Injun this afternoon. Had to wait for my truck,but did manage to start trolling at 4:45 p.m. I set outside one of the tri-humps and had a nice 18" eye on the firecraw off the getgo. It was barely hooked and got off just before the net.. Tried out there for a good 45 mins and snag city. Then swung up by oldfield beach and put a tennessee shad on the other pole with no action. Got a 17" eye right off the getgo and it fell off right into the net. Nothing again for a while so swung out by pew. I put on a redcraw and got a 16" after a couple minutes. Then the game warden boarded my boat to check for fishing liscense,fish,and life jackets. No problem there,so I put all the gear back out and swung by #43 wp to pull out #3. Then back to pew and caught #4 at 7:30.. Nothing at 8 so I called it quits. Lots of pleasureboats out there and 1 cigar boat rung my eardrums with the ridiculously loud motor.Firecraw took 2,red craw 1,shad 1. Threw back a dink crappie and 2 dink channelcats.No lost baits.All eyes pretty much scattered.
2-17"
1-16.5"
1-16"
Water Temp: 86
Clarity: less than 1'
Got 5 this morning but it was really slow first couple hrs.Started trolling blackhawk at 5:30 a.m. Only a 13" crappie before 8:40. Then toward the moose, wp 43,then to pew and zilch.Then I headed to the humps and caught 2 in 20 mins.Lots of 4' water there and a spot at 3' that I marked for future reference. Hovered back and forth between the humps and nothing but a 3 lb channelcat and a few snags. Then trolled up to oldfield and picked up #3. Hover around there a bit and nothing.Then trolled up to the campground and caught #4,another 3 lb channelcat,and a white bass. Then around 10:50 picked up #5 at blackhawk. I marked tons of fish in the blackhawk thru campground area. I did throw away 1 fingerling and 2 eyes at 14" in the blackhawk area. I'll probably start out there tomorrow. They're all scattered and nothing big. 1st troll in a while that I didn't lose any keepers. .Tried til 10:45 and couldn't get #6.
All eyes were 15"-16.5". Firecraw on my main siderod took 4 and redcraw on my old broken basspro extreme took 1.
Water Temp: 82
Clarity-Less than a foot. Many,many snags but no lost baits.Lake's getting pretty low now. I'll be back out tomorrow morning!!!
Father's day weekend has always been one of the best weekends for fishing.I couldn't get my dad out or a couple other relatives so I went solo this morning.Got on the water at blackhawk at 5:45 a.m. and concentrated there because of yesterday's hot spot.I couldn't catch squat there at that time yesterday.
1st eye on at oldfield at 5:55 and roamed around there and snag city. Then hit the hot wp from yesterday and I got into a feeding frenzy. Pulled out triplet 15.5" saugeye in 10 mins. Then #5 by 6:30 and losing 2 eyes. By 7:00, I had my 6 keepers. It was only 2' waves out of the south so I started to cull out those 15"s. Headed back to oldfield, I pulled in the 20 incher. Made a few circles there and nailed a 20.5" personal best largemouth that was a heck of a fight. I didn't know it was a bass til it jumped 10' from the boat then straight down wrapping around a stump.Meanwhile,it had my other line tangled with that line wrapped around my kicker.Usually I lose 75% of the largemouths because of 8 1/2' salmon rods and low gear ratio line counters.They sure do peel off the line when I do get them. This one was gill hooked and heck of a time getting the firecraw out. Then trolled up to the hot wp from earlier and got a 17". Then by 8:30 I picked up #9 but it was only a 15". 1 monster snag before 9 a.m. and that did me in. No baits lost out of 8+ snags and even pulled up a chartuese hot-n-tot out by the campground. Hardly anybody around me and the few boats that were near my were hugging closer to the bank or 1/2 mile further out.1 guy started drifting 100' from my wp and I pulled out a 17" in front of him, LOL!
Only trash fish was that 20.5" largemouth weighing at 3.6 lbs.
One thing that bugged me was my main side rod has been pulling in 80% of the eyes compared to the other side rod. Same line,bumping bottom,and same firecraw, and that other side rod hasn't done squat.I used my broken extreme salmon rod and caught 1 yesterday,so I put on a brand new firecraw and that baby caught 3 keepers in a row. Maybe I got a bum firecraw on the other rod? Pretty weird because I use brand new baits as a last resort.The more chewed up they are,the more fish they catch.
