Breakfast Time Bassin' 2011

[Maliboo]

Here we go…

Getting off to a slow start this year because of the awful weather. I hit some ponds earlier this month but the bass were still sleepy. Did manage to get a pair of small bass at Bass Lake on a Yamamoto 3” curly tail grub though. They hit right at shore so it was no big thrill.

Then yesterday basstard and I hit his private lake and I finally managed some decent fish:

On a black & blue Booyah Boo jig:



On a Lucky Craft RC 2.5 Silent Square Bill crankbait:



There was a mess of suckers and bullheads right up close to shore too. The suckers were spawning and I believe the bullheads were eating the eggs:



So, I expect that the breakfast time bassin' will start seriously picking up now. I'm off work next week so I'll be hitting the water like it owes me money.

See ya!

[rather b fishing]

Nice fish... Love the northern.

[pchung3009]

And he's back...been waiting to see your new thread so I can at least live vicariously through your outings.

Lucky that toothy critter didn't bite off your LC. That's a nice looking bass.

Nice job and good luck this season, hopefully we'll be able to get out some time.

[bassedhard]

Well well looks who's out from hibernation. Did you have a nice rest?
Nice fish, you must of had a great photographer. HA ha.
Lots of rain last night I skipped the fishin this morning.

[stefanmusky]

nice fish maliboo, we need to go fishing soon

[hookthis]

you've been quiet so long, we were starting to think you'd been locked up or something!

[BusterA]

Nice Fish! Makes me Hungry for Breakfast!

[Maliboo]

I'm back again. I think its finally time to start getting hardcore...

Friday I hit some park water in Bloomingdale with basstard since it was such a beautiful day, but I didn't get any action. bassedhard got one before I arrived at least.

Sunday morning I took SassyGirl out for some fish action but we left the house an hour later than I planned cos you know how it is trying to get a woman out of the house on time. We started at the Des Plaines Conservation Area which was nice to see not completely choked with weeds, but no action there.

Next we hit Heidecke since I've been reading here that the action is pretty hot right now. The parking lot for shore fishing was completely full so maybe other people have been reading the same thing. I don't usually fish with bait, but all the posts say big cats and stripers are coming on raw shrimp so we set up a rod with that while we casted blade baits and lipless cranks. No action. I think being stuck to one area with a rod planted didn't help. Didn't see anybody else get fish either though.

Finally we hit the DuPage River and got some action. Ended up with 13 fish between us:

1 Largemouth Bass
4 Smallmouth Bass
5 Rock Bass
1 Crappie
1 Carp
1 Sucker

The Rock Bass was pretty cool since I've never caught one before (and I played rock bass in a band before I moved here.) My very first Rock Bass:



Really nice sized Crappie:



And since I was already down South Monday morning I went back by myself and landed 18 fish:

3 Largemouth Bass
6 Smallmouth Bass
8 Rock Bass
1 Carp

All fish both days came on 1/8oz jigheads with either a 3" Yamamoto Curly Tail Grub, Mister Twister Curly Tail Grub or a Sassy Shad. Fished mostly on a steady retrieve low and slow, but some by jigging the bottom.

Nice Smallmouth:

[bassedhard]

Nice work, if you could only call it work, right!
I was out today as well. (man I still need a camera) Anyway I ended up with seven fish for the day. Six large mouth and one small mouth. Your smallie looks like it could of ate mine Most of the the LMs were small too, 12 to 14 inchers. Did manage two at 19 inches though. Long day, got out at 630 AM and finished at 1130 AM. All came on jigs. Today my crank baits, spinners and swim baits proved ineffective.

My wife did not understand your comment about getting a woman out of the house on time. Go figure.. After I got done fishing I asked her out to lunch, we were "supposed" to leave at 12:30. Left at 1:30???????

[loganaxleberrt]

Good to see you back man. Looking forward to more great reports!

[stefanmusky]

wow looks like alot of hoping around and it seamed to pay off,

[Navyfisher]

Glad your back, lots of good inspiration and motivation.

[hookthis]

nice work! I also heard very good things about the H just today, with big walleye and striper coming from shore. Time to get while the gettin's good!

[Maliboo]

SassyGirl wanted to catch a fish and then eat it like some kind of barbarian, so Tuesday we went to the Plainfield Fishing Resort since those fish are straight from the fish farm and dumped into the pretty clean water there, so it seemed they would be the best to eat.

We targeted catfish with raw shrimp on one rod and nightcrawlers on another plus the rods we each had for tossing lures. I'd have liked to use fresh cut bait, but its still hard to catch any bluegills in the ponds right now.

Soon as we hit the water we saw some bass real close to shore getting ready for the spawn I imagine. Saw some decent looking 15" males and then Holy Cow! BIG females 4 to 5 pounds right up by shore! Teased the Hell out of them with Senkos and jigs, but they wouldn't strike. So, I walked around a little and saw a MAMMOTH bass that was so ENORMOUS it had a bulbous head like a porpoise. This thing was at least 6lbs but I really think it was 7lbs. I've handled 6 pounders so I'm familiar with their size, but this thing was frighteningly HUGE.

I tossed my jig by it and time froze as it swam over then sucked it up! I SLAMMED the hook home and started hooperin and hollerin. OMG, unbelievable. I fought it hard for a minute, then when I almost had it landed it came unbuttoned. Awwww!!!

It was still awesome hooking it, but I wanted badly to get a photo and weight measurement of course. Since it wasn't landed and verified the damn thing is just another fish story that'll sound like exaggeration, but I'm telling you this thing was MONSTROUS. Seemed bigger than the 6lb 9oz one I verified last year.

Anyway, it may have been a blessing that I didn't land it cos we wouldn't have ate it, and we did go there to get fish to eat, and if I had landed it our timing would have changed so SassyGirl probably wouldn't have cast her 5" Senko in a certain spot at a certain time and landed this gorgeous rainbow trout that we did take home to bake:



Another unbelievable fish huh? Huge rainbow in May on a 5" Senko. SassyGirl did an outstanding job fighting it and keeping tension on the line when it thrashed about on the surface. She's only used to catching bass, so this beauty was a quite a surprise. And it tasted delicious!

We had some other action in that first hour and a half too: I hooked into another Rainbow on a Senko but it fought furiously and came off. Sassy lost a small bass and I landed a 13" bass on a Rapala F7 Floating Minnow. But after that the Sun went behind the clouds and the bite shut off for the rest of the day.

So, this Plainfield fishing resort is a pretty hot place right now. Big bass setting up spawning beds and big Rainbows still available. It costs $11 per adult, but the boat rental is really cheap if you want a boat: $4 for 4 hours plus $15 for a trolling motor. Might be worth it...

* * *

This morning I had basstard's private lake all to myself. Ended up with 5 nice Largemouth between 16 - 19" all caught on a 1/4oz Strike King Peanut Butter & Jelly Football Jig with a Chigger Craw trailer. Mainly fished it by slowly dragging the bottom with only an occasional hop when it hit a rock or something.

5:54am:



6:16am:



6:56am:



8:01am:



8:42am:

[hookthis]

yeah the bass bite is picking up all over the place, with this weekend already being predicted to be the best of the year so far. The trout on a Senko? Classic.