Redfish, BobLion, Deer Towers....

My mom and dad are down in Gulf Shores, Alabama and they are on a world class bull redfish bite! The tide is just right each night and bull reds and black tip sharks are congregating right off the beach where the water comes into Perdido Bay...They are seriously catching as many monster bull reds as their arms can take every night!











Any fish before dark is a BONUS....


We go every year at this time, but this year I wasnt able to go since I am building this stinkin house..... but my grandma needs new cabinets in her condo so early December me and the kids got just the excuse we need to get out of Ptown....

We installed some trail cameras last month for Jason up in Northwest corner of Illinois not too far from the Mississipi River. He emailed over this pic of what could be or looks to be a bobcat mixed with a mountain lion...what do you think?


So anyhow we just bought another hunting farm that we closed on last week! This one is in Fulton County- 194 acres of pure whitetail deer and turkey habitat!! My brothers and I have been dreaming of this since we were old enough to dream....This property is about as raw as it gets, but with a little HB TLC it will become one of the best trophy whitetail farms in the county!! Will keep ya posted...We also closed on the Dahinda Tree farm and are very excited to start pruning the walnut trees this winter and smallmouth bass fishing in the spring!!

My brothers set up a bunch of stands and towers today:


These towers are sweet cause they are designed for bowhunting and shotgun hunting!!


Again Im left out on all the fun for this fall setting up deer towers and ladder stands and hunting, because of my wonderful house project I have been working on for the last 11 months....I did manage to get some stone on the front thanks to some help from Luke Rocke!!


Anyhow this week I worked on some lake projects for the guy who owns Rock River Arms company. Very cool, we are gonna turn this new lake into JUMBO perch lake and his home lake into Crappie Mecca...


From there I headed to Cedar Rapids and installed some deer feeders for Tom. He wants to turn his 40 acres into wildlife paradise. Next spring we are turning his tillable ground into prairie grasses and various wildlife plots!

From Cedar Rapids, Jared and I drove over to Palo, Iowa to help Steve create the best 10 acre multi-species fishing lake on the planet. He straight up dug a 10 acre lake pretty much in his front yard for the last 2 years and now he has a 400 gpm well to fill that baby up. Mark my words, this will be the funnest lake hands down in the state of Iowa to fish in 2014!

So anyhow Steve also ran electricity and WiFi to his deer towers out in the woods on his property. I wouldnt trespass on that place though, cameras are everywhere and the feeds are sent back to a DVR...Very Cool!

So our motor for the electrofishing boat needed fixed so the guys at Bass Pro are patching her up. This evening I am electrofishing a pond over near Morton with the backup 8 HP motor and there is a group of 40 people on the shore eagerly awaiting to see what fish are in their newly acquired pond....anyhow after 15 minutes of pulling the cord, Im about ready to pass out from heat exhaustion...the stupid thing just wouldnt start....Justin thankfully threw the old 2 HP Honda into the truck for me as a backup for the backup....She fired up and we dialed up a boat load full of fish!!




Male on the left, redear x bluegill hybrid in the middle, female on the right....


Just a bit on this pond is the family who owns it plans on using it for many church picnics, family reunions, etc so on my way over I went to Bass Pro and loaded up a cart full of lures, hooks, bobbers, rod and reels, first aid kit, and fish cleaning supplies....very fun. Its one thing to grow a bunch of good fish, but its almost more important to have the right fishing gear and education.....
These girls had fun putting all the lures into the new tackle box!

Pond Boss Conference at Big Cedar Lodge

Justin and I just got back from the national Pond Boss Conference at Big Cedar Lodge!


There was a strong showing for the Central Illinois area, which was super FUN and locals Mike Oreilly and Gary Long actually won the fishing tournament on Table Rock Lake on Thursday afternoon!!


Here is a view looking out the conference center:


It was a very productive 4 days for us as we first installed an aeration system for a client just 30 miles north of the conference and then headed to the conference festivities Thurs, Fri, and Sat. This is what food plots look like near Branson, Missouri. Wow, was all I good say while touring the Doc's property after installing the aeration system.....


The small pond at Big Cedar just got its world rocked with all the companies displaying their products and testing new electrofishing equipment....




