Saturday, April 30, 2011

Nothing

I tried chub, sunfish, and cut sucker and didn't get a bite. Some guys down on the rocks caught four (?) on nightcrawlers (?).


I've heard that tadpoles are no good for bait because they produce some toxic material and unfortunately I found one in my bait bucket with my bait. I'm wondering if what I heard about tadpoles is true, is it possible for them to contaminate other bait when in something as small as a bait bucket. Something to think about.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Some fish, finally

Two channel cats and a flathead took a sunfish and found a circle hook inside. It was the first time I used a circle hook and I'm guessing the first time those three catfish ever put the smack down on a sunfish and found a circle hook inside. I missed one other fish. I had a bullhead on my other rod and never got any action on him. There were several other people fishing in the area but I didn't see any action.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Same story, different day

I dropped a bullhead and a sunfish in the Skunk River this evening and came up with nothing. The same story keeps repeating day after day after day. It is either the rain or the wind that keeps the boat in the garage so I haven't even been able to go look for them. I have been sitting on the dam and moving the bait around every fifteen minutes or so.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Jumping carp

I gave it another try this afternoon but put a bullhead on one line. Nothing! A couple other people did catch a fiddler a piece on crawlers. Cool and windy. Day three for the jumping carp. Maybe I should start fishing for carp. Anybody have a good dough ball recipe? I wonder if Chub would let me borrow his carp boat to go after the carp?

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Carp jumping(?)

I've tried fishing every day for I don't know how long and I haven't had any luck. Yesterday I noticed the carp had started jumping and and they were still doing it today. Looking back I remember that the carp were jumping when we were catching the flatheads a couple weeks ago so I'm starting to wonder if there is a connection. Now that the carp are jumping again I'm waiting to see if the catfish start biting again. If they do start biting it might prove I'm on to something. If not, it might prove that I'm full of it.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Rain

In case you haven't looked outside today, ITS RAINING! Imagine that. I'm done waiting for better weather. I've been out everyday but I'm starting to think the catfish don't like the rain. I've always thought that catfish are already wet so a little rain must not bother them but I am beginning to wonder. All I can do is try. If the weather ever settles down I can put the boat in and go look for them.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We're hoping you had a good day, whether at home with family or on the river chasing cats. I did a little both. The fishing didn't go so well as there is nothing going on right now. Pulled a few sunfish out of Pond X so I guess I can say I didn't get skunked. There was one boat on the river but I think the weather we have had in the past has most of us a little "rain" shy. The chance for rain today was pretty slim but a lot of us were thinking, it's gonna rain, it has every day for the last two weeks or so. So far it hasn't.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Not much going on at the river lately. I tried twice today and came up with nothing. The sunfish I was using and the stink and crawlers everybody was using did not work. There was a boat in the water at Water Works Park. I almost forgot to mention that it RAINed on and off all day. I'll bet you wouldn't have guessed that!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

fighting the elements

You probably already know what I'm going to say but I'll say it anyway. It was cold, windy and rainy today. I know, big surprise! One of the gates was open on the dam this afternoon and the waster was reaslly pushing through. I tried to fish the only calm water in the tailrace but didn't find any fish. I didn't fish long because nothing was biting and I wanted to be home in time to watch Swamp People. They caught something.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Rising water

The rain we got over the last two and a half days brought the Skunk up two feet or so since yesterday. I'm guessing the bite will take off in the next day or so but nothing was going on this afternoon. A few tiny channel cats were biting in the slow water, a couple knuckleheads were catching them, not me. I moved a few sunfish around in the the tsilrace below the dam but came up empty.


The sun finally showed its self this afternoon but we are going to pay for it. This morning the weather channel was saying some amount of rain six out of the next seven days. You know what they say about pay backs.

Monday, April 18, 2011

I didn't really think much would be happening at the river but I wasn't doing much around the house so off to the river I go. I moved a couple sunfish around the slow water area below the dam at Oakland Mills and didn't find any fish. At that point I didn't haver much to lose so I tossed a sunfish into the fast water below the spillway. I ended up catching four channel cats in the fast water as the current pushed my line back across the tailrace. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

It was a little chilly this morning so I stayed close to the house. Put the boat in the water around 2 p.m. The water is getting low but I tried to get my boat passed the ripples anyway. It was close but I didn't make it. I did manage to put a new edge on my prop though. It has that serrated look now. Lots of bites and fiddlers on stink bait but nothing on sunfish. I watched two rookies trying to put a boat on , or maybe they were taking it off the trailer. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure what they were trying to do. Two other guys came up the river but I didn't see them catch anything. Of course we had to get our daily rain.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

KingKat weigh in

I took a ride to Burlington, Iowa today to watch the weigh in at the Cabelas KingKat catfish tournament. Anglers from Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri and Ohio participated in the tournament with many anglers from eastern Iowa, several of which were from my hometown of Mt. Pleasant. The winning limit of five fish weighed in at over 37 pounds with the biggest fish weighing just over 9.5 pounds. Several teams checked in with just one or two fish and the lightest weight I remember being just 1.42 pounds. I have to admit I was just as interested in the boats as I was the fish. The boats ranged from a basic 16 foot model to a 24 footer with all the bells and whistles.

The big surprise ?

