Bread Balls & Bluegills

Crickets, wigglers and waxworms all have a place in the bluegill fishing world, as do popping bugs, nymphs and various micro-sized lures -- and I favor each of those offerings at certain times. However, when I just want to connect a child with a few quick bluegills, it's tough to top putting a little bitty ball of bread on the tip of a No. 8 or 10 hook and dangling it beneath a pencil-style float.

There's always at least one loaf of bread or package of buns at home, so there's no need to dig for worms or visit a bait shop. Plus, baiting a hook and fishing this rig are simple, so youngsters can do everything themselves and enjoy the rewards. Most importantly, bluegills can't resist bread.

My son Eli turned 9 last weekend, and around our house, birthdays and fishing often go together. I wasn't sure if the bluegills would still be shallow by the boardwalk at Tallulah Gorge State Park in November, but it's an easy access sort of place, and it's pretty close to home, and he wanted to do a bit of birthday fishing.

The bluegills weren't plentiful like they are from mid-spring through the end of summer.  However, a few were home, and the bread/bobber combination did its job. Eli also did his job, and he ended up catching a couple of very nice 'gills.

Bread & Bluegills

This week Asher discovered what was my favorite bait for bluegills and golden shiners when I was a boy. (I grew up in Florida.) For sheer fish-catching ability, it's tough to top a little wad of sticky bread on the point of a small hook. Asher and his three younger siblings have been having a big time catching 'gills on breadballs for the past couple of days.

Using bread as bait is as simple as it gets, and you almost certainly have the bait you need at home already, and as long as you keep the bread in a little bag so it doesn't dry up, a couple of slices will last quite a while. I like a tiny long-shank hook and bobber. Asher and his siblings have actually been just putting the bread on small jigheads, and it has worked great.

Pond Homecoming

With Asher and I having been on the road for nearly a month and most of the week since our return having been spent playing catch-up, I hadn't been to our favorite pond near home for about a month and a half. That doesn't happen very often any time of the year, but especially not in the middle of the summer. So when my internet service got sketchy yesterday afternoon, I decided it was time to head for the pond (where Asher was already fishing).

We didn't fish super long, and the fish weren't just jumping into the boat on a mid-summer afternoon. We managed a handful of bluegills in a couple of quick laps, though, and it sure was nice getting back to the pond. I'll bet it won't be another month and a half till my next visit!

Split Shift Pond Play

Asher and I ended up fishing a split shift on the pond yesterday. We originally only planned to fish a couple of hours because of a mid-afternoon plan unrelated to fishing; however, the bite was so good that we couldn't resist slipping back out there after we got home from the other activity to fish the final couple of hours of daylight. Our rods were already rigged with what had been working, and the cameras and other gear were likewise handy, so running back over there was quick and simple.

Fortunately, the fish were right were we had left them and acting the same way. In fact, we caught more in the evening than during the first shift. Together, by our best tally, we caught 30 fish, which is more than  Asher and I had ever caught together at the pond. Most were bluegills, with good quality overall, and we also managed to catch a handful of bass.

Asher did almost all of his damage with a Rebel Bumble Bug, which is a lure he only discovered yesterday and that now seems to be one of his favorites. He would let it rest initially after a cast and twitch it a time or two, giving fish the chance to attack it on the surface, and then reel it back slowly so it wobbled barely under the surface. Most hit it on the retrieve.

I caught almost all my fish on a tandem rig, fishing a Rebel Micro Pop-R with a Prince Nymph on a dropper about a foot and a half beneath it. I caught some on each lure, but most took the nymph. I believe, the popper draws them in and then they see that easy looking meal dangling in front of them and simply cannot resist it. Often right after one slaps at the popper but doesn't quite take it, the popper darts under like a cork. Whether it's the same fish that does both in most cases or whether the strike attracts more fish, I'm not sure. I just know it works really well.

I also know that Asher and I will be back to the ponds with the same rods rigged the same way soon. However, our next stop might be in a trout stream. North Carolina's delayed harvest streams will open to the harvest in a little less than a week, and we might just have to give a couple of them one final shot during the catch-and-release period. The #RebelTroutTrek is only seven weeks away, so we need to be well practiced with trout fishing and travel!

Birthday Fishing x 3

I awoke a little later than normal this morning, and Nathaniel's truck was already gone. He had left just before daylight to meet a friend for a morning of fishing at a lake just up the road. Nathaniel turned 17 today, and birthdays and fishing tend together around here. He and his friend each caught one bass.

It was a little odd having Nathaniel already gone for his first round of birthday fishing, but I got in on round two. Traditionally, assuming everyone is in town, we'll do at least a lap around the ponds nearest home on a birthday, and Nathaniel, Asher and I did that this afternoon. The bite wasn't crazy good by any means, but the boys each caught a bass and I caught a few bluegills.

