Upcoming Events Across the Midwest

This spring we are gonna be at quite a few real fun events! March 1st I am speaking at the Elmwood All Outdoors Show and will be giving out a few secrets to growing trophy fish. Here is more info:


Then March 14-16 I will be speaking on the same topics at the Eastern Iowa Sports Show in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Then March 28th I will be at BnB FarmStore in Jessup, Iowa. They are Iowa's Headquarters for Lake and Pond Mgmt! The next day March 29th I will be speaking at a pond management clinic in Omaha, Nebraska put on by NorthWest Feed and Grain and Purina Mills.

Also two other events we will be at are the Spring Home Show at the civic center Feb 21st weekend and the Central Illinois RV and Recreation Show Feb 28th weekend also at the Civic Center.

So anyhow if your anywhere near any of those events come on by!

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Amazing Ice Fishing Sunrise

Saturday morning we were getting onto the lake and were blessed with an amazing sunrise!


There was a little snowstorm coming and the sun disappeared completely behind those clouds for the rest of the day, but those 3 minutes of the sun peaking through were timed absolutely perfectly. Anyhow we had huge aspirations of overflowing our buckets with crappies and bluegills like this:


But instead we just fished out in the snow and for the most part caught a whole lot of nothing like this:


We marked alot of fish, pretty much every lake and spot we hopped to, but they were all just sniffers. They would come and look at the baits, follow em up and down and just be all kinds of curious but very very few of them would bite!

So we had an amazing sunrise and watched lots of geese flying around all over the place, but the fish we were after eluded us. I guess all we can do is get back on the horse and make up for it next go around.

Weekend Ice Fishing Recap and Pictures

Chef Todd coined the weekend Bro's on Ice 2014.... We had a bunch of guys up ice fishing from Texas, Tennessee, Nebraska, Indiana, Minnesota, Chicago, and Wisconsin!! (yes Chicago is classified differently as well) Here is a group shot of most, but we are missing Texas and Tennessee and some others....


Anyhow we fished hard from Thursday-Sunday and we ate some pretty stinkin good food along the way as well.. For the most part we had to work hard for the fish, using every ice fishing jig and lure and bait under the sun, but we put in the time and were rewarded with some amazing fish!

The weather was anything but stable during those 4 days, we had cold, wind, rain, sleet, warm, sun, clouds, and wind again.... when it was sunny the fish were holding tight, but in low light we could use more aggressive baits and draw them in.

I have quite a few really awesome pics, I guess I'll just start ploppin em in and we will go from there... For the most part it was big bluegills we were after:







But we also spent some time targeting 'other' species as well.... we used tip ups with 6" shiners, as well as rippin raps and jiggin spoons to catch these walleyes and bass and even muskie:











Also I almost forgot Chef's Little Brown Trout:


And Justins little smallie:


Oh Yeah, cant forget the hybrid striper bite on Saturday evening was on fire. They were inhaling rippin raps jigged pretty aggressively:




Also we found a couple trees that had some real nice crappie on them as well:






This was Texas boys first fish through the ice:


Last but not least, Chef cooked up some serious grub over the weekend... the highlight was the clam and crawfish and fresh crappie chowder out on the ice, but this rabbit and pheasant stew wasnt so bad either:


And the 1/2 lb venison stuffed meatballs were almost a perfect 10!


Cant go wrong grilling venison brats and pork chops on the ice either:


Here is that chowder we made out on the ice:



So anyhow those pics only scratch the surface to the fish and fun we had this weekend! I have about 400 great pics and stories, but time and space are not on my side at the moment... All I can say is get some buddies and friends and family together and lets go fishing (and bring a chef along)... When his work is done and our bellies are full, he usually can sneak out on a bucket for the last light of the day:

Ice Fishing Event Saturday January 18th

This Saturday, January 18th we will be ice fishing and scouting our new property in Canton, IL. We have named 52 of the lakes and ponds and we have only been fishing on about 30 of them so far... Learning the depths and the fish populations and creating the management plans has been an absolute blast!! In about 3 weeks we will be stocking 3000 rainbow trout, 2000 brook trout, and 1000 brown trout in some of the 60-80' really deep lakes!

Anyhow if anyone would like to come and fish with us this Saturday from 7 am to about 1 pm cost would be $125 per person fully guided with a vexilar or $75 per person if you have your own gear. We will have plenty of bait! Just email nate@hblakemanagement for directions.

Last time out to this property we found some really good 3-5 lb bass in some of the harder to get to smaller lakes, some nice crappie in some of the campground lakes, and some nice bluegill and redears in the ski lake and big lake... Here are some of those pics from our last outing there:







We will be keeping all fish caught big and small for research purposes, but you will be able to take them home to eat once we look them all over.

You can find out a little bit more about this property at www.giantgooseranch.com and I would love the opportunity to show you around. Its gonna quickly become the best fishing in the midwest and the perfect place to get your kids outdoors!!!

Cold Ice Fishing Adventures

Well, its been cold. Looks like its gonna be real cold the next few days! I can say we have definitely been putting our time in on the ice. So far I have only spent 3.5 daylight hours of the entire year 2014 NOT on the ice.....mostly in pursuit of trophy fish:



The fishing has been good and we have caught some really big fish, but to be honest we really havent had a strong active bite all season. We have had to put in our time and really work the fish to get them to eat. I am still waiting for the day that the fish go on fire and EAT!!!

So nonetheless I dont need an onfire bite to enjoy the greatest time of year to be fishing! Have had many awesome adventures and none more fun than fishing with Infisherman camera guys Christian Hoffman and Matt Love. We were in search of underwater footage for upcoming ice fishing shows and Also we were joined by Captain Ralph Steiger and his buddy Bobby.

We didnt catch many fish Thursday, but the ones we did get were really nice:









Actually the second day we fished it was only like -2 degrees out but sunny and pleasant. We only caught one fish worth taking a photo of:


Then on Saturday we fished out at the Giant Goose Ranch in Canton, IL. I will be writing alot more about this place in the weeks and years to come. My brothers and I just purchased this property with the plan of transforming it into the Midwest's Premier Fishing, Hunting, Hiking, Camping, and Family Recreation Area!

It took us a little while to find some active fish, the first couple hours were very slow, but once we found a couple good spots we caught some really good fish:













Some of you might recognize this guy. Him and his family came out to help me explore the Goose Ranch for their annual boys ice fishing outing:





We have 40 lakes and ponds on this property and the biggest one is 121 acres!! We are going to unleash the most intensive multi-species lake management program on the planet.... you can check out our new website www.giantgooseranch.com for more info about the place. The website is a work in progress, just the home page works right now...

So anyhow now I am prepped and ready for the cold artic blast to settle in and get rested up for the adventures that lie on the back side of this cold front!!