : )