I Love You Lake June

I made a perfect cast right in between two docks (happy because it was right where I was aiming)… and watched my line, as I worked my jerk bait out.  I paused the bait… then went to rip it again and felt dead weight.  I drew the rod back and set the hook… seconds later… its head came out of the water, and so did its’ shoulders… the next five minutes would, undoubtedly, be the most frightening of my fishing career…

5 hours earlier…5:30 am, I awoke to George’s dog breath and the sound of him panting in my ear (this has taken place since we got him, and trust me, you never get use to it). I got dressed, took him for a short walk, hopped in the truck and headed for Gator Lake for a day of pre-fishing. By 9:00 am I had caught 4 bass around 15”  (three on a jerk bait and one on a worm) but the tournament was only 4 hrs long so I decided I would scratch the Gator Lake tournament and go pre-fish for another tournament on a lake called Huntly. I had never been to Huntly Lake, and I kind of got lost and couldn’t find the boat ramp. After an hour of searching for the ramp, I decided to scratch Huntly and drove to Lake June (a lake I had been wanting to fish since I arrived in Florida).

As I was launching my boat a bass fishermen was coming off the water. I asked him how his morning had been. His response was less than encouraging… He said fishing was slow and that he only caught 2 fish all morning. My immediate reaction was “Sh*t!!! I just wasted my whole day driving around to fish a lake that’s going to be a waste of my time.” But since my boat was already launched I decided to take a crack at June anyway. Just as I was heading out from the ramp Kari called me. She said “It’s 11:11 so make a wish!”

I drove a little less than a mile from the launch and stopped at the first sting of docks close to deep water. My third cast I caught 2lber. My sixth cast I hooked into a good fish, probably around 4lbs, but it came unbuttoned at the boat. I know that it is all a part of the game but I hate losing fish and I was immediately frustrated.  I pushed on, trying to keep in mind that I had just hooked into two fish in three minutes. About 100yards down the stretch I caught another 2lber. Shortly after that I pulled up to a dock and underneath it was the biggest bass I had ever seen! It must have been around 8lbs. I grabbed my flipping stick and pitched a jig under the dock, the bass instantly spooked. Again my immediate reaction was frustration and I though “sh*t! I just saw the biggest bass of my life and I blew it”.

Once again, I did the only thing I could do… I pressed on, kept casting, and about a hundred yards down the line I made a perfect cast right in between two docks (happy because it was right where I was aiming)… and watched my line, as I worked my jerk bait out.  I paused the bait… then went to rip it again and felt dead weight.  I drew the rod back and set the hook.  Seconds later its head came out of the water, and so did its’ shoulders. It was by far the biggest bass I had ever hooked into.  When its head came out of the water I could see that the fish wasn’t hooked that well and I couldn’t help but think that this was another battle I was going to loose. I was using a lighter rod and lighter line so I loosened the drag so the line wouldn’t break. The bass ran for deeper water and the only thing I could do was hold on. We played a game of tug-of-war that felt like an eternity (probably 4-5 minutes).  After two laps around my boat I was able to get my hand on her but she quickly shot away and headed out for deep water again. I finally got her up to the boat again scooped her into the boat (with no help from my landing net, which just so happens to be holding down the fort in Canada).

At that point I lost my mind. I screamed, yelled, and celebrated with something that resembled a poorly choreographed touchdown celebration combined with a touch of Mike Iaconelli. It took me 3 or 4 hours to fully compose myself. Since I was by myself, I measured it (28” long and 18.5” in girth) and put it in the livewell until I could get someone to take a few pictures. I spent the next two hours talking on the phone and trying to compose myself. I did end up catching a few more fish (one was a 4lber) but they were hard to appreciate. A few hours late I weighed it (12.3 lbs), snapped a few pics and released the monster.

