Fishing Report 6/6

[Mikey]

First off let me say what a blessing it is to take a kid fishing. Catching fish or not, it sure feels good to not have to worry about the yard, dishes or bills. Ok, no more sappy stuff, on to the fishing.

My buddy and I took out oldest boys (ages 6 & 7) fishing up to the Lower Ill. He and I fish it pretty regularly and typically alternate between catching one fish on our fly rod in a span of 2 hours, to then catching 4 or 5 on soft plastics or nightcrawlers the other 2 hours. This time, with kids involved, we decided to forgo the fly tackle and stick with nightcrawlers.

Here is how the gear broke down:

Adults - spinning tackle, waders, net

Kids - casting tackle, waders, lack of balance

(A side note on the nightcrawlers, I bought them the night before and instructed my son to run inside the house and put them in the fridge for me as I had to tend to something outside. Waking up at 5 am on the day of fishing I discovered he had gone the extra mile and cryogenically preserved said nightcrawlers. Even after I boiled them they didn't come back.)

We arrive on the east bank of the river and proceed down to fish the seam opposite the sand bar point where all the lawnchairs migrate to at about 8 am. My buddy and his son got out to their spot first. My kid and I arrived some minutes later. I got my son set in a nice spot and begin baiting his rod. He has the pole, I have the hook between IN my fingers because he has now began to do some strange mating dance of blanace lost. We discuss the merits of being still as I remove the hook from my fingers. He's baited up now, I cast him into the water and begin baiting my line. The dance begins again. I carefully, and with no frustrated tone in my voice, explain the concept of being still to which he replies "I'm trying".

Perhaps I'm over analytical here, but I can't see how one has to 'try' to remain still. It takes more effort to actualy move than to just, simply ....not. Unless you're being attacked by the Taney squid at which point moving is allowed.

After watching my buddy and his son bring in a few fish (none trout) I decide to reloacte slightly upstream of him where my son could get some drift with his crawler. This proved to be the turning poiint in the trip. Much to my delight I found a 2 foot square flat moss carpeted (not the slick kind) rock to perch my son on. Alas, the dance was through. Truly now we could fish.

Over the span of the next 3 hours we fished that hole, the 4 of us. Watching the guys across the way bring in trout after trout on fly gear and power baits and small spinners. We went through our tub of nightcrawlers (admittedly I did slightly chum with them earlier when the hook went into my fingers. Only 6 actually swam out when the bucket became submerged.) and even sent my buddy's son back to retrieve the boiled goods. He wanted to make the trip solo so we let him. He came back a little wet having stumbled on the slick rocks, but he came back with not one but 2 tubs of worms. One had cooked worms in it, the other had some little guys my son had dug up the night before...apparently sensing the frozen crawlers may not work.

Well, we finished those 2 buckets off (didn't take long, it was like trying to cast snot) and retired to the truck to consume root beers and count the fish we caught.

Truth be told we had a great day fishing. Not necessarily trout fishing, but fishing none-the-less.

Jason, my buddy's son, caught nothing but stripers for his first 5 fish. All of them between 7 to 10 inches. He caught a mess of perch, all kinds, and even managed a rainbow trout there towards the end.

My buddy, Charlie, ended up catching 6 or so trout, several more stripers, one going between 2 and 3 pounds (played heck on his ultralight), and some perch.

My son, Ricky, caught himself 3 rainbow trout, one is by far the largest Charlie and myself have seen come out of that river since we've been fishing, and he caught more perch than I could count.

I caught more perch than anyone (4 different kinds), one rainbow trout, one tiny striper....and two drum. Seriously...drum. Back to back. Drum. $52 for an out of state license to catch trout....I get drum.

The highlight of the trip, aside from my son's pig of a rainbow, was watching a trio of 30" gar go gliding downstream no more than 15 inches in front of us. Thank God my son wasn't dancing...wouldn't have been nearly as neat to watch.

So all in all, we caught upwards of 50 fish between the 4 of us....and the adults spent most of our time baiting somene else's hook. Which in all honesty, is what you want to do when you take a kid fishing. Well, that and make fun of the poor kid who trips backwards in 2 feet of water and tries to backstroke to shore. Filling his waders with a gallon of river. What can I say...like father like son.

As a reward for actually reading this drivel, here are some pics of my son's big trout...and well....Jason's.

[Zach Bearden]

so what were you catching the Bass on (striped bass) and how were you fishing it, and one more depth... Im getting pumped up for the bass !!!!!!!!!! (oh yeah you need to go fishing with me

[Mikey]

We caught the striped bass using the nightcrawlers like we caught everything on. Nothing fancy for the kids, just a nightcrawler....single med splitter about 28" up...just letting it sit a few minutes. The we started a slow retrieve. Sometimes they hit on the way down..sometimes just sitting, and a lot of the perch hit on the retrieve.

I don't know when I'll be up there again but I'll try to get with ya to fish together!

Mikey