Well, it's tuesday, again! Mark, his friend Wes, and I met up out at the DesPlaines River in Channahon. We got an early start because the weather was supposed to be nasty. Now, it looks like it missed us. Stupid weather-men....

We got 30 total; 24 commons, 5 buffalo and 1 mirror-carp. It wasn't the greastest shooting conditions, but we could have boated a few more if we were hitting a little better. There was a good chop on the water which made seeing and hitting the fish a special challenge. And the clouds didn't help much either, but the carp are spawning and finding them was easy as cake! The would be these 'humps' in the area where the water was only a few inches deep and the fish would just cover them. We'd just watch for alot of slashing and head for them. It would have been awesome under the lights tonight. The water was very clear and little low. If not for the wind and clouds, we would have probably come closer to 100 fish before dark.

Here's a few pictures of the outing. Sorry I can't just post the pics, but sometimes it works and sometimes it don't.

The first one is of the storm coming in, which was why we left.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h188/bowman55/leavingbeforethestorm.jpg?t=1179264905

This is Mark, Wes and I and our catch.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h188/bowman55/MarkWesandI.jpg?t=1179264985

And finally, our fish.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h188/bowman55/19commons1mirrorand5buffs.jpg?t=1179265048

"Barrels o' Fun" as usual! I think the water was just a bit higher from last week making it a little easier to get into some places. Seeing6 carp rolling around in a ball in crystal clear water right next to the boat is a pretty cool sight. It's even more amazing when you shoot into that ball and come out with nothing!

Hay, Steve in the second picture sure does not look like a retreiver on your bow to me?? or is it an optical illusion. kinda looks like a rino 5 to me

No, it's not a Retriever. It's a Synergy T-20. I put it on for bigheads, but we haven't gone out for them yet. I think I'll be putting that Retriever back on tho.

Nice catch, especially considering the weather conditions.

Nice fish! I hope they keep spawning until June!

Put both reels on the bow Steve. Then you can take your own backup shots. [8D]

Nice amount of fish with being rushed and all.
If the weather is decent, I'm going to hit that same spot tomorrow morning with the Green Bobber. I'll tell the 5 foot gar you said 'Hi', after I get him in the boat.

Waded a creek near Yorkville today for about an hour. Did a lot of watching and a bit of shooting. Got one carp, but I really wanted some quillbacks since I hadn't gotten any yet this year. It turns out that those littleguys are really tough to hit when they are 3 feet down in water with a windblown surface. Whiffed on every one of them. I just had to laugh at myself. I'd swear I grazed fins and bumped tails with most of the shots, but I just couldn't get asolid connecting hit.

Well, I got out in the morning like I hoped to -from 9 till noon.
The river is really low. Had to pole around toward the West end. Got stuck once and almost had to get out which would have really sucked since the pole would sink into the mud over a foot before hitting anything solid.

Anyway, I got 19 fish. All carpexcept 1 buff. Only saw 1 gar, and he took me by surprise and disappeared under the boat before I could draw. I saw a monster carp in there. So big I hesitated before lobbing a shot at her. She took off fast heading straight away from me. Looked about 10 to 12 inches wide. Big, big fish. The bow-wake was enormous in that shallow water, and she made a trail in the muddy bottom that I could actually follow for a ways, but never saw her again.

If I had shot fast enough to hit her, she might still be pulling me around.

We were up in Chicagoland Tuesday. We called Steve but he didn't answer his phone. (working.. yeah right! LOL)

We didn't shoot any fish but we did buy another generator and an ice maker thing and some ratcheting wrenches and other fun goodies. (see, sometimes I get all girly and go shopping)

It was our first trip in Kendall's new Man-Van. (no more old green truck)

The Green Bobber's pictures.


Buff, carp and longnose gar

Carpies.