Braidwood Lake - May 18, 2009

http://www.catchphotorelease.com/05182009.htm

I had originally planned to fish Braidwood Lake on Friday but the rain and storms kept me home. I had the boat hooked up and ready Thursday night but when I checked the radar early Friday morning, I went out and put the boat away just in time to catch the first few drops of what turned out to be an all day rain event. We got dumped on.

Braidwoods Island.

I repeated Thursday nights routine on Sunday evening and hooked the boat up again. This time when I got up Monday morning, there was nothing but blue sky forecast. Unfortunately that doesn't make for the best fishing. I headed out anyway to fish Braidwood Lake for my first time this year.

Another Fisherman.

I put the boat in the water and found that the water was 74 degrees at the north ramps. Perfect! I made a very short run to a spot that's always been good for a fish or two and didn't get a bite. After fishing that area with plastics and crank baits, I ran a little further.

Another scenic area.

I stopped the boat a ways off the the drop off I planned to fish and started throwing a crank bait onto a flat as I headed for the drop off. On the second cast I hooked what turned out to be the smallest Bass of the day. Once I hit the drop off I started throwing plastics. The wind had picked up and it became harder to fish the plastics but I managed to catch one more Largemouth anyway.

A typical Largemouth from today.

After covering that area, I ran a little further to a deep area that has always been good to me and also given me some of the bigger fish I've caught from this lake. Again I started throwing plastics and caught two fish but they were about the same size as the previous fish. After hitting that area I made a wide circle and fished it again with deep diving crank baits and caught two more Bass that were the same size.

From there I ran a short distance to another similar area and caught another fish on a crank bait. I tried throwing the plastics again but the wind was really pushing me around in that spot so I made another long run.

A Pelican in Braidwood Lake.

I wound up on the hot side of the lake where I found the warmest water to be 87 degrees. I fished a rip rap bank and hooked a small Bass on the first cast but he came off before I got him in the boat so he doesn't count. I continued letting the wind carry me up that bank and didn't get another bite.

I deceided to ride around the warm side of the lake and see what kind of wild life I could find. Most of the Pelicans stay in the restricted area but there were a couple where I could get good photos with the zoom lens. I also saw a couple Deer walking in the water and several other bird species.

A deer walking in the water.

On the way back I stopped at the spot where I had caught 4 fish earlier. I managed to get three more Largemouth that were the same size as the others. I decided not to make another pass through that area but go back to the first spot I tried before heading home. I let the wind (which was blowing pretty good by this time) carry me through the area and got one bite on a craw tube, but didn't hook up. By this time it was 11:30 am so I decided to put everything away and head for the ramps.

Another Bass in the boat

So for the day I wound up with 9 Largemouth in the boat the biggest of which was probably 14 inches and the smallest was probably 10 inches. I'm guessing these were fish that the state stocked last year to try to help the lake rebound from a major kill a few years back. That kill, caused by 135 degree water, also wiped out all the vegetation in the lake but I saw signs that the weeds are coming back. I have also read that the state is also adding aquatic vegetation but I didn't see any evidence of that.

Birds over the water.

Since I was able to catch 9 fish on a bright sunny day, that leads me to think that if they can keep the water temperature below 100 degrees on the hot side, the lake should be pretty good next year. It's always been tough to fish that lake in bright sunshine so that fact I caught that many leads me to think that there are a lot of fish in that class which will be even bigger next year because that lake has a longer growing season due to the artificially warmed water.

Heidecke Lake - May 4, 2009

http://www.catchphotorelease.com/05042009.htm

Not much to tell. Fishing was pretty slow and the lake was getting more crowded as the day progressed.

I got there at 7:15 am and fished for quite a while before I had a fish hit. Whatever it was was small and didn't stay hooked. At least that gave me the confidence to keep throwing that minnow rap knowing that something would hit it. At about the same time I saw a troller catch a fish out in the middle of the lake.

