Southwest Outdoorsman

What a Weekend!

Mon, June 27, 2011

Even with less than prime weather and 6 plus inches of rain this weekend the fish were still biting and the frogs were croaking. It was a busy weekend as I took a couple youngsters along on the youth frog gigging trip, tangled with Channel Cats & Flatheads on Bond Lake and hammered the White Bass on the Kaskaskia River.

I took a couple young Frog Giggers out Thursday night for the annual FFGA (future frog giggers of America) youth frog gig. The kids had a blast even though the temps were in the mid 70’s and the water was warmer than the air. With high water it was harder than usual to locate the frogs as they were high and dry on shore lying up in the thick grass. I managed to spotlight the young men on a limit of nice frogs and they went home happy