The official blog of the Herman Brothers! Get a behind the scenes look into their
Outdoor Adventures- fishing, hunting, camping, making tv shows and raising their families. The blog is family friendly with a handful of funny videos, stories, pictures, tips and inspirational messages mixed together.
This week we were up at the Fox Chain of Lakes. We built the deck and stained the trailer when we hauled it up to the chain last month and went back up this month to install the custom built screens, deck trellis, and EverRock trailer skirting. Kind of stinks to be up near 5000 acres of water and not able to do any fishing, but oh well, at least we got our fish fix taken care of on the way up.
We stopped in Kirkland, IL and electrofishing Ron Taylors 5 acre lake. We dialed up bunches of fish and helped him come up with a management plan for growing bigger largemouth bass. Then we stopped by our buddy a professional ice fisherman's place and worked out some deals on all of our ice fishing gear this winter. We will be outfitted with a whole fleet of a dozen vexilars, a 4 stroke strikemaster light power auger, and 24 micro bite light Dave Genz ice fishing rods!
Anyhow here are some pics of the finished trailer up at Grass Heart RV park on the Fox Chain of Lakes:
One last tidbit is that we will be at the POND MANAGEMENT SEMINAR JUNE 13, 2011 FROM 4-9 P.M. AT OSSAMI LAKE BEACH 210 NORTHSHORE DRIVE, MORTON, IL
I don't think it is humanly possible to pack anything more into a week. Weeks already fly by this time of year and a short week just makes things fly by even that much faster. It also didnt help that I was physically worn out before this week even started! All thanks to the new Blob!
We built a jump dock with a Blob over the Memorial Day Weekend and we had a blast testing it out and getting er all figured out. The blob is a big blow up thing where you put a skinny kid out on the end and then you have a fat guy jump off the platform onto the blob and that force shoots the skinny kid up into outerspace! Here is a short spoof video of me launching Johnny to give you a good visual:
Here are some more pics of the jump dock building process. We just designed and engineered the dock while we built it and ended up with a pretty cool dock.
Here you can see the new blob nestled into its new home by the rope swing and other jump dock.
After a whole summer of climbing and jumping onto the blob and I most likely no longer will be the fat guy. I was pretty tired and very sore and took all week to recover. This coming weekend we have 200 junior high girls and counselors coming to the lake for our church camp, I am gonna have to recruit some more fat guys, cause Justin and I wont be able to keep up.....
So anyhow I electrofished several bodies of water and dialed up some awesome fish and helped create some awesome customized fish management plans for these bodies of water! Here are some highlights from shocking: These first two bass came out of a 3 acre trophy bass pond.
This big momma came out of a 1/2 acre gem! This pond is going to be even more intensively managed!!
Also I took two groups fishing this week. First group was 12 high schoolers from Morton. We caught some really nice walleyes, hybrid stripers, smallmouth, trout and some huge bluegill. We had a 10 lb rainbow trout break off after a 5 minute battle..... Then we cooked up a bunch of fresh hybrid stripers for dinner! We piled onto the fishing pontoon and vertical jigged.....
Next group I took fishing was from the Tremont area and we also caught some really nice fish! Chef Todd came out and cooked our feast this time and we ate grilled muskie for the first time!! He cooked grilled bing cherry trout with a special honey glaze and also fried up some hybrid stripers and he grilled a monster chocolate chip cookie thing that was just awesome. Here is a group pic:
Also last week I helped a client purchase 48 acres in Fulton County that has 2 lakes on it, also I met up with some guys from Iowa and sent them back across the border with a truckload full of fish feeders and aeration equipment, and on top of everything else I am working on coordinating a monster lodge project. We designed and are building this lodge for a client and it is shaping up nicely! Here are some pics:
I spent the afternoon playing with Mae, Noah, and Drake and we plan on going to a pool somewhere after church tomorrow! Next week we head to the Fox Chain of Lakes with our full crew to work up there till Wednesday night. On the way up we will stop in Kirkland, Illinois to electrofish a 5 acre pond. When we get back we have to finish up as many electrofishing surveys as possible before the weather and water gets too hot.
On Saturday we were working on building a 16 foot high jump dock at the lake for the new blob (pics and videos to come!) I was busy building, but Steve Ryan and his wife Josie came down into town for some big bluegill photo shoots at our lake. Steve is a regional host for InFisherman TV and regular contributor to the InFisherman magazine. For those who don't know, InFisherman is pretty much the top fishing show and fishing magazine in the country!
Anyhow here are his photos from Saturday from my lake. You will notice many different shirts, jackets, and hats from many different sponsors. The different fishing companies use these photos for marketing material. There are so many monster bluegill pics you may get tired of scrolling through!
So if that isnt enough mega bluegill pics, here are some photos from our fishing trip Sunday morning. At the crack of dawn, I took them to a secret honey hole that a client owns in Fulton County. This place is a panfish mecca! We fished a total of 3 hours and caught nonstop Boone and Crocket bluegills and redear sunfish:
