Jig Rookie Posted May 15, 2022 Posted May 15, 2022 On 5/12/2022 at 8:45 PM, dgkasper58 said: OK I am done looking at these! Starting to throw the TK instead of the glide.. What retrieve is working for you right now? Have you ever swapped tails? I bought a blue fork tail and Love what it does to the bait! I'm running it pretty aggressively: cranking it down fast then deadwalking it subsurface with pauses, burn-burn-pause, deadwalk again, pause, etc. Just an aggressive, inconsistent cadence going for a reaction bite. The water in the ponds near me is really warm, I was fishing more slowly when it was colder. I haven't fished any different tails though, only the standard. On a side note, the rat bite is finally on. Went to a new pond about midnight, the dinks were fired up. Caught four this same size, figured there aren't any bigguns in this spot so I won't be making a return trip. Hopefully the bite is on at some of my bigger water spots. Quote
Super User slonezp Posted May 15, 2022 Super User Posted May 15, 2022 On August 20th the Conservation Heritage Education Foundation is hosting their annual Youth Day Game Fair. It's a day spent introducing children ages 5-15 to the outdoors. Events include fishing, archery, 22 and shotgun activities, and hunting dog training. Myself and @cadman along with others run the fishing station where we teach kids the fundamentals of fishing and how to cast different types of reels. The pond is stocked with bluegills and bass so there is a good chance your child might catch his/her first fish. Lunch is included and all the kids will get a door prize. For more information and registration click on the banner at the top of the page. https://sites.google.com/chefnature.org/chef/home VOLUNTEERS ARE ALSO WELCOME 1 1 Quote
Jp_midwest Posted May 16, 2022 Posted May 16, 2022 On 5/10/2022 at 8:14 AM, Jig Rookie said: With this warmup the last couple days I decided to go out overnight last night and see if the rat bite had started yet (checked my records from last year and my first rat fish was May 26th). There's a Public Works lake about a 20-minute walk (lot is closed of course so you gotta walk in and ninja it) that gets really weed-choked by mid-June so early season is the best time to hit it before it gets unfishable for everything but frogs. Winds were a constant 20mph with gusts up to 32, dang near whitecaps on this water. I did get a double-tap on the rat but not the usual kill shot-type hit, so I think we might still be a week or two away from them committing yet. As usual, though, the TK came through with this 3.59lb chunk at 12:30a. man you are having luck. i have gone out with the big baits but i have no luck. hopefully sooner or later i can catch a big bait fish. Quote
Bdnoble84 Posted May 16, 2022 Posted May 16, 2022 First glide bait bass. It needs some tweaking still because the hooks are too close together and i really need bigger hooks on it to keep em pinned. Also need to add alittle more weight in the front as the tail sits lower than the head. 1.15oz currently. 3 Quote
Jig Rookie Posted May 19, 2022 Posted May 19, 2022 The bass have moved up in my neck of the woods! I went to a forest preserve lake yesterday and there were a bunch cruising and a few on beds. Tons of bait up shallow too, so it's on now. I got one on a jig in 4-5ft, super clear water at this spot. 5 Quote
Jig Rookie Posted May 26, 2022 Posted May 26, 2022 The topwater bite has really heated up around me; I've had the Spook tied on for the last few days during these rainstorms. I've caught a bunch, only four keepers--two at night, two during the day. Rat bite should be right around the corner... 4 Quote
Jig Rookie Posted May 31, 2022 Posted May 31, 2022 Here are a few from the last week--things are starting to really heat up around here. I got out a few days; went to a bigger (to me) forest preserve lake and finally found a softbait bite--I haven't gotten a softbait fish in seemingly forever. Managed to stick two on the 7" Shellback Customs bluegill pattern. A couple nights later I hit up one of my local ponds after work and caught my biggest fish of the year so far on a Spook--just under 20" and 4.17lbs, she ate in 35mph gusts at about 12:30a. The Spook's been on fire at this pond for the last couple weeks now. Finally yesterday I'd planned to hit this same pond at 4a, fish til sunrise. Unfortunately I woke up with morning light coming through the window; I overslept and it was already 5:30. I almost didn't go I was so salty I'd missed the first-light window, but decided to go anyway and see if I could find any fish that hadn't packed it up for the day. Got lucky and found two: one on the TK and another Spook fish. All in all a pretty good week, and these gale-force winds have been AWESOME, my favorite fishing conditions. Hope you guys are getting out and sticking some too before this weather gets unbearable. 3 Quote
