Great Slave boat ride. Weeeeeeee!

We have a ton of videos from the last trip to the Arctic. here's one of them.
Hey...sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do to get to the fish.

Get back on the horse. 6-24-08

I gotta be honest with ya. I almost had to force myself to get out there. I mean, c'mon, that last trip will just about ruin anyone's will to go bass fishing. But I pulled myself together and hit the water for an hour at dusk. 7 smallies and 1 largemouth all on Wilson. Fishing within 3' of shore making parallel casts. Fish activity is VERY high right now. So feel free to fill in for me and go out and lay waste to the land.
I'm back up in Canada in 2 weeks.

The Arctic Circle Trip. Great Slave Lake. June 2008.

I really hope you are viewing this on a high speed connection because as usual I have a ton of pictures.

I don't have everything in yet as far as photos and videos. Plus I have something special in store for everyone in the form of a feature length video but that's going to take some serious time. We're figuring probably about 30 man-hours to complete it. So you now have something to look forward to.

This report will be revised a couple times as additional info comes in, so please bookmark it and check back often. You'll see new pictures, videos, specs and numbers.

Ok...so on with the Group 1 show!
The players were Jamie Riani & Bill Kallenberg, Dick Kessler Jr & Dick Kessler Sr., and Bob Brenton & John Mich


Great Slave still had a fair amount of ice on it even after we left. Upon our arrival the main ice pack was within 1 mile of us. Due to a steady southeast wind the ice was out of sight in a couple days.



The back bay water temps were generally in the high 40's with the occasional 51 showing up here and there. The main lake water was substantially colder which made ANY area that had warmer incoming bay water an instant goldmine. Some areas had pike,walleyes and inconnu (shee fish) so condensed that you could fish in a 200 yard area all week and do just fine.

Technically we were a couple days early. The first day or two were still the best fishing on the continent, but as the week went on the fishing got better and better. The tell tale sign that we were indeed a little early was the easy with which we found, targeted and caught a couple dozen inconnu. By week's end they had all but disappeared from the shallows.

The spring hot spots (which John can further explain if you want more detail...just leave a comment and he'll read it) were Snuff Channel, Becks' Camp, The Back Bay, Tower Island Inflow, Beck's Channel, Horseshoe Bay and the mouth of the Thubin River.
The Inconnu hot spots were Beck's Camp and Tower Island Inflow.


The walleye hot spots were Beck's Camp and Snuff Channel ( Snuff Channel is about 20 yards wide and 6 feet deep of tea colored water. If you took a sideways slice of Snuff you'd see a layer of dirt/rock, a solid layer of walleyes, a thin layer of pike, and a layer of water over that. I'll put it to you this way: We caught 120 walleyes in 2 hours. Most of the guys swear by a Beetle Spin there. Jamie swears by a Salmo Roach diving crankbait. It was not uncommon to reel in a 24" average size walleye on every cast or two. BUT...regarding baits for walleyes in June, we caught them on bucktails and larger pike plastics just as easily sometimes. So basically you can try anything. They aren't too picky. )


The pike hotspots were...well...anywhere we fished that had water. But seriously, all of the spots mentioned so far. The Back Bay is probably the best option if conditions are right. But Beck's and Thubin and Snuff each had their days were no other water in North America was going to compare.


The lures used: I'm going to change this and update it later with specifics. But for now let's just start with these: Savage Gear 4-Play, Savage gear Alien Eels ( FAR BETTER than a Bulldawg FYI), Dunwright Lifelike Pike 8", Savage Gear Rattle Shad, Bucktails, Bucktails and more Bucktails (save the silver blades please. Whites, yellows, reds, pinks and oranges worked better 10:1) and Doctor Spoons. Again..I'm going to update this so check back.

Koi sushi,anyone? (Savage Gear 4-Pal in Koi pattern)

This 43"er "found" Nemo.

Custom Modified Nemo Slider by Customfish.


As per usual I'm going to start with some scenery and other "interesting" shots.


And now some from the players themselves. The first slideshow is from John and Bob's boat.