About an hour later I had another fish on. It turned out to be a nice Walleye. Within the next 10 minutes I had 2 more of them in the boat - all nice fish.

But that was it for quite a while. Right before noon I caught a small Drum and that was all it took for me to pack things up and head for home.

The water temp was 57 to 61 and the sun was shining brightly. The wind started out of the east but had shifted to out of the south before I left. The parking lot was pretty crowded when I left too.

Lake of the Ozarks Trip - April 23, 24, 25, 2009

http://www.catchphotorelease.com/04252009a.htm

http://www.catchphotorelease.com/04252009b.htm

I met Mason Gierke from Limestone, IL at Mikes house in Wilmington at 5:30 am Thurs and we began our drive to Lake of the Ozarks for a few days of Bass and Crappie fishing. We took a detour to Warsaw Mo where Mason had to trade in his boat for a brand new one. He got a brand new Triton Bass boat. From there we headed for the lake.

As we were heading to the dealership, and as we headed away from it, I got to see quite a bit of Truman Lake. It’s muddy water with a lot of standing dead tree. Looks like real good fishing. We also crossed the Osage river a couple times at the West end of the state. We also crossed a creek on the way which was where I saw the only Bald Eagle of the trip. It was sitting in a branch over the creek.

We got to the lake and had a quick dinner then headed out for some fishing. We got a few but it was slow going. The water was still in the low to mid 50s and 5 feet lower than normal. It was also a lot clearer than last year. It was also 95 degrees and windy when we got there.

Mike, Barney, and Terry

The fish did not want the same stuff we got them on last year. Mike got a couple on plastics, but we discovered as we were Crappie fishing that the bass wanted the road runners we were throwing for the Crappie. Ok, problem solved, now we’re catching bass. But I had to keep slinging those DTs every now and then, and every now and then I’d get a nice fish, but not at last year’s pace.

Me with a Largemouth Bass

After it got dark, the Crappie were cleaned and we all congregated in Mikes condo for more snacks before bedtime.

A nice Crappie

By 6:00am Friday morning we were back on the water. We all fished until 10:00 am when we headed in and Mason made breakfast. Same old story as far as fishing goes. Got some here. Got some there. The wind and heat made fishing in the afternoon tough so we went out for a short time then headed in for an early dinner. Chef Mike and Chef Mason cooked up some good stuff. Brisket, Gumbo, Jambalaya, etc…

At the end of the evening, all the legal crappies we had got cleaned and put in the freezer. We’d eat some more, talk, then pass out.

Saturday morning was a repeat of the previous. Mason and I fished together while Mike, Barney, and Terry fished out of Mikes Ranger. They seemed to catch more crappie than we did, but Mason caught the biggest one in an unlikely spot. He decided he wanted to go to the opposite side of the complex and fish those docks. We moved along each one and pitched the road runners into the slips and got a few. Mason cast to the corner of the furthest dock out on the point which was over 50 feet of water and hooked into a goliath crappie. We thought he had a big bass. He threw over open water and got the thing which surprised us because there’s nothing out there for it to relate to. He out crappie fished me all three days, but I got at least one really big crappie Friday night on a DT, but I left the cameras in my other bag.

After dinner Saturday, we headed out again and started at the front of our cove while the other guys headed to the back of our cove and worked towards us. We didn’t get more than a couple “too small to keep” crappie so we went our separate ways. Mason made the right choice as far as picking a new spot to fish because there was only one other boat in there. The wind had chased most of the fishermen off the water so we had the place to ourselves. We caught some nice fish and after we passed the last point we would have fished before we crossed paths with the other boat, I picked up the DT6 and slung it across the point. I cranked the handle a few times and the lure just stopped. I popped the rod a few times thinking I was snagged and then the line took off sideways away from the point. I pulled back told Mason I had a big fish on. I thought it was a big Drum. After I got a glimpse of it I told Mason it was a huge bass and to get the net. By the time I got the fish to the boat, he was ready and scooped it up on the first try. We thought it might have been a spot because of the brownish coloring and if so, it would have beaten the MO state record by a pound or more, but it was definitely an old Largemouth Bass. So a year to the day after catching my personal best Largemouth, I got my second best. 8 lbs! That was the highlight of the trip for me. We all met back at the boat slip and headed up to enjoy the rest of the evening from the patio.