About half an hour after we got home from that outing, the same friend Nathaniel fished with this morning picked him up for round three, at another pond. He's still gone and I've heard no word, so I don't yet know what they caught. I know he's be happy to be fishing for the third time on his birthday, though.

Fish Before the Storm

I'm out of sequence with reports from recent fishing days because I got behind on blog posts, but a few days ago, Asher and I enjoyed a quick afternoon outing and had fun catching some bass and bluegills before a big evening rain and thunder not far from us pushed us off the pond.

Late in the afternoon, we decided to slip out after dinner, if it wasn't already raining. From the radar, I had my doubts, but I planned as if we would go and gathered a bit of gear when I had the chance. It was one of those patchy summer systems that was hard to gauge, so even as we got in the car, I wondered whether we'd have to turn around when we got to the pond, which is only four miles from our house.

No raindrops when we arrived, to we grabbed our junk and launched the johnboat. The pond is pretty small, so it's reasonable to retreat when needed. We only got in about 2/3 of a lap before the rain hit, and when it came, it came hard in a hurry, and we had to scurry. In an hour or so of fishing, though, we caught several bass and bluegills, including a bass of a couple of pounds that Asher spotted cruising and cast a few feet ahead of to draw the strike.

We were across the pond when the rain came, so it got up pretty wet. We returned home soggy but smiling.

2 Species Tallied

Today's ice adventure on Presque Isle Bay allowed me to add two new 2015 species, bringing the tally seven. I actually caught four kinds of fish today, but I'd already caught largemouth bass and bluegills this year. New additions to this year's list were pumpkinseed and yellow perch. I came within inches of adding black crappie to the list as well, but the one I nearly caught broke off about the time its nose hit the hole. It wasn't sufficiently in control for me to feel like it could be counted. I also had a break-off from something bigger and stronger that I never got a look at. I'll never know what that one was!

Asher's Fine Season Start

Yesterday I shared that the boys had gone off to the pond in pursuit of bass and that I was eagerly awaiting a report. The blog was barely posted when I got a text from Nathaniel with a picture of the fine bass Asher had landed. Asher's fish, which Nathaniel estimated to have weighed about 3 pounds, easily bested anything Nathaniel or I have caught so far this year, and it was Asher's largest fish of any kind to date.

Asher actually caught two bass yesterday. Both hit a Bandit Shallow Flatmaxx over a flat, a little bit off the bank. Nathaniel hooked one fish on a shaky head, but it got off. The day was dark and fairly mild for early January.

Nathaniel, Asher and I all have matching 2015 species lists: largemouth bass and bluegill and all from the same pond. I hope to add a trout or two to that list before the week is over. Before the month is over I'll almost certainly expand it a little between planned trips to fish the Pennsylvania ice and to fish for trout in Missouri.

8 1/2-hour Fish

I'm not sure what Nathaniel and Caleb did with the first 8 1/2 hours of this year, but sometime around 8:30 this morning, they tallied their first fish of the new year. Nathaniel guessed that they caught 15 or 20 fish, all close to the bottom and on little jigs, and pretty much all from one corner of the pond. Bluegills dominated, with good quality overall, but they each managed to catch a bass or two as well.

As for me, I stayed home and worked on fish stories and did stuff around here, so I remain fishless in 2015. I'll have to rectify that soon.

Christmas Eve Pond Play

Late yesterday afternoon, Nathaniel decided the pond bluegills needed a Christmas Eve visit. I agreed, and we both figured that Asher would like to tag along. We scrounged up a few worms, which were shallow and easy to find on a strangely warm and rainy December day, grabbed ultralights and ice jigs, and hopped in Nathaniel's truck.

When Asher's along, it's always a competition, so we settled on an inches game. We would measure every fish and total the inches. For modesty sake, I won't say who won.

We only had an hour or so to fish before dark, but the fish were cooperative. We caught about 15 fish and even managed a couple of doubles. We caught them all on tipped ice jigs, either fished vertically at the deep end of the pond or cast to the bank, allowed to sink and dragged slowly across the bottom. The fish aren't stacked in the deep water yet, but they are on the bottom, and some have moved all the way out.

Last fish of the year? Maybe, but we still have a whole week, so maybe not!

Pan-Tastic Ice Season Start

Spent a mighty fun day today catching bluegills and crappie with Jeff Sundin and Jon Thelen of Lindy Fishing. We caught a lot of fish, and while the temperature was pretty low (mid teens, I think), the breeze was only slight and it was plenty comfortable fishing on the open ice. It also snowed just enough last night and today that the ice had some snow on it for traction, which is good because I forgot my cleats at home. Mighty good start for an ice season, I'd say.

