11/25/16 Chrome Friday 2016

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, 9 kayakers came together at Lake Gage in Northern Indiana to chase Rainbow Trout. Out of the 9 people, we had 7 different kayak brands represented. It was actually kind of neat seeing that many different shapes, sizes, and styles all at once. We had Old Town, Hobie, Feel Free, Native, Wilderness Systems, Jackson, and Pelican all represented! The weather was a balmy 40 degrees for the high and despite the weather forecast calling for no rain, there was a light misty rain most of the day. We got onto the lake by about 8:30 and fished for a few hours. I ended up getting into the fish pretty well and boated 4 Rainbows by lunch time. Mike and I came back to the launch and cooked hotdogs and brats for the group. Before long everybody else was back and had a nice warm meal complete with chips, summer sausage, drinks, and cookies. After lunch everyone was eager to get back out on the water. By the end of the day, there were only a few folks that had not managed to boat any trout. I only ended up getting one after lunch so I ended the day with a total of 5 fish to hand. I caught most of my fish in shallow water (<5 feet of water) on streamers but did get 1 on a small sparrow fly. Mike had the hot hand after lunch boating a reported 6 fish in just a few hours! I'm not sure what he was doing differently than anybody else but he was slaying them! All in all I think the group ended up combining for over 20 trout and I did also hear that there were some largemouth and smallmouth bass caught. It was a really fun day and I hope everyone that participated had as good a time as I did. Until next year! Mark your calendars for Chrome Friday!

Video - Sharing the Pike Passion

Video - Start of Winter Trout

Video - Dangerous Pike Moment

10/30/16 A Very Varied Weekend

On Friday (10/28), I got out of work just in time to drive down to a local reservoir and fish for Crappies. Kelly and I headed down and arrived with only around 2 hours to fish. We spent the majority of the time fishing stick-ups with jigs and floats. The action was fast and furious but the size of the fish left something to be desired. Most of the fish we caught were between 5 and 8 inches in length. We did sort through and keep about 9 fish between 9 and 12 inches long to eat. This included 7 Crappies and two nice White Bass. It was a fun and quick evening trip.
On Saturday (10/29), I spent the majority of the day helping Kelly's uncle put a new metal roof on his lake cottage. I figured it would take most of the day but on the off chance we got done a little early I took my kayak and my trout gear. We completed the roof in no time and also did some soffit and put the gutters back up. It was around 5 o'clock but with the ridiculously warm weather and only being about 5 minutes from a trout lake I decided to give it a try. I arrived and got my flies in the water and proceeded to hammer nice holdover Rainbows for the next two hours. I landed 4 very nice fish between 15 and 17 inches and lost at least 6 more to jumps. The fish were absolutely on fire and would run and jump until they escaped or were too exhausted to continue. I love how these fish fight when the water is in the 50's!
On Sunday (10/30), Mike and I met up in the afternoon to try our luck fishing for Muskies. We spent about 6 hours on the water without catching any Muskies or even a single follow! Luckily, the Northern Pike were in a much better mood and we both ended up boating 2 Pike apiece. I had a large Pike follow my lure to the boat just like a Muskie would have done. I also had two other smaller Pike hit my lures without getting hooked. Catching Pike while fishing for Muskies is a little disappointing but at least they gave us some action and saved us from an otherwise potential skunk of a day!