1-20"
1-19"
2-17"
1-16.5"
1-15.5"
3 keepers thrown back!!
Water Temp:82
Clarity: less than a foot,which has been the same since memorial day weekend.
Saugmon do you keep everything you catch? Are you selling them, cause you got to have a freezer or two full by now. Great reports,but wish you could do more conservative fishing so everyone can enjoy the resource.
In response to: Saugmon do you keep everything you catch? Are you selling them, cause you got to have a freezer or two full by now. Great reports,but wish you could do more conservative fishing so everyone can enjoy the resource.
- If you eat 'em, keep 'em. If not, throw them back. As long as Saugmon is frying them up, I have no problem with keeping all of them.
Saugmon do you keep everything you catch? Are you selling them, cause you got to have a freezer or two full by now. Great reports,but wish you could do more conservative fishing so everyone can enjoy the resource.
to each their own. saugmon has just as much right to catch and eat as you do to catch and release.
Like 5o million others asked, They all get eaten! Part of em accidentally fell into my deep frier but you'll have that!!!The rest are vacuum sealed along with a double seal.
Whenever I take out guests ,they take the fish.Just ask Tom C! Little King will get a mess of them june 30 and 31. My entire extended family loves fish and I have a few fish fry's coming up after the water starts to boil.I give away a lot to personal and family friends.. I've had people offer me $ for fish but I've never taken a dime from them.
None goes to waste.I gotta ration it out to my mom and dad because mom will cook up a huge batch and ends up giving the leftovers to the cats. I was really PO'd about that last year,even though it was white bass.
SpeedyR: It was one of those days that I was at the right spot and the right time.They still wouldn't touch a bandit.Combination of some fronts moving through and new moon got them riled up! The one site I check out for game tables said today was a fair day with 1 star. Mon-Wed is 3 stars and no signs any cold fronts on the weather forecast!!
Good work saugmon! Enjoy your reports just wish I had the fish you are finding. My luck at Il this year hasn't been good. People need to be more concerned with the fish too little to keep that fishermen are keeping than the legal ones you take to eat. Enjoy!
Misterbreeze. I don't know you, and you don't know me. And, obviously, you do NOT know Saugmon. If you did, you would not make such a foolish accusation on here. Jealous ? I think so. Saugmon has worked his tail off to figure out these fish, and this lake. He has earned every one of them. He is more than generous with information, which I would probably not be. I had the pleasure of fishing with him once, 2 years ago. And, he gave me ALL the fish we caught that day. I could not convince him otherwise. He is a class act, which is more than I can say for you. You should be ashamed ! Go get 'em, Gary !!
I don't know Saugmon but enjoy all his post. He has it all dialed in. He always gives his info on these post and isn't just blowing smoke. I can say that if I did know him and seen him on the water I would say Hi, good job and find another lake because it is just understood that he has them in his boat and I would just be wasting my time. I wouldn't say anything bad about him but yes I am jealous of his abilities and knowledge.
Besides that they set daily limits and size limits for a reason. If someone catches their limit every day the scientist say it shouldn't hurt the population.
And thank you again Saug for the eyes, my family loves em! Hey hes good at what he does and thats catch eyes. If your good at it keep going. He takes people out and showes em how to do it. Hes teaching others how to troll and fish for em and hes got alot of information on the subject so others can enjoy the resource.
I got on the lake about 6 am. Went to pew and spent the next hour and half towing someone whose boat had broke down to moundwood. Went to humps and got two but nothing else all day.
I didn't see very many fishermen out today.
Saugmon, when I grow up I want to be just like you......did you use planer boards today?
You must not know much about Walleye or Saugeyes. They don't take the stress of being caught very well. Most of the time they are lethargic , almost dead, floating on their side by the time you get them to the boat. Over 30% of fish caught and released die anyhow...
I have in the past seen them floating around, I didn't realize that about them. I know that when we catch small one we always get them back in that water asap. Some people I know wont even touch the real small ones. The use a towel and unhook them while still in the water guess that is why.
