Norm M

Between the iced over river in the recent cold snap and some skunk trips , I just haven't felt that groove . Today was the day it took a turn for the better. The gauge is still broke from the ice and the battery on my thermometer chose today to crap out, minor details . The river is up and out of it's banks at spots and definitely muddy and cold . Mudlines at creekmouths as the creeks are less muddy than the river . Air temps 30ish , overcast, slight breeze . I wore gloves while walking about but fished without them . Today was a tour of inflows, shoreline related slack/slow spots and shoreline related eddies. No wading strictly from shore . Govt. Mule [ Telstar Sessions ] was cranked on the drive from spot to spot , just felt like that kind of day . 3 smallmouth bass , average sized all on 1/0 weighted keeper hook with a 4 inch 'pede . 1 off a hump in slow water, 1 from the sweetspot from the head off an eddy and 1 off some rip rap by a boat launch . All three fish hit real light, felt mush when I started dragging the lure again after long pauses . Also got 1 drum smallish in size, off the same rig off the outside seam of the same eddy I got the smallmouth in . Bottom content in the slow area was mostly cobble with some larger rock . The bottom of the eddy was a mix of cobble, soft dark , sand and waterwillow stubble . The smallmouth was on the tip of a waterwillow stubble point that caused the eddy . The drum was on cobble . 1 pike on a spoon in a eddy behind a riprap point, bottom cobble to soft muck/sand . Pike was at the base of the riprap on the transition from hard to soft bottom . It popped the spoon hard as it was dropping . Thanks to using tieable wire , I landed it . Decent size but nothing to really brag on . 5 walleye , all at inflows with cobble to larger rock bottoms . 3 on 1/8 oz darter head jig with jig spinner and swimbait with a slow steady retrieve just above bottom inside the seam of the faster river flow. All three of them grabbed it after it made contact with a rock or hump . 2 walleye on a rapala jointed floating minnow , slow retrieve against the current on creek/river seam . I just felt the vibration stop and set the hook, never really felt a hit . Best guess is they took it and swam towards me . Walleyes small to medium sized 5 crappie in slower water between the outside seam and the shore, suspended in water column. 1/16 oz ball head jig with jig spinner and sassy shad, two to three count drop, then slow steady retrieve . same general area I got the smallmouth on the hump . Crappies good sized. I saw a lot of water fowl , a handful of hawks and one small flock of turkeys . Spooked one deer out in the woods, squirrels were active, I saw beaver and coon tracks in softer bottom along the shore but never saw the critters themselves . Only meet one other guy out fishing, a bunch of folks out riding bikes, walking and jogging the paths. Some very nice spandex out on the paths

my wife using a disc camera got the perfect shot of a covered bridge mirrored in the water below , many moons ago. we showed it to a guy the next year that had more cameras than I have fishing gear . when he found out what kind of camera she used, he left muttering about the injustice of it all .

Get yourself a map of all the Covered Bridges in Parke County . A lot of streams to check out at the bridges . Raccoon Lake[Mansfield Reservoir] used to get a good White Bass run below the dam . Brown County State Park had some decent fishing back when I got over that way . Check out the Indiana Smallmouth Alliance forums for more water to check . The Kankakee river is better on my side of the border as it has not been channelized . If you come east to Illinois to check it out , PM me and I'll point you in the right direction if I can't actually meet you . I've been kicking around that stream for 50 years .

