Hook and Hunt TV features Herman Brothers!

I filmed a show with hookandhunttv.com last month. It is now live online. The show's host Jim Crowley is a regular on Midwest Outdoors fishing and hunting show that airs on local channels across the midwestern states and nationally on the sportsmens channel. This is the first of 3 segments featuring the process of building, stocking, and catching fish on this 1/2 acre backyard pond.

We will be stocking fathead minnows this fall. Then we will be stocking feed trained smallmouth and feed trained hybrid striped bass along with bluegill in the spring. We will install a waterfowl aeration system over by the goose pit and a smallmouth bass aeration system out in the deep hole. We will grow more 4 lb hybrid striped bass and 3 lb smallmouth bass and 1 lb bluegill in this 1/2 acre pond than most people will catch in their lifetime of fishing in Illinois!

I am no good at tv shows or interviews yet and I look like a giant compared to Jim, but overall it was alot of fun and a good learning experience. Some day hopefully soon I will fulfill a lifelong dream of actually being on a real outdoor show on a national tv station.

Flyfishing Lessons at the Fishing Park

Flyfishing Lessons and Demonstrations
Hooked on Fishing Park East Peoria, IL
Saturday September 25th from 8 am to 2 pm
$10 suggested donation

Come down to Hooked On Fishing Park in East Peoria to learn how to fly fish! We have some experienced fly fishing instructors coming down to teach anyone who wants to learn hands on as well as a casting demonstration at 11 am by Jonn Graham on the trout pond!

If you have your own fly gear and are willing to teach others how to flyfish or you just need to get in a few practice casts of your own please come on down for a fun day of learning, teaching and fishing! Please contact me at 309-303-5691 or nate@hbpondmanagement.com if your interested in helping in any capacity or have any questions.

Also we have a pavilion with big grill that we will be using for lunch. Bring a sack lunch or some meat to throw on the grill. Families are invited and encouraged to come down for the day!

We will be fishing in all the ponds and want to have the day be devoted to fly rods! Here is a funny video of fly fishing gurus Jonn Graham and Curt Eber having fun scoping out the ponds with their fly rods:



Also here is a video of our trout hatchery where we raise our young fingerlings up to trophy sizes before releasing them into the big ponds!

Loftness Timber Ax for Tree Clearing

Herman Brothers Pond Management is evolving into HB Lake and Land Management. This year we have planted lots of food plots, hung lots of deer stands, and now we are going to be clearing trash trees! We have partnered up with huntplots.com and Ryan Pudik to offer a full gamit of land management services to our clients.

This fall and winter we will be clearing willow trees, russian olives, and locusts with the loftness timber ax attachment for the skid steer. This tool cuts down and completely mulches those trash tress in less than one minute! Here is a sample video we made today while creating some trails on a 40 acre property for a client.



The timber ax cuts perfect ATV and Horse trails through the timber and our many other attachments can quickly accomplish any timber clearing job imaginable! Clearing food plots is a breeze! Shoot me an email or give me a call if you have any trails to make or trash trees to remove!!

Tiger Muskie from 5 acre lake

This tiger muskie we stocked in 2007 as a 12 inch yearling into a 5 acre strip mine lake. It was caught on a terminator spinner bait last week by James Fiddes. The fish measured 39 inches!


The lake was full of 12 inch largemouth bass back in '07, but I am guessing those little largemouths don't have too many buddies hanging around these days!

Outdoor Lunch with Chef Todd

This Friday August 27th we are having another outdoor lunch with Chef Todd. He will be cooking shark, pig, deer and beef down at the hooked on fishing park in East Peoria. Everyone is invited and a $10 donation is gladly accepted. All proceeds benefit kids fishing programs at the park for next summer. The lunch starts at 11 am and ends at 1 pm. Stop in to grab a unique bite to eat and finish off your lunch with one of Chef's special grilled bananas. Here is what a grilled banana looks like:

We are wrapping up an awesome year of fishing down at the park! I don't have the exact numbers yet, but we provided fishing trips for over 1000 children, senior citizens, and folks with special needs! They all caught fish too!!