Sunday, October 28, 2012

A New Herman and Some Cold Water....

We had a very tight schedule this week, so naturally Justins wife Katy decides to have her baby a few days early:



Crosby James Herman born sometime Wednesday night or early Thursday. Somewhere between 15-20 inches long and 6-9 lbs.... I am very suspicious that Justin isnt the paternal father of this child- The baby is just way too good looking out of the gate...

The project Justin has been working on the last couple weeks is shaping up very nicely! This lake renovation is gonna be just awesome. Yellow Perch and Walleye are the feature of this lake.





Last Sunday after church we went over to Justin and Jareds place (yep, they are neighbors) and just played with the dogs, shot guns with the kids, and cooked hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire!!



Mom and Dad were still in Gulf Shores when they got the news Katy was in Labor....They scooted home as fast as possible. Anyhow they were still pounding big bullreds every night!


Hans with Home Comfort Insulation was also down there last week with his family, so they joined up with mom and dad and reeled in some big boys too!



So they would fish at night and just rest up during the day.. While there they saw that one of the units in the nextdoor TriPlex was for sale. This was right next door to my grandma's condo were they were staying.....The market is still depressed down there and the guy selling the condo needed to sell ASAP....Needless to say we purchased the unit for about half what they sold for in 2006!


It is 2000 square feet, sleeps 10 and is directly across the street from the Ocean. It backs up to the lagoon which is chuck full of redfish, flounder, and croaker! It also has this little swimming pool/hottub!!


So anyhow we will be renting the place out from April thru September and then will be using it from October to March!! So if your headed to Gulf Shores at any point in the future, look me up and I'll hook you up with a place to stay and some fishing intel.... I know every nook and cranny for shore and beach fishing from Ft. Morgan all the way to Orange Beach. I also know the best charter captains too if your looking to fish from a boat offshore or inshore....(you dont need a boat to catch monster fish down in this zone!!)

Anyhow, we did some electrofishing and consulting this week:


But the main projects were fish stockings and replacing floats under a massive 120' long floating dock. The owners decided to put 4000 lb planters on the corners of the dock after the fact so I naturally said "no problem" we can figure out how to make it work....thinking next spring....well they were thinking before winter....so we rented very warm wetsuits and took our opportunity on the 80 degree Wednesday!!


We also decided not to sleep this week and stocked over 20 lakes with rainbow trout, plus some lakes and ponds with walleye, yellow perch, smallmouth bass, and very big largemouth bass! This bass is only 18 months old and is growing rapidly....But it isnt exactly healthy....She grew too fast for her body to handle....We pulled her out of the gene pool and into our office aquarium...


Now she lives with this beast:


I didnt get to work on the house much this week, but am making slow progress. I laid the laundry room and bathroom floor and Brook helped me hang the kitchen cabinets. I have 30 days to finish the house and move in by Nov 30th.....



Our food plots at our property are loving the rain and sun....



Rustin harvested one of these deer this week from this 3 acre plot we planted at their property near Henry!


So anyhow to finish off this week, we got a load of walleyes in Wednesday about midnight, got them delivered with about an hour to spare before the big truckload of trout came in about noon. We got done delivering trout late thursday night and headed up to Jason's place in northern Illinois at 6 am to set more deer towers for him. (he is the guy with the bobcat trail cam from last week). We planted a bunch of food plots for him earlier this year, set up some trail cameras and deer towers and then came back up to set up 4 more towers. Two redneck blinds for bow/shotgun hunting and some Hughes blinds for shotgun season. Here are some pics, he is completely set up!!



 

This one overlooks the valley and on the other side overlooks a sorghum plot!!!



This one overlooks the huge hill on the backside and some shot plot on the topside...


We cleared a couple shooting lanes to shoot from the Redneck:





Front view of the redneck overlooking another sorghum and whitetail harvest salad patch:


The other redneck is positioned on a tree line overlooking forage oats that are a cover crop for the newly planted alfalfa. This is the one I would hunt out of all day opening day.....



Client Dave down past Carmi, IL in way southern Illinois sent me some walleye pics from his 2 acre, 11' deep pond!! Everyone always asks "Is my pond big or deep enough for walleye?" I always say YEP! I have a client down in Southern Illinois with an 11' deep pond growing walleyes!!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

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!