Next up is a double slideshow. The first is of Jamie and second of Bill.
Why 2??? Because when you go fishing with Jamie (who co-owns www.customfish.com) you're gonna get internet-famous. There were over 200 pictures and videos taken in that boat with the promise to Bill " I'll make ya famous!". So instead of killing your computer with one massive slideshow I'm gonna split it up into 2.
Here's Jamie:


And here's the star of the trip, Bill!


Numbers! It's all about the numbers baby!
We have the totals for boat #1 and boat #2.
Boat #1 (Kallenberg & Riani) had a total of 594 fish.
Jamie with 302 and Bill with 292.
34 trophies (Pike 41"+). 17 for Bill and 17 for Jamie.
Our largest Inconnu was caught by Bill: 41" / 18lbs.
Most walleyes were in the 22-28" range.
The trophy pike numbers for Boat #1 were:
41,43.5,42,41,41,42.5,46,
43.5,41,41,41,45,41,41,46,43,45,45,43,41,41,41,
41,41,41,41,42.5,43,45,42.5,42.5,45.
Yeah I know. It's just sick. And that's just two guys' numbers.

Boat #2 (Mich & Brenton)Had even better numbers. They caught 143 walleyes, 648 pike and 4 inconnu. They had 33 pike over 41" (trophies).

Here's some of my personal trophy numbers that I kept track of on the water courtesy of a golf scorer and a Sharpie Marker.


( Those numbers were only as of thursday. We still had a way to go.)

Here's some of the baits that really kicked ass. Take a close look at them and notice the teeth marks. These baits were responsible for hundreds of big pike.
The Customfish Malawi Bucktails.
Before:


After ( That's the 3RD tail on it!)


Before:


After:


Savage Gear 4-Play: Let me stress that we had every intention of bringing back these baits in pieces. We expected the paint to be taken off by the hundreds of pike that were caught on them. But as you can see, even after thousands and thousands of teeth biting into them they are in suprisingly great shape. We give the hardware and paint a 4 star rating and recommend this bait as a mainstay for this trip. The only thing we might recommend is that the hooks be changed out to a size larger due to the sheer number of fish on this particular excursion.











One of my all time favorites, The Salmo Roach: This one bait has been one of my top muskie producing baits. It took a Trip to Taltson Bay to put this bait into retirement.



The Storm Kick'n Minnow: This bait held up suprisingly well and withstood dozens of fights from pike, walleye and inconnu.



The Savage Gear Alien Eel: Keep in mind that this ONE bait caught over 20 big pike before it was broken in half! The average Bulldawg lasts 1-2 fish. This bait really took a beating and a hell of alot of punishment. You'll see it hanging from the mouths of big pike in some of the previous photos...and it's all the same bait. I brought ONE on this trip and it paid off BIG!


More updates to follow.
Thanks!
Jamie

Mike's Florida Report Part 3

Well we set up on the last night for some Shark fishing. Rich wasn't leaving without one and to be honest we'd had enough of him so... a shark he wants... a shark he'll get. Pat set the rods, rigging both up with spanish mackerel that we'd caught earlier in the day.



Then he paddled the baits out for what seemed like two football fields and dropped them into the deep water. It didn't take long for the fish to start biting but 5 pick-ups later Rich still hadn't hooked up. Then came the sixth bite... FISH ON ROD-1!



Pat straps Rich in. (I could make a joke here but it's just too easy)




I love this next shot. Pat is coaching Rich who's possibly met his match...



Hold it guys, fish on Rod-2.... seconds later a huge Tarpon breaks the surface and tosses rig-2. That would have been a circus for sure. Now back to Rich as a crowd is forming. People are setting out lawn chairs and running back to their rooms for cameras.. one group ordered a pizza. This is going to take awhile.. notice the sun setting... and the clouds forming.







At the end of hour #1 Rich begins to question his sanity. So do we. Small children run in fear, a priest is called, the priest runs in fear, I refill my gin & tonic...




