We made a big bonfire out on big lake and Chef's Creole Clam and Crawfish Chowder didnt disappoint! It was great talking, hangin out and feasting with everyone out on the ice! Here is chef getting set up:
I did have a hunch that the fish werent gonna bite real well with the unstable weather and the heavy snows that have been sitting on the lakes for weeks, but I didn't expect them to bite as bad as they did. It was a very tough day of fishing. I can't wait for the temps to start getting up above freezing hopefully soon!! Then the fish will have to start biting again.
We had 8 prize categories with prizes for first, second, and third place for each category! Here is a pic of the weigh in.
We had a prize for smallest fish and believe it or not, this bass in the picture was the third smallest fish caught! We took the pic before the weigh in thinking for sure it would be the winner.
The biggest bass caught was 3.87 lbs and second place was 3.76 lbs.
The kids that came out had fun and they all got brand new ice fishing rod/reels from Presleys Outdoors!
The biggest crappie was just under 14"
So anyhow this ice fishing extravaganza is the first big event of the first chapter of the new Giant Goose Ranch! We may not have caught too many fish this go around, but we had a blast! Next week we will be stocking 1000 brown trout, 2000 brook trout, and 3000 rainbow trout into some of the deep clear lakes on the property!!
The fish mgmt on the 52 lakes and ponds on this property is going to be cutting edge and unlike anything ever been done before! This is only the beginning.
So anyhow earlier in the week I went fishing with some guys from Eastern Illinois. We fished up a 5 gallon bucket of small crappie, bluegill, and bass in the morning and then went over to one of our specialty ponds over near wildlife prairie park for some Yellow Perch fishing. We created this perch pond only 2 years ago and it is already producing Jumbo's!
We started out catching some really small ones that were just born in the pond in early May...
Even with Lake Michigan to our north, we plan on breaking the state record for Yellow Perch in just a couple more years. I have clients in other states who have caught state record perch from there ponds, we plan on doing it here in Illinois too!
No comments:
Post a Comment