. . . The more they really do stay the same.
Looked up a couple from about this same time 5 years ago.
I did a much better job hooking fish back then.
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Then for yucks, Iooked up this from 9 years ago. And you guys think I just make this stuff up. Have fun reading.
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10/16/00 Up and Down the Fox
About 60 degrees, foggy and partly cloudy, water almost normal, visibility about 12 inches, 6:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., 1/16 ounce jig/twisters of various colors and minnows and other stuff.
Clients made a mess of the schedule, so I had nothing to do. Went out in search of fish. Total:
36 smallmouth bass,
8 largemouth bass,
7 green sunfish,
1 white bass.
Now that's the kind of totals I've been looking for, especially since I also missed at least that many more fish. I looked through my records from last year and they show that it's possible to catch this many fish on a typical outing this time of year. Actually, up to around the middle of November. The warm weather and the river levels finally coming down has helped things along. The bulk of the fish were caught on s simple jig and twister combination with a change in twister color bringing more hits. One smallie was caught on a black and gold floating Rapala that I weighted down with some split shot about 6 inches in front of the lure.
I got out before sunrise in order to see the river encased in fog. The hazy moonlight gave off just enough light so the changing colors of the trees could be seen. The fog quiets the surrounding noises so the usual road traffic is harder to hear. I still think the best time to be out in order to catch fish this time of year is in the afternoon. But I don't mind not catching fish on such beautiful mornings. A few more days and all these leaves will be gone. I'll have to get out one more time this week.
Having minnows helped in the morning hours when the fish were a bit more sluggish and unwilling to bite. Tried split shot and minnow, jig and twister with a minnow and a simple jig and minnow combination. The jig and minnow got the most hits. I stopped at a tributary to fish a hole that produced well this time last year. After throwing a jig and twister through it numerous times and almost giving up, I got rid of the twister and started tossing a jig and minnow. That's when the hits came. I caught seven of the largemouth and one of the smallies this way, all of them were over 9 inches long. The largest smallie was 12 inches and the largest largemouth was 13 inches. Not bad out of a hole that's about the size of a big two car garage.
Went down to Indian Trail Road figuring on staying there till sunset. Was working my way down the shoreline with the fish starting to hit aggressively. I was looking forward to getting to the spot that holds the most fish. Then I saw this guy hanging out by my car, sitting near it and staring at the back end.
Now I don't get spooked easily. I've been all over the Fox at some odd hours. Below Wilson Street in Batavia at 3 in the morning, under the bridges in downtown Aurora before sunrise, up and down the bike path and through the woods while its pitch black out. I've come off the water long after the sun has set, and except for one time at North Avenue in Aurora, I've never felt like I needed to be looking over my shoulder. This guy at Indian Trail Road is creeping me out.
He has been there the last couple of times I've been there. I'm assuming he lives on the island somewhere because I've seen him at all hours of the day. That in itself is no big deal, I've got to know other guys that live under the bridges. This guy will walk up to you, stand about 20 feet away and stare at you. You say hi, and he keeps right on staring. Then he'll wander off a few feet sit down and stare at you while finishing off a beer that he always carries around in a plastic bag. I know he recognizes my car and that's why he was hanging out. If he would just talk, none of this would bother me. This is just plain creepy. This spot produces a lot of fish this time of year and I had been looking forward to fishing here. I have a feeling my preferred evenings will have to be given up. No way do I want to be the only one on the island with this guy.
If anyone else sees this guy out there, just keep an eye on him. The hair on my neck stands up so rarely, that I'm paying attention to the warning.
Went over to fish at the North Aurora dam, yes a dam, mainly because I was running out of time. I had read T's reports of catching numbers of fish at the dam and I knew just where they were coming from. I haven't fished North Aurora much this year, but I like to fish the bridge piers whenever I'm there. They hold some nice fish. After catching a few smallies, I felt a familiar thump and started playing tug-of-war with the fish. I set the hook and had a really big walleye show its side to me, really big. It then turned its head toward me, opened its mouth and spit out the jig. The biggest walleye I've caught was 22 inches. The mouth on this one was much bigger than that on the 22 incher.