Then the heavens opened up as a thunderstorm unleashes lighting, thunder and buckets of rain... the fight goes on and actually the rain feels good though than my G&T is getting watered down. (I'm only there for moral support at this point) Half the crowd leaves but 10 or so remain with our fearless fisherman... or is it foolish fisherman...





Finally as we close on hour 2 the Shark nears the beach. Pat and Randy jump in and grab it's tail to get her up on the shore for a quick photo-op and release.





Congratulations Rich on your first Shark! Rich had this to say after the trip while recovering from his second of two knee replacements:

Still on pain killers from yesterday's surgery, but if I can be coherent for a few seconds, I have to say that that shark was one of the most memorable experiences of my life, let alone fishing.

I think immediately after, when Mike asked me how I felt, I compared it to the feeling of running a half marathon. Awesome.

Man, I love big fish.

Well that's it. I'd like to thank Pat Halko for his supreme Florida guiding and mostly Cliff and Betty Hooks for the giving us the opportunity of a lifetime. This is one trip we'll never forget.

Mike's Florida Report... Part 2

Ok so day One ends on high note as Randy and I head back to the condo for some refreshments. The next morning we hit it again (We're late, it's 6:30) and already it's 85 degrees and seems like noon. Oh no I'm starting to sound like the ladies at Hertz....Why's it so hot in Florida... Wah!

The fishing is much slower this morning. Sure we got a dozen or so between the two of us but its nothing like yesterday. We head in early to do some grocery shopping and get ready for Ying and Yang....also know as Pat and Rich to show up.

It's now early afternoon and Rich is amped... literally shaking he's so excited. Just like we were the day before. Pat on the other hand is groggy and shows up with Walmart bags for suitcases and a empty lure case with 5 baits. 3 Puppy Jr's, and two Yozuri Crystal Minnows with broken hooks.

Then he proceeds to kick our ass. Couple cast here - Snook, couple more casts - trout, yawn... pause... cast.. a snook... lather, rinse & repeat..At this point in the story let me apologize to Pat for the lack of photos. I see now why he doesn't take very many. You can't carry a camera around your neck in salt water. I know that now. Mine is in the trash.. With the fast action you also don't want to stop and go unpack the camera to take a photo. So we didn't. I did get a shot of Pat with a small trout. It's all so boring and easy for Pat. It's not a shark so its dull. Been there, done that. BORRRRINGG! He's still pissed at me for this photo..



Meanwhile Rich was throwing a swim bait, Randy a Pointer Minnow & I was throwing some sort of tantrum... as usual.







The Savagear Rattleshad spanked a snook on it's first cast of the morning.




You'll notice that Randy is not in these photos... He took off up the beach runnin and gunnin... We shark fished later that evening with several takers but no hook ups. Got some great photos though..





The next morning Randy had great success up the beach and headed out at a sprinters pace. Unfortunately I had my camera in the back of his pack when i caught my biggest Snook of my life on a topwater. NOt huge by FL standards but it was mid 30's and was the best fight i've had in a long time. Damn you Randy.

We had a pretty successful morning casting the trough and everyone caught fish though Pat was getting pretty bored as the flatlanders from the north whooped it up. Rich even got a bluefish.




Pat taught us that the gray area close to shore was actually baitfish. He's so dang smart! Too bad he can't find the wire cutters, his hooks, the knife, his car keys, the sunscreen....



Later that morning we stopped for a sandwich break and a cold beverage



I proceeded to catch my token catfish/bullhead that I get on every trip on every body of water everywhere.. always..



Quickly I redeemed myself and basked in my snooky glory.





We took a break around noon, had a fish fry at 3pm and headed back out for the evening to snook it up before Shark Time.



Now that's good eating! Don't freak, we didn't eat snook. Those were sea trout!









Did we mention that Snook fight awesome!







Stay tuned for Rich's Shark story.. or as we call it... the calm before the storm.

Mike's Florida Report... Part 1

Well here goes. A month ago I was offered a few days at a friends condo and then things just kinda fell into place for once.... Though it didn't seem so at the start.

