Fall Des Plaines River Pike

After reading DuPageAngler.com member Sooner’s BLOG on Kayak Pike Fishing, Jcrappies, Darkstar and myself could not take it any longer and decided to take the hour drive in the dark to the Wheeling area to fish for northern pike.

There are not many pike in the Naperville area so this is not a species I get to fish often. When I was younger I used to go to Canada once a year so at least I knew how to fish them. We put in at sunrise and it was 37 degrees. I had to sport a Beard Head to keep warm for the first couple hours until the sun was up.

Right off the bat Darkstar has what looked to me a nice pike swipe and miss at his Danny Spinner with a yellow blade. I threw spinners baits, the standard mepps, spoons, swim baits and some cranks without any luck. Since is has been cold and this was our first time I was praying that one of us would score.

I put on a Danny Spinner with a bronze blade praying for just one hit. We came up to a four foot deep wooded bank I made a cast parallel to the bank. I start telling DS that this stretch looks pretty good and as soon as I finished my sentence I get slammed!!! Most of the pike I have seen have been smaller so I was not expecting much. Then it realized it was hooked and I see this huge head come up shaking like mad! Whoa….. A few moments later I had her tired thank god JC had a boga grip. The pike was beautiful and measured at 31 inches. A great pike anywhere. It was awesome

That would be my only fish. Jc had to leave and just as he was paddling away DS caught a nice hammer handle on his Danny Spinner! Unfortunately that was it for the day. We fished hard but God only gave me that one hit I was praying for.

We will definitely be back in the spring when conditions are better and things are a little warmer.

2013 Inland Trout Season

2013 Inland Trout Season

I love inland stock trout season again, now that I have a kayak and no longer have to deal with the hordes of fisherman shoulder to shoulder.  DuPageAngler.com members Darkstar, Brim, JC  Crappies, and myself met at 330 to be at Loon by 430 a half hour be the start time at 5. While we were waiting to launch I noticed some one quietly drop pieces of something in the water. I did not think anything about it at the time. With our kayak rigged with lighting for night fishing, it was pretty cool to yak fish in the dark until sunrise. For the first time I could not hook up with a trout on opening day. I was not alone. Almost everyone was skunked with a guy here or there with a trout. All four of us yakin on opening day and we had nothing. On the way back to shore I noticed some guys pulling trout one after the other in a six foot area, the guys around them nothing. Funny it was the same place were I saw the guy throwing something in before we launched. These guys obviously chummed, but with what? I have no idea. Is that even legal?

Day two JC(Chunsum), Darkstar, and I went to Blackwell. DS did not have his paddle sticker yet on his yak and could not launch in the forest preserve. He went home back to his warm bed. It was cold but the trout were biting. Guys up and down the lake were getting some. JC had two when he had to leave for another obligation. I continued to fish hard for a couple of more hours until I had my limit.

I was armed to the teeth with every lure and live bait I could think of for these slippery fish. Four out of my five fish came on minnows only 2 feet under the surface in 17 feet of water. That was pretty cool, one fish surfaced and I made a cast to that spot and he hit it immediately!!! That never happens.

 A bonus, I was marking some deeper fish as well on my Lowrance. They ended up being crappies so I caught a few of them as well. This was the first time in all my years that day two was better then day one. It was a blast and I cannot wait until spring.

One Last Cast: LaSalle Lake Closing Day Catfishing

One Last Cast: LaSalle Lake Closing Day Catfishing: Chunsum , Dan( Pondboy's Angling Adventures ), and I met up for the final day of fishing at LaSalle Lake this year: Sunday, October 13th...

One Last Cast: Des Plaines River Kayak Northern Pike Fishing

One Last Cast: Des Plaines River Kayak Northern Pike Fishing: I decided to try for a species I'd never caught from the kayak on Friday, the northern pike.  I had read online that the Des Plaines Riv...

Return of the Grass Carp Nemesis The Sequel

After my last carp experience I have gotten carp fever. I have been making new flavors of dough baits and have started to use a hair rig with boilies as well. I have been fishing in the evenings, the last two hours before sunset. It seems the fish lately have become very active during this time when the wind lays down.
The past few days I have caught and lost some nice cats and common carp. I have been chumming the bottom with banana scented corn and the surface with different kinds of bread, I fish the boilie on the bottom and the different dough baits near the surface. I have a third rod sitting on the side with a bread ball set 1 foot under a float. Once I see any surface activity I pull the dough rod out and quickly cast the bread rod.

Last night fishing with chunsum it was this bread rod that hooked yet another grass carp!!! I could not believe I have hooked two within a week of each other since they are few in number in the waters I fish. My guess is that they are feeding more heavily before much of the vegetation dies before winter. To see what happened you will just have to watch for yourself!

Bring on the THUNDER

Bass fishing had been pretty slow in our area. Ted (Soonerbass), Chunsum (JC Crappies), and I decided that kayaking for crappie might be a better idea. A cold front passed just an hour before we started and I actually did not think we were going to do much of anything.

We put in and it was still dark with mist on the water, God I love that. Ted and a few others have been throwing crappie thunders for sometime. I have never liked the way they look or their action. These guys crush fish on them so I have joined the Thunder wagon.

Wal-Mart sells them pretty cheap in about three color combos. JC made a smart move and bought similar bodies from Strike king.This way he does not have to keep buying whole baits and can reuse the heads after the bodies get shredded.

The bite was slow but not terrible. Considering I was expecting the skunk, I was pretty happy to hook up. All three of us were hooking bass. I would like to say that bass was our target and in our genius we decided to use smaller crappie baits, but the truth is we only caught a few crappies.

I had brought minnows because of the cold front and my low expectations for the day but they only caught a couple fish. However, one of them was a beautiful 19 bass!

The crappie thunder out produced live bait even in tough conditions I was a bit taken back by that. I really thought I would be double minnowing it and only catching crappie.

I am now a thunder addict and it will be a go to on most of my crappie trips in the future.