I went up and fished at the dam and caught a bunch of fish. There were two other anglers out there and they looked like they were hitting a few. There are a couple of shelves of rock between the dam and the rocks that create the first riffles. If you get a lure on this shelf right, the fish are just sitting there. Since I was getting hits whenever I popped my snagged jig off of a rock, I started purposely snapping the jig while crawling it across the bottom. Hits were coming after the snap. I waited till the other anglers left, fished there spot and pulled out 6 more smallies. It looked like they were using spinners of some kind and I knew there were more fish sitting on the bottom.
On my way off the river, I stopped at the bridge pier one more time. They hold a lot of fish. One of the quickest ways to find active fish at a pier is to look for splash marks on the wall. This works on any wall. Ed Diem pointed this out to me one time. Apparently the predators will herd baitfish against the wall. Once they have them against the wall, they smack at them, creating the splash mark on the wall. As I was walking past the pier where I had tagged the big walleye, I saw the biggest splash mark I've ever seen. It looked like someone had dropped a boulder next to the wall. I started casting to the splash mark and caught 4 smallies. I always look over the fish I catch for scars or sores. One of the 10 inch smallies had a fresh bloody puncture wound just in front of its dorsal fin. Running down from there, on both sides of its body, were bloody shallow cuts. Something had obviously wanted this smallie for dinner very recently.
I'll bet that walleye cornered this smallie and that's what made the splash mark. The big ones sometimes move up to the dam this time of year, but then they'll head back down stream to a wintering hole. I believe I know where four of those holes are.
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10/19/00 Up and Down the Fox 2
About 75 degrees, clear skies, water normal, visibility about 12 inches, 6:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., 1/16 ounce jig/twisters of various colors and minnows.
Another day with nothing to do, nowhere to go and absolutely beautiful out. May as well go fishing. Total:
63 smallmouth bass, one 14 inch, a few 13's and 12's and the rest smaller,
5 green sunfish,
3 drum, all measured 12 inches,
2 largemouth bass,
1 walleye that measured 13 inches.
That's 74 fish for the day. Considering that I was missing twice as many fish as I was catching, its pretty hard to go home while in the middle of it all.
Got to Llo-Bri bait and tackle at six in the morning and bought 4 dozen large fathead minnows, there were definitely more than that in the bucket. When I got off the water at the end of the day I still had about a dozen left. Only one was found floating upside down during the course of a whole days fishing. That's not bad.
With the fall colors peaking this week, you can't beat being out to enjoy the changes. My favorite part is walking through the woods when half the leaves are on the ground and still showing their colors. Worlds most beautiful carpeting. The weather has been cooperating so well that I find it impossible to stay cooped up inside.
I still believe the best time of day to be out this time of the year is in the afternoon. Gives the water time to warm up a little and makes the fish more active. This morning still produced fish, but as the nights start to stay in the forty degree range, getting out in the afternoon will be even more important. I could have easily fished far fewer hours. By 8:30 in the morning I had already caught 19 fish with the bite dying down after that. From 2:00 in the afternoon till 5:30 I caught 44 fish. In case your wondering, I'm fishing at the dams. Sometimes you got to go where the fish are and the fish are there because they can't get past them to find someplace better to be. One thing if you try this, put away the spinners and use something that is bouncing and twitching along the bottom. I watched anglers reeling and reeling and not catching anything. The fish are on the bottom, put your lure there.
The highlight of the day is always the one fish that got away. I got a nice hit not any different from the others. I set the hook and it was solid, didn't budge. I thought I had set the hook on still another rock, till it started swimming away. It was kind of like setting the hook on a parked car then having the car slowly pull away from the curb. The fish just gradually picked up steam. I tried to pull it around, but it did absolutely no good. Then the hooked popped out. Luckily the roar of the water drowned out what I was yelling at the fish, saved me some embarrassment.
I was using 8 pound test and had to switch spools halfway through the afternoons catch. I keep a spare spool in my pocket, this time spooled with 6 pound test. The difference in the number of hits I started getting was dramatic. It may have something to do with just the usual progression of the afternoon, the fish hit more, but I think the lighter line gave more action to the lure. Remember, fish it on the bottom, twitch it, let it sit, move it, let it sit, twitch it again. I barely reel while I'm doing this, just enough to take in the slack.
With another week of beautiful weather predicted for next week, I'm already making plans to be out as many afternoons as possible. So far that looks like all of them, but we'll see how my clients screw up my plans.