Been doing quite a bit of fishing lately.

First there’s the creeks in IN that me and Chris hit last Friday. A beautiful resident brown trout made the trip worth it, by dunking my bubble float and 1/16oz. marabou jig tipped with a couple maggots. The fishing was slow as we expected, but the experience was fulfilling nonetheless. I was also able to connect with a 8″ stocker steelie that was hanging out in the same riffle that the brown came from. That was my first of either of those species, and I finally popped my trout cherry, so I was extremely happy. Chris got the skunko. As we approached the lake, we started to notice a lot of drifting snow clumps, and very unique water conditions that were not at all conducive to catching fish. We made our way out of town, checking the status of some well known Lake Michigan shoreline along the way; only to find the same slushy mess out there. If you remember, last Friday we were in the midst of a nice winter blast, and the snow was falling hard. I was ready for a long ride home, but 6 hours from Hammond is a real kick in the nuts. I truly feel sorry for Chris having to deal with me spazzing out all ADD when we got locked up on a single city block in the city for over 40 minutes. We saw about 15-20 trucks stuck on inclines, sliding backwards and whatnot; it was pretty intense. During the ride I decided I was gonna clean up my memory card on my camera, after I had looked at my pictures of my first trout for the 50th time, and accidentally wiped the entire memory card. DOH!

Oh well, there will be plenty more to come, and I have the memory. Which brings us to today. Me and Chris met back up to chase some Esox in the Fox River, as well as to fish a crappy area of the river that we always stop at if in the area. The first spot we went to is one of the highest incidence areas for landed muskie on the whole lower Fox River. Yes we are talking Yorkville. We fished it one way throwing grubs and gulp for walleye, and turned the way back upstream and threw the big baits. This was our first time in the area, but we saw new water, and accomplished our general goal. I like to have an idea in my head of where I can go an not go, where the deep areas are, etc.; before I can really fish an area with confidence. I am starting to feel like we’re getting close.

So we picked up and headed over to a familiar spot, and found the river alive with “rough” fish. That’s okay, 6 hours from Hammond, that’s rough. Fishing in 30 degree weather and fighting ice all day, that’s rough. Forgetting your only lighter is in your pocket that is underwater, that’s rough. Legitimately catching a carp in the middle of winter- now that’s fun. First action we saw was when Chris nailed a huge shad on the back, an endevour that would be repeated 5 times over the rest of the day. Shortly after, I got into a nice quillback that took me on a run and broke me off, however I was not discouraged. We made our way down the flow, and back up, with many foul hookings, but no legitimate takes. About halfway back, Chris’s drag could be heard screaming over my left shoulder as I looked back to see what the deal was. Chris’s med-light was bent in half as the carp was taking him on some screamin’ runs. Chris landed the fish after a short battle, but the fish got him back with a thorough sliming.





The fishing tale would not be complete without a mention of the sighting this afternoon. The first was when Chris notice a small hammer-handle pike chilling in the current. We sat there and messed with it for a while, but it was unamused and swam away. So as we were getting ready to leave, I notice a LONG fish in the hole we are fishing. This thing has spots all overthat I can clearly see, and was well over 30″, I Im yelling “pike, pike… big pike!!!” I get Chris’s attention, but he isn’t seeing it. We are both throwing tiny grubs at this point, so I start swimming mine near the top where this thing is feeding, and BAM!!! it gets nailed! The fish immediately comes up to the surface and I see it swimming by with the grub in it’s long mouth… its a spotted gar! The fish stuck around and took a few more swipes at my offerings, however I was unable to land it. Wish I had the famous Rope-ala! I didn’t even know those fish existed on the river, andit was really cool to see.
Till next time…
Bryan.

The time of year has come where Fish begin moving to their winter hiding spots, as they are migrating, my fishing patters also make a transformation of sorts when hard water days arrive. Many anglers pack up their long rods and pick up tiny little ice sticks, cleats on their boots, and heavy winter gear, as they venture out on to the ice. Not me. I play hockey on occasion, and that’s usually the extent of my winter lake activities. I suppose that this winter there is a vague possibility that I will pick up an ice rod… but with the quality of fishing I get from the local rivers in the winter months, it’s hard to put down the light action spinning gear.

I made it out last Thursday with my fishing pal Chris Loveless, make sure to stop by and check out his blog that is now rolling on FHQ; link at side. The are we fishing on this occasion is one made popular by one of the Fox River’s most insightful fishermen (in my opinion) Ken Gortowski. All though we have recently seen a departure from the good old days when his website was up and running, his blog can still be read on ChicagoNow, as well as material that is continually added to Waterdogjournal.com. If you haven’t read Ken’s posts, you probably should, and ignore the ridiculous comments made by haters. I haven’t fished with Ken personally, but often have used his posts as a launching point to start some river exploration of my own. Keep up the good work Ken!

So we made it out to one of my favorite spots, where the water runs crystal clear and 50 degrees all winter long; where schools of thousands of minnows thrive in the warm clear water, and a wide variety of both predatory as well as scavenger fish thrive on the nutrient rich flow… yes were talking about the crap plant. I love fishing the crap plant. If you see some fresh boot tracks in the snow over there this winter Ken, they’re probably mine.

Chris and I started with some small paddletail and twister tails in the 3″ range, working them with a 1/8″oz. or lighter jig is my go to set-up for all winter river fishing. After a short while of no strikes I began noticing the tiny fish fry all around, and grabbed a bag of tiny white Gulp! minnows that Chris had laying around. Within 5 minutes I had caught a smallie and avoided the skunk!! (ya it was tiny)



So we chuckled a little about the size of the smallie I just caught, as we moved our way down the flow. I was able to get one more smallmouth, as we were moving, and Chris decided to make the switch to Gulp! as well. Chris was quickly rewarded with his first Fox river smallie, and the nicest bass of the day.


As we migrated down river we began to see the schooling carp species moving in the water around us. Knowing from previous experience that a large variety of these fish will indeed hit a bait, we started fishing the bank from mid-river concentrating on slow pools and laydowns. I was able to hook up with one common carp, unfortunately it was snagged on the pectoral, and therefore not a worthy specimen for a photograph. Next I hooked up with a beautiful Quillback carp, whose slime and deft maneuvers allowed him to elude the photo shoot as well. As we moved down river, we were unable to hookup with any additional bass or carp.

We decided to migrate back to our starting point, and I was quickly rewarded with another smallmouth, and then a beauty of a fish that I speculate is a green sunfish, or maybe a pumkinseed? Wheres Nate when u need him?



I was then able to connect on two walleye, as Chris grabbed another smallmouth, a tiny largemouth, and a bluegill.





Shortly after connecting with the two walleye,and one more smallmouth, my jig got slammed by something that was much larger and angrier that the previous fish. I was fishing 4lb flourocarbon line, so the fight was initially intense and stressful from the very beginning. The fish took me on several nice runs, first left, then right; had me yelling for Chris to come quick. Im telling Chris, “it’s a monster walleye, no it’s a pike… a small muskie!” as the fish thrashes about, it becomes quickly appearent that is none of those, I had caught a very respectable channel cat, and the first I had ever landed on my ulrtalight gear.



From the dark coloring of this fish you can easily see how it could have been mistaken for something more exciting. Oh well, fun day to say the least. We wrapped things up, as I had to head to class, and laughed the whole way home. Good day.