Randy Dunlap and I left on Wed. to Ohare for a 7:15 flight. We arrive early to avoid any complications and had a drink or three while we waited. Did I mention that I took Dramamine® since I knew there would be bad weather and a bumpy flight... well combine the two and I was a little sleepy to say the least.

What do you know. The flight is delayed 15 minuted, 20 minutes, 30 minutes..and on I swear every time we looked up it was later. TWO HOURS LATER and a few naps on the airport floor the plane finally arrived. Randy woke me up and I limped over to see what was up. (Don't ask about foot. Let's just say I'm no longer young and I'm still accident prone. You see it all happened.... HEY WAIT I SAID DON'T ASK! MAN, YOU'RE A TRICKY DEVIL)




Well we get on the plane... I'm first as we weren't sitting together and would you believe I'm next to a 2 yo and a crying baby!!!!!!!! YES I would believe it. In fact when we saw them in line, Randy called it.

Oh well, doesn't matter, WE'RE ON OUR WAY BABY!! Then the plane backs out from the gate & the captain announces that the storms are further delaying take-off's for the next hour and half... Cue the screaching halt sound effects...I doze off to sounds of screaming children and my grinding teeth.

On and off for the next 3-4 hours I wake up to crying, in fact now the little girl behind me is crying also (No I"m referring to Randy... well maybe)

Finally our 10:30 pm arrival flight touches down in Tampa at 1:30 am and believe it or not our rental car company closed at midnight. WHAT THE @#$! Yes believe it.. the Kauchak curse shifts into overdrive!

So we walk around for awhile and find a couple agencies open.. Hertz wants to rent us a minivan for $99 a day. While Hertz the agent rumages through big box of keys looking for something else.. two women stand there bitching "It's So Hot In Florida. Nobody said it would be so Hot" I contemplate kicking someone in the #$$ with my broken foot but instead...

Exit stage left from Hertz and into Budget. Not only are they cheerful, pleasant and helpful, they give us the exact same vehicle we had reserved for 40 bucks cheaper.. BUDGET ROCKS! The curse is turning...

We head out to our 1hr drive to the condo..down Rt 75 but wait.... can you BELIEVE that 75 is closed at night for road work....I CAN"T @#$% BELIEVE IT! Out of the corner of my eye I see Randy reaching for the door handle attempting to bail out before something else happens but first he looks at the map and heck, we can take this old hwy 41 straight to Siesta Key. BINGO!

Finally.. foggy headed we arrive at 4:30am. We're just gonna stay up and fish! The sun's coming up soon then we'll......... 4 hours later we awake and head out to the gulf coast. It's 8:30 am, sun is already way up and the temp is 85 degrees. Pat said cast the trough what ever the hell that means and I tie on Savage-Gear Prey89 and Randy an X-Rap. 5 casts later..



A few more casts and..



Randy is jumping out to quite a lead (5 fish) and I don't have squat. Finally I hook up.



Now lets stop here and let me say that though I don't have as many photos as Ansel- Adams-Jamie, I do have 50 or so and it's hard to keep these all in perfect order but I'll do my best. Let's just say that the nightmare of getting here is all but forgotten as Snook explode everywhere for the next hour and a half. Schools as big a 30 or more blast out of the gulf 20 ft and sometimes as close as 6 ft away from us. We have multiple double hook ups and by the end of the morning we have over 35 Snook landed and this is a bonified @$$ whoopin. FINALLY A PLAN COMES TOGETHER! THE KAUCHAK CURSE HAS BEEN DEFEATED!








The Savagear Prey89 rocked on day 1. The Snook Teeth took their toll on the finish and it even picked up a couple sea trout. They hit on the pause almost every time. Great bait!


So we make the ultimate dumb move and leave the bite (JAMIE ALWAYS SAYS DON'T LEAVE THE YADA YADA) so we can go get some grub. Well it was so easy.. how could this end? A frickin cake walk I tell ya.... We grab lunch, take another couple hours for shut eye and head back out around 5pm for the evening bite. It's like going to Wisconsin..