So anyhow, our HB fish pictures and videos were used in several of the presentations at this conference for the last several years and that among other things has caught the attention of quite a few of the major fish feed, fish feeder, and lake supply suppliers.....It was very cool to have meetings with and work out endorsement and ambassador and marketing deals for 2013 with these companies...stay tuned for more info on some of that.......

Also what was also really cool was several people at the conference said they saw us in the current issue of InFisherman Magazine...I will have to definitely track that down! We are very excited, but yet humbled to be getting  recognition for simply being lake nerds and fish geeks. Seriously we really are nerdy social outcasts with wildlife, fish, and food addictions:






But an entertaining group of nerds nonetheless......Speaking basically along these same lines, we do custom taxidermy for clients who also have a few funny bones....Justin just finished up some LED devil eyes for Edwins boar mount.


Next project is a squirrel rear end door bell cover....seriously one of our clients wants guests to his home to have to stick their finger in about an inch in order to ring the door bell.....I thought it was a pretty funny idea, have we done that before....nope, but we'll get er done...

Speaking of get er done, I have until December 1st to get my house done. I have slim to none chance of making that goal, but I have to so I probably wont be sleeping or writing much the next 6 weeks....I have made a good push outside, Im down to a bit of exterior trim and laying the stone. Then a frantic finish inside once I button up the exterior.....



This upcoming week Im headed to Geneseo on Monday afternoon to shock some lakes, Southern Illinois tuesday to stock a bunch of Hybrid Bluegill and then Cedar Rapids on Wednesday to install some deer feeders and consult with a brand new 10 acre lake. Then Friday probably gonna have to get wetsuits on to add a bunch of floats under a MASSIVE floating dock and Saturday shocking over near Morton.....

The following week is trout deliveries...I potentially will have quite a few trout available at the end of next week so if your looking for some trophy trout to stock for a bit of fun ice fishing or some snacker sized trout to help feed your trophy bass or push your muskie over 50 inches give me a holler...Im not joking either, the next state record muskie is gonna come from one of our lakes we are annually stocking trout into, I have growth rate data that will blow your mind from pike and muskie eating trout all winter long....This is a 4 year old central illinois rainbow trout fed northern pike:


This is what she eats (and so do we).


And I actually have some trout available this big as well for pond stocking this year:

Monster Largemouth Bass

Down in Southern Illinois on Friday we shocked up a very large largemouth bass.


Growing trophy largemouth bass is not an easy thing to do in a natural balanced typical pond or lake setting. Most people think given enough time that a bass will grow 3-5 lbs and if lucky even bigger...Not So!

Let me just tell you straight up that a bass that is born in your lake or pond will grow to 12 inches long and if your lucky 14-15 inches....if you disagree, so be it.

The average adult full grown 5-7 year old largemouth bass in Illinois is simply 12 inches or just a hair shorter.

So anyhow one tip to growing trophy largemouth in your stunted pond is believe it or not, but to stock some bigger sized largemouth in there! The food source is depleted for the little guys, but if they could just get up to the 14-16 inch size with a few 'good' years left they will turn into trophies like the above pictured bass or the below pictured bass in short order:


Bass of different lengths have different food needs, certain size bass may be starving whereas other size bass in the same body of water are thriving.....The key to growing a trophy bass is to make sure that every day of her life she has exactly what she needs to eat.

Once you have a baseline for what your lake provides in terms of forage, its much easier to have a mgmt plan for correct harvesting and stocking. Most people have the most simple forms of management dead wrong for producing the fishery that they want.

I still have a couple open dates in October for Electrofishing Surveys. Pretty much got trips headed in all directions of the state so if you want to check out your fish population and have alot of fun doing it, just call me up 309-303-5691. This is THE BEST TIME OF YEAR for pretty much everything, Electrofishing Included.....

Helicopter, Fish and Big Deer....

On Monday afternoon, I made my way up to Princeton, IL. I pull into a new property about 10 minutes early and wait for a new client to show up. After a few minutes of nosing around the new Morton Building going up, here comes a helicopter...Yep, it comes in low and lands right out front. Jason waives me over and says get in....

