Behold the Yellow Bass

Behold the Yellow Bass

In the 90s The Fox Chain and Fox river were loaded, I mean Loaded with yellow bass.

What's a yellow bass?

" the yellow bass or barfish, is a species of temperate bass native to the south and Midwestern United States. It is an inhabitant of lakes, ponds and areas of large rivers with reduced current such as backwaters and pools. This species can reach a length of 46 centimeters (18 in) TL though most are only around 23.9 centimeters (9.4 in). The greatest recorded weight for a specimen of this species is 11 kilograms (24 lb). This species is sought after as a game fish.[1]

Though sometimes confused with white bass or striped bass, it is distinguished by its yellow belly and the broken pattern in its lowermost stripes. It can also mate with the white bass."

It was the best ice fishing I have ever witnessed. They were the species of my first ice fishing trip! 100-200 fish days were common place. This was with dozens of fisherman! They are all muscle, the size of decent bluegill but twice as strong. It is my opinion that they are the best fighters of all the pan fish. 

Then the fun came to an end. A massive die-off like nothing I have ever seen. Thousands of dead fish lined the fox river. Gone were the fall days of wading for the yellow brutes and destroying my cheap ultra reels I bought when i was young. What happened? This is the best explanation I have seen:

"Yellow Bass and White Bass – The yellow bass decline continued from it’s high of 54% of the catch in 1988 to 4.3% of the catch in 2001. This dramatic restructuring of the population has reduced competition with other species and benefited the overall fishery in the Fox Chain O’ Lakes. Ice fishermen enjoyed the fast paced action of the late 1980″s and early 1990′s but their over-abundance was not sustainable and resulted in poor condition (a starvation state) which opened the population up to naturally occurring pathogens and the massive die offs."

So now to current day, a great winter group on Facebook, ICE JUNKIES OUTDOORS had some members that live on a 300+ acre private lake that had been over run by yellow bass. They asked for volunteers to come and fish them!!! With memories of the good old days I was not going to miss this. The first occasion was a casual group fishing for fun, the second a mini tournament with most fish winning, and the third was a full blown derby with raffles, chili, and hot dogs!!!!! I had a blast and caught a ton of fish with fellow dupageangler.com members Sooner Bass well as members from the Kayak Bass League and Aurora Lures.

Most ice fishing tactics worked on the fish. Jigs tipped with waxies, spikes, and pieces of yellow bass belly work well. JC(my buddy Chunsum) caught everyone of his fish on Magic Maggies from Aurora Lures. I used small spoons of all kinds tipped with the baits mentioned above. Minnows also caught their fair share as well as a bunch of crappie.

I fully understand these guys wanting to thin them out to protect the other species, But I personally would love there to be a couple lakes with a yellow bass problem. Lakes I could go to every winter and just crush these under rated yellow fin fighters. I would like to thank all the guys from ICE JUNKIES for letting me experience the gold rush once more.

If you want to experience ice fishing adventure or learn to fish, you can contact me at DuPage Fishing Guide Service

The Attack of The Freeze Beast and the Slush monster

I like many of you got the flu, But I and missed a weekend of ice fishing. I was ticked. Monday night after work I decided I was going. My wife told me I was still pale and should not do it. Well she was right by the time I carried my auger down the hill to the pond and drilled, I was spent. So I went home and died on the couch.

Tuesday again my first thought was that I am going to get out on the ice tonight.  Right off the bat I ran into problems, I brought my hand auger this time and reopened the holes I had made the night before. The problem was the slush from my holes was frozen in to tiny ice mountains in the single digit weather. I tried to sit my shelter up on them and it was like trying to stand on one foot after an epic night partying.

Now things went from bad to worse. I have seen slush layers between the ice and the snow before but not this watery. There was a foot of snow, then 3 inches of wet ass slush, then two feet of ice. Usually I see this during a warm up, but it had been no higher then 8 degrees all day. It was now 1 degree and my doom was sealed. When the slush layer met the heat of my lantern it turned my shelter into a smoking Indian sweat lodge and I could hardly see to fish. What the hell? So tired, hot, and out of breath thanks to the flu and my asthma I conceded defeat and started to pack up. My retreat was terrible as well. Anything the slush had splashed on was immediately encased in ice. My boots, legs, auger, shelter, and everything in my otter sled!!! As I pulled everything to the van, I was out of breath and could not figure out why it was sooo heavy. I took separate trips up frozen hamburger hill. When I just had my empty sled it STILL weighed a ton. I flipped it over to find a 5 inch thick layer of frozen slush!! Finally I was back in my vehicle cover in sweat, legs burning, and hitting my inhaler wondering what just happened. I thought this sport was my relaxing stress free escape, I guessed wrong….