That evening is even more spectacular but in a different way... in the eve' the fish push all the bait right up to the trough and then it's just a frenzy as all different types of fishy predators slash and grab. Sea Trout, Jacks, Bluefish, King Mackeral, Snook and more are on fire. We aren't getting as many snook now but the action is fast and furious.. Notice Randy's famous Crazy Eyed "here take my fish" poses and my sloppy-man-boob-hope this fish covers up my gut poses..






Part 2 Coming soon (The Rich & Pat show)

We're back

Jamie is back from the Arctic and Mike is back from Florida.
Here's the link to Jamie's pictures CLICK HERE!

Mike is still working on his report.

Check back tomorrow for the updates!


Jamie with his new "personal best" pike. 46" from Great Slave lake,NT,Canada.

We're back

We can't write the reports just yet due to work schedules, but we'll have tons of stuff up in coming days. Check back soon for the full reports from Florida and Canada.
Thanks,
Jamie

Oh, just a couple more things before we go.

By now you know that it's tradition for me to go out and have the best possible day of fishing locally before I leave on a big trip.
This time was no exception.
Rich Delaney, Ken Schumacher of smalliefishing.com and myself had about 3 hours on saturday 5/24/08 to fish. We headed out to Rio Fuego (in chicagoland).

The baits used? Ugh..good question. I know that 3,4&5" Senkos in darker colors were used. Whacky rigged or on a 1/8 oz Sliderhead jig. I know that 4" Berkley powergrubs on 1/8oz Sliderhead jigs were used and did outstanding. A Chug Bug was used and got hit immediately (Topwater time has officially started. There's your big tip for the week). A tube jig was used and that caught fish. A small chatterbait got popped a time or two.Flies were used and got tapped a few times too. And ofcourse the Savage Gear Rattle Shad got nailed by yet another trophy bass on cast NUMBER FRIGGIN ONE!
I think the Lucky Craft Pointer was the only dismal failure. It caught one channel cat. Go figure.

How many noteworthy fish in those 3 hours? Ok..listen. We do NOT count dinks. If we counted dinks I'd put it at 60. But since we're only counting largemouth and smallmouth that are the size featured in the photos...I'll say 30 conservatively. Maybe 40. Honestly we were catching so many that we lost count.

So on with the show. Because only 1 out of 100 of you actually read anything that we just wrote anyway :) We understand. After all..we are Customfish. Our whole lives are built around fishing photography. Now here's some fish porn for ya.


The Master of Disaster. Ken Schumcaher.


Dude...our greengills eat 4" baits!!!


Rich Delaney: Famous muskie angler, yet he'll still kick your can on bass.



1)tie on chug bug 2)make one cast 3)smile and bask in one's glory.










( I didn't know Kenny Rogers fished either.)


I tell ya what. The first person to send me a picture of a bass bigger than that caught between today on when I leave gets a print for free.




Rich with a Neosho Strain "Spike" smallimouth bass. They fight 3 times harder than a northern smallmouth.





Here's a couple shots from 5/15-5/16. Nothing special. Just a couple nice pics courtesy of a Canon A-95 and a Joby Gorillapod Tripod (dont have one yet??? Well let me show you how well it works. Look.)

A big crappie that nailed a Smack Tackle Gizz3.


A nice Illinois pond smallouth bass that hit a Savage Gear Prey115
( Hey..ya like that shirt? CLICK HERE to buy one!)

And last but not leat...this!!!
As you know I plan on throwing some pretty amazing baits on the upcoming trip. Most will be from Savage Gear, Smack Tackle and Dunwright Tackle. But I have a few specialties from Customlures(That's our own hand crafted baits) and some hand painted BIG FISH lures from Mad Scientist Productions.
If you want more info on Mad Scientist productions just drop me an email.
The lures made by Mad Scientist are...well...SICK! And I can't wait to throw them.
If you know 2 about me they are these:
1) My friends and I can flat out fish. Anywhere...anytime.
2) If I had it my way there'd be a Tarantino film about fishing.
And with that in mind I contracted Mad Scientist Productions to handcraft me a bait for the upcoming trip to Taltson Bay Big Pike Lodge.
One of the craftsmen who works for Mad Scientist is this cat named Hatori Hanzo. I've bought one of his swords before (Budd's sword, to be exact). He worked on this very bait......
The HANZO SPOOK.




