Thursday, April 26, 2007

4-24-07 AND A STRIPPER POLE

Q:What does our temperatures and a stripper on a stripper pole have in common?
A:They're both up and down all over the place.
(What?? It wasn't that bad of a joke.)

Last night the cold front moved thru at about 6:30pm. Prior to that Art and I hit paydirt for an hour. The same coldish water tactics from last month STILL apply. Rattlin' Raps, Storm subwarts, Rapala Husky Jerks, etc. Worked at speed. The smallmouth and largemouth that we got into yesterday were hammering baits that were being burned in.
BUT..as of right now this report is basically useless due to a massive cold front. My suggestion is to wait it out and go fishing late saturday and all day sunday, with sunday being a better option.
Til then I'll keep you busy with a picture of a nice smallie from cast #6 last night and the lure of choice for the month.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

MOJO!



See that? Nice, huh?
Know how I got it??
Mojo. Plain and simple. I use it. Chad Cain uses it. Mike Norris uses it. Mike Kauchak uses it.
And the mojo I'm refering to is that hat I'm wearing.
The Customfish embroidered "whicked fish" hat by Anvil. Available in tan or orange.
You NEED some mojo.
Come get some, baby. Come get some mojo.
Drop us a line. Jamie@customfish.com or Mike@customfish.com.
HERE'S THE GREAT PART!
Buy one hat for $15
Buy two hats for only $25 (save $5)
Buy three hats for only $30 (who the #*@% authorized THAT??)
NO SHIPPING CHARGE!!

Oh wait. It gets better!
Order this week and you'll get a free bag of Storm 5" plastics.
I'm in a good mood today. I suggest you cash in before I lose that warm fuzzy feeling.

Friday, April 20, 2007

4-19-07 The Chuck Liddell of bass fishing.

A call was placed. It seems that Ken, Mike and myself all had a really bad day at our respective jobs. We needed to get out and fight something. And fight we did. Like Chuck Liddell with a fishing pole.
The methods used in the later afternoon-evening hours where; A Megabait "Charlie" (white 3.5"), a YoZuri Rattle-trap, 4" Senko on a 1/8oz Slider Jig (they should just call this the "Ken Set-Up") and a 4" Senko on a #8 Gamakatsu octopus hook. Those are what worked.
What didn't work; Salmo Boxer. Rapala Husky Jerk. Lunker City Slug-O. There's probably a few other baits Ken and Mike tried. I'll have to check on that.
Water temp was 64. If you remember last week it was only 55. We fished near shorelines in 1-5' of water and found bass cruising around looking for that pre-spawn meal. So..we are HIGHLY suggesting that you get off your ass and go fishing NOW!
The sunfish that Mike is holding up is the average size. If I had to put a number on how many we caught, I'd say about 20. Some up to over a pound. All on bass baits.
As far as the number of bass caught, I have to check on that too. I know Ken had 8 with his biggest hitting 18". I caught 7 plus probably 12-15 of the monster greengills. Mike had to have caught at least 8 bass including one over the 21" mark. He missed 2 that he.could.not.turn. They straightened out the hooks and got off. I'm assuming that they were alot bigger than monster #1 I'm holding in the slideshow.

The three pics pics of me are from a 15 minute forray. I saw bass #1 chase down a hooked 1/2lb greengill and miss. From then one I was on a mission. The gills shut down immediately out of fear...and the bass got pissed. I'm guessing the other bass came over to see what bass #1 was doing. From that point on it wasn't IF she was going to hit...it was a matter of WHAT she was going to hit. Tried a Salmo Boxer. Nothing. Tried a Charlie Megabait. Nothing. Tried a straight rigged Senko. Nothing. Tried a 4" little-bitty Senko whacky rigged on a #8 Gamakatsu octopus hook and it was off to the races! for the next 15 minutes. Between the 4 huge bass hooked were probably half a dozen greengills up to 1lb.
This all falls in line with Jamie Riani's "M&M's vs. a steak" theory. If you offer a steak to someone who just ate a 4 course meal, they'll turn it down. BUT..offer them one little bitty M&M and they'll eat it every time! Kinda like that itty bitty 4" Senko that all these 20-22" bass hit. We handed them M&M's and they couldn't resist. And they don't look like they're starving.
My first bass featured was my second largest largemouth to date. 22".



In other fishing news: For you muskie guys out there, you may want to keep tabs on Chad Cain's progress during the season. It seems like he's having an absolutely fantastic start to the season! There isn't a muskie fisherman on the planet who is more knowledgeable than Chad...nor is there one with a better record for catching huge muskies. Check out this link for some fish that would eat the ones we're catching! CLICK HERE

A note about location: We often get asked where we are fishing. That I can't say. Most of our dozen or so lakes we hit are either very small or private farm/subdivision ponds. So, it's really not important as to where we are, but rather what we're doing. The tactics we are using today are the same ones you can use in your local pond/lake/river. Location of the water means little. If there's fish in it, they'll be doing basically the same thing as they are in our lakes. Mike fished a different lake yesterday before I even showed up, and guess what....he caught bass there too using the same techniques.

And one final note: Going back to my "M&M's vs a steak" theory, of the many 20"+ largemouth bass and the dozen 20"+ smallmouth bass I have to my credit, not a single one was caught on a bait larger than 4" long. NOT ONE. In fact I'd say most of the big bass we get come off of 3" or smaller baits. My biggest smallie was caught on a 1 3/4" bait, as were at least 4 others in the 20" mark. Just something to think about the next time you go shopping for lures. The "big baits=big fish" theory isn't all it's cracked up to be, and we have about a hundred pictures laying around to prove it. As far as muskie baits go, I stick by my theory on that too. (Here's where the fighting will surely start. Heh heh) I don't throw any muskie baits that are larger than 6". Ever. Spring, summer, fall...doesn't matter. 6". And by all accounts I'm still doing ok in the muskie fishing department. (Let the hate mail begin!)

The quote of the day:
When all was said and done last night, Mike said to me after some high fives "Can you *%#@in' believe this?!"
I said " April, Mike. It's April."

Monday, April 16, 2007

4-14-07 & 4-15-07 Heir to the throne!

We caught a bunch of fish this weekend. Hybrid greengills, Largemouth and smallmouth bass. But that's not what concerns me right now. What does concern me is that my son caught his first fish from the back yard! Looks like I just got me a new fishing partner!



OK, in other news:
Ken And I hit a couple of our favorite small ponds this weekend. Water temps 52-55. Weeds just starting to come up. Some of the things that worked were minnows under a float just outside the weedline, a #3 Mepp's in white/silver just over the weeds, a 4" Senko(darker colors please) on a 1/8 oz Sliderhead jig worked slowly on the bottom, a 4" Berkely GULP straight worm on a 1/8 oz jig swimming above the weed tops. Our trip friday was a short 90 minutes. Ken got a couple 17-19" bass and a couple nice hybrid sunfish. I kinda blanked and got one hybrid sunfish.
Saturday was a different story. I caught 9 nice largemouth bass, 3 nice bluegills and 1 hybrid. Ken got 7 (I think) nice largemouth plus a few really nice hybrids.
As far as the smallies in the pictures. Those were from the river. Water is 51 degrees and high/fast/murky. They hit a #3 Mepp's (white/silver) worked along seams of fast/slow water.
Water temps will be prime by wednesday. Look for a BIG report on the Fox River later in the week plus another pond-largemouth report tomorrow morning.
Get out and fish!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

So this guy goes into a bar....


Ok..now that I have your attention.
You have alot of pictures, right? Probably kept in a box in the closet, right?

Or maybe in some photo album that's buried between your 1979 high school yearbook and a copy of War And Peace, right?

Well, what if I were to tell you that we're going to be offering something very soon that could show all your best pictures at once? What if I were to tell you that we could cover the top of your bar or favorite indoor or outdoor table with all your best pictures? What if I were to tell you it would be on a single sheet that you could spill drinks on and just wipe it off?
Think about it......this is gonna be cool! Stay tuned and check back soon!

Oh, and since there's 3' of SNOW on the ground with MORE snow on the way, I'll try to keep putting up more "interesting" fishing (*cough cough*) pictures til we start fishing again.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Trout, anyone?

Inland trout fishing season opened this weekend. I hit one of the locally stocked lakes with Randy and Tim. Randy is by all accounts the inland-trout-fishing-master. He's got a system that is about as fool proof as it gets. How fool proof? We limited out (5 trout each. 15 total) in 90 minutes. No one else around us was catching more than 1 or 2 fish. By 'around us', I mean like 20 feet next to us. Sometimes closer than that...which makes things a bit interesting.
The system is rather simple. Go light on the hardware. Use small hooks. Don't go deeper than 6'. Use 2 kinds of bait on the hook. Baits: Redworms,leaf worms, waxies, spikes, butterworms...oh and Berkely Powerbait.
Now..here's where it gets interesting...the Powerbait. There's a specific kind and color. NOTHING ELSE WORKED. One kind and one color worked.And it works year after year. Randy limits out typically in a hour while others stand next to him and get skunked all day. Want the secret? Send me an email and I'll tell you. Oh..and it might help if you buy a hat. Hey....I'm giving you the key to trout fishing success.
Bon Appetit'

Friday, April 06, 2007

So..Mike goes to Florida..


It's cold here in the midwest. We have some horrible cold fronts blasting thru. I even saw some snow falling. Basically, the fishing took a nose dive on a downward spiral and is in need of some serious warmth to get it back to normal again.
BUT WAIT!!!! In the midst of all this cold weather madness, Mike & Family high tail it down to Florida where the bass are hitting! They didn't catch a single one under 16" and Mike's best of the week was a 10lb largemouth that broke his rod in two. THAT, my friend, is karma. You should have stayed at home!
Congradulations to the kids! Looks like they put on quite a show down there!
Check out the pictures. Check out the lures. Check out the fish. Check out the smiles.




Not bad eh???




Welcome home Mike. Now go get some gas for the snowblower and get to work.
BACK TO THE SITE IN QUESTION
CLICK HERE TO BUY UNDIES WITH A WET KITTY ON THEM

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

3-31-07 & 4-2-07

Got out with Mich and his son in law for a short trip to Lake W on 4-2. Kinda slow. Water is still WAY high and REALLY muddy. Mich got on board with his first fish of the '07 season, a nice 17" largemouth caught mid-pipe-current on a silver Rattle Trap then followed that up with a smaller one. Not bad for a muskie/pike fisherman.. I picked up one on a slider head/Ika (pumpkinseed color). Picked up another one on a slider/powercraw(pumpkinseed). Damen stuck to a tube jig (brown) and got one out of the rip rap. After they left I hit a smaller pond hooked up to Lake W for 10 minutes and picked up a couple 13-14" out of 1-2' rocks along the shoreline. One on a Storm Subwart (baby bass pattern) and one on a Bandit crankbait (orange crayfish). Not a total bust but with cold front after cold front blasting thru all week, you can't expect much more. Any incoming water source from warmer groundwater is still the key.

3-31-07 My brother and I tried for smallies on one of our local smallmouth bass lakes for an hour. It's still very slow. I stuck to guiding more than catching this time. He got a very nice smallie on a Berkley tube jig (camo color) from a breakline that goes from a shallow flat into deeper water. He also picked up a pretty nice largemouth. I missed a fish or two as did he. It's a real lite bite, again due to some monster cold fronts this week. I managed to get a few crappies from a warmer feeder creek inflow.

Check back later for pictures of Mike's huge bass from Florida. I haven't seen it yet but I do know it shattered his 9' steelhead rod. Looks like we're going shopping again...