When I got down here the biggest I had ever caught was 6.5lbs. My goal was for this winter was 7lbs, but I almost doubled that. It was a remarkable day, the best of fish of my career, and a day that will never forget for the rest of my life. I only hope that you all can share or have shared this feeling. I literally can’t stop looking at the pictures.  It's funny how wrong turns can lead you to all the right places. With my biggest fish successfully logged into my record books, I decided to take a couple of days off the water... nah... I was out again this morning, but didn’t even come close!

The Graveyard Shift

First, I want to send out a huge congrats to Jeff Gustafson for his 20th place finish at the FLW open on Lake Okeechobee. Jeff is a buddy of mine and is arguably the best fisherman I’ve had the privilege to fish with, and against.

In the past week I have hit the water pretty hard... but fishing is slow, to say the least. Bites have been hard to come by and the weather hasn’t made things easier. Last week was really windy and we had another little cold front that added to my frustration. To make things worse I missed a few big fish. One of those fish was lost due to a stupid mistake by yours truly… I used too light of a hook in a swim bait and the fish straightened out my hook… (Its embarrassing to talk about and I feel like I’m starring in a reality fishing show called “Amateur Hour”…). On one of my days off the water I took the time to re-organize my boat. I was about half way done the inside of the boat when I discovered that it was also doubling as a home for a family of a thousand bull ants that had nested in my passenger seat. I spent the next 45 minutes trying to drown them. Fun fact, apparently some ants can live a full day in water. Needless to say, drowning them was an epic fail, but I found some wasp killer that did the job. With all the insect killing I’m doing down here, I should open up a exterminator business. Anyway, the lake that I normally like to fish (Lake Istapokga) hasn’t been producing for me so I figured it was time to throw in a little change up. The other night Byron (my brother in-law) and I decided to hit up a little night fishing on Lake Jackson.  Kari and I followed that night up with another night fishing adventure last night.

Night fishing for bass is something I’m new to, but it is a blast and a good way to catch big fish, especially in the clearer water lakes. Another reason why I like it so much is that you normally have the lake to yourself, but you do have a few struggles when you're fishing at night. Of course your sight is the biggest loss. A few years ago I had the privilege to guide a man who was blind. We were smallmouth bass fishing during the spawn. What impressed me most about this guy was how amazing his sense of feel was. I would give him a rough idea on where to cast and he would continually come close to hitting the mark. At night your depth perception is pretty much gone and you are basically fishing blind. A few times I must have launched my bait 20 yards into the cattails... During the day I watch my line constantly because I can see the subtle bites that I don’t feel, but at night that is impossible to do and I have to rely strictly on feel. Plus, simple things like tying knots, picking out backlashes, and re-rigging baits get a lot harder when you forget a flashlight (chalk another one up for the “Amateur Hour” show). 

The other night the fish moved in to the shallow water, which I believe is the tendency for most clear water dwelling fish. Most of the fish we caught were located close to the bull-rushes in 1ft-4ft of water. Most of our success came from slowly swimming weightless, soft plastic, swim baits close to the surface. Last night Kari and I had more success on 10” Texas rigged worms in submerged brush piles in 6ft-8ft of water. Overall I have had more success with baits with a little bigger profile and have a lot of action. I believe that both the size of the bait and the amount of water it displaces helps trigger strikes in low light hours. Through all my night fishing experiences, color or colour (for my Canadian friends) doesn’t seem to matter very much. At night, I think fish mostly just see silhouettes and rely more on their lateral line and sense of smell.