So my first conversation with the guy who wants to build a waterskiing and wakeboarding lake is "are you sure this thing can hold an extra 300 lbs?" He goes "oh yeah we are real low on fuel so should be no problem....." Mighty reassuring getting into a helicopter that is low on fuel.....Can you imagine landing a helicopter that has run out of fuel.....


But needless to say it was stinkin awesome zipping around in that thing checking out the new lake site and such....Picture a nice water skiing lake in this cleared out valley.....




The week before I was in Cedar Rapids and Brighton, Iowa with Allen Electrofishing a bunch of lakes and ponds for 4 different landowners. Allen snapped some pretty cool pics....












The first guys place was an 8 year old pond that was stocked with bass, hybrid bluegill, crappie, catfish, walleye, and lots o grass carp.....recommendations from the Iowa DNR guy....that guy giving out those kind of recommendations is gutsy, but clueless.....One thing we take for granted here in Illinois is that we have ROCK SOLID DNR Fisheries Biologists from Southern Illinois all the way to the top of Northern Illinois...Randy's pond is now back on track....

Oh yeah also Randy's son and his son's friend both shot very nice deer the night before we arrived on the farm. Iowa has a youth shotgun season before their bow season starts.....hey Illinois boys how about that, let the kids get a crack at the big boys when the weather is nice and before yall go out and educate em....





Then up to Cedar Rapids for a couple places and spend the night at good friend Kevins place. So I met Kevin a couple years back at a national Pond Boss conference....took on the task of helping him grow monster bluegills over in Iowa and now because of him and his success we have shocked and made management plans for over a dozen of his buddies lakes and properties and now we are scheduling his buddies' buddies' places for next spring trip that way....very cool and lots of fun.

Drake is growing up fast. Here are a couple super hero shots:



Ok so he's growing up fast, but a little slow....but super smart all at the same time. He wants to wear underwear, but not quite ready to be potty trained. I got a good compromise with the combo and ok so he probably could or should be potty trained, but life is just a bit too busy and hectic to take on that task just finishing up this house and getting ready to move and such.... I did manage to squeeze a couple evenings in at the house and am getting the wood shakes up:


That gable is actually finished now, just dont have an updated pic...

Also in the last week we shocked some local lakes, stocked a couple ponds in Eastern Illinois with big stripers and feed trained bass and been getting some good trail cam pics sent in!!!








On Sunday I fell into a deep sleep at some point during the Bears-Rams game and didnt wake up until about 20 hours later. I got hit with a little bug (and some pain medication) that pretty much put me out. Anyhow back at it full force. Today the guys were plugging away on another dock project and I was meeting with Dr. Gumm about fencing options for his property and then up over near Gilson helping a client purchase his perfect 50 acre dream farm with a 2 acre pond....and making sure the dream farm all checks out...

Thursday Im stuck in the office, but Friday out to Taylorville for an electrofishing survey to help create a canadian themed lake......

Ravina on The Lakes Event This Weekend

Ravina on the lakes hosts tons of weddings and such each year, 99.99% unfishing related stuff. BUT, this event they are hosting open to the public they will actually let you bring your fishing pole and cast a line out into the water. Plus all the other fun stuff listed below... Let me just say that Ravina's Lakes are home to some of the biggest bass in all of Central Illinois......almost worth having your wedding reception there just to have a crack at a monster......

30TH ANNIVERSARY AND OPEN HOUSE Sunday September 30 , 2012 FREE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC 1 PM -- 4PM      Join Ravina...on the Lakes in celebrating 30 years of memorable events in Central IL!    For the first time ever, Ravina...on the Lakes is hosting a FREE event open to the public.  Bring your family and friends for a fun time in the park.     Enjoy the beautiful grounds, hike the trails, fish in the lake, take a hayrack ride, and grab a hot dog and chips.  And that's not all!  There will be Fun on the Run inflatables, the Zoo Crew facepainting, Segway rides from World on Wheels, and a family friendly movie with popcorn and cotton candy for everyone.  Stay and show off your dance moves with music by DJ Don Baker.   FREE Family Friendly Fun!  Sunday September 30 2012 1pm - 4pm

ONLY REQUIREMENT FOR ENTRY : A HEALTHY               APPETITE FOR FUN AND FOOD                             5326 W Charter Oak Road Peoria, Il 61615 309-692-3222 ravina-onthelakes.com.