Memorial day weekend

We did a fair amount of fishing this weekend. Mostly short trips. Mike, Jim Jozwiak and I hit the Fox River early saturday morning. I caught 5 or 6, Mike had about the same, and the Jim got the majority coming in at 10 or 11 with some real beauties...I guess we can give him that seeing as how he IS the president of the Illinois Smallmouth Alliance.
Other trips were just short solo trips here and there locally. Found some decent size smallies. Used a variety of presentations. Slider head Jig with various plastics, Chatterbaits, Salmos, Minus Ones, Big-O's.....I tell ya what, if you have any presentation questions just leave them in the comment section below and we'll answer them for you.
I got to get out with my brother Skip for the sundown bit last night at a favorite big-fish pond. I gave him a rod, a chatterbait, and guided him to a couple nice ones including one fish that Mike and I have been trying to catch for a week....Skip got it on the first cast to the reeds. Nice fish!!

Lots of pics from the weekend. Enjoy!

5/25/06 Report: Just no fun anymoe

Hit some local ponds with friends Pete and Randy yesterday. Everyone started with the Chatterbait. Pete got a nice one on his third cast...



I of course lost one on my first cast, but what else is new. As Randy said "MAN, you are a shitty fisherman" and I agreed as I finished cussing out another bass. I missed the same fish 6 times right at my feet. Switched to a Big O and got him... but he got me back.



Picked up another one in the exact same spot on the next cast. Didn't think one bass would hit 6 times. We were tearing 'em up pretty good and things started to get silly. Randy "Crazy Eyes" Dunlap nailed a nice LM on the blue/black Chatter.



After pounding the waters I decided to switch to a topwater and (thanks to Randy's lure rental) was rewarded with a beauty. As you can tell we were having a good time. I tried my best crazy impersonation too... actaully I wasn't really trying at all.



Minutes later I cast right at where Randy was fishing only to have a monster explode on my popper. I stood there stupefied as my rod doubled over and then the lure broke free. Obviously this was Randy's fault and I let him know that in my subtle way. @#$%!!!er

All in all it was a great day. I got 6 Largie and 1 Smallie, Pete got 4 Smallies and 3 Largies and Randy got at least 3 or 4, I'm not sure exactly. It's a miracle we dodged the big storms. They lined right up just a mile or so south of us and drifted by. Too bad everyone had to run home to their families so early... I was ready for some pizza and beer.

Oh and I forgot, just as Pete and I were leaving. I decided to try one more spot and jumped in my truck to find a dead battery. Thanks for the jump. That really would have sucked if my wife Gail had to drive out there to pick me up. She'd have brought the rolling pin and a the extra large frying pan for that move.... It's just that I'm having trouble deciding on more fishng gear or a new battery... that's tough one.

Editors Note: This is a fishing report DAVE MIELKE, and not to be taken seriously or spell checked for that matter so BITE ME! BTW do you even get to go fishing anymore. The last time you threw a line in the water the BANJO MINNOW® had just come out... Loser!

short 5-24-06 trip

Met up with some friends for a very short trip after work. I hope Randy, Pete and Mike did better than I did. Got a couple. This was the only one worth taking a picture of. Got it at my feet on a small Big-O crawdad pattern. Lost a couple nice bass on the Chatterbait. God, that hook on that thing sucks.

5-23-06 after work.

WAIT!! CLICK HERE FIRST! >> Wanna see what we do???? We make you look good.


So ..yeah.. that Chatterbait lure that Mike was telling us about. I stole it.
Mwhahahahahahahaha!







Plus here's a couple cool shots from saturday morning trip on the Fox River.

All hail the Chatterbait!

Had a spare hour yesterday afternoon so I ran out to give the Chatterbait a little more testing and see if Friday was a fluke..

It wasn't. Went to the wind blown shoreline and saw schools of large shad (10-12") either feeding or spawning (I can't tell. My shad-speak is a little rusty...) Figured the bass would be close by.

On the first cast...



I picked up 5 more about the same size and missed at least 4 that my darn HM40 rod is not strong enough to sink the hooks into. I probably need to sharpen the hooks, but I'll blame the rod... When I got to the end of that section, I switched to the white Chatterbait and went back over the same shoreline....



Completely inhaled the entire jig. Got three more Largemouth and missed three fish on my last three casts. All fish were released after a quick photo.

I need a trailer and a stiffer rod. (That didn't come out right, did it?)

Hated to leave but a frying pan was waiting for me at home if I didn't get my @$$ out of there...

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Tim Rings The School Bell...

Did some mother's day work up in Barrington yesterday and got the afternoon off for some fishing with my friend Tim Martin. Weather: 47 ° rain, Wind N 15mph, 54° Sun, Wind E 5mph, 58° Pouring Rain, Wind N 25mph, 63° Cloudy, No wind, 54° Wind.. you get the picture. A front is stalled over us somewhere and it's a messy day. The male LM were just starting to bed, the females are nowhere to be seen. The Crappies and Big Bluegills are spawning and won't hit.

I couldn't find the pattern at first, of course Tim had no problem.



I tried some cranks while Tim stuck with his Powerbait Augertails. "Want one of my baits?" Tim offered. No thanks. This was getting serious..



Also tried some topwater while Tim stuck with his Powerbait Augertails and begun to ring the school bell. "Want one of my baits?" Tim offered again. NO I know I'm doing!



Finally succumbing to the barrage of Bass Tim was catching. I reached in my box for some Senkos and started picking up some fish...



Tim announced a pop quiz...



"Sure you don't want one of my baits?" he repeated. OH SHUT THE HELL UP TIM... as I lost a pig that tried to jump and could only flop it's head out of the water, snapping my 8lb mono, (note to self, change that old line you moron)

I took a short time out to curse, change spools to fireline and curse a little more. Tim shifted into overdrive and put 9 more bass in the boat..

"OK, OK, I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. GIVE ME ONE OF THOSE DANG BAITS YOU @#$#$%." I humbley whispered at the top of my lungs.
Tim tossed me the bag as he battled a monster bass that snapped his line at boatside. "HA, cheaters proof!" I cackled, then cast out and..



The weather was miserable but as long as you were slowly creeping soft plastics along the bottom (and that soft plastic was a Powerbait Pumkinseed Augertail worm) the bass really didn't mind. Even as I used the exact same rig as Tim he progressed from a schooling to an @$$ kicking. I tried to make a come back and felt a little better...



But his numbers were unreachable...



We stopped counting at after 70 bass. Tim caught 75%, was bit off twice by toothy critters and broke off 3 times. We did see several nice bass bedding but left them alone to do their thing. There were plenty more available.

At the end of day we said goodbye and I thanked him for teaching me a little humility and told him to never call me again. I hate that guy!

5-10-06 evening

60 minutes...

18-Smallmouth

9 - Largemouth

60 - Minutes

Lure: Broken, Lipless Salmo Perch

Technique: Walkin the Salmo

Waters: Oh, no problem it's right off off the main road, take a left at NOT! Let's just say it's a Tributary

Unreal bite happening today. If you can, hit any body of water. First three casts with a mepps = nothing. Next three with the Salmo Bullhead™ = nada..

Remembering a tip from Mike Arndt this morning about the topwater bite I look in my box and all I got is the broken Salmo Perch™ with no lip. Oh what the hell, why not... BINGO! Next 11 casts result in 9 smallmouth the smallest 12" the biggest being 17!!!!! Unfortuneately this is secret waters and there was a carload of people watching me catch the fish so I never took a photo or lifted it out of the water. When they rolled their window down and asked I told them i was carp fishing.. HA! (Jumping topwater carp fishing) As soon as they drove on I took another cast and whammo




Even took some casts into a pond that connects to the stream via culvert and caught smallmouth in there too... WTF? Some largemouth were mixed in as a bonus (sluggish bonus) Unreal conditions today...just hope the rain holds out as I'm taking an old friend from KY out on the river this evening on the boat. IF YOU HAVE A CHANCE, GET OUT AND FISH NOW!

Here's another one from today:



Sure was hard going back to work. All fish were quickly released in great condition. _Mike

5-9-06 quick Jamie report

Had a 10 minute break to stop by the river on my way home last night. Took the advice of resident top winning tournament pro angler T. Strange and tied on a #2 Mepps ( silver/natural ) . Got one green sunfish, one 8" smallie and this one pictured below. Photo was reworked from a Sony Z500A camera phone with Photoshop CS2 watercolor filters and contrast adjustments + 5 minutes of free time. College finally paid off.

5-6-06

The Customfish.com crew hit the river from 5:30-10am on saturday. Just about everything worked from jigs to spinners to crankbaits.Creek inlets were very good as were rocky shorelines. I can't really say there was a pattern to go by because we found fish everywhere. We landed somewhere between 20-30 and lost at least another half dozen or so. Get out and fish people! It's only getting better!








...And yes, at some point I made Mike lose that hat.