Dads Biggest Bluegill Ever!

So my dad calls me up early Saturday morning and says that he just caught the biggest bluegill of his life. He was catfish fishing with Chicken Livers when the behemoth hit. He then in such a proud voice declared that they ran up and got a camera phone to take a pic and he caught another beast before they got back with the camera. So instead of taking a nice picture with the best bluegill he ever caught he naturally had to add the 10 incher in the pic. He was so proud that they even took 2 pictures and were figuring out how to email them over to me.

Anyhow when he said it was my older brother who took the pic, and he was holding 2 fish, I knew the pics were going to be pretty bad, but when they got the pics emailed over I didnt expect it to be this bad-



The big one was 12.75" and 1 lb-13 oz.
The small one was 10.25" and 1 lb- 2 oz.

My dad (like all Herman Boys) is a big 290 lb guy, the pics just dont do the fish justice.

They kept both fish in a big tub to get the pics and then let them go. Now my dad was caught up in the moment and excited, but does regret not keeping the big one to get mounted. I explained to him that is was just some form of hybrid (we have mistakenly put about 5 different variations of hybrid bluegill in the lake) and that we dont need that fish for genetics, just put it in the lake and then harvest it whenever you want.

Summer Trout Fishing in Central Illinois

Did a full lake audit today on one of our clients 5 acre lakes outside of Elmwood. This may sound kind of strange, but the lake audit actually involved fishing? Our mission was to check on the rainbow trout that were suspended down about 25 feet deep in 60 foot of water...... The trout are doing just fine!

She made me change his pajamas.....

Brook woke up about 8 am on Saturday morning. The boy and I had already been up for quite awhile that morning. After we ate breakfast we showed her the pics from our sunrise excursion and she promptly made me take off his pajamas??????



The "boy" is 1.5 years old and there is absolutely no questioning who his father is. He is my little fishin' man!

Smallmouth Bass Pond

Let me just say that fishing a 5 acre pond that is full of smallmouth bass as opposed to largemouth bass is just about the most fun you can have fishing! I stopped by Rodger Moons smallmouth pond friday afternoon to check on his fish population, and let me just say again, smallie fishing is 10 times more fun than green carp fishing!

First on our agenda was to check on the 250,000 golden shiners we stocked into rodger's forage pond. We stocked them as little microscopic fry back in May, and they are currently all about 1-3 inches long and fill the pond from top to bottom! There are way more in the pond than I had anticipated!!!

Then we quickly finished setting a dock that Rodger and co had built and hit the boat with an assortment of plastic tubes and jigs. I figured since is was the middle of the day and sunny that the smallies would be hanging along the deep edge of the pond, and boy was I wrong for the first 30 minutes. I didnt even get a nibble! Then as I was starting to get desperate to show off my fish catching capabilities and live up to my fish catching reputation I saw and heard a smallie slam a dragon fly on the other side of the pond!!!

I quickly turned the trolling motor into 5th gear and started heading towards the shallow sunny corner! I pulled out a big oversized rubber worm hook with no weight and threaded on an orange crappie sized tube jig. First cast into this corner and a 3 lb smallie slammed my bait the moment it hit the water!!! 2 other smallies followed this guy all the way up to the boat and I knew I had found the 10% of the water that held 90% of the fish!

After missing the next 2 violent strikes I then landed 5 more smallies before missing the big one.....of course. She was huge and mean and was not going to be caught. Anyhow I just couldnt help but think to myself how I cant wait to find some more ponds this fall to stock with only smallmouth bass as the top dog predator!

Here are some pics, I was fishing alone, so it was a bit harder than usual to get a good shot:

Coolest July Ever and the Fish are Lovin' it!

My digital camera has officially bit the dust. It has been acting up for the last month or so, and finally decided to quit working altogether. It has felt kind of strange not being able to take pics of all the fish being caught this summer. We have been fishing here and there every chance we get and landing some real beauties! 6 lb rainbow trout was caught sunday afternoon trolling a blue rapala tail-dancer 20 feet down, numerous 1 lb bluegill have been landed, 5-7 lb stripers, and even some 3-4 lb smallies! Usually I have the digital proof to back up these bogus fish stories but until I get a free moment to find a new camera I guess your just going to have to believe these fish stories without any proof!

I need a camera that is small, durable, and has very few buttons. I dont need all the megapixels or features for internet quality pics. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My old camera lasted for 2 years, but in reality should of only lasted for a few months with the kind of abuse it got in the tackle box!

Here are a few pics I grabbed with my phone the other night while fishing with my uncle spark (his small head is in the background of the giant bluegill pic), brother in law Jared and cousins David and Caleb Sauder.