when looking for water that is a bit warmer than the surrounding water take the sun's influence into account . northerly shores get more sun than southerly this time of year . darker bottoms hold the heat better than lighter. woody cover and rocks hold heat as well . all three can help raise the water temps . look for places that combine those with the type of secure waters that bass need the others have mentioned . next up is boat control in the kayak . do you use any kind of anchoring system to hold in place so you can concentrate on fishing those spots. most of the times the hits can be very light to just a mushy, not quite right feeling when you move your lure . if you are trying to hold the kayak in place and fish at the same time you could be missing those subtle takes . it might be better to anchor and fish until you get more experience . get the best casting angle you can that allows the least amount of bow or slack in your line, that also helps . if you do drift down the seams you might want to consider vertical jigging or drop shotting , can't get much more direct contact than that . you could also try Carolina rigging to go low and slow . if snags present a problem go to a slinky or sand bag type weight or a lindy no snag sinker . using Carolina stops instead of a swivel to stop the weight eliminates two knots . the only knot you need tie is to the hook . the fewer knots you have to tie in cold weather the happier your hands will be . cold hands also reduce feel for those subtle takes . gloves and chemical hand warmers from the get go keeps the hands warm. much better than warming up cold hands .

That front dropped freezing rain on me over night . What a mess , there were still ice related accidents until early afternoon . Every access spot I checked left me doubtful that I could get out without a tow , so I figure to try again tomorrow . The tow trucks were kind of busy clearing accidents . I originally was up at 5 AM the air temps were in the 30's, a few hours later in the 20's . I was hoping that the rain and warmer temps that preceded the rain would get rid of more ice off the river so I had more spots to fish . I figured if the smallmouth did not cooperate I would switch gears to pike or walleye . That is still the plan for tomorrow . I think severe cold fronts tend to affect the fisherman more than the river smallmouth . It can get us both physically and mentally and get us off our A-game . When you need every edge you can get in winter fishing that often leas to a skunk . Good to see you overcame the obstacles .

Where you live shouldn't be a consideration in enjoying this site . You've had two guys from Illinois respond to your post. If SIUSALUKI is from the family I think he is, he grew up further north in Illinois than I did . I live near Kankakee Il , so geographically we are going to be about the same . Anything you want to know about adjusting to the weather and such up here, feel free to ask .

Join up with the Indiana Smallmouth Alliance . There are a good bunch of guys that know the area well and multi species as well . Still places to hunt up there , some of those guys can help with that as well . You can also get information on outdoor activities from the Indiana DNR website . You have everything fishing wise from salmon, trout and perch on Lake Michigan and it's tribs to reservoirs to ponds with everything from panfish to some very good musky fisheries and any number of creeks and rivers with smallmouth, walleye and sauger .

I am a wade fisherman . When it gets real cold , I try my best not to even take the fish out of the water when I get the hooks out I've got a set of pliers that are real long that I use when I'm fishing for bowfin. I switch to those when it's real cold to try and spare my hands if possible. . I can dry my hands or go home if I get too wet, the fish needs the breaks more than I need to stay dry . If it's that cold, I don't measure them and I never take pictures so that isn't an issue . I use heavier tackle to reduce the amount of time the fish is actually on the line . Get them in and get them off as soon as possible . I've never landed a fish with frozen gills or seen one landed by someone else .

sorry for the confusion , I was referring to a study here in Illinois on a similar vein I referred to in one of my posts . should have quoted it instead . I plead lack of sleep . took a nice nap after seeing a Doc and catching up on the chores . The fog has been lifted .

I went thru everything I had left from the American Fisheries Society and I did not find the study there. I have to dig thru my contact file and see who I have for the Illinois Natural History Survey . Then hope they have not been laid off by the state , which is a very real possibility these days .

