Been M.I.A But I'm Back At It

I have been missing in action for awhile. Work has been incredibly busy and most of my time was dedicated to that. I was finally able to get some fishing in this week with my good friend pat.

  Fishing has gone back to normal on my home lake. Twister tails did the trick for catching all kinds of fish. We caught a ton of bass, bluegill, crappie, and one walleye on this outing. Here are a few pics. 

I should be back to my regular postings. Check back soon. I will be getting the Friday fish porn postings going again as well. 

Lake Improvements = A Whole New Body Of Water

  My home lake aka Candlewick Lake underwent a vast change this past week. The lake itself was closed for a week due to some water treatments that where being done. Candlewick has an amazing team that helps regulate and manage the lake and it's resources. What this group decided to do has made huge improvements to the lake. They performed a treatment that would rid all of the unwanted weeds and algae, and at the same time boost water clarity. The bonus is that the treatment will last for 10-15 years I believe.

  Prior to this lake treatment the water clarity at times was slim to none. Usually on an average day you could see 2 feet down. Now the water has cleared up so much that you could see 8-10 feet down. This changes the game all together as far as tactics go. Here are a couple of photo to show how much the water has cleared.

After day 1 of the water treatment

 

Day 2 of water treatment

  They covered almost every square foot of the lake with the treatment going off of GPS. There are places that I have never seen what the bottom looks like, and now it is like a whole new world.

  Last night I got on the lake because I was anxious to see what it had looked like for myself. I was blown away, and can't thank the guys in charge enough for making my home lake even better than it was before. Now for the fishing. I started out tossing my go to twister tail and ended up catching a few Crappies. That was good, but I wanted to explore and see what the rest of the lake was like. I started at the mouth of a finger and started tossing a Zara Spook Bait (topwater). 2nd cast in and something exploded on the surface, and I set the hook. Not my biggest or my smallest, but it was my first pike of the year.

  I had a few other misses on the top water, but just couldn't hook up. All in all it was an awesome night to explore the new and improved home waters. Should be interesting to see how the lake progresses and how the fishing tactics will change.

Memorial Day Monster

  This Memorial day weekend was a little more memorable than most. A few exciting things happened that will leave these memories forever etched in my mind.

 First and foremost eventful thing that happened was my great friend Jordan tied the knot with his now wife Danielle. I have know Jordan for years. We have camped, fished, and hunted together for many years. When I first started getting into the blogger type realm of things I started a dot com which was Trailtheoutdoors.com. Jordan was the first guy I signed up to post stories, how-to's, and many other things. I closed down the site for awhile and was work with Blake at Illinois Wisconsin fishing, and now here I am as Trail the Outdoors again, but on Blogger. Jordan I am sure will have some posts to add on here come hunting season. I look forward to them and also look forward to watch him progress in the next chapter of his life. Congrats again you two.

 After the Saturday wedding I more than needed Sunday to recoop from the many barley pops that were consumed during the reception. I saved my fishing time for Monday.

 Monday morning we had a slight drizzle on my home lake. It finally quit around 1 p.m. So I hooked the boat up, grabbed my son, and we headed to the lake in hopes of finding some fish. With all the crap weather we have been having I thought for sure we where going to get the old skunk. I was wrong. We landed one fish, but this fish was one for the memory book. If you have been following me for any certain amount of time, you would know I target Walleye quite a bit. On my home lake I finally found some sort of pattern that would produce walleyes constantly. I think my biggest to date was 22 inches. That all changed Monday afternoon. I was pitching a stand up football jig in a pumpkinseed skirt with a uncle josh's pork trailer in hopes of catching a few Largemouth Bass. To my surprise I hooked into something large and full of life as it peeled drag from my new baitcating reel. As I finally saw a flash as it got to the boat I told my son to grab the net. He hasn't had many nettings on big fish, so it took him three tries and thankfully he landed this monster for me.

  This beast was 26 1/4" and just over 6lbs. It is my biggest eye to date out of Candlewick Lake. It is a fish that will stick out in my mind for years to come. Hopefully one day I can top this one out of the old wick.

The Night Bite

  Saturday night was my chance to escape and get out on the lake. I called up a good friend of mine to see if he wanted to come share the water with me. Travis replied instantly saying see you soon. Travis arrived at about 6 PM and we shot the shit for a few and headed down the street to my home lake. Candlewick Lake is a gem when it comes to night fishing. It almost seems the fish are more active at night. We fished the same area all night, and I couldn't even tell you how many fish we caught. It had to be at least 50+ ranging in all different species. We caught, Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Crappie, Bluegill, and Walleye.

