nice one standman. what size spinnerbait? any plastic trailer? and how are you working it?

Western suburbs folks, get out there now before the cold weather comes! The bite is definitely on. Got 3 in 20 minutes on a swim jig and a undersized jig + jr chunk. Plus at least 3 more taps that I missed because I wanted to see exactly how long the fish were going to hang on before I could set the hook on them. The answer on those three? Not very long 

Boat not out and ready yet so hit the shore last night few a few casts. Loke starting the season out without a skunk. Got 1 pike. Surprised the see the weeds coming up already but was a mild winter. 

Fyi I saw and loudly heard two bass jumping and feeding at topwater last night. I didn't think it was warm enough yet for topwater fishing but I'll have my buzzbaits with me next time!

Carp where rolling on silver lake end of last week.

Just went to my favorite pond for about an hour, caught ten. All of them came on a bluegill colored red eye shad.

Yowza, yanked this girl out yesterday. What a beauty. It wasn't my intention to stick my fist in her mouth, but I didn't have pliers with me and she swallowed the red white chatterbait pretty far. 

I've been super busy. I haven't been back out. I'm off tomorrow (Good Friday) so I'll be going to Sangchris. Hopefully I have good luck. I may try to fish a pond too if I can get a hold of the owner.

 

 

Burtle please give an update on Sangchris. Thinking about going down there next weekend.

Went fishing today. Couldn't get the bass to bite but did catch a mess of gills.

Hit some small ponds here in Saint Charles and caught four large mouth in 30 minutes. 1-1/2  - 2 lbs. Used a craw color 1/4 oz swim jig with a keithtech 4" paddle tail plastic. The were hungry. 

 

On 3/25/2016 at 8:36 PM, Bear141 said:

Burtle please give an update on Sangchris. Thinking about going down there next weekend.

I've been out twice now in the last week. No luck what so ever. A buddy caught a few small cat fish, but I'm not into that. 

 

I think this weather is messing things up. I'll be going back out again Saturday afternoon. 

Anything going on in the far southern IL lakes?  Headed down next week.  Not sure what lakes I am going to fish yet.  Egypt and Cedar are the lakes I have been hitting the last couple years.  Thanks.   

8 hours ago, Junk Fisherman said:

Anything going on in the far southern IL lakes?  Headed down next week.  Not sure what lakes I am going to fish yet.  Egypt and Cedar are the lakes I have been hitting the last couple years.  Thanks.   

Still waiting on the new rig?

3 hours ago, slonezp said:

Still waiting on the new rig?

Yeap

Went out tonight for about a hour. Caught this guy the first cast. Didn't have a single bite after though. My buddy caught a small, small mouth while he was trying to catch catfish.

 

Caught two tonight. One on 5/16 spinner and one on 1/4oz jig with blue speck chunk jr. But man, fishing on a cold and windy night is like spankin it with sandpaper. I'm still gonna do it to get the payoff but it's a struggle. 

Well done Burtle 1 and Beardown 34!

Maybe the secret is night fishing.

this will be my first year experiencing the spawn, so I want to make sure I don't miss it -- is anyone in northern Illinois seeing any bass making beds yet? is it way too early?

It varies by water temp, not necessarily by dates. Once water gets in the 57-62 degrees they'll start laying on beds for spawn. Females lay eggs then retreat to deeper water. Males guard the nests from pesky bluegill.

Right now is prespawn and your best chance for catching big females and a potential PB.

I personally do not target bedding bass. 

Ponds warm up quicker. With the early ice out, might see it starting the end of April early May

Still pre spawn, I primarily fish a small shallow lake, water temp is about 52....been slow, been picking up fish with a jerkbait with a long pause

Blizzard like conditions at my house earlier today.  weather has been all over the place the last 2 months.  Heading to florida this weekend, hopefully we'll get some more stable weather when i get back

Yeah...snow today and 60 degrees tomorrow. Go figure!

it's annoying that bass don't read the rules and behave like they're supposed to. 32 degrees this morning, so time to go slow right? so i try a 1/4oz jig with a chigger craw -- nothing, not even a bump. then i switched to a red/white chatterbait and bang, 4 fish in 30 minutes. like i've said, even if i would have gotten skunked, something just makes it less disappointing to get skunked with a search bait, as opposed to a slower presentation. at least i feel like i covered a lot of water. i do clearly recognize that this approach stunts my growth as an angler, by falling back on presentations i like more, or have had more success with, versus forcing myself to try new techniques. 

the first fish is about as big as i've seen in this pond. 

what do you guys think of the health of the second fish? it seemed to have a disproportionately large mouth, compared to its skinny belly. it fought pretty hard, and didn't seem particularly unhealthy. do you think it's a healthy little guy waiting to fill out? or a hungry one that is not eating well in the small pond?