Well I’m going to head off to bed so I’ll catch up with you all later. By the way if you have any comments or questions feel free to post them. All I ask is that you keep it PG.
Later

A day on the Lake with George

I will start this blog off by apologizing for my tardiness in my entries. Kari and I just got back to Florida after spending a month on the road doing sports shows.  It was a long trip… over 6,000 km of driving… I’m not sure what that converts to in Miles but it’s more than anyone should have to do in one winter. We started out in Florida and drove to Des Moines IA, then from Des Moines to Madison WI, Madison to Milwaukee, Milwaukee back to Madison, Madison to Chicago IL, Chicago to Indianapolis IN, Indianapolis to Louisville KY, and Louisville back down to Sebring FL… The trip was filled full of highlights and lowlights. I think the ultimate lowlight was when Kari and I ate some bad chicken and had food poisoning for 3-4 days. One of the coolest things that happened along our trip was we got to meet Mike Iaconelli. I have to give a big shout out to the Tischler kids!!! These kids are amazing to say the least!!! We spent the night at their house in Chicago, and while we were there the Kids were participating in a school fundraiser for Cancer.  They called it “Cancer Smashers” (Google it!!! It’s amazing what they did) and combined with a few schools in their area they were able to raise over $23,000 for cancer research. Here is the youtube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7JaCUb9rJ8&feature=related.  Thanks again to everyone who made the time to see us.

Now the fishing report with a little background. Last fall Kari and I got a new dog (his name is George)… We got him while I was working with my dad on a northern reserve close to Hudson Bay. He was a stray dog that was pretty much starving to death so we would give him a little food now and then. Up on the reserve they have a “dog day” twice a year. That is when the go around town and shoot all of the stray dogs…  So when it was time leave we loaded up George and another dog that my parents ended up keeping. They are awesome dogs but the have some of the strangest mannerisms. Anyway, we think George is a Husky/Wolf mix with probably something else in there too.

I think George hates Florida… He is constantly panting like crazy and every morning he comes into our room around 5:30 am, sits by the bed so his head is close to my ear and pants until Kari or I get out of bed.  George can’t swim but he has found refuge from the Florida heat by sitting on the steps of the pool. He sits on the steps because he can’t swim very well. I think he has fallen in the pool about 5 times now.
Today I woke up (after George panted in my ear for 10 minuets) and it was pretty ugly outside. The wind was blowing and the sky was Grey but I hadn’t been on the water in over a month and I was going through withdraws. Since the sun wasn’t blazing hot I figured I would take George along for his first fishing trip to Lake Istapokga.  After George was done peeing on every boat trailer at the launch we hopped in the boat and headed out. I had talked to a few friends who said that the height of the spawn was already over but there were still fish on beds (just my luck, I missed the best time to catch my 7lber). I started the morning by flipping and pitching in reeds and bull-rushes in the areas that I had been catching good fish prior to the road trip. About 10 min George and I came across a couple of guys who were shiner fishing. They said that they had caught a few fish early in the morning closer too the hydrilla. After a short conversation, George and I continued on fishing the reed line. A few minutes later I heard a big splash and looked back just in time to see George’s tale disappear into gator infested water. When his head popped his eyes here as big as basketballs and he immediately started thrashing around. I threw down my rod and grabbed George and tried to hoist him into the boat. After a little struggle I managed to get him back in the boat. Once George was done rolling around on the carpet and drying off we headed across the lake to a hydrill patch. Within the firs few casts I caught my first bass of the day. George was pretty interested in the fish and kept nipping at its fins. A few casts later I lost a big bass that wrapped me up in the weeds… I’m not sure if it was 7 lber but it was definitely the biggest one I’ve had on in Florida… I had a little freak out (that probably looked like I was trying to stomp out a fire in the front of the boat) I went back to fishing. The rest of the day I caught a few more in the hydrilla but around 2pm the sun came out and it got a little hot for George so we headed in.

All of the fish I boated and had on came on a 10” Zoom speed worm Texas rigged with a ¼ oz bullet sinker. The think I like about the Zoom speed worm is that it goes through the weeds good and it has a crazy kick tale on it that disrupts a lot of water. All of the strikes I got were while I running it fast along the surface, above the hydrilla, like a swim bate. I picked up this trick from a guy I met down here and this is a really good way to run this bate. I think the 7” peed worm ran this way will be a deadly little rig for Smallies and something that I’m for sure give a shot when I get back.