What does the Japanese writing on it say?
One word.
"Pray."

See? I told you it was sick.

Have a good couple of weeks everyone. I'm off with John to the Arctic. Mike and Rich are Off to fish with Pat in Florida. Stay tuned. We're gonna blow your friggin minds when we get back.
Adios amigos!

Signed,
Jamie Riani -The Vincent Vega of fishing-

"There's something very very wrong with us" -Bill Murray-

Next week Mike and Rich are going down to Pat's place to fish here.


Meanwhile, John and I are going a couple thousand miles north to fish here.


It's going to be a very interesting series of reports when we all get back.

(Oh..by the way, the comments section is coming back. So speak up! Don't just sit there!)

Captain Quint is home.

5-21-08
Customfish field reporter Pat Halko is now in Florida where he has taken up permanent residence.
His report for today is:

"Got out from 8:30-11:00 this morning with my buddy doug. I wish we had longer to fish because the bite was pretty good. Still super windy down here. Snook were hitting topwaters as usual and redfish on gulp shrimp. Catching big snook along mangroves is no easy task. Every one you hook heads right for cover. You have to jump out of the yak or else they tow you right in."






Nice goin', kiddo. Save some for Mike and Rich. They'll be down in a little over a week. I'll be on the other side of the planet on the Arctic Circle. We'll have some great reports when we all get done.

Our most asked question:

People often ask Mike and I how we do it? How do we keep it all together? How can we stand to be in business, be friends, and be fishing partners all at the same time.
Well....
It's alot like...
Well, like this.
Click to hear the sounds of Jamie & Mike


Oh..and Jade & Mark keep catching tons of fish.
See past reports for details on how.





Here's a vintage picture of a smallmouth angler circa 1952.

Just kidding...
*** This just in. 2PM 5-14-08. At noon Mark caught THAT.****

Mads is mad!

We got another couple of shots from Mads Grosell of Savage Gear Baits
We see alot of crazy stuff in pike fishing...but this one is up in the top three.

Farewell to the prince. 5-10-08

Customfish field reporter Pat Halko is going to be taking up permanent residence in Florida to further his education.
But before he left he HAD to catch one more smallmouth bass here in Illinois. Off we went to one of my favorite stretches of local river for the first wade of the year....and Pat's swan song.
Long live the prince! Because in one short wade he proved yet again that he's not only better than most anglers here, he's also luckier in that he gets to go to Florida where he'll live on the beach and fish for sharks,tarpon and snook.
God speed to you our good friend. And may all the success in the world come your way. You earned it!




*************************************

Now, as with any monarchy we have to find someone else to fill the void left by Prince Halko....so everyone moves up one notch. Captain Jade now takes the position of local interim prince and Mark now enters the camp as court jester (Hey we all gotta start somewhere).
Their report from friday states that the Mississippi is STILL en fuego and these two clowns are sitting on the biggest untapped smallmouth goldmine in history. Mark schooled Jade 11-3 on friday at last count. And THAT, my friends, is the preverbial student beating the crap out of the teacher.
You taught Jester too much too soon, Jade.

State of the union

Yesterday I grabbed a 5' ultralight, 1 1/32oz jig and 2 1" twist tails and checked the area for crappies. I found no crappies. But what i did catch made me alot happier. In a few minutes worth of casting I caught 12 smallmouth bass.

And they were all this size or smaller.


Now, some people would look at that and say "Man, that's one small fish. Are those all you caught yesterday?"

Ah, but the educated angler would say "You caught 12 of those in a few minutes!? Man, you're gonna be sitting on a smallie goldmine for years!"

Exactly.

Think about that the next time you catch a bunch of small bass. They have parents somewhere. And those parents are spawning right now...thus making more just like him.