Bass Rutten Posted May 31, 2022 Posted May 31, 2022 The swimbait bite was on for me Sunday, with a twist. At a local spot I tied on a 1/10oz jig and 3.3” paddletail and was slow rolling it over a rocky finger near bottom around 10’ deep when a subtle tick came, after a short fight to my surprise a giant crappie rolled onto the surface that measured 15.5”, bang just like that new pb! I repeated this again about 15 minutes later with a thick bodied 11” crappie. With brutal wind gusts kicking up I decided to up-size to a 3.8 with 3/16oz to punch it out further, I thought to myself well probably only bass now and the next bite I reeled in a beauty of a crappie that measured 13” and had the whole rig in it’s throat, choked as they say. 90 minutes, 3 fish, 39.5” of crappie, short but fun day! 3 Quote
Super User slonezp Posted June 5, 2022 Super User Posted June 5, 2022 Bit of a complaint. What designates how or where the IDNR and/or the CCFP spends their money? Took my grandson to Beck Lake in Des Plaines to do a little fishing yesterday. My mistake for not doing a little research ahead of time. The shore is almost completely unfishable. I fished the lake a lot 30+ years ago when I was boatless. At that time about 60% of the shoreline had accessible fishing. 75% if you didn't mind getting a little muddy. Now, I'd say about 10% is fishable because of all the tree, bush, and brush growth. A real shame as that was a great bass lake for shore fishermen at one time. 1 Quote
Super User slonezp Posted June 6, 2022 Super User Posted June 6, 2022 Cook County forest preserve 1 Quote
Jig Rookie Posted June 8, 2022 Posted June 8, 2022 On 6/5/2022 at 3:21 PM, slonezp said: Bit of a complaint. What designates how or where the IDNR and/or the CCFP spends their money? Took my grandson to Beck Lake in Des Plaines to do a little fishing yesterday. My mistake for not doing a little research ahead of time. The shore is almost completely unfishable. I fished the lake a lot 30+ years ago when I was boatless. At that time about 60% of the shoreline had accessible fishing. 75% if you didn't mind getting a little muddy. Now, I'd say about 10% is fishable because of all the tree, bush, and brush growth. A real shame as that was a great bass lake for shore fishermen at one time. I had no idea Beck was once a good bass lake--I shore-fished it a couple times a few years back but it was full of goose poop and seemed kinda shallow and weedy. I figured any good fishing was out deeper from a boat. This past week I started fishing a knockoff of a Japanese bait called the Raid Japan Deka Dodge Crawler--I've seen these baits before, finally pulled the trigger over the winter. I test swam it one day after ice-out and it's a cool bait, kinda finicky and takes some tuning to get just right. I took it out to a forest preserve lake on a couple of those drizzly nights (ninja sessions cuz this place technically closes at sundown) and got a couple bites. I noticed, on these nights anyway, the crawler seems to get bigger bites; when I fish the Spook at this place it gets bit by all sizes, but the only two bites I got on the crawler were both tanks: a 19", 4.04lb and a 18", 3.79lb. I'm looking forward to getting out with this one a lot more this season. 3 Quote
Super User slonezp Posted June 8, 2022 Super User Posted June 8, 2022 Beck had a good population of 1.5-3lb bass25+ years ago. Don't know how it is today. Was a few kayakers out there fishing on Saturday. Seems to be the only way to fish the lake nowadays. 1 Quote
Super User slonezp Posted June 11, 2022 Super User Posted June 11, 2022 Mazonia??? Did some shore fishing at Braidwood and Mazonia today. So I'm reading the boating regs and it looks like all but 3 lakes are electric only. Question I have is, do I need to remove the gas motor to fish the electric only lakes? Quote
Skunked again Posted June 11, 2022 Posted June 11, 2022 Good question. A lot of the hp restricted lakes have changed. Anything over that limit is restricted to idle only. Quote
Super User slonezp Posted June 12, 2022 Super User Posted June 12, 2022 57 minutes ago, Skunked again said: Good question. A lot of the hp restricted lakes have changed. Anything over that limit is restricted to idle only. I saw that on the regs. The lakes that allow gas motors state "unlimited HP no wake". I just want to know if I drag the pond hopper down there, can I utilize any of the lakes or only utilize the ones that have no HP limits. We were shore fishing the north unit and I haven't been down that way in 10+ years. I was talking to a guy with a 10ft inflatable with electric propulsion. He had a nice sac of big crappies. Also saw a guy in a kayak land a couple decent bass. I didn't think to ask him at the time if he knew the regs. All the other boats I saw were kayaks. Some of the lakes on the south unit allow gas motors on idle. I like the fact that, on a beautiful Saturday, there was almost no one there. Quote