I used a Lindy Fat Boys jig all afternoon and caught a nice mix of both species. The fish were in fairly deep water, but the most active ones were at least a few feet off the bottom. Through mid-afternoon, the bite got really steady, and the crappie especially were charging hard when they decided to eat. Just before dark, we had to work a little harder to persuade fish to bite.

Walleyes tomorrow and Thursday.

Birthday Bass & Bluegills

Birthdays and fishing often go together around my house, as I fairly commonly take my children to a nearby pond for a while on their birthdays. Yesterday we sort of turned things around, with Nathaniel, my 16-year-old-son, taking me to the pond. We fished out of his johnboat and he ran it. I just sat in front cast. He also dragged a canoe down the hill and launched it in the next pond down so we could make a lap down there and hit some different water. (Bass in photo came from the middle pond.)

We enjoyed perfect fall weather yesterday, and the fish were even kind enough to join the celebration. We caught a dozen or so fish, most of which were bluegills, in a couple of hours of pond play.

I also spent a bit of my birthday with my wife at Lawrenceville Bass Pro Shops, picking out some bug-tying stuff that was a present from Sarah, my oldest daughter. I hope to wrap a bit of the new stuff on hooks today and use it to catch trout tomorrow, but maybe that's a different story!

Dog Fish

Kenneth sheds. In fact, he sheds a lot. So when he got a bath yesterday, I got a big pile of black dog hair. If it turns out to be good jig material I'll be set for a long time. There's a big pile of it drying outside.

I tied one quick little Kenneth bug yesterday, just to see how manageable the material seemed, and I took it along on a short pond outing. All I can claim at this point is that the bluegills like Kenneth bugs. We'll find out about trout soon, I suspect, and I might have to whip out a few 1/8-ounce Kenneth bugs to test next week at Sturgeon Bay.

The hair looked good in the water, and the jig stayed together well. The material was less buoyant than I expected, so I might have to mix with other materials or tie bugs thicker if I want a slower sink rate.

Tying Bug Bitten

I knew the tying bug had bitten me, but I'm not sure I knew how bad the bite was. Beyond the draw of the vice at home, the attraction of fur, feathers and glitzy stuff in any setting and the pattern ideas that bounce around in my head, the tying bug bite has really translated to the water. If I'm fishing, and there's any possible Ugly Bug application, that's the box I'm reaching for, and it's a huge added thrill any time I can catch my fish on jigs I've tied.

Fortunately, the fish seem pretty willing to eat my bugs. In fact, in some recent situations I've felt like they were the best thing going.

Ugly Bugs have been good to me in Deadwood. So far, I've used one of my own creations to catch brown and rainbow trout, crappie, bluegills, rock bass, northern pike, largemouths, smallmouths and walleyes. The one I picked out for lakers didn't do the job, but every other time I've tied on an Ugly Bug in three days of fishing, I've caught fish.

Of course, I've also fed more than a few bugs to rocks or trees. I guess I'll have to spend some more time tying when I get home! But first one more day of fishing.

Major Pactola Slam

Tyler French had told me on the drive to Lake Pactola that we could do a lot of different things, and I'd say he backed that on the water. By day's end we'd landed nine different kind of fish, including everything from lake trout to bluegills. We also caught fish a host of ways, vertical jigging for the lakers (and one brown), casting ultralights and fly gear for panfish in the backs of cover and working banks with bigger casting gear for northern pike.

The rainbow pictured above was actually our toughest customer. Rainbows abound in Pactola and are normally a sure thing if you have any interest in catching them. Some sort of tiny bugs were hatching yesterday, though, and the 'bows were locked onto them. We spent an hour after lunch casting everything in our boxes in a cove by the dam where rainbows were rising all around us before I finally managed to catch one. We had just enough follows to keep us after them, but they were very difficult.

Pactola, which is a beautiful lake in the Black Hills, just south of Deadwood, is great for the multi-species approach because it holds such a variety and it is small enough that you can easily hop from one spot to another to catch different fish.

Of the portion I landed, one species, a northern pike, was new to my 2014 list.

The actual list form yesterday, in rough order of when we got them, was: lake trout, brown trout, bluegill, crappie, northern pike, rock bass, yellow perch, rainbow trout, largemouth bass. As for the total number of fish caught, I have no idea. The 'gills, rock bass and crappie were pretty stupidly easy in a few places so they would have kicked the count mighty high.

I'm glad I got to spend the day in Tyler's boat. Big, big fun.

One Quick Pond Lap

The primary purpose of today's pond visit was to slide out in the canoe and grab a few jigs and bobbers we left hanging in trees and bushes yesterday when I bank-fished with a few of the smaller members of my crew. But as long as we were headed that way, Nathaniel and I figured we should tote along a rod apiece. Always time for one quick pond lap, right?

