Gulf Shores, Alabama Red Snapper

Saying life has been a little crazy lately would definitely be an understatement. Shew boy it has been quite the whirlwind. In response to the chaos, and at the worst possible moment during the year, my brothers and I decided to jump ship and head south on a getaway fishing trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama.

We left our friends, families and jobs on Friday afternoon, May 30th and didnt have a return date. We had all been working 80-100 hr weeks since March and needed to get away for some down time. There is no better place than on the Ocean to reconnect and get rejuvenated!!


Red Snapper season opened up down in Alabama on Sunday, June 1st so our timing couldnt have been more perfect in that regard..... Alabama doesnt have any natural structure for Red Snapper and many other similar bottom fish, so they have spent 100's of millions of dollars over the last 20 years building AMAZING habitat in their waters!


Im talking over 17,000 artificial reefs that consist of bridge rubble, culverts, habitat pyramids, army tanks, and barges have been strategically placed off their coast from 3-40 miles out all in a grid.... for a fish guy like me, this is super impressive! Everybody in the whole Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Fort Morgan, and Mobil areas has pitched in and have been working together creating this fishery. Pretty much all the businesses in the entire area have pitched in and sponsored various reefs and habitat projects.... banks, hotels, condos, bait shops, grocery stores, souvenir shops, marinas, restaurants, and pretty much any business you can think of have joined together to create perhaps the most impressive man made fishery in the Ocean.





They all joined together and made something amazing out of pretty much absolutely nothingness. The reason they did this was to attract fisherman and their families to come down and spend a week or two every year in their community. Their plan was working great, until the Federal Government stepped in and is on the verge of crushing everything they have worked so hard creating.

You see right now there are more and bigger fish off of alabama's coast than ever before in their history and the Federal Govt over the past few years has restricted their fishing seasons to almost non-existence due to declining numbers of fish populations 100's and 1000's of miles away..... Get this, Alabama has done one of best management jobs ever and they only get 9 days this year to harvest their fish.... yep, you heard me right; just 9 days out of the whole year to utilize what they have spent 100's of millions and 20 years creating......

Just a couple years ago the season was 6 months, then reduced to 40 days, and now this year is the biggest slap in the face at a whopping 9 day season. There are more and bigger snapper in Alabama than ever before. I spent a week down there and you couldnt not catch a snapper if you tried. If I lived in Alabama and was part of creating this fishery for the betterment of the whole community and I had the federal government trying to manage and sabotage what I just helped create I would be sick to my stomach.

 The federal government is punishing Alabama for the sins of Florida and Texas and Commercial fisherman. Those fish have absolutely nothing to do with the fishery in Alabama.... Everything about the federal government managing this situation is inefficient, outdated and very costly to the hardworking people who have made something very special but cannot utilize it....

Here is a sneak peak of a big red snapper:


Here in Illinois we have some really dumb rules, but nothing even close to the injustice of what Alabama is going through. Here we can build a lake and buy fish for stocking into it, but we can only legally harvest 6 bass per day out of it. Even if we just bought the fish and put them into our own private lake we can still only harvest 6 per day... to me rules like that are just plain ignorant. But I can live with ignorance of that magnitude, what I could not live with is the ignorance of the magnitude of whats happening in Alabama....

So anyhow here is what is happening in Alabama. We downloaded the gps coordinates to their list of reefs, we headed down and gave many of their local businesses our money in exchange for food, fuel, bait, and lodging and we went out fishing in our little carolina skiff every day. Oh yeah, on our way out of town we even stopped in and grabbed some souvenirs for our children back home...

Anyhow, we caught amazing fish at every single reef we pulled up to. In fact, they were so loaded with fish that we would have 100's of snappers right below our boat just by throwing out a few chunks of bonito or cigar minnows. We were light tackle fishing monster bottom fish!!






We were trying out some new Fin-Nor saltwater rod and reel combos and just out having a blast every day reeling in these fish.






We also had several really cool up close encounters with big sea turtles, dolphins and various sharks. We even caught almost an 8 foot shark! Here is a still shot pulled from a video.. Hopefully will post the video soon....



We were kinda supposed to come home around Wednesday, but we decided to stay to the utmost maximum time possible which was Friday afternoon. We were fortunate to fish for 6 of their whopping 9 day season....

Next year if they even have a season, we will definitely be back! Now its back to work and time to get stuff done. I have never been more anxious to get back rockin and rollin. I feel the alabama fishing situation is just an overall good example for what can be created with good management (on many levels) as long as we can manage what we have created with minimal interference.

We can also relate here in Illinois because overall we are a pretty worthless fishing state, but with good management we are making something out of nothing and starting to turn some heads just like Alabama did!!!

Lake Life on DIY Network!

We are super excited for our new tv show to air on Memorial Day, May 26th at 10 pm on DIY network!