BigAngus752 Posted June 12, 2022 Posted June 12, 2022 13 minutes ago, slonezp said: I saw that on the regs. The lakes that allow gas motors state "unlimited HP no wake". I just want to know if I drag the pond hopper down there, can I utilize any of the lakes or only utilize the ones that have no HP limits. We were shore fishing the north unit and I haven't been down that way in 10+ years. I was talking to a guy with a 10ft inflatable with electric propulsion. He had a nice sac of big crappies. Also saw a guy in a kayak land a couple decent bass. I didn't think to ask him at the time if he knew the regs. All the other boats I saw were kayaks. Some of the lakes on the south unit allow gas motors on idle. I like the fact that, on a beautiful Saturday, there was almost no one there. Is this what you're looking for? "Trolling motor only, except Monster and Ponderosa Lake, which allow gasoline outboards (no wake)." https://www.ifishillinois.org/profiles/waterbody.php?waternum=04245 Quote
Super User slonezp Posted June 12, 2022 Super User Posted June 12, 2022 28 minutes ago, BigAngus752 said: Is this what you're looking for? "Trolling motor only, except Monster and Ponderosa Lake, which allow gasoline outboards (no wake)." https://www.ifishillinois.org/profiles/waterbody.php?waternum=04245 Yes and no. I want to know if I can launch the boat on the other lakes without removing the outboard. Quote
BigAngus752 Posted June 12, 2022 Posted June 12, 2022 25 minutes ago, slonezp said: Yes and no. I want to know if I can launch the boat on the other lakes without removing the outboard. Gotcha. I can't say for sure but I found this. It's from 2006 however... MazoniaMan Registered Joined Dec 31, 1969 266 Posts #3 · Dec 20, 2006 Gas motors on three lakes only at Mazonia Gas motors are only allowed in the Mazonia South Unit, currently on Monster, Ponderosa, and Eagle Lakes. No posted horsepower limits, however, they have no wake rules, and they are really starting to enforce those. Everywhere else at Mazonia North, and the walk-in lakes at Mazonia South, are electric trolling motors only. You can put in at a ramped North Unit lake if you pop the gas motor up and have a working trolling motor, as boaters often do when blown off of Braidwood by high winds. This information is posted onsite or available at the onsite office, but not on the DNR web site. If your hear a motor coming on the no-motor lakes, its DNR coming by to check your licenses, required gear, creel, etc. Enforcement got serious last year, where my boating friend got written up on the North Unit for not having a fire extinguisher, throw rope, whistle, and enough life vests for the people he had on the boat. Lots of fines. And over on Braidwood where they say at least a 14' boat and 40 HP motor are recommended, it's more than that, they won't let you ramp in if they see you've got under a 16' and less than 25HP; although I've seen people go on when the DNR is not present. 2 Quote
Super User slonezp Posted June 13, 2022 Super User Posted June 13, 2022 Oh joy! Tornado sirens going off. Guess I have to wait to get the grill started. 1 Quote
Super User slonezp Posted June 13, 2022 Super User Posted June 13, 2022 Grill is going. Channel 32 is reporting trees down in the neighborhood. Had some real bad lightning and high winds. Rain has stopped and wind is calm 1 Quote
Super User slonezp Posted June 14, 2022 Super User Posted June 14, 2022 Some crazy stuff. I texted my one and only employee who lives about a mile west of me. I just dropped off a generator. There are huge trees torn apart 1 Quote
Super User slonezp Posted June 17, 2022 Super User Posted June 17, 2022 Taking dad and the pond hopper to Mazonia tomorrow. Monster Lake to be specific. Haven't fished here before, minus last week, from shore. Anyone here have any advice? Quote
Super User slonezp Posted June 18, 2022 Super User Posted June 18, 2022 On the advice of Jon, of Jon's bait shop, we went to Pondo which is the largest of the strip mine lakes. No shortage of fish in the lake but there was no size to any of them. Water temp was 80 and it was a tad windy. We had to hide and couldn't fish any offshore structure where I was marking fish. We caught a ton of gills, redear sunfish, channel cats, and maybe 10 or 12 bass. Biggest bass may have been 13". All on live bait and wacky rigs. 3 Quote
Bassman37 Posted June 21, 2022 Posted June 21, 2022 The last time I was at Ponderosa Lake was about two years ago and everything I did catch was under 10 inches. I ran into a DNR agent that day and he said that they hadn't done any stockings at Mazonia in over five years. 1 Quote
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