Well I don't care what the gauge shows , I saw the river rising . I made a mark on the shore , 45 minutes later the water was lapping over it . The air temps may have been warmer than yesterday but with the completely overcast sky and almost continual rain of varying degrees of output , it was no where near as nice to fish today . Not that it stopped me , I've fished in much worse this time of year . First place I fished was behind a levee that was flooded in the middle . I stuck to the slower side of the flow . First rig I used was an 1/8 ox mushroom head with a Zoom Centipede . I started on the seam and worked into progressively slower water just dragging it upstream on the bottom . Three smallmouth hit it with a solid thunk after it popped free from a rock . Two other smallmouth just picked it up as I was dragging it . I never felt anything but the mushy , something is different thing . I think they may have been swimming toward me as they picked it up. The biggest smallmouth 20 3/4 inches was on the seam . The rest got progressively smaller the further I got from the seam except for an 18 incher that came off a rock hump in the slower water . I switched to an 1/8 oz ballhead jig with a Mr Twister Sassy grub and a jig spinner with a size 2 orange Colorado blade . I let it drop for a two count and brought if back on as horizontal retrieve as I could on the initial cast . A crappie liked that so I continued and caught a bunch of 10 to 14 inch crappie . I went thru again with a hard jerk, a crankbait, a rattlebait and a singlespin, all ignored . I tried a straight shaft spinner, Mepps size two and picked up some small bass about 8 to 11 inches . I went to the next spot, a well known walleye spot and saw someone fishing . I called down and asked if he minded some company . He said come on down , he had caught two walleye . Well I guess I jinxed the spot because neither of us caught any walleye after that . He caught some suckers , including his first Quillback . We were both fishing swimbaits . While chatting it turned out one of the guys that gave him some help in learning the river was a guy I went to high school with. Small world . Last spot I fished was a pipeline area . I got a couple small walleye on a rattlebait swum slow and steady as close to the bottom as I could manage . By then I was wet and hungry enough to call it a day .

I am pretty sure I remember some of the Illinois Natural History guys doing a similar study with bluegills on some of their lakes . I do some digging see if I can find it .

Yeah , leave the gear improvement to us fishermen . I could ice fish up where I live but I don't do it anymore . When I started we had a big heavy spud , no augur. we took broken rod tips , inserted into wood blocks to fish jigs made of flyshot and size 12 hooks . Heater was a Folgers can with charcoal going . Caught fish. Now that there is all the fancy stuff , I don't do it. I've come to the point in my life that I would rather wade in 30 degree water than drill holes in ice and sit in a heated shelter. Little wonder my wife thinks I'm a bubble or two off plumb .

I was surprised that outside of that spot I hiked to I only ran into one other person fishing . A teenage kid out fishing while his parents snoozed in the car . Maybe all the area fishermen had too much holiday cheer last night . Either that or they are die hard football fans . They would have to be to watch the Bears at this point .

Thanks Al. Back when I lived further north in Cook County there was a forest preserve lake that I had a lot of success on . I thought I had it cracked . We had a severe winter think it was 1978 that winter killed a very significant portion of the fish population . I assisted the county fisheries biologist in making the count . I was stunned by the amount of big largemouth that were dead, as compared to the number of them that I had caught. In discussing it with the biologist he said much the same thing . Those fish were likely set up so well that they just ignored lures and likely may never have paid them any mind . He was the first person to ever suggest to me that there were fish that were wired not to be attracted to lures. One of my best friends and my favorite fishing partner lives about an hour south of me in Illinois. He has those small flows wired in down there. He bought an Aqua View camera and would paddle over after fishing a spot to see just what was in that spot that attracted the fish. He finally quit doing it because he said it was very humbling to actually see how many fish were there, that he never caught . He fishes spots thoroughly with a variety of lures, retrieves, speeds and from the surface to the bottom . I have no doubt that we fish our lures past a lot more fish than we ever catch . I had the same experience with the biggest smallmouth I ever saw . It was following a big smallmouth that I had hooked. I fished that area almost daily for a month with every lure and live bait I could buy or trap/seine from the same river. I even conditioned crawlers the nite crawler secrets way . I never caught that fish despite going to 2lb test and free lining live bait . I have no doubt that I did something , maybe just the drag of the current on the line that made even live bait move unnaturally enough to turn that fish off .