Hey guess what? Its saturday, at least ten degrees cooler than it has been recently, windy and oh yeah, it's raining. I forgot to mention that the wind is blowing 24 with gust to 31 and the wind chill is a smokin' 24 degrees. Not really a surprise. Hell, its year four of this weather pattern. Even I expected nothing different. Gotta go. I'm headed to the river!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Chub fished from the dam all day and I joined him around 5 pm. Terry showed up around fifteen minutes after me . We had the whole area covered with all kinds of bait but still caught only a couple fish. We didn't catch many fish this evening but we had a bunch of laughs.


I ran three bait traps this afternoon and ended up with six bait fish. It wasn't worth the effort today. The bad news is that I accidently caught and drowned a mink (?) in one of my bait traps. A first for me. I have seen chubs in the creek so I am a little surprised I only caught two chubs and four sunfish. I have seen days when I have caught four and five dozen chubs in my traps. Not today.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

I'm here, lets fish

After fishing Pond X for sunfish with Chub and Buster, I decided to drive down to the river to check things out. One guy was cleaning three channel cats he had caught on chubs a little earlier. I was there with rod and bait, I had to give it a try. I caught one flathead within about fifteen minutes and got a second bite about an hour later but missed him. I hadn't planned on fishing so the little success I had after deciding to fish at the last minute made it worth it.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Along day but worth it

Chub was able to fish below the dam at Oakland Mills most of the day and caught nine fish, both flatheads and channel cats on nightcrawlers, sunfish and chubs. After work I ran down and managed to catch four before calling it quits. We had to work for them though. During the long slow spells we constantly moved the bait around looking for them.


I left the house and went to work at 6:15 this morning and just made it home at 9:00 tonight. We still had bait and I wanted to stay but I have to work tomorrow. Sometimes being responsible really stinks. If I was a real man I would have stayed until the bait was gone and then called in sick tomorrow.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

After fishing morning and afternoon yesterday and not catching a fish I decided that I wouldn't bother today. I did drive down to the river just to see what was going on. There was one small boat below the dam and I did see them catch at least one small channel cat. There was quite a few people fishing from the dam but I didn't see much happening up there. There was rumour of twelve channel cats being caught overnight, the biggest being around seven pounds.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

First launch

We fished off the dam this morning and didn't have any luck other than Chub's big carp. I'm not pointing any fingers but somebodies carp stunk up my drop net. This afternoon we launched the boat for the first time this year and tried a couple spots but the luck didn't get any better. There were a few fiddlers being caught today but nothing more.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Wind and rain

The sun was out briefly today but we needed our daily dose of wind, clouds and rain. We got it. Since the weather wasn't good for fishing I decided to ride down to Ft. Madison with Chub. He was going to a boat dealer to look for some boat accessories so I tagged along. The weather channel is calling for rain four out of the next seven days. Are you surprised? I'm not. I will be surprised if we get one full day, sunrise to sunset, of sunshine. I give!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

There were several guys fishing from the dam but no catching going on. Chub and I decided tho hit Pond X and catch some bait for use at a later date. It was only little green sunfish but we caught fish. I'm getting a little anxious to put the boat in the water but the weather has prevented that so far. Mother nature has thrown some sort of curve ball at us every weekend and this weekend looks to be more of the same old thing. Scattered and isolated thunderstorms are forecast for this weekend. Nice huh!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Wind blown sunfish

I didn't think the river would be any good tonight so I decided to hit Pond X and fish for sunfish. The wind was blowing pretty good out of the west. Fishing the east side of the pond was good for maybe 6 or 8 and then it died off. I was ready to go but decided to fish the west side of the pond before leaving. It was noticeably calmer on the west side because the bank and the weeds protected an area of the pond from the wind. The sunfish were there and were biting only seconds after the bait hit the water.

Monday, April 4, 2011

WINDY!

Its forty degrees colder today than yesterday and still windy. 45 mph gust to be exact! Not much fishing going on. I got a bag of concrete and made five small anchors for trot lines just in case I decide to run them. I poured the concrete in large (2 lb. ?) cottage cheese containers and then put a small ( 12 inches, ?) length of chain in the concrete to tie the trot line to.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Don't buy Hodgman

I think it was a year ago but it might actually be two years ago that I bought a pair of Hodgman hip boots to wear when I run my bait traps. They were always kept in the garage or shed and only saw the light of day while I was wearing them to run the bait traps or while sitting in the back of the truck for the short three or four minute ride to and from a local creek. Imagine my surprise when I pulled them from my shed and found them to be dry rotted. Junk! The straps used to hold them up fell apart when I touched them and the boots themselves were cracked and split at different points up and down the legs. Junk! I am at least smart enough to realize that things do wear out but I also know how little I used these hip boots and how well I took care of them. There is no way these boots should be falling apart, but they are. My adviced to you today? If you want to get your feet wet, buy a pair of Hodgman hip boots or save yourself the money and the aggravation and just go barefoot. Either way you will surely get soaked!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Catchin' bait

There was nobody at Oakland Mills this morning. I went to an auction today because I heard there was a lot of fishing gear and a boat going on the block. Most of the gear was old and worn out. The Lowe boat was a 1652 with a 40 hp. The motor couldn't be started because "it needed a starter" (scary). What else could be wrong I wondered. The boat was riveted but I would have like to have had it, minus the motor. The extra four inches of width seems to make quite a difference. It sold for $2700. Anyway. I hit Pond X this evening and caught green sunfish. After vaccum packing them they went in the freezer for use at a later date.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Nothing again

The sun finally came out but the wind is blowing thirty. There were two trucks at the dam but nothing I recognized. Not much going on.