The best fish of the trip

A Pileated Woodpecker

There was plenty of Wildlife to photograph around the State Park. We saw Pileated Woodpeckers, Hawks, Osprey, Turkey Vultures, Deer, and we heard wild Turkeys every morning making noise in the woods on the other side of the cove. Squirrels were running around the shoreline almost everywhere we went and we saw a few pretty big snakes.

More Pictures:
http://www.catchphotorelease.com/bass26.htm
http://www.catchphotorelease.com/PileatedWoodpecker1.htm
http://www.catchphotorelease.com/bass27.htm
http://www.catchphotorelease.com/bass28.htm

Des Plaines River - April 17, 2009

http://www.catchphotorelease.com/04172009.htm

Turtle

It was a great day to be outside. Bright Sunshine. Almost no wind. Mild Temps. Lots of little critters were out enjoying the sunshine.

A nice day for sure, but terrible conditions for finding active fish. We caught a few nice catfish, Drum, a White Bass, and several smaller Largemouth and Smallmouth on crankbaits, but no decent Bass.

Catfish

We fished plastic worms, lizards, and tubes and only had a couple pickups. The bright sunshine had the fish pushed away from all the spots where I can usually find a couple good ones. I had one giant fish grab a GULP worm, but all we could make out was a very large and long slender fish. It could have been a Gar, Catfish, or Pike but we'll never be sure since it let go of the worm at the boat.

The river was still very stained and there was a lot of debris in places. The temperatures away from the discharges were in the mid to upper 50s, and in the low 60s around the discharge we checked out.

Bright sunny days usually mean slower fishing on the river, but every once in a while you get a surprise that makes the day totally worth it. That didn't happen today but we were still glad to have been able to get out on the water for a while.

LaSalle Lake March 27, 2009

http://www.catchphotorelease.com/03272009.htm

I got to the lake just after sun up and it was cold and windy. There was a lot of fog blowing over the water from the warm side of the lake. Once you left the ramp area, visibility went down and you had slow way down.

A boat ahead in the fog.

Once I approached the spot where we did good last week, I saw there were three boats on it so I moved down the bank a ways and started to fish. It took about 20 minutes before I caught the first fish. It wasn't the biggest fish in the lake, but it was a fish. As I moved down the bank I noticed a large bird in the same tree where we had seen another large bird the week before. This time it was a Bald Eagle and I was able to get a couple photos despite the fact it was a quarter mile away.

Bald Eagle

There was a lot of wildlife around the lake today including nesting geese, turkey vultures, redwing blackbirds, and seagulls. There were plenty of large carp spawining in the rocks on the warm side of he lake and a few of them came all the way out of the water whle chasing each other over the rip rap.

Turkey Vulture

Nesting Goose

I spent most of the day throwing crank baits and I probably chose a larger bait than I should have because I ran across a former fishing partner who was using a smaller lure and he had a couple real nice fish in his livewell that he released after I took a couple pictures for him.

I tried a couple more spots with similar results and then ran to a spot where boat control would be a little easier in the wind. I deceided to throw a plastic worm and managed to land a decent catfish on it. He could have swallowed the bass I caught a couple casts later.

I worked my way around to the wind blown bank and the average size of the fish went up a little, but after looking at my watch I realized I had better head for the ramp after the next fish. It took about three minutes and another 15 inch Largemouth was in the boat.

The water temperature was 63 at the ramp and in the mid 80s in the discharge canal. I didn't spend any time in the discharge canal because the wind wasn't making it easy to fish in there the way I wanted to.