It was indeed a quick lap -- half an hour at the most -- but we did manage to each catch a fish. Nathaniel caught a nice bluegill on one of his first casts, and I snuck one bass out of the corner of the pond. Of course my favorite thing about the fish I caught was that it ate an Ugly Bug (my hand-tied jigs) -- one with a sparkly white body and a pink tail that was already tied to the rod.

Now back to writing fish stories.

Pond Play

Rain is coming tomorrow, followed by more cold, but this afternoon warmed up nicely and we had a little time, so it was a good afternoon to visit the pond with three of my children. Asher, Autumn and Eli all like to fish as often as they get a chance, and there really haven't been a lot of good chances so far this year.

It was a simple outing, walking the banks. Eli, 5, and Autumn, 7, both fish with worms on ice jigs under floats. Asher, 9, mostly threw a Lindy Watsit Grub. Eli had the hot rod of the pack, managing his first bluegill and his first bass of 2014.

I cast when I could with a little Road Runner Original Marabou, but I spent most of my time pulling hooks from branches, grass and shirts, re-baiting lines and undoing knots. No complaints there. That's all part of the fun. We also left a couple of float rigs out of reach from the shore in bushes. Nathaniel and I might have to retrieve them with the johnboat one day this week. I suppose we'll have to make a few casts when we do!

Tough to Quit

Jeff Sundin was right. It's far better to have to quit fishing when you really don't want to than to endure the end of a day when you are eager to be done. Still, pulling big 'gills from little holes in the ice is just so fun that I had a hard time resolving to reel my jig up once and for all. The sun was sinking, though, and the day's work was done, so I bid the ice, the crappie and the bluegills farewell.

We actually spent the first half of today on a little trout lake. The trout were fairly evasive, but it was
a fun morning outing on a beautiful walk-in lake, and Jon Thelen did manage one really pretty rainbow, which attacked a Lindy Slick Jig/Watsit Grub combination. From Jon's report, it fought like a very angry fish and felt like it was even bigger than it was. I hope to give Minnesota trout lakes another try some time.

Homeward bound tomorrow. Word has it we got a lot of snow at home (Georgia), so I'm hopeful my flight is on time and that the roads from the airport all the way to my house, 90 miles to the north, are cleared by the time I'm ready to get on them.

I look forward to my next ice adventure, whenever that turns out to be. More likely than not, it'll be next season. You never know, though!

Northbound Plane

Jeff Sundin with a pretty northern Minnesota bluegill

Come Monday, I'm once again airport bound to travel well to the north for a few days of ice play. I'm looking forward to spending time with Jeff Sundin in northern Minnesota, where the outlook for lows around zero and highs approaching 20 would be an absolute heat wave, were it to hold true.

It has been cold there. Seriously cold. However, walleyes and panfish alike have bit well from the reports I have read. The combination of major slush problems through the first half of the season and brutal cold through most of the winter has kept fishing pressure comparatively light this year, and seemingly that has been good for the bite.

I'm not sure yet what we'll be targeting. Walleyes? Crappie? 'Gills? Whatever it is, I'll be ready. I've already bought my license, which begins the very hour I'm scheduled to land, so if it turns out to be practical to hit the ice for a while on Monday afternoon, I'll be ready to go.

Watch here, on my facebook fishing page and on my Twitter feed for pictures and reports.

Favorite Fishing Days

When I consider some of my favorite fishing days from the year that's about to depart, they seem to have something in common. I just can't pinpoint what that something is.

A couple of days that come quickly to mind occurred on a pond near hom. One was on Eli's 5th birthday, when he went to work catching birthday bluegills while sporting the colors of Cheetos and Powerade on his face. Another was with my 7-year-old daughter Autumn, when she not only helped with the fish-catching duties, but she did a fine job taking pictures of a surprisingly big bass I caught on a little lure.

Another pond outing of note was with Nathaniel, my 15-year-old son, but on a different pond. The fishing was crazy good that day, and we caught bluegills, bass and crappie. I don't recall the tally, but I believe we concluded that it was as many fish as he and I had ever caught together in a day, and it all occurred in only a couple of hours.

A few other favorite days took place on streams. Two were with Asher, my 9-year-old, both on the same stream. One yielded his first trout, a pretty brook trout. The other, which was a dark an oddly warm afternoon only a couple of weeks ago, resulted in his first brown trout. Two of my other favorite trout outings were with Nathaniel at the Nantahala River in North Carolina. One was in May and one was in November, but both involved him systematically targeting extra big trout and succeeding in finding what he was seeking

Ponds, streams, bluegills, bass, brook trout, brown trout, warm weather, cool weather... I just can't quite put a finger on what all those favorites fishing days in common.