I got on the lake about 6 am. Went to pew and spent the next hour and half towing someone whose boat had broke down to moundwood. Went to humps and got two but nothing else all day.
I didn't see very many fishermen out today.
Saugmon, when I grow up I want to be just like you......did you use planer boards today?
Waypoint #43 back in my record year of 2006. Set boat records of 17 keepers twice,and the latter was in 3 hrs of fishing in the p.m.. That 1 spot within a radious of 400' yielded 100+ keepers in 2006.It's an old buoy setting,which has never been put back on that exact spot.. I've only pulled out a dozen from there this season,but my baits do some weird stuff while hitting the bottom.I hope to see what exactly the structure is with my future DI sonar upgrade next season.
My gameplan was blackhawk/oldfield/campground,and then swing over to the humps. I never made it past oldfield or chippewa. No planerboards. Left it all at home.
Anybody that has ever been out trolling in hot weather with me,I finally fixed the vaporlock issue of my kicker. No more bending over and pumping up the primerball every 15 mins.I put the original portable tank in and mounted it on the back deck. After monitoring my mileage of the 6 hp nissan 4 stroke,I trolled friday 3+ hrs,sat 5.5 hrs,and sun 3.15 mins on 1.6 gallons of gas!! That kicker has payed for itself with 8 hrs per gallon.
Went to Indian Saturday morning was on the water by 530 and tolled til around noon. We fished everywhere around the lake pew, blackhawk, oldfield, even tried the deeper water by dream bridge. Could not catch a single eye only managed 4 catfish and a lot of snags. Saugmon what type of lure is your firecraw that you are referecing is it the color of a bandit or bomber?
Went to Indian Saturday morning was on the water by 530 and tolled til around noon. We fished everywhere around the lake pew, blackhawk, oldfield, even tried the deeper water by dream bridge. Could not catch a single eye only managed 4 catfish and a lot of snags. Saugmon what type of lure is your firecraw that you are referecing is it the color of a bandit or bomber?
You just have to cover many miles til you find the ones that wanna bite.You find that spot,you keep pounding it over and over and over.You can be at a spot one time,hit it 3 other times later,and the 5th time there and the bite is on. Oldfield is stump city,but I've pulled some hawgs out of that area.
Firecraws? Made by bomber. The ones I use are discontinued.Bomber reversed the crawdad profile to match their natural look in the water,but only on the 04 model.Speedyr is having good luck with the 04's.They always discontinue my hot bombers.I was prepared this time and stockpiled them!!! The firecraw doesn't even compare to a previously discontinued color I call Firebass.
They work well with my setup.Someone else using them may not have the same results.Same with others using rapala's and I've never caught squat with them.
Years vary as well.Some years they wouldn't touch a bomber and had to catch them on bandits. They were both working well til a couple weeks ago.They're treating my bandits like they have the plague.Even the white bass and channelcats won't touch them, LOL!
Might be a dumb question but do you tie them on or use snap swivels? For some reason my knots do not seem to hold as well when I tie onto a crank bait as they do on a jig or swivel. Maybe I'm doing it wrong but not sure.
Indian 6-15-12 P.M.
Indian 6-15-12 P.M.
Injun this afternoon. Had to wait for my truck,but did manage to start trolling at 4:45 p.m. I set outside one of the tri-humps and had a nice 18" eye on the firecraw off the getgo. It was barely hooked and got off just before the net.. Tried out there for a good 45 mins and snag city. Then swung up by oldfield beach and put a tennessee shad on the other pole with no action. Got a 17" eye right off the getgo and it fell off right into the net. Nothing again for a while so swung out by pew. I put on a redcraw and got a 16" after a couple minutes. Then the game warden boarded my boat to check for fishing liscense,fish,and life jackets. No problem there,so I put all the gear back out and swung by #43 wp to pull out #3. Then back to pew and caught #4 at 7:30.. Nothing at 8 so I called it quits. Lots of pleasureboats out there and 1 cigar boat rung my eardrums with the ridiculously loud motor.Firecraw took 2,red craw 1,shad 1. Threw back a dink crappie and 2 dink channelcats.No lost baits.All eyes pretty much scattered. 
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