Anyhow on a much more fun note, August Issue of Infisherman Magazine has a 4 page article about my secrets to growing trophy panfish!! Its a must read, so get a copy and track down that article written by Steve Ryan.
So anyhow last weekend we caught some big panfish at my lake. Here is a big hybrid bluegill from my lake Saturday night. We were catfish fishing with chicken liver when this beast of a gill decided to join the fish fry pile. We caught enough catfish to feed 70 people that night!!
Then the next day I went fishing with Grandpa, my brothers, and dad after church. We again loaded up on fresh fish to feast upon... The stripers were hitting and so did this big nice rainbow trout:
Oh yeah, I forgot that before we went out fishing in the boat, Chad and I decided to check a couple catfish holes for spawning catfish. We dove down and sure enough the first hole there is a big catfish guarding her nest. I stuck my hand in, wiggled my fingers and bam she bit my whole hand! She bit hard, but I latched on even harder and wrestled that fish up to the surface and into the 375 degree oil...
So then Monday Chef Todd and I left a 3 am and headed for Beecher, Illinois. We shocked two ponds and toured Art's company Dutch American Foods. Art wants to grow a state record largemouth bass in his 1/2 acre pond. We might not get the state record, but we are going to grow a double digit bass there...
Anyhow his company specializes in mixing and packing food. A tour through here not only makes your mouth water, but it is just downright impressive to see the organization and efficiency of that place operating full bore.... Here we are finishing our tour, naturally chef was drawn to the fish taxidermy wall....
Art's friends pond had a real cool albino catfish in it, but not much else in there worth fishin for....
So then from Beecher we headed into Indiana to help David Adamson learn more about the property he wants to purchase and build a pond and house on.... The property presents some great challenges, but also on the flip side some great potential for reward. He decided to go for it so hopefully in a year we will be growing some big fish near Lake Village, Indiana!!!
I spent the rest of the week at Purina Mills Research Facility south of St. Louis, Missouri. We talked alot about new product development, marketing, and about educating their dealer network about their aquamax line of fish food. I signed on as their aqua ambassador and am super excited about the opportunites and possibilities of what lies ahead! Here is the group of lake mgmt people from across the US that I will be working with:
I got to spend some time with Purina's 'mad scientist' Kent and we are going to design supplemental diets for fish to grow us 2 lb bluegills and 10 lb largemouth bass!! Obviously nutrition is just one part of the equation, but the water quality and habitat stuff we have figured out, our limiting factor right now is year round nutrition and folks let me say fish across the midwest are gonna be growing much larger!!!
Justin spent a couple days this week building this hatchery pond/ silt retention pond out near Knoxville, IL. It will collect silt and grow baitfish for the pond, thats a double whammy....
Jared and Allen spent some time this week working on some properties that will be coming for sale with Illinois Land Company in the next couple weeks. One property is a 50 acre hunting farm along the spoon river near Dahinda. Another property is 80 acres near Wildlife Prairie Park that is 1/2 tillable, 1/2 timber. And the last property is 120 acres in Germantown Hills that will get gobbled up pretty much instantly.
The Dahinda hunting farm is just minutes from Oak Run and will be 100% ready for hunting this upcoming season with deer towers, stands, cameras and food plots all in place. The work is done for you, ready to rock n roll....
Saturday I spent the morning fishing with Steve Ryan and Dave King for trophy panfish and we indeed caught many trophy panfish. Those pics will be a couple days. I spent the afternoon swimming and playing with my kids and we had a blast just basically hanging out in the water and stayed out long enough to watch the sunset...
One last pic before getting ready for church this morning. Chris keeps catching monsters from his lake near Princeville, IL....
Reeling for Pan fish
ReplyDeleteFantastic narrative. I am impressed with the structure of this blog and the way it is put forth. Quite an interesting read, especially the incident where the author dives down to check a couple of catfish holes for spawning catfish. I must share few tips for fishing pan fish. Last year, during one of the tours in deep sea fishing charters, I carried hemostats while fishing for pan fish. It saves you from having to wrestle the hook out of the pan fish's throat. Soft plastic lures and small live minnows are effective baits for pan fish. In this blog, the author has put down his experiences very clearly. Good read indeed. Thanks for the post.