Sub Zero Ice Fishing in the Suburban Midwest

Sub Zero Ice Fishing in the Suburban Midwest

WOW cold enough for you? Here in the Chicago area we are no strangers to cold weather or winter or really good beef sandwiches.  Jason Darkstar and I both took the day off for fishing. What an awesome plan for a Monday in January right? There was only one problem, it decided to be well below zero with booger freezing wind chills. With schools cancelled and life at a stand still it was decided we would venture out in the afternoon.

I had a ton of layers on as I got out of the van, I was not pleased with the constant 20 mph winds burning my eyes because that was the only thing I had uncovered.  Another DA member Crankin King showed up to fish with us and helped me fight my shelter as I screwed in my new Eskimo ice anchors, which I must say after using some of the earliest designs of anchors, work awesome.

Once DS and I were barricaded in our shelters the fish started coming in at a steady pace. Nice fat gills and bass, some on jigs and Maggies and others on dead sticks with minnows.

Funny things happen in this kind of cold. We Midwest guys are used to cold temps, but in the Chicago area double digit below zero temps and high winds are not the norm. The first thing I noticed was the iron bear claw ice cleats I have had for years have a tendency to loosen and fall off. After drilling my holes I look down at my boots and cleats and they are completely encased in ice! I didn’t have to worry about them falling off!  I had a lantern and a heater running. When I stood up there was no frost from my breath however as I bent down for anything I smoked like a steam engine. My ice holes steamed like mini hot tubs (that’s new I thought). Ice formed on my lines as if I was not even in a shelter. I switched rods and five minutes later went back to the rod I had before, the spikes were frozen solid. As the sun set my propane tank and lantern were starting to ice up on any exposed metal. IT WAS TIME TO GO!!! Pulling my sled back to my van the cold air burned my lungs and I had to stop twice to get my breath and heart rate down when in most cases I would not need to stop to rest and would have gotten to my vehicle in half the time.

Did I catch fish, hell yeah! Should I have been out there, hell no! Will I do it again some day when the feel of the cold has faded in my mind, probably?

The Right Way to End a Winter

One of our taglines for DuPageAngler.com is Be Part of Something Special. This is not just a tagline. The members have real interactions in real life. This weekend was one of those moments.

A fury of emails and calls bounced back and forth and before it was done, over 7 DA members converged on Lake Harrier for some late season ice fishing. There was a line of cars waiting for the ranger to open the gates. The cool part is that the whole line was made up of Dupage Anglers!!! RocknFish, JcCrappies, Brim, Sooner, Aczr711  JTC24 , dbenner, and JTC24's father.

Most of us headed to an area where James(JTC24) and Dylan(dbenner) had got some big walleyes. We all caught fish but the boys were on fire early, besides two huge eyes they rallied up a pile of crappies, bluegills, and perch. The others guys came back with a volley of walleyes, bass, and perch. Rocknfish and I started late out of the gate but we scored huge with a great gill spot and caught 35 between us in short order. 

Many of us myself included are quick to point out what our forest preserve districts do wrong. Harrier is a great example of something done right. First and foremost the lake is catch and release only for ALL species!!! This one rule has made it possible for any angler to have very good chance of catching something on a trip to this lake. The district takes the catch and release seriously. Every trip I have made here I have been checked for my license. This catch and release policy combined with a vigilance of protection from the district will give the county its first true gem. I have never enjoyed the forest preserves do to the lack of numbers, bucket heads, and law breaking. But harrier I will return to. This catch and release fishing could be the road to fantastic fishing for all in Illinois and other pressured areas around the country.

The variety of species found here made it possible for us to catch fish all over the lake. bass, gills, crappies, perch, catfish, and walleye were all caught on this day. Minnows, jigs, spikes, waxies, spoons, Little Atom micro plastics and tip-ups all tricked fish into battles under the ice.

Having a large group ice fishing is a blast. Lots of drilling and electronics everywhere is pretty cool. Everyone is talking and helping each other out. Some smack talk here and there, yahoos of success, and the occasional curse of a fish lost. DA members got to put faces with the guys they talk with online and make some real friends and fishing partners for the future. This was so much fun and the right way to end the winter.

Harrier Walleye from Daniel Byrne on Vimeo.

Four Friends and a New Frozen Lake

What a strange winter this has been! The Temperature will be in the 20s, no 40s, um no 30s! With the up and down temps, the avid ice angler in the Midwest has had to keep his eyes and ears open for safe ice. Last week we were placing our bets on DuPageAngler.com on whether we would even be able to get on the ice for the weekend.

This trip would include DuPage Angler Members Dark Star(Jason), JcCrappie(Chunsum), Brim Reaper(Bob), and myself. The four of us traded phone calls and made plans to try a new location. Usually I stay on small lakes and ponds where I know I will find fish and numbers in short order however with the weather, only bigger bodies of water had safe ice. Area ponds and small lakes had 3 inches or less. We decide to try Loon Lake at Silver Springs State Park. DS told me that this lake was suppose to have yellow bass which immediately had me day dreaming of the yellow bass bonanza that use to be the norm up at the chain before the great die off.