The wind was so strong out of the north that even after I hooked the boat to the trailer, the tail would blow off to the side making it impossible to pull the boat out of the water without having the boat rest on the fender. Lucky for me another boater was kind enough to hold the boat steady for me while I pulled forward up the ramp.

Using Satellite views of Fishing Lakes

I recently updated the pages on my site that allow you to display satellite views of different lakes. Google offers some great technology to webmasters that allows them to bring visitors some very useful mapping options for their favorite fishing holes.

http://www.catchphotorelease.com/lakemaps.htm

So what can you do with these pages?

The first thing that you would want to do is click on the lake you want to visit. If you don't have the Google Earth plug-in, you will be prompted to download it. Also, if you do not have a compatible web browser, you will be shown a list of browsers that have been tested by Google and certified to work with their Google Earth technology.


Once a lake is displayed on your screen, you will want to use the slider control to zoom in or out. some of the lakes offer very high resolution graphics and you can zoom in very close. Next, the top control allows you to level off and choose where "North" will be oriented so that you have more of a bird's eye view of the lake. You can pretend you are bird or that you are flying around the lake in an airplane. The middle control will let you control your flight. You will want to spend some time experimenting with the controls until you are proficient at flying your way around the lake.

If you plan to fish the lake, you can look for points, coves, downed trees, or other structure. You can develop a plan to hit these areas rather than launch with no plan at all. This way you will be more likely to be fishing water that contains fish. On some of the maps, you can even see drop offs, mud lines, eddys, and other things you would not be able to see from a boat. Once you have a general idea of where these things are, you can use the electronics in your boat to learn more about the areas and fish them more effectively.

Some other things I have added to the pages allow you to see a standard map, hybrid map (combination of a satellite and standard map) or a down looking satellite view. These can help you find your way to the lake or locate the various amenities that might be near the lake. You do not need the Google Earth Plug in to use these maps.

If there is a lake you'd like to see added to my web site, let me know. Even if you don't plan to visit some of the lakes, you can still have some fun pretending you are a bird.

LaSalle Lake March 18, 2009

I met Mike Matlock at the boat ramps just as the lake was opening. It was still dark so it took an extra minute or two to get the lights out and set up. As Mike was backing my vehicle and the trailer down the ramp, I realized that the drain plug was still in the car. Mike stopped in time, and after I put the plug in we set out into the darkness.


We ran towards the warmer side of the lake and found a spot about halfway down one of the banks, far enough away from the other boats that were starting to congregate on that side of the lake. After a few minutes of casting it was "Fish On"! I landed a nice Smallmouth before the sun was up. Mike quickly followed with a nice Largemouth, then another, then another, then another....

Mike with a nice LaSalle Lake Smallmouth Bass

For a while it seemed like every cast was good for a fish. I threw crank baits and Mike switched off between a small crank bait and a 7 inch worm. I'm pretty sure he caught more fish on the worm than I caught on the crank baits, and he didn't have to worry about those sure-set hooks winding up stuck in his finger like I did. Ouch!

The sun came up a short time later and looked spectacular through the clouds. Fortunatly for us, it quickly dissapeared behind more clouds and that helped keep the fish biting. Once the sun made a brief appearance later in the morning, the hot bite quickly stopped and the fish were fewer and farther between.

LaSalle Lake Sunrise

Mike and I lost count of how many fish we caught. Most were in the 12 to 15 inch range with a few larger ones thrown in. Both of us lost a couple really big fish before we were able to get them to the boat, but we caught more than enough nice ones to make us happy. We caught Largemouth, Smallmouth, Catfish, Drum, and a few Striped Bass.

Mother nature blessed us with better weather than what was predicted. It was warmer than forecast, and the rain showers held off until the boat was washed, covered, and put away. The water temperatures at the lake ranged from around 62 at the ramp to the mid 80s in the discharge canal.

More Pictures from this trip:
http://www.catchphotorelease.com/03182009.htm

You can visit LaSalle Lake and take a 3D Tour here:
http://www.catchphotorelease.com/LaSalle.htm