The show is called "Lake Life" and it basically starts out as a design build show for fun lake projects, but also incorporates a little family life in Central Illinois for not just us, but our clients as well!

Here is a little preview video:
Lake Life Sizzle - FINAL from Back Roads Entertainment on Vimeo.

So anyhow here is a little more information about the show as well: http://giantgooseranch.com/lakelife.html

Hopefully you guys will watch the show and if its on a little too late, make sure to set your DVR's. If America likes the show, we will be filming more episodes in Peoria and Fulton county this summer. If America doesnt like the show, we will just chalk this up as an amazing adventure and keep on pushing some other envelope to the max.

It really is crazy how this has all come about. About two years ago, a production company sent us an email saying they would like to make a tv show about what we are doin.... I kinda totally blew them off at first, thinking yea right, but then a couple weeks later Justin and Allen did a skype interview with them that I walked into and things started rollin from there....

For two years its been quite the ride with many hurdles passed and hoops jumped through and here we are on the brink of the actual airdate. Honestly the chances of actually filming and then getting the show on the air were pretty slim to none, I still am kinda surprised each step of the way... Anyhow, filming the episodes was actually way more fun than I ever thought would be.

Hope you guys tune in and like the show. I will definitely keep posted the latest of whats happening. The episodes will air a few times on the DIY network and then there is a chance that they will also air on the Great American Country Channel as well.

Goose Ranch Bass Fishing Tourney Results

Saturday, May 17th started out at 38 degrees. The water temps were in the low 60's whereas just 5 days earlier they were in the low 70's... The wet, dreary cold overcast weather from the day before was gone and we had the typical post cold front bright blue bird skies for our fishing tournament. Basically what I am getting at is although the weather was very nice for being outside, it wasnt optimum fish feeding conditions....

Here is a pic of the weigh in overlooking the big lake. We ate very good at weigh in. Chef Todd and my mom put together a nice spread:



So naturally the tournament got off to a slow start, but after a couple hours fish started to wake up a bit and some of the guys were able to string a few bites together to make for a very respectable weigh-in! There were about 50 bass weighed in over 3 lbs.


This tournament was alot different than most typical bass tournaments... Actually it was more like two tournaments in one. The grand prize was for the team who caught the most bass and the other grand prize was for the team who caught the heaviest 5 fish over 15"...

Let me just say in private lakes and ponds, largemouth bass OVERPOPULATION is the NUMBER ONE problem. Bass are born every year, and 95% of them need to be eliminated in order to grow BIG bass. In my opinion, only about 5 bass out of a 100 should be returned back into most private bodies of water....

Here is something you must keep in mind when fishing private lakes and ponds- you still need a fishing license and you still need to follow state fishing regulations. I dont agree with this law one bit for following state regulations on private property with privately stocked fish, but hopefully someday it will change. The law is outdated, because the state no longer gives out fish for private pond stocking, so the laws need to be updated accordingly as well.

Anyhow Joe and Jon won the tournament for heaviest 5 fish with 4 fish totalling exactly 14.00 lbs. Curt and Joe had 5 fish for 12.79 lbs and Mike Q had 3 fish for 11.58 lbs and Matt and Elliot had 4 fish for 11.44 lbs....

Bryce Wegman had big bass of the tournament from highrise lake: 5.64 lbs


Chad Schieler came in close second also from highrise lake at 5.60 lbs. That fish needed to keep down her breakfast and she woulda easily won!!


We will be tracking data like crazy of all the bass from all the lakes at the goose ranch. Our goal for next year is to have 5 fish limits for the tournaments in the 18-22 lbs range to win. You will see the weights going upward from here, fish can grow fast when they have what they need to do so!!

Total payout for prizes for this tournament was over $4300! We hope to have another tournament this summer on Saturday, June 21. Email nate@hblakemanagement.com if you would be interested in reserving your spot. More details for it will come.

Hunter didnt get to weigh in a big fish for this his first bass tournament, but he was excited to still win a $50 presleys gift card and get to hold up one of the big bass for a pic!!


We actually saved all the big bass in our big white hauling tank, hit em with a good dose of oxygen and medication for a couple hours and then redistributed them accordingly back into the goose ranch lakes best suited for them!! That helps the fish recover from the stress of the tournament big time!

Doug Stange and Chef Todd Fishing Show

Doug Stange and his film crew from InFisherman TV came to Central Illinois for some fishing Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week to fish with Chef Todd.


While eating dinner in Canton, Pete the camera man, had some funny stories to tell about the adventure! The funniest would be his recollection and account of Doug explaing to Todd that he probably shouldnt mention Fulton County Fat Girls anymore everytime a pregnant bass gets caught... Pets's a funny guy, you can see by his apparel it wasnt a pleasant spring fishing trip...