river is dropping, about 1/2 again it's normal flow, maybe couple inches visibility near shore in slack areas , water temps mid 30's . weatherwise, fairly nice, fished without gloves on but had them on while walking . sun felt good on the old bones . First place I hit was an inflow and the point bar downstream . I worked a weighted keeper hook with a Eire Darter around and got nothing . I went back to point A and switched to a rattlebait worked slow and steady just off bottom . the walleyes loved it, the smallmouth ignored it . Walleye up toward the creekmouth, along the front, side and back of the point bar . Next up , fished a pipeline crossing of the river. I stuck with the rattlebait, same deal walleye ate it, smallmouth ignored it. Again , slow steady retrieve just of bottom. Most productive spot was a deeper hole [well for this river] upstream of the pipeline. I worked thru with jig/plastic, jig/pig , hard jerkbait and a crankbait all ignored by smallmouth and walleye . Next up drove a bit, hiked a bit more[ got well beyond forked stick country] to get to a good winter spot for this flow rate . There is enough water to put enough depth in the key areas . If the river gets lower , you can pretty much write it off in winter . It is a series of slack spots featuring soft bottoms off shore transitioning to cobblestone with some larger rock a bit off shore . There is one significant rock point coming off shore and out into the flow to set up a riffle . One small inflow that runs clear due to being feed further up from farm field drain tiles. There are two springs coming out a bit up from the riverbank where the land slopes a bit sharper than elsewhere. Both these springs run down to the river . A series of downed trees laying in the water as well as woody debris on the bottom . A few spots where the current undercut some roots of standing trees. The best part is no signs of other fisherman, only the tracks of beaver, raccoons, deer, and geese were seen in the damper, softer soils . In short the kind of place , I go to by myself . Bogart , maybe, but you have to have places like this in your back pocket to go when you really need to catch some fish . I went to the 1/0 weighted keeper with an Eire Darter as I figured the bass weren't chasing at all. I used a drag, stop for about a 10 count and repeat . I also tossed the combo upstream of the trees laying in the water and let it sweep under the wood/debris piles . I dabbled it in amongst those spots as best I could reach. I did the same at the undercut roots. The smallmouth were laying out on the soft bottom/rock transition , at the sweet spot at the upstream side of eddies and on the inside seams of eddies . I never got one sweeping under wood or roots or dabbling, that turned out to be rock bass country. I was kind of puzzled by that, figured the bass would be there but they rock bass were all very nice sized. Maybe the bass just preferred to be out in the sunshine, who knows . With the rock bass, I soon figured out either they hit as soon as it got under the debris/wood or it got ignored . Once that became apparent I just pulled the rig back out if it didn't get bite right away, cut down on losing jigs back in the wood . I also got three huge carp with the jig/darter, all three swallowed it . All three double digits in weight, I found out I am not in as good of shape as I thought. Those fish took it out of me, I had to take a break and sit down on a log . I moved to a couple spots I knew elsewhere where there was wood in the water or undercut roots . I went with the same program, same results, rock bass that either took it first thing or it was ignored. Last spot I went to was a winter spot that also has spawning habitat so there is usually some smallmouth there . I stuck with the drag/pause with the weighted keeper, one smallmouth and called it a day. 8 smallmouth, the three carp, 11 walleye and 11 rock bass , what a day for January

yes , it would be akin to getting a date with every girl you asked out in high school . well, at least for me . someone once said in a post I read that heck was catching a trophy fish on every cast, for eternity .

