I was on spring break last week, and while some my friends were headed somewhere warm with thoughts of boozing it up all weekend, I was stuck back in Illinois working. The family is also trying to get an old farm house at our place remodeled for my mom and dad to move into this fall, so that in itself is a full time job. Well Sunday found me finally taking some time off. I knew there were some places on our farm that I still wanted to shed hunt, but the idea of trying to catch a few bass won. I was at my friends house picking him and his boat up at 4:30 that morning and 2 hours later we were at the boat ramp for the lake. It was about 45 out with a slight sprinkle, but nothing to bad. This was a new lake to us, but it's reputation is a good one in our state. A power plant keeps water temps fairly warm throughout the year, as was evident by the steam coming up for the water surface. The plan was just to hit a few main lake points and then make a run all the way up the warm water arm trying to catch a few fish in shallows. We found our first point, and my 3rd cast of the year produced the first bass of the year by slowly working a Rat-L-Trap across some trees in about 15 feet of water. We thought we were going to get into the fish pretty good when the next 10 minutes produced 3 more quick fish, but then the wind moved in, making it very difficult to fish the points we were on. The warm water had a few soft bites, but no fish. Still a good morning to get out on the water though. Hoping to make a weekend trip to Illinois #1 bass lake in about a month. It's been 2 years since I have been there, and hope to make it back there this spring.
We still have 15 or so inches of ice on all of our lakes, so it'll be awhile until I can get the boat out. Looks like fun!
Sweet! I got out this weekend myself. The winter walleye season was open till today, and they are just starting to run in the rivers, which is the only open water we have right now. We were fishing the boat locks along the Mohawk river, and I managed to hook two seperate fish right on the tailwater side of the lock, unfortunately both of them came off as I was trying to pull them up the wall. Can't wait for the lakes to open up. In just about a month, the stripers will be running in the Hudson and I'm going to try and get after them a couple of times this year with my wife's cousin, he's got a great boat for this stuff and I'm really looking forward to that.
I've heard Gillespie has really turned on here in the last few years, but I have never fished it. Some of the reports I've read said that some pretty big fish were being pulled out too. Coffeen was a nice lake, had the wind died down a little, I think we might have done a little better. The crowd there though, was something that I could live without. Probably 50-55 boats at the ramp when we pulled in. If you ever get the chance, check out Newton Lake. You won't be disappointed.
Nice! A buddy and I are going out in the morning. I know the waters still quite cold but I want to catch a striper so badly in my kayak.
We made it back out again Saturday....and oh what a day it was. I'm not sure if there was a tourney going on there or what, but the parking lot was crammed full of boat trailers, and we had a slight wait at the ramps. Anyways, a cool morning awaited us with a temp of about 45 and a strong wind when we hit the water at 7:30. Right off the bat I saw a bass swirl about 10 feet from the boat, and caught him on a Shadalicous swimbait. Over the next hour, we boated 3 more bass with 2 being keepers (15 inch minimum) on Rat-L-Traps. Since this is a power plant lake, the water stays warm year round. We made a move up the warm water arm, and my first 2 casts with a swimming senko produced 2 fish. Over the next couple hours we just trolled along the banks throwing senkos, swimming senkos, and french fries. The total number on the day was 64 bass in the boat. It was an unbelievable day on the water for us. Below is a picture of me and my friend after both hooking 2 bass at the same time, and putting them in the boat together.
