03/08/2023
Good day fellow anglers! Been a rough few weeks as you know with all these ridiculous weather patterns.
But weather won't stop me.
Managed to score 2 crappie, several bluegill 11 today, 2 catfish thanks to those bluegill.
I've been consistently baiting at salt creek gathering minnows and creek chubs hoping for the pike bite.
No Pike as of yet.
I think the flood waters are making it almost impossible to float unfortunately.
River needs to come down at least a foot and a half and clear up a bit before floating will be lucrative.
In the meantime I have solved my problem.
I've been throwing live chubs or large river minnows on the bottom for two weeks now with no hits at all.
I decided to try to hit Cermak pond and gather some bluegill.
The bite was hard. But with persistence and alot of moving and adjusting the slip bobber I managed to score three.
After catching and cutting up some gillies I threw a steak one late afternoon early evening.
Low and behold I took a hit!
No fish caught but it was enough of a hit to give me the confidence to come back this week on Monday early am and throw a head.
And low and behold(pic one) I hit this five pounds ten ounce Channel!!!!
Monday afternoon we got nothing.
Today I hit the McCook pond around 9am. I waited for the weather to at least hit 40 and for the sun to be completely out to keep me mildly warm. The main goal was to target bluegill but I also decided to bring one of my Daiwa slip bobber still fishing poles and throw one of those river minnows I have been collecting. Within the first 20 minutes of the minnow being out it took a great hit! This happened twice with in the first 40 minutes but i did not score whatever it was messing with my bobber unfortunately but I did get 11 Bluegill and knew I had bait now for some catfishing!
I hurried home took care of my adult affairs gathered my gear and headed for the good ole Des Plaines.
The wind was terrible at my spot this afternoon 16 mile an hour winds blowing off 44 degree water directly in my face making it decently uncomfortable, but the sun was out and warming the water all day hopefully waking up some fish so I wasn't about to walk aways
I cut my first gill and use the head on my 6.5 med heavy Berkley mudcat.
This is my gear breakdown im using g a Fox eos 10000 reel with 20pd camo line. I use a 2oz no roll sinker with a 30pd trik fish camo leader snelled to a Gamakatsu 5/O circle hook and a Dr fish #3 rolling swivel.
Within the first half hour of having the head out the Mudcat bent over!!!
After a 4+ minute fight in flood water currents
I scored a nice cat(pic c 2)
Due to the nicer cough cough weather I decided to use the family's Christmas gift to me my new traveling carp rod.
It is a 6 foot Winchwood Extricator with a Mitchell Mx1 fs 6500.
I'm using 20pd Kast king black mamba as my mainline running to an 18 inch Korda 45 pound spliced armorchord leader with a nash #8 ring swivel and a NGT 2.5 oz inline lead . Finishing off my inline rig I used the ole 3 kernels of corn on Gamakatsu #6 G carp A-1 super hook on 8 inch leader made of trickster fast sinking braided hooklink.
An hour after the Cat around 2:30 the bait alarm exploded and after a good 8+ minute fight I landed this beautiful 11 pound 4 ounce common carp.
Not too shabby for a cold start to our March.
After that I packed up and headed home. I knew I wouldn't top that 11 pounder and the wind was starting to freeze me solid.
Even with flood waters and weather cycles that are all over the place I'm managing to find some fish.
Totals for the 2023 season
2 Crappie
14 Bluegill
3 Common Carp
2 Channel cats
Not an aweful start to my season.
They are out there. The bite is still tough but extremely rewarding when you get it.
This weekend/week looks really cold and quite frankly sh*tty so it may be a week or two until I'm back on water so until next time
Fresh baits and tight lines
Keep it reel Goldy