I am reading a book What Trout Want, The Educated Trout and Other Myths by Bob Wyatt . So far as I've got his argument is that trout don't get educated to fly patterns and thus become selective in the flies they take thus necessitating even more perfect imitations of natural foods . One point is that poor presentation is more of a factor than a fly imperfectly tied . Another is that trout due to the size of their brain are incapable of having acquired a conceptual grasp of what it means to be genuine or fake . He further states that when speaking of fish feeding selectively from a animal behaviorist point of view it isn't a matter of choice, suspicion or taste but about efficiency, getting the most nutrition with the least amount of energy expended . " Trout are fundamentally no different from any other fish . Out there in the fish world, selective feeding isn't about scrutinizing, choosing and refusing. It's about zeroing in on the most abundant and highest - quality food when it's available and eating as much as possible while the getting's good. " " The "selectivity" that biologists observe isn't anything like a trout making fastidious choices between male and female Tricorythodes subimago, or judging an insects correctness of form , or choosing it's prey based on the mysterious color preferences of Ray Bergman's aesthetically refined trout. It's about focusing on prey by it's size and abundance and how it behaves in the water. In the case of prolific and sustained insect hatches , it's a matter of the trout not recognizing anything else as food - a kind of tunnel vision. " "This isn't the choosy behavior of a sophisticated and fussy eater, but the innate stimulus and response of an efficient predator fully exploiting it's niche in the ecosystem. Behavioral ecologists call this predictable response to it's prey the trout's " fixed action pattern" - genetically programmed behavior the fish can't help ." On another point about learning he mentions the exposed hook issue in fly fishing. His point being that even on heavily pressured waters trout have not learned to recognize what a hook is as they continue to be caught on flies with exposed hooks . In something like a fly that is trying to imitate something natural an exposed hook is as unnatural a cue as there could be . On the point of exact imitations he points out that in a book by G.E.M. Skues , The Way of a Trout with a Fly there are ten photos of flies called Blue Duns from different regions of the British Isles . The fly in every one of those photos are meant to imitate the same insect the Dark Spring Baetis Olive yet all are different from each other, none even remotely resemble the natural dun and all work . Here are a couple more quotes from as far as I've made it into the book that I find interesting. " The impression of life is the most important trigger to a predatory response. How we achieve that is more important than just matching relatively unimportant aspects such as color. " " The best impressionistic patterns don't imitate anything in particular but do a good job of suggesting most of the things trout eat for a living." Now to some of my thoughts . Most of us have read in one place or another about bass becoming educated to certain types of lures/ techniques and them losing their effectiveness in those bodies of water where they receive heavy use . Does this really happen and if it does is it a function of how unnatural that lure is . Say the difference between a tandem spin and a smoke colored grub on a plain jig tarnished by dulling the finish in the flame of a cigarette lighter. How many of us have caught the same fish[known due to distinguishing features of the fish or actually seeing it in clear water] multiple times on the same lure ? Most articles say that the older/bigger fish get the most educated to lure/technique . Yet many of the truly large smallmouth I have caught have been on a crankbait . That is a lure type that has seen heavy use on my river for decades . It may be because I was using much larger crankbaits than most. I am fairly certain I caught the same three big fish[distinguishing markings] more than once from the same places with the exact same lure . Quite possibly statically insignificant, I grant, but then are there solid numbers to prove educated fish or rod/reel observation like this ? On exact imitations , I never understood why a photo exact finish on a lure would be better at catching a fish than say a countershaded one . After all one is purporting to be an exact replica of a fish that years of evolution have designed an appearance to disguise it from predators while the other stands out like a sore thumb . The first, I always believed was designed to catch fisherman's money more so than to catch fish . I have one photo finish lure, a Rebel Bluegill that I bought because I liked how it looked and it was in a bargain bin[ I can be a sucker for bargain bins at times] . That lure sits in storage in the garage because I caught so few fish with it over the 5 years it was in the lake rotation . Could it be that when we can actually see fish turning away or ignoring our lures that it is more likely that we as fisherman are doing something wrong presentation wise than how closely the lure actually looks like real forage ? I think that things like size, profile/shape, vibration , flash and possibly scent are more of a factor in presenting cues that lead to a bite than exact imitation as long as we get the proper presentation in depth and speed control . Blow those two factors and you won't catch them . Some might argue that when fish are in a highly competitive feeding mode with other fish you can be a bit sloppy with speed/depth control. I would argue that in that case the fish have just expanded their strike window and you did match those two factors . As far as color goes , I don't think it's much of an issue with river smallmouth. They have a very limited amount of time to instinctively decide can I catch and eat that without expending too much energy. I believe that is the major factor in pushing the eat/no eat button. I also believe that the factors I listed above are more of a factor than color in the cues for the eat/no eat button to be pushed. I seriously doubt they have the mental capability to decide that lure is red and I'm not eating that color today . All thoughts pro or con gladly accepted and taken into consideration .

Ham and John With the records you keep, I guess you pretty much do what one buddy of mine calls keeping a life list of species caught , with likely more detail .

You caught fish, learned a few things , spent time with your wife, a hot supper and a soak in the hot tub . Sounds like a great day to me .

I had a lot of time to think about fishing while recuperating . I decided to work on shoring up techniques and lures , I am weak in . Time to get better at heavy metal, in line spinners, blade baits and maybe spoons in moving water for this year . I am just starting to get back into pond fishing , most likely start with a good refreshing on plastic worms and spinnerbaits for bass . I started getting into fishing spoons for panfish this fall, likely keep trying to refine that .

A long time ago when I was single , I did some guiding . I taught my self how to mentally keep track of how many, what size and what species my clients caught on a trip . A year or so ago , I was finally able to turn that off in my mind , long , long after I wanted to . If you like keeping track and it's part of your joy in fishing , I'm all for it . Every one likes to do things differently , the only right way is the way that makes you happy . For me it turned from being useful in a business to something that drove me bonkers .

Air temps up in the 50's sure felt good . It blew in over night and did a number on the ice in the river . River came up as you would expect . Only problem is a lot of that ice is in smaller chunks and floating downstream . So much so that it interfered with fishing . Shoot one time one of those chunks ended up with my lure stuck on it . I fought it in because I wasn't going to break off unless I had too. After I get it in, a guy standing behind me on the shore wisecracks, well that brings a whole new meaning to ice fishing . I tried the fnf , no go , ice kept interrupting . Too much algae on the bottom, tired soon of picking algae off cranks and jigs , although I would have picked green some more had I caught any fish . I got one smallmouth on a swimbait , retrieved slow and steady just above bottom . I got two walleye on rattlebaits off of a current seam

The extended forecasts were wrong, the wind today definitely made it colder than yesterday . The fish didn't care . I stuck with the river today , started out urban and worked back out to the park . First place I stopped, the best known place in town , the whole slack area was covered with ice . I bounced some jigs and banged some cranks in the faster flow , no takers . I went up and hit the wall as no one was sitting up above fishing . I had one hit on a swimbait, bit off by a pike . I put on a metal leader of course , no more bites . I went to go fish a pike spot that I rarely fish due to a promise I made to the guy who showed me the spot . About 35 years , an old grizzled river rat took a liking to a young , long haired river rat and started sharing his stuff . This spot , I promised him , I wouldn't fish when any of the meat hogs could see me catching fish there . You local guys know where them dudes hang, the ones that pay no mind to any of the size or creel limits . I am proud to say that even though he passed about 30 years ago, I've kept my promise to him . Today there was no one out, not even the usual panhandlers or petty crack dealers , so I fished there. When he showed it to me , we used size 9 floating Rapalas , still do . I landed one pike , second got off due to operator error . I moved downstream , fished the flat off the channel . I was using a blade bait I've never tried before, the Johnson Thin Fisher . I settled on the middle hole for medium wobble/vibration. Upstream quartercast, count down 3 or 4 and follow it down with the rod tip, picking up slack as it went . I ended up with three walleye eaters but let them go as today was the family holiday meal . I fished some bridge pilings and a creekmouth with everything from cranks to jigs with nothing to show for it . I moved to a spot out in the park , nice sized slack/slow area . Slack was iced over , the slow was open. I switched up and went with a bobber/jig rig . I guess it's technically not F-N-F because I used a slip float not a fixed float . I used the Thill wobble bobber rated for 1/8 oz , so that is the size ballhead crappie chenille/marabou jig I used . It imparts action to the jig by wind and/or wave action . It did that well enough to entice two smallmouth and two rock bass into eating the jig . I mean the tip of the jig was barely sticking out of the fish's mouth . No guessing is that a hit, the float went under . Plan to be out again tomorrow