Ya see where I'm going with this???

Water wolf!

Our friend Mads Grosell of Savage Gear Lures sent us a great action shot of himself and a monster pike. It really answers the question of 'why we do what we do'.

The land of the midnight sun

In 21 days I'll be up on Great Slave lake near the Arctic Circle in the Northwest territories of Canada.
Sleep is going to be at a premium....due to lack of darkness. Check out these sunset/sunrise times.

Jun 1, 2008 3:57 AM 11:16 PM 19h 18m 36s
Jun 2, 2008 3:56 AM 11:18 PM 19h 22m 35s
Jun 3, 2008 3:54 AM 11:20 PM 19h 26m 25s
Jun 4, 2008 3:52 AM 11:22 PM 19h 30m 06s
Jun 5, 2008 3:50 AM 11:24 PM 19h 33m 36s
Jun 6, 2008 3:49 AM 11:26 PM 19h 36m 56s
Jun 7, 2008 3:47 AM 11:28 PM 19h 40m 06s
Jun 8, 2008 3:46 AM 11:29 PM 19h 43m 03s

So basically it'll be dark (or almost dark) for maybe 2 hours a night. I better bring a sleeping mask.

Crappies, Huckleberry, a blank, and God

Mike here with a late report from the weekend.



Starting on Friday I hit a local Strip Pit on my lunch hour for a few casts and to clear my head. This pit/pond was deep and clear and the bass we still in prespawn.

Caught 4 small males and one decent 16” with great color. Worked a smoke Hula grub on a gravel hump and found it really hard to go back to the office that afternoon.



Saturday a front came through and the weather was sunny,rainy,cloudy,rainy,sunny with the wind changing directions every 10 minutes. That would explain why I’m wearing sunglasses in the rain… really! It’s not because I want to look cool… I’d need a lot more than sunglasses to pull that off.



Anyways the Crappies were biting and catching a nice fat 12” on the 9’ ultralight was a blast. I did a little scouting for family fishing day on Sunday and they were just slurping up the Chartreuse 2.5” Gulp Minnows. It’s the bait of choice on this lake for panfish and almost anything else that eats small minnows.



The next morning the weather cleared so the kids and I went out and they slayed em’. Rachel was a Crappie machine getting 7 beauties all by herself while her brother Christopher wasn’t to be outdone with 3 Crappie and nice fat Bass that cleared the water at least 3 times! I was so excited I forgot to take a photo.

We kept just enough for a fish fry and threw the rest back for another day. Working a slip bobber set at 2’, casting out to 8 foot of water and just slowly bring it in with a stop and go motion was the trick. Some fish were deep, some were shallow but they all wanted the Gulp. A great time was had by all and later the kids still had time to ride scooters and play with their furry friend Bailey. If your’e a crappie fisherman, those Gulp baits are awesome. Though they are a little on the pricey side, we used only 3 bodies between the three of us for 2.5 hours and over 30 fish.


In other news:
Jamie went out yesterday for a short 45 minutes. And being the honest site that we are we proudly report that he blanked ( c'mon, one 6" yellow bass and one 10" largemouth is a blank) He hooked into yet another monster-class smallie that nailed the lure, jumped and got off immediately.
Alot of spawning big bass were seen and passed by. We DO NOT fish for spawning fish. No exceptions. Sometimes it's good enough to see a couple of huge fish at your feet just doing their thing. Then just walk away knowing that there will be more fish in coming years. ( Note* The missed monster smallie came from deep water. She wasn't a spawning fish yet. Not all bass spawn at exactly the same time. You can still effectively fish for bass at this time...just don't cast shallow,please). Hey..would you like to be hooked while you're gettin' your freak on???


It's time for the Jade "Huckleberry" Miller report from Rock Island,IL Mississippi River:
"Well last night produced more from the multispecies bonanza for Mark on a new crankbait he bought including a nice largemouth, especially for river standards. He also managed a nice 19" walleye at dusk. This morning we both managed some smallies with the largest of mine going around 15-16". Actually had some showers start and caught 3 smallies on four casts."