  Last year I finally figured out a tried and true pattern to catch the eyes. It seems like the pattern continues on this year as well. Although we are hitting this spot a little earlier than last year we are already catching them. I caught a 17in. and Travis caught a 14 in. Travis threw the 14in. back before I could get a pic, but I did get a shot of the 17in.

 The yellow/ pink bodied with white tail was the hot twister for the night. It caught around 80% of our fish for the night.


 The big surprise to me for the evening was the rather large for this lake Small Mouth Bass I caught. I have only caught  2 or 3 out of the lake before with them being no larger than 8-10 inches. So when I got this one to the boat and in the net it was a big surprise.

 I didn't put it on the bump stick, but if I had to guess this one was in the 15 in. range. It was a great fight without a doubt.

  We kept a couple Crappie for Travis's fry pan along with the 17in. Walleye. Crappies that where kept where all over 10 inches. Some nice slabs for some great eating.

  It was a great evening on the water. It was good to catch up with my old friend Travis, and I will have a rod build coming up for him in the next few weeks, so watch for Travis's rod build coming up soon on here.

A Father Daughter Day On The Water

  Last night after worked I raced home to hook the boat up and head to the lake. The temps got a little higher than the original forecast, and it made for a great excuse to hit the water. After I got home and raced around the house, my daughter stopped and asked where I was going. I told her daddy is heading to the lake. She smiled and asked if she could join me. It was a pleasant surprise, and I couldn't refuse. She geared up in a sweatshirt, I hooked up the boat, and off to the lake we went.

  I knew from mothers day morning that the crappies where staged up where they should be, so we headed to the south end of the lake. I rigged up my daughter's Barbie pole with a small jig and her pick of a purple/pink twister tail. I dropped the trolling motor in the water, and showed my young fishing partner how to cast her rod again as it had been some time since her last outing. She casted up towards shore and instantly got a hit but missed it. She returned the cast back up to the same spot hooked into it this time. She cranked on her reel like it was a race. I realized why the first fish got off at this point. I told her to slow down and take it easy, but the sure joy of excitement had her going. She still got the first fish of the day to the boat like a champ.

  The smile on her little face says it all. I told her she did a great job, snapped a photo, and she released the fish back into the lake. She was excited jumping around the boat making me nervous that she was going to fall in. I laughed with her, and we shared the excitement of her first open water fish of the year. She soon grabbed the pink barbie rod and casted back up to shore. I was casting a 5/8oz. football jig in a pumpkinseed color tipped with an uncle josh's pork trailer. I too hooked up shortly after the first fish was landed. At first I though it was a Bass, but the fish wasn't coming toward the surface as I reeled the fish in. This seemed a little off and odd to me, and as the fish got closer to the boat I realized it wasn't a Bass on the end of my line.

  It was old Wally Eye. I was surprised as I have never caught a Walleye on a Bass rig before, but have heard of others catching them on my home lake on a similar set-up. At this point I was happy that both of us where on the board with fish. Then about three casts later I got snagged on rocks and my rod snapped unfortunately.  I was slightly upset until my daughter smiled and said don't worry lets just catch some more fish. So I grabbed my spinning rod rigged with a jig and twister tail, and got back to it.

 I caught this nice Crappie a few casts in. I must say it was nice to have my camera girl in the boat for some quality pics. Shortly after this hook up my little munchkin had another.

 Then it was my turn

Then her turn

She was concentrated.

A nice lake view to set the evening off.

  We went back and forth catching fish all night long. My daughter caught the last fish of the night, with it being a Bluegill.

  We had an amazing night on the water, shared a ton of laughs, and caught some nice size fish. Best of all, I will never forget the enormous smiles that she had on her face. We packed up the gear and headed in. My little first mate even drove the boat back to the dock for the first time. I must admit, she did a great job for her first time controlling the old Johnson tiller motor.

  I had one of the best days on the water ever last night with my new found first mate. It always pays big in the end when you take a kid fishing. I also have a feeling I will soon be out fished, and I will love every second of it.

Crappie, Bass, And The Angry Geese

  Mother's day morning I was able to let the wife sleep in, and let myself make a quick sneak down to the lake. I wanted to get out Saturday but due to what seemed like gale forced winds, I was kept off the lake. Sunday morning was no better. It was still windy blowing 15-20mph coming out of the North and the temps where riding around 34 degrees. Either way I was itching for some fishing.