We arrived at 8 and were lucky enough that two guys were already on the ice. This saved us from having to find a safe place to get on. We just had to follow their line of holes back to the shore. We had to climb down a short embankment which for us is a major pain in the rear do to the plethora of crap we bring, but since we had four guys we just made a make shift assembly line down to the lake.

Everywhere we drilled, the ice was a very safe 5 inches. Now in my head I know that its safe, but this lake was cracking and popping like a gigantic bowl of rice crispies! I mean it was loud and nonstop. I have never heard a lake groaning and complaining so much. This made me on edge especially as a couple freight train cracks shot right between our legs.

We started drilling shallow and kept moving deeper never going too far without drilling another hole to make sure the ice was still safe. We had four augers to start. But this little auger snapped its blade, and this little auger died, and this little auger popped a screw. Yeesh!

When we hit 17 foot of water we marked something interesting. DarkStar dropped his camera and we found an old picnic table down there covered in algae like an old ship wreck. Problem was no fish were on it. Since at this point we had drilled half the lake never finding any concentration of fish we just set up camp and hoped for scaly visitors.

After a while I thought I heard JCCrappie say that he saw a fish under the ice. Not long after that Brim says “Hey I see fish swimming 3 feet down!” I thought to myself what are these guys smoking? It is 17 feet here! Why in the world would there be…… “Jesus there is one!” I said. I cranked my line up as fast I could to get back to the surface. My jig hit three feet and instantly zizzzzzzz went my drag the fish slammed it!!! It was a beautiful trout! I heard there might be some there left from the fall stocking but to be honest I did not think we would get any. This was my first Inland Trout through the ice! I was stoked!!

Right after that I rigged a minnow and float rod three feet down and the guys in the other shelter did similar set-ups. About 20 minutes later my minnow does the nervous something huge is going to eat me dance. Then in an instant it’s gone! I was lucky enough to score a second trout. Yes!! Soooooo cool!!! I let them go hoping someone else might catch them once more.

The bite was really tough but the guys managed to score a handful of gills and JCCrappie did catch a yellow bass!! (Jerk so jealous)

Although the bite was slow I had so much fun. Being able to add a new species to my ice angling adventures was pretty sweet. Loon Lake offers a variety of species including crappie, perch, and cats as well. Even though we did not slam them I will return to this lake next winter just for the variety and the chance to catch several kinds of fish in a single outing. Silver Springs was a nice place for four friends and a new frozen lake.

Birthday Ice Fishing 2013

Birthday Ice Fishing 2013

Every year there are two days that I can count on fishing for sure; father’s day and my Birthday. For my birthday I always take a day off. This year thanks to the great friends I have found at DuPage Angler.com I had partners in crime take off the day as well. Jason (aka Darkstar) and Ted Yates (soonerbass) both agreed they would join me along with my brother-in-law Al.

Well the winter weather again this year has been a disappointment to say the least. Warm weather and unsafe conditions have taken their toll on the ice angling community. I set my alarm and I was quickly off to sleep anxious to start fishing in the morning. This morning mind you, I have planned for weeks and talked my buddies into as well. At 3:30am I wake up to pouring rain!! YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME! I pick up my sell and let the guys know that it’s off, we are done, and we are sleeping in.

I could not sleep, so I look outside and no rain. Well I figure I should go see the damage on to the ice at my local pond. To my surprise the pond is not totally destroyed and safe. The shore was wet but that’s it!! So I quickly make some calls and both Sooner and DS are back in.

Our first two ponds are a disappointment. The first we could not find fish, the second thin ice, but the third was the gold! Ds made it to the ice first and crossed the thinner shore ice that was covered with 4 inches of water and started making Swiss cheese of the lake with his ION auger. I go to pull my shelter on to the ice and got a shock! I was walking backward and did not notice this hole in the ice!! Maybe a beaver hole I am not sure but in a city second my left leg is completely submerged and my ass is on the ice!! HOLY COLD ICEMAN!! Thinking on my feet, well once I got to my feet I hid in my minivan and put on the extra pair of snow pants I brought. Then yelled “which of you is wearing more than one pair of socks?” Thanks Ted for the donation to the pondboy fell on his ass foundation.

We decided to fish the suspended fish we found in 6.5 foot of water. The crappie bite was great thanks to Little Atom Wedgees and Nuggies. The plastics out fished any other presentation. In fact I did not even open my spikes and waxies! It was a blast everyone was catching fish. The bluegills were not as easy to get on the line but we managed to trick some of them as well. Both the full size Nuggies and the micro Nuggies worked. I really love the red and orange colors.

