6/26/16 East Race First Timer

The second half of June has been a difficult time for me as far as fishing goes. I haven't really caught much to speak of and have had several lackluster trips in a row with only a handful of small fish to show for a whole lot of effort. My cousin Brad wanted to come up and begin to learn to white water kayak. We took him up to the East Race in South Bend to get him started. We drove around a ton of storms on the way and surprisingly the weather was very nice when we arrived. We had a picnic lunch at Seitz Park and before long the gates were opening and the race was coming to life. I took Brad down in a two-person inflatable to show him the ropes and give him an idea of what he was in for before turning him loose in a kayak. We spent longer than an hour surfing, catching eddies, and generally just playing around. I had a blast and I'm sure Brad did too! After that we outfitted him with gear and got him settled into a kayak very similar to the kayak in which I learned to white water paddle. For his first time, I had him follow me straight down through all of the rapids. He did great and had absolutely no trouble making it down the race on his own! We took out at the bottom to start the walk back to the beginning of the course for another run. On the walk back I began to notice black clouds. Before long I heard thunder and saw lightning. We were watching Kelly and Brain surfing when one of the race guards came down and told us that they were closing the race due to weather and would not be reopening later in the day. The day was suddenly cut short and we were done paddling. It was a little disappointing but at least Brad got to go down the race twice. My mom got some great pictures of the action. The look on Brad's face in all of the pictures says it all. I'm sure he had a great time!

Midwest Madness Kayak Tournament

Here is some information about the 2016 Midwest Madness Kayak Fishing Tournament. This is put on by Wildcat Creek Outfitters and is an awesome event! I'm planning on fishing it and being at the weight in and party afterwards. Come on out and see me in Zionsville!

3rd Annual Midwest Madness Kayak Tournament

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WCO 20th Anniversary Celebration!!!

*Raffle Benefiting Healing Waters – Kayaks and other stuff

*Live Music – Rock Island (Chad may or may not sing; maybe?)

*FOOD – Food Truck "Taste of the Caribbean”

*Beer – Noble Order Brewery

3rd Annual Midwest Madness

GET SIGNED UP NOW!

To Register for Midwest Madness go to this link http://wcofishing.com/Midwest-Madness-Registration.html

This year we are also giving away for the first time cash prizes for 1st and 2nd place in both the Smallmouth and Largemouth categories. 3rd place will be awarded a package of merchandise, cool stuff!

Most of the info needed is now on our website www.wcofishing.com

If you want to view the rules you can go to this link http://wcofishing.com/Midwest-Madness-Tourney-Rules.html

When you register for the tournament we will send along a package of info to you. We will be having a captains meeting the night before but it is not necessary for anglers to attend. If you do not attend though you will need to come to the store sometime before the tourney to get your token for fish photos.

Food - We will also be feeding the anglers who enter that day and we have some terrific food from Taste of the Caribbean food truck that will be here. The food is part of the entry fee, you will get a food ticket along with your other stuff for the tourney.

We will have more info as the weeks go on but this will get you started and you can register NOW!

We are NOT limiting the number of anglers to enter. With the nature of the tourney being an open water event with the borders of Indiana being the limit I think there is plenty of water to fish. Just remember you can only fish PUBLIC water with PUBLIC access! No ponds, no private access to any water, you must keep everything public.

EVENT SCHEDULE:

Friday June 24th

6PM Captains Meeting, final registration and Photo marker pick up at Wildcat Creek Outfitters. It is not necessary to attend the meeting. If you don't just pick up your package or we can send it to you before the tourney.

Saturday June 25st

Daybreak- tournament begins
2 PM - Photo weigh-in begins
4 PM - Weigh-in deadline (must be in line by 4 PM, no exceptions)
5 PM – Dinner/Beer and fish stories. Band Starts to play at 5:00 pm
6 PM – Awards and raffles
7 PM- finishes out the night...

All participants will receive a Photo token, raffle tickets, and a ticket for the evening meal at the Captains meeting. Extra meals may be purchased at the check-in party. We will have a huge raffle including kayaks, coolers, fishing gear and many other great prizes, extra raffle tickets will be available the day of the event.

****COST OF THIS TOURNAMENT IS $40.00 PER ANGLER ****

* Captains Meeting

Captains must pick up final rules, identifiers and sign the waiver the night before the event, at the captains meeting. Which will be held at Wildcat Creek Outfitters at 6:00 PM on Friday June 24th. If you cannot make the Captains Meeting you must have the Waiver filled out and sent back to marc@wildcatcreekoutfitters.com or 317-908-8984 before the meeting starts. After the meeting we will email or text you a photo

6/9/16 To the Beat of a Different Drum

Mike and I fished a local river after work. While this river doesn't ever look very aesthetically pleasing, it continues to produce solid fish every trip. I caught plenty of Smallmouth Bass off of rip rap shorelines, I got bit off instantly by what I can only assume was a Pike, and I caught a giant Drum on a crankbait. The Drum just absolutely inhaled the crankbait, managing to get the entire thing into it's mouth before being hooked. It made it very difficult to unhook because they have a relatively small mouth. It was a very nice fish and easily weighed a couple of pounds. It was probably the biggest one I have ever caught. A few minutes later Mike called me. He was extremely excited and wanted me to come take a few pictures of a nice Saugeye he had landed. I can't remember the exact length but the fish was somewhere over 22'' long and was fat as can be. It was a very impressive fish. The weather was fantastic and the fishing was good. All in all a great night on the river.