And finally..It's random photo time!!!!:
This one was taken by Jamie Riani last night as the storms came in from the west.
So not only did he see some spawning fish....he also saw God.


Keep your pole in the water!

Fishing is like a box of chocolates....

Ya never know what you're gonna get.

Largemouth bass slamming a Savage Gear Rattle Shad in a ditch that hooks up to the main lake.



A big Yellow Bass and a big Crappie that nailed a small floating Rapala on a main lake rock point. (twitch, twitch, twitch...BANG!)



A nice surprise. A big walleye that was working a school of shad on that same main lake rock point. This post-spawn female slammed a Savage-Gear Prey115 at the edge of the rock point after just 2 twitches.


And finally one of a couple of smallies that nailed the same Prey115 on the rock point. Everything was using the rock point and pinning shad against it's walls. The pattern was pretty easy to figure out just by watching the water explode every other minute as another predator drove a shad to the surface and unloaded on it.


Not bad for 90 minutes.
Now get yourself back to the home page and check out THE TOTALLY INSANE SALE that we're gonna end very soon! CLICK HERE!!!!!!!!

*****UPDATE! Cinco De Mayo hotter-than-a-hobanero-pepper-on-a-taco report from Rock Island, Mississippi, Il.*********
"
Today the water is down several feet from Friday. In the typical eddy I
managed 5 smallies with the largest at 17". The whites were also in
there, but it was the smallies I was after. Mark had some luck in the
same location yesterday. These smallies are fat. Had fun with
perspective, made a 14" look like a 48". Anything worked. I caught
them today on a 4" finesse minnow, a sassy shad, and a bluefox spinner."


And then there's this one from 5-6-08.
Jesus!! That's a friggin danergous looking bastard, aint it??!

Nice gar from the Mississippi River at Rock Island, il.

******SECOND UPDATE**********
Ok..I'm just gonna add this to the existing post because Jade "The friggin King of The Mississippi" Miller keeps sending me report after report because he has immediate access to one of the hottest smallmouth and white bass fishing holes on the planet.
Listen..somebody just give him his freakin' crown already! And give Mark one too.
Man, I hate those guys!

The official report from lunchtime on 5-6-08
"And the smallies are coming to life.

This morning it was four with the biggest at around 16", a spike fin at that.

At lunch is where it got real interesting. Mark and I headed out at around 1130. I got there first and tagged a fat little 14" on a tube. Mark got there shortly after and hit a nice sized drum. He really has that species down right now. Next I got another small smallie around 14". No real mega dinks so far, all 14 or better this year. A few casts later I got the lures, dual jigs 1/16th oz over an 1/8th oz with a 3" and 4" soft plastic minnow on each respectively, back in to an eddy. Problem was that my line was drapped across a broken corner of a concrette foundation. That was all the big smallie needed to give me a heart attack. I felt the hit thru the line and thought I got a white at first. Turned out to be a nice 18" smallie. Had to climb out on the fence on the foundation to get my line off the corner and then go to free spool to ease the fish in. Mark followed that up with a nice 17" smallie that hit his modified drop shot rig which had a 1/4 oz jig as the weight. We both got a few more smaller smallies and had to get back to work."

Hey..Did I mention that I hate Jade and Mark?
I did?
Just checking.
Signed, Jamie


HEY!! GO TO THE TOP OF THE TOOLBAR AND PRESS THE "BOOKMARK" TAB!! TRUST ME ON THIS.

It's dark outside and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it!

Friday (5-2-08) I had VERY limited time to fish.

Why?

Because I had THIS on one side of me...


this on another side of me...


and this on another side of me...


So that left me with about 30 minutes to fish in high winds basically in the eye of a hurricane that was closing in around me.
Didn't do too bad. Probably got 8 or 10. Nothing huge. Again, the Savage Gear Rattle Shad was the ticket in the muddy waters of the ditches and the muddied banks of the lake that were getting pounded by whitecap waves.

Sometimes even a half hour of fishing is better than nothin' at all...