Kayak + Carp = Yarpin 3 Days of Great Yarpin

Kayak + Carp = Yarpin 3 Days of Great Yarpin

Usually in the spring I am bassing and bassing it hard. But with the longer winter, weird spring, and constant rains I have turned my sights to carp. I have been fishing them harder and longer then most seasons. I have introduced the art of hair rig fishing, new chumming techniques, and help from BigCarpTackle.com

After several sessions of shore fishing successfully for carp this season, DuPage Angler JC Crappies (Chunsum, co-owner of Aurora Lure Company) and I decide to try something we had never done before and that was kayaking for carp.

We picked an un-assuming muddy farm pond we have bass fished and that I had carp fished from shore once and got a few fish. Each night at dusk I would arrive at the lake and chum with corn and handfuls of boilies before fishing the next morning.

The cool thing about Yarpin is I do not have as much tackle as if I when I am bass fishing. We carried a couple rods, floats (both Raven and others), rigs, pliers, and the very important net. Armed with a pile of offerings and our Pivothead glasses we went to work.

JC Crappies(Chunsum) is awesome to fish with. We met on DuPageAngler.com and through my guide service and became fast friends. He is a fisherman, photographer, blogger, coach, pro-staffer, and a programmer. He is also a giant smartass.

Early when the fish would approach the surface into the chum line of floating bread we would only be fishing a foot down. When they backed off we went to 3 feet down. The lion’s share of fish came on a break that came from a large 2 foot deep flat into a 7 foot hole. The boilies played a larger role at this time. Although I had a half dozen flavors corn, pineapple, and strawberry worked best.

Chunsum did a great job of capturing video of this awesome carp fishing from a kayak (Yarpin). He composed this in 3 episodes please watch and enjoy. 

Great Start to the Ice Season – Jackpot Bluegills

This Ice Season Started for us early! A good old fashion winter, who would have thought it after last year’s warm short season. Looking for safe ice was our first concern. We drove north because we heard of safe ice up at the top of the county. Every small pond Sooner Bass (Ted) and I stopped at my spud bar went through( this is a heavy bar use to test ice before you walk on it). Surprisingly, it was the large ponds or small lakes that had safe ice. I believe it was the lakes with wide open areas where the frigid winds aided the ice creation.

 We had checked several places all unsafe. When we were about to give up Sooner who said hey it cannot hurt lets check this bigger pond I fished once a while ago. This lake is surrounded by cat tails and is sort of hidden as well as old. When the spud bar could not break through we ran to the car to get our stuff. It was about 7pm and dark. Right away we started nailing huge gills! The small ones would be considered ok at many of the ponds we fish! The night bite ice fishing historically has not been good to me so this was awesome.

Since this was the only safe ice, I and other DuPageAngler.com Members returned a few times. Beard Heads on and every time produced something. I even took my daughter in seven degrees. The heater was blasting as she caught 17 gills and loved using the Fish TV. Five trips I fished with JC Crappies (Chusum), Dark Star (Jason), Crankin King (Scott), Brim (bob), and Fluke (Alan) all hardcore DuPage Anglers. All had their Beard Heads on and we were all staying warm.

We used many techniques. Straight lining, floats n jigs, floats n minnows, Little Atom plastics and our new weapon, Magic Maggies from Aurora Lure Company. The Maggies are awesome, if you put one in your hand next to a real wax worm there is not much difference except one is trying to get out. These come in red and white and caught a ton of fish. We are field testing these now and are excited at the early results. I will revisit these plastic baits once Aurora Lure Company has them on sale.

Getting out more then a couple times in December was awesome. Catch and releasing a pile of full grown bluegills was the star on top of the angling tree. I am looking forward to the rest of this season.

Fall Trout Fishing 2013

Excitement took over the tired as 330 came and the alarm screamed in my ears. Brim Reaper and JcCrappie met me with their yaks in tow ready to hit the water. We had planned on Silver Lake but a forecast of high winds made us change locations. We chose Loon Lake at Silver Springs because it is a long narrow lake that runs east to west and the winds were out of the south. We did not realize just how windy it had gotten until we were finished and pulled out of the park and my van was blown all over the road!!

Loon was the perfect choice it totally shielded us. The south shore has a high ridge and block of forest which completely saved the day for a group of addicts in small yaks!

We arrived at 530 and a score of shore angler were already pounding the water in the dark. The shoreline was riddled in night bobbers and head lamps. We were unaware that you could start at 5.

Once on the water we had space for ourselves and only had a handful of other watercraft to share with.  The trout were grouped in schools. All swimming from 2-5 feet down I tried spinners but no luck. I watched a group of anglers score several trout quickly from shore. I paddled out of their casting range and dropped anchor. The school I marked on my Lowrance was much thicker here. That’s when the fun started, my floats disappeared quickly as minnows were attacked at 4.5 feet. At one point I had 2 on at once! Chunsum hooked a couple as well.

At one point I lost feeling in my ass and needed a break. Brim and I headed to shore. The great thing about Loon is that they were prepared for fisherman. Bathrooms, bait, and food were available. We enjoyed a hot dog and shot the shit as we watched the guys fish for a while.

Later Sooner bass joined our DuPage Angler Kayak Trout Party and scored a large trout.  I believe it was fooled by a sassy shad. We found a fish crib and managed to catch some crappie off of it before the wind was too bad on that end of the lake and had to move.

Back were we started, I finally got a Loon yellow bass! This was my first yellow in years since the die off in the Fox River and Chain. It didn’t matter how small it was, I was excited.

It was pretty cool to four guys from DuPageAngler.com on the water all in kayaks!! I had a blast and cannot wait until the 2013 fall opener.

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.

Kids and Ice Fishing What a Great Combo

Chunsum Choi gave me a call and wanted to take his kids Ice fishing for the first time. He had not ice fished since college and wanted the PB’s Angling Adventure crash course to get back up to speed in a short time. Chunsum has two awesome boys, Brendan and Matthew. Since my shelter will only pack three people like sardines I needed some assistance, so I bribed JasonJelinek to lend a helping hand.

I pre-fished the lake a couple nights before hand to check the ice safety and locate fish. Steelie Pete met me and we caught about a dozen night fish between us. 

Jason and I reach the pond at about 8 we wanted to locate fish and have the shelters and equipment ready before Chunsum and the boys arrived at nine. We stepped out and walked a few yards when we had one of the HUGE cracks that shoot by shaking your legs as it travels down the lake. I really hate those. After a few holes Jason and I found fish and Jason even caught a quick couple.

The Choi family shows up, we get the boys settled and it is off to the races!! We each had our cameras set up and fish were every where! Having a underwater camera is great especially for kids. They LOVE seeing those fish down there. The fish started coming in and never stopped the Chois were catching fish sometimes on every drop. Fun and laughter soon followed. The boys took turns fishing with Jason and I. Chunsum got to see two very different setups and how both were effective. We taught the boys what to look for and do. Each person caught at least 20 fish. 75% were gills but everyone had a crappie or two or three.

I could not of asked for a better day or better clients. I could not have been as successful without Jason (aka DarksStar) there to help. Kids and ice fishing go together Like cookies and milk, just a great combo!

If you or your family would like to catch fish in the Dupage county area or surrounding counties please contact me and we will create an angling adventure for you to remember.

www.dupagefishingguide.com