After fishing a while the guys went and got pizza for my birthday!! What an awesome meal on the water! Thanks guys.

Well when the guys brought the food on the ice they discovered the shore ice was getting worse and worse due to the climbing temps and the sun now beaming down on the lake. We had to either cut our day short or risk not getting back to shore.

We very carefully got ourselves and our truck load of equipment off the dying ice and called it a day. Although it was not the all day fishing marathon I had planned we managed to find some ice and some fish. I had a great time with friends as well. Not a bad birthday angling adventure.

LITTLE ATOM LURES

Thin Ice Here Thin Ice There Making The Best of Midwest Weather

The Midwest has been cursed with weak winter weather. Cold weather woohoo! 50 degrees son-of-a!! This has made ice fishing a challenge in our local area.

Ted Yates aka Soonerbass of DupageAngler.com Taught me to Kayak last season so I decided I would return the favor and take him ice fishing. I was extremely excited because I re-connected with a friend from college on FB, her parents back in the day let me fish their private pond! She was nice enough to call them and asked if I could fish there again after 12 years and the answer was yes!

We got there as the sun was coming up but walking up we noticed two big holes of open water in the middle of the lake. I walked out on the ice drilled a hole and it was only 3 inches. I took a couple more steps and had cracking. We would not be able to fish this great lake this weekend. We went to two more ponds and the shores had open water. Man! Really? I call Steelie Pete another DA member and he says to try a lake not far from his house.

We get there and 6 inches of solid ice!  We are marking a ton of fish but they just won”t pull the trigger. Then sooner gets his first fish!!! I apologized for the slow bite and Sooner happily says that he just wanted to drill a hole and catch a fish so he is all good.

The slow bite was bothering me so I decided to move. BIG mistake the next 4 ponds or so no safe ice. We finished the day on a small pond that had just over three inches (most winter state suggest 4 inches) and the bite was just as slow. We managed to catch one more fish and leave not feeling secure and not getting hits. We should of never left Pete’s.

 Sunday I wanted revenge and Dark Star and I head out to a pond which is surrounded by buildings and houses hoping that this would protect it from the warm south winds. Man! I was wrong again! It had the most dangerous ice I have seen yet. So we cut our losses and head back to Petes neck of the woods.

The bite was still very slow and it is very cold, BeardHead cold. Jason (DS ) manages to start picking up crappies suspended in 11 feet of water using a Lindy Toad. We change spots after Pete told us to move to another area. In 8 feet of water I am now marking plenty of fish suspended in 4 feet of water. I started with live bait because it is very slow and my minnow gets slammed without any time to react my 6lb snaps in a heartbeat. (insert baby crying noises) I manage to catch some small gills on waxies but they stop. So I switched to a Little Atom Micro Nuggie and quickly nail another four or five small gills! Thank you Little Atom.

With the conditions being crappy and not having the time to travel up north, I was happy to find a pond with good ice and catch fish. I also had fun with Sooner and DS. The Little Atom Micro Nuggies saved my bite and the Beard Head saved my face!. Please when temps are up and down be careful out there. No fish or great lake is worth your life. 

Practice proper safety steps, stay warm, talk some smack, and maybe catch a few small winter panfish.

Father and Daughter Pond Ice Fishing

When my daughter was very young 5 or 6 she would join me fishing whenever I asked. Now that she is nine her interests are more on friends and boy bands! (Insert father yuck face). So when she said she was excited to go ice fishing this year I could not wait to get her out there.

 The day before I had a guided trip with a friend and his two boys. The results were great 20 fish apiece. (www.dupagefishingguide.com if you’re interested) 

Since we did so very well I knew we would do ok. We left about 7 in the morning and I wanted to be a bit of a dandy daughter day so I stopped at McDonalds on the way and even stopped at Dunken Doughnuts for a snack to eat later!

I took her to a pond in my old stomping grounds that I have been ice fishing for years. It is not know for size, but numbers are pretty good. The water is fairly clear and perfect for my Fish-TV. My daughter Rachel loved seeing the fish on the tv! This unit is the most affordable on the market, easy to use, and stands up against others in its class.

She caught on to using a spring bobber instead of a small float very quickly. She caught over a dozen gills and a couple crappies. I soaked a minnow while I helped her. I could have had more then the few crappies I caught had I been paying attention.

We laughed, made up songs, and ate doughnuts. After 2.5 hours she was done. We stopped by grandma’s house and stopped for ice cream on the way home.  If you have not taken you child out fishing yet you should. If they say no, don’t get your feelings hurt. You have to just keep asking. The memories are worth it.

If you would like to learn how to ice fish, fish, or need help teaching the kids and you are in DuPage or surrounding counties of Illinois visit DuPage Fishing Guide Service. We will get out there and get you on an angling adventure of your own.