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

Drift Fishing Small-mouth and Catfish using Raven Tackle with DuPage Angler

I got a chance to go fishing with Marty Rogers founder of DupageAngler.com. I was excited because he is always crazy busy and fishing with him is always full of laughter.

We met way before sunlight and headed out west to a small creek that was finally not running high from all the spring rain. Our plan was to wade and drift fish for catfish and smallmouth using Raven floats, live bait and long rods. For more information on how we drift fish click HERE. The one thing I can say about Raven Tackle as it has dialed in our technique and our catch numbers has sky-rocketed.

We had the holy trinity of live bait crawlers, leeches, and minnows. For some reason the minnows just were not getting hit but the leeches were. Usually it is the other way around and in a hurry we will pass on the leeches.

This creek is very dynamic and spring rains design a new creek each year. Most years holes that are filled in by flooding are replaced by some new ones. This year there was only one new hole but many old holes were gone for good. We got on fish but had to fish twice as far as we usually do. This broke my heart a bit as three of my favorite holes were either half the size or non existent.

Marty and I fished and laughed and caught a ton of fish most small and not picture worthy, but great just the same. It definitely was a fun angling adventure.

What would your first carp catch be like?

What would your first carp catch be like?

One of my regular clients after some prompting decided to try something new and attempt to catch his first carp. He brought his fishing partner along and they met me at 3:30. I prefer morning trips. I firmly believe the morning bite is better then the evening bites. There was blue bird skies, it was hot, and a 30 mph wind to deal with.

I called fellow DuPageAngler.com member Joshua Bennett for a little help. He is a carp angler and photographer. It was great to have the extra rods out for the guys and having awesome photos shots of the guys fishing!

http://www.sunshinephotography.net/Outdoor-Sports/2014-07-27-Fishing/

http://www.sunshinephotography.net/

The first spot we chose was a new but reliable spot plus it was sheltered by the wind. After and hour of soaking carp bait,I see my 14 year old client playing on his phone and I know it is time to move.

Joshua had been fly fishing carp at a new pond with some great results. It has a nice lawn, a parking lot close, and a good carp population. The problem was its next to a corn field so there was no escape from the pounding winds.

We set up on a small point when lady luck struck a corn rod. (We had both float rigs and bottom rigs setup using corn bread and boilies.)It was a nice fish! The kid was excited and the look on his face was awesome. Then it was George’s turn they both seemed surprised at the strength and bull runs the carp made. I think I was more excited then they were.

Joshua for some crazy reason brought an ultra light and of course it gets bit!! We handed the kid the rod and said good luck with smirks on our faces. He didn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of landing that fish. He surprised us big time! He reeled against the drag for a moment then calmed down and settled in for the fight. Kid has his second carp ever on and he was fighting it better then most. We were both impressed as the fish was landed.

We were running out of light and George decided to call it. Just then one rod bent in half and he landed the biggest fish of the night!!

It was a fun evening. The guys had a great time and so did I. Joshua’s photography services will soon be available on any trip from shore! So please check out his site and his shots from the trip.

If you would like to have an Angling Adventure of your own just visit dupagefishingguide.com

Finding New Carp Spots In the Suburban Midwest

Finding New Carp Spots In the Suburban Midwest

Carp by far have had a bad rap in the US. Sure the big head and silvers need to go. But the common carp has been around for years and is not going anywhere. So since it is staying around you might as well swallow your carp suck state of mind and start fishing for the brutes. I am a multi-species fisherman and I can tell you that carp whether I like it or not fight harder than almost all of the other species. 

While I have been out bass fishing or crappie fishing I have seen carp, especially on those rainy days. I am sure that many of you have too. The majority of retention ponds in my area have some carp. Some lakes have more than others. The cool part about this is; is that most of these lakes the carp is completely un-pressured. So a little recon, prep, and planning and a lake you hardly fish can become a hard fighting carp battle arena!!

I wanted to prove this new carp spot theory so I went back to visit this corporate lake I had only caught a few bass in. This lake since I had never done well bass fishing was on my D list. However I did see carp there once.

The night before my first trip I walked the shoreline that had two pipes and chummed three cans of corn and about a quart bag of corn boilies. The second trip when I met some DupageAngler.com members I did about the same thing. 

I arrived armed with my Pivothead glasses, rods and net. We used float set-ups with Raven floats and some others as well as fished the bottom with a simple slip weight rig. I used supplies from Big Carp Tackle.com. I used hair-rigs some I purchased and some I made myself. One of the float rods I used high viz yellow Raven float line so I could see it in the low light before sunrise. The baits we used were bread, corn, and boilies. The boilies that worked best were the corn, pineapple, and strawberry flavors.

In these two trips to a lake I had never fish for carp before we landed and lost several big carp!! It was 
a blast!! Below is a video of those two sessions and a video where I catch a fish one the fish josh lost 
about a half hour later.