The next funny story on the list would be the audible level difference between Doug and Todd.. Anyhow, forgive me Chef for mentioning this stuff right off the gate, but for those who know you this is funny stuff. For those who don't know you, the bottom line is this: Chef is very passionate about fishing and this episode of InFisherman TV could be thee episode that gets talked about as FUN, yet also informative, and also has the signature BIG fish InFisherman TV is famous for! Or the editors could do ALOT of editing.

So anyhow Mondays weather (the day before the fishing trip) was 70's and the rest of the week was 50's with off and on cold rain and wind. Basically what I am saying is the weather was less than ideal for filming a fishing show, but them boys hardcored it and got er done. It took 2 full days to film one segment, but they got er done and Chef finished up the show with a good catch in the bottom of the ninth...


Here is a sneak peak of the big fish Doug caught. This is the biggest bass that he has filmed in the state of Illinois. She was caught on the Big Lake at the Giant Goose Ranch!! I'm telling you guys the big lake


The whole gang stayed in the cabin at the ranch. They ate meals from area Canton Restaraunts and obviously anyone who watches the show is going to know that FULTON COUNTY is a bass fishing destination!

Then on Thursday Doug and Dr Ed filmed a show up in Princeville at a clients lake before heading back to Minnesota. These shows will air in quarter two of 2015.

 While Todd was filming his show, Dr. Ed was putting a hurting on crappies at the goose ranch and some surrounding strip mine lakes:


While them boys were fishing, we were out stocking lots of FULTON COUNTY lakes and ponds... Kevin left work a little early to help with the stocking of his new 3 acre smallmouth pond!


Friday we spent working in the Chicago area, and then got to spend a few hours at the Max Mcgraw Wildlife Foundation. The fisheries biologists there know how to grow some big walleye, pike, and tiger muskie, but they havent made much of an effort towards growing big bluegill (until now)....

Saturdays we spend working at the goose ranch... these boys love working with dad probably more than anything... I just give them wood to carry and nails to pound and screws to pick up and they eat that stuff up... the more real it feels the more they like it:


Finally with some good weather forecasted this upcoming week, its crappie time! This is THE week to go crappie fishing so my advice would be to make it happen and then when you get your limit of crappies, get out and fill a sack of mushrooms too.... I dont know what this mushroom season is going to bring, but do know that folks are finally out finding some! Today after church hopefully we can find some for dinner like these that Kyle found:

Bass Fishing Tournament May 17th!

Saturday, May 17th we are planning a Lake Management Bass Fishing Tournament at the Giant Goose Ranch in Canton, IL. We have a surplus of bass in 3 lakes that we need to get out ASAP. Also we have some big bass we are relocating so we have come up with a pretty unique format for the tournament. The tourney will be from 7 am to 1 pm, and you can sign up at Presleys Outdoors or by emailing me nate@hblakemanagement.com .

Here are a couple big bass pics from the lakes we will be fishing during the tournament:



We will be fishing ski lake, spool lake, and highrise lake. We are looking for 30 two man teams to participate in the tournament and help us manage these lakes. Our goal is to create the best bass fishing lakes in the state of Illinois... The cost for the tournament is $50 per person (non-members) and $25 per person (members) and lunch will be provided by Chef Todd at the weigh-in.

Two man teams, and basically its two fishing tournaments at the same time. The team with the most weight for top 5 bass will win two annual fishing memberships.  Bass over 15" we will put in livewells and keep alive to relocate to some of the other lakes on the property.

The team with the most bass will also win two annual fishing memberships to the Goose Ranch. Bass under 15" you will put into coolers (not the livewell) and can take home to eat or we at the Giant Goose Ranch will fillet and eat them for a big fish fry. Just a note, we will be keeping every bass caught, so bring a cooler and our goal is that hopefully we will catch over 1000 bass during this tournament!!

Also we will have cash or gift certificate prizes for Big Bass, Second and Third Places of each of the categories. Plus dont forget Lunch will be at the weigh-in. All three lakes have good boats ramps for any size boat and there are no motor restrictions. You can move from lake to lake if you like throughout the day.

 Here is a pic of Ski Lake. Its 1.25 miles long.


Here is a pic of Spool Lake. Its 1.4 miles long


Here is a pic of HighRise Lake. Its not nearly as long or big, but it is a respectable 12 acres:



This week Doug Stange and the film crew of InFisherman TV are staying at the Goose Ranch and filming a couple bass fishing and maybe even a crappie fishing episode! These shows will air next year on the Sportsmans Channel. Right now we have 3 or 4 segments airing on Sportsmans Channel that we filmed last year...

We have been catching some really big bass out at the goose ranch already this spring, here are some pics and stay tuned to Goose Ranch Facebook page for live updates this week of the fishing and filming... Oh yeah, dont forget to sign up for the tourney, it will be a great chance to check out the lakes at the ranch, and also to help us really manipulate and manage the fish populations! And also you wont leave hungry...