6/6/16 Evening Trip, Well Worth the Effort

On a whim I invited Mike to come fish for Pike after work. I didn't think he'd able to but I was pleasantly surprised when he said that he could make it! We met up about 5 o'clock and began to drift downstream. When I arrived Mike was already on the water and had even already caught a nice fish! Before long I was into the fish on a bright colored jerkbait. The night was extremely successful for both of us. I landed a dozen or so Pike, 6 Smallmouth and a handful of other fish including one of the prettiest sunfish I have ever seen! We caught a ton of Pike in the mid-20 inch range. At one point I made a cast and then got distracted looking at Mike. My lure was just sitting in the water. I heard a splash and a nice Pike nearly took the rod out of my hand! I fought and lost a really nice Smallmouth at one point and missed several nice Pike. Unfortunately my only picture of Mike turned out a little blurry with the fading light. It was an awesome night!

6/3/16 Kelly and the Creek Monster

Kelly and I got out in the Canoe for an evening float. It was absolutely beautiful out! The weather was awesome. It was nice and quiet on the creek. It was just what I needed after a stressful week at work. We ended up catching 4 fish total with several other missed opportunities. We each caught 1 Pike and 1 Smallmouth. Kelly's Pike was by far the highlight of the evening. She was fishing a spinnerbait and we were working our way through a nice run. The water was pretty shallow next to the boat so as she was finishing a retrieve she was also pulling up on the spinner up to keep it off the bottom. No sooner was she about to pull it out of the water when a nice Pike shot up out of nowhere and made a grab for her lure. It just barely nicked the back of the bait and didn't get hooked. It sat there for a few seconds in the shallow water and then swam off back to it's lair. Kelly was bummed that she missed that fish. I told her that sometimes Pike would make another pass at a lure so I paddled her back up to the top of the run to drift that section again. On the second drift, she made probably 6 casts or so and we were losing hope. Just when we were about to give up I see the fish following her lure. I said "There he is!" and Kelly nearly pulled the lure out of the water again but somehow kept it in and kept it moving to the front of the canoe. The fish took off to the front of the boat and from the back of the boat I hear "There he is, I got him!" and see Kelly's rod bent. She hooked the fish with barely a foot of line out! The fish thrashed and splashed and generally made a ruckus before coming to the boat. It was a beauty approaching 30 inches and fat as can be. It's a really nice fish for the small creek we were fishing. I snapped a quick picture and we released the fish to fight again. It was an awesome experience and we both really enjoyed it.

5/30/16 Pike Action is Heating Up...Literally

The weather has been a bit unusual in that it has been 80+ degrees for more than a week. The water is warming up fast and the fish are quickly changing to more of a summer pattern. During Saturday's trip with my dad, we only ended up catching one small Pike between the two of us. This left me really wanting to catch some Pike. So with that as the goal, I headed north on Memorial Day to a river that has quickly become one of my favorite venues for Pike fishing. This river has been a consistent producer, I caught my biggest Pike of last year from it, and I saw a few enormous Pike during my last trip. I started off the day fishing a section that produced absolutely nothing for me. So after an hour I quickly decided to make a change and headed for another section. This turned out to be the right move. Within 10 minutes of being on the water. I had an awesome swing and a miss from a decent fish. I moved my jerkbait one more time and let it sit. It was immediately devoured by the nicest fish of the day. It wasn't a huge fish but somewhere around 30 inches and fat as can be. I reached for my pliers to unhook the fish and realized that I had forgotten my PFD in the truck after the move. To tell you the truth, I was pretty gun-shy to unhook the fish by hand after my experience last week. Luckily, the fish was hooked in an easy spot to unhook it by hand. After a quick picture I released the fish and headed back to the truck to get my PFD. With my PFD on, I paddled back to where I had left off and started casting. Within just a few more minutes I caught another decent fish in the high 20 inch range. It hit my lure and just kept moving with it. The fish had probably already moved 5 feet in the water before I set the hook. The leader was wrapped around it's mouth twice and hooked back onto the lure making it look like it had been lassoed! After that fish the action slowed considerably. I caught a Bass and a few tiny pike over the next hour before running into another decent fish approaching 30 inches. It hit my lure at the far point of my cast and gave me a couple of decent runs at the kayak. After that fish, boat traffic on the river picked up exponentially and the fishing died off with it. I did manage two more smaller Pike before pulling the plug on the trip. This brought my total fish count to 7 Pike and 1 Bass for the day. Not a bad trip in anyone's book especially with some of the nicer fish that I landed. It looks like summer Pike fishing is in full swing.