Aye Aye, Captain! 3-24-07

Look at it outside! ( well if you're in Chicago anyway) It's gloomy! Looks awful! Who would go out in this? It's gotta be all muddy out there!
Yes. It's gloomy. And yes it's muddy. And yes..we're out there!
Mike, his son Christopher, team member Kevin, Captain Jade Miller ( back home safe ) and myself all started out 7am at Lake W. The same key elements were used today as we've talked about all week. Warmer-than-the-lake water coming in. Christopher took top honors with a monster 18" laregmouth and he followed that with a 16". I concentrated on crappies with my 1/32oz jig & Thill float set-up. Jade used a 2" Storm swimming shad bait to key in on them as well when he wasn't catching a couple largemouth bass with a worm set-up. Mike and Kevin were using crawlers and a few other things. A mixed bag was caught;bass, suckers, carp, bullhead,crappies. Crappie fishing was so-so. We probably caught a dozen nice ones in just over an hour. The key was to concentrate on casting to the first break outside of the inflow of water. The bass, carp, suckers..even a bullhead that Chirstopher got..were all at that same spot. The water at the incoming water source is 3' deep. It gradually goes to 5' deep over about 20 yards. Then there's a sharp break into 12' . THAT was the spot. Usually on a not-so-great-day, that's the kind of a 'safe harbor next to a good but void spot' you might want to look for.
I'll put up more numbers when I talk to Mike later today. But it was a very good morning.
10:30 Mike and Christopher left as did Kevin. So Jade and I went to one of the Customfish honey holes.
Now, the last time you saw Captain Jade Miller he was our overseas fishing reporter stationed in Iraq. Ok..ok..so he was there fighting to give people the freedom they deserve, but we had his fishing pictures from Saddam's private ponds. Well...Jade is home now safe and sound! Mike and I couldn't think of a better way to say 'Welcome Home & Thanks for all you do' than to give Jade the keys to our private ponds. This time he didn't take an attack helicopter to go fishing (by the way Jade...that's a great story and it was a great picture!). And our ponds are WAY nicer than the ones in Iraq!
And I just have to say that even though I caught a nice smallie yesterday it was overshadowed by 2 things today. 1) Chistopher catching his biggest bass ever! and 2) Captain Jade Miller catching his 2nd largest smallie from one of our customfish spots!
Remember that swim bait Jade was using for the crappies? We were fishing one of our prize feeder creeks and because of how Mike and I have been speed-reeling for bass lately, Jade says" I'm gonna burn this in as fast as I can."
REELREELREELREELREELREELREELREELREELWHAM!
I thought he snagged a carp. Til it jumped. All 18" of her. Congradulations Jade on another trophy fish for you.

So class...let's add swimming shad style baits from Storm on our list of must-have's in early spring. And dont be afraid to reel it in as fast as you can. Jade's lure was almost out of the 51 degree water, he was reeling so fast. Jade also managed a couple other largemoth. I even caught a nice largemouth that I didn't even think to photograph in the shadows of Jade's monster smallie. I swear...I thought he snagged a carp. It was awesome!
Oh..and I caught another nice smallie. Same thing as before. RIPRIPRIP/PAUSE/RIPRIPRIP. Blah blah blah.


I'll add pictures of Christopher as soon as i get them from Mike later. Please check back...you gotta see those too!!