  I launched the boat around 6 a.m. and headed to the south end of Candlewick Lake (my home lake). On the South end is the dam as this is a man made lake. The dam end is loaded with Rocks, gravel, and smaller boulders which is an excellent spawning bed playground for fish. I started off fishing the hot lure for me last year which was a small twister tail jig. Pitching it up to shore and bouncing it down the rocky ledge. I hooked up right away with several crappies.

  While fishing on this end of the lake I noticed a ton of geese that seemed distraught protecting there nests so I snapped a couple of pics.

  After watching the wild goose chase for a bit, I decided to switch rods and grab my bait casting stick. I had rigged it up with a 5/8 oz. stand up football jig tipped with a uncle josh's pork trailer. This was also a hot combo for bass last year. I started pitching this up into the rocks and jigging it back. After 3 casts I hooked up, but then soon got off. Pitched it right back up there again and second cast I hooked up again and landed a nice little 13" Bass.

  Shortly after this I decided to head to a finger toward the North end of the lake.  I came up empty handed here unfortunately, but saw something that was quite amusing. As I came into the finger I heard the screech of some geese, but could not see them anywhere on the ground. As I went past a large willow tree I saw the 2 geese in a very peculiar location.

 It was 7:30 a.m. by this time and these two didn't stop quacking the whole time I was in the area. I felt bad for the folks living in that house. The constant quacking first thing in the morning outside of my bedroom window would drive me to load up the old shotgun.

 It was great to just get out on the water for a morning bite. The fish caught where just an added bonus. Hopefully I will be able to get out the next few days and get a couple more fish to the boat.

Illinois Trout Opener

 The Illinois trout opener is usually a yearly tradition for my son and I. We awake in the wee hours of the morning, load the truck with our gear, and head to Pickasaw Creek in Chemung,IL. This year was a little different. Typically we would arrive stream side by 4:30 A.M. to get our spot on the grassy banks. Fishing opens at 5, and by then it is shoulder to shoulder combat fishing.

  The Illinois trout program is somewhat of a joke in my mind. The fish are stocked in various ponds and small creeks throughout the state. The ponds and streams are typically places that the stocked rainbows have no chance of survival in long term. The trout get fished out usually by opening day, and there may be a handful left for the day after. In the past, the IL DNR used to stock Brown Trout which has a better chance of survival rather than the rainbows that are stocked now. In Pickasaw creek I have heard of a few Brown Trout being caught that where fairly large. I have never personally seen or talked to anyone that has caught one, it has all been fish stories heard from others that gather on the banks for opening day.

  This year was different as mentioned before. Due to me being in Colorado, I had to work till noon opening day. As soon as I was off work I raced home to pick-up my son and his friend to head to the creek in hopes that there were some trout left to be caught by these young anglers. As we pulled up to the creek there where only 6 cars there which seemed odd to me. Typically there would be 30-40 still there on opening day. The thought of already being fished out by 2p.m. kind of made me sick. Either way we unloaded our rods and walked down to the stream and talked to an older couple that said it was slow fishing for them, but had seen a couple still cruising through the main deep pool that everyone fishes. I saw a few of the people that were already there leave with there stringer of 5 fish, and there where some fairly large fish on those stringers. I saw one that had to be 4 lbs and 18" long. I was surprised by the size of the fish walking out, as they are usually small 9-12" fish.

 The boys and I set up and started fishing, and instantly started catching the thousands of creek chubs and suckers that seemed to be left. Finally around 4:30 I was able to hook into a trout. It was about 8" long, and what seemed to be the smallest trout I had seen all day.

 I am not one to eat farm raised pellet fed trout, so I offered it to a friend of mine that met us at the stream. He didn't catch anything besides chubs and suckers as well. I joked around when we packed up to leave telling him to enjoy his snack later. Farm raised trout have a horrible taste to them, that I personally do not enjoy. The thought of releasing the trout crossed my mind, but for what I asked myself. It will just suffer during the warm months when the water starts to boil. Instead I gave it to a friend who I know will consume it rather than the raccoons when the fish comes a float. I question if I was wrong in doing this. As I am typically a catch and release guy except for panfishing through the ice, or when I hook a fish and it's chances for survival seem slim. I would love nothing more than to see a sustainable trout fisherie in Illinois, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Either way it was just good to get the kids out fishing after being cooped up inside all winter. They had a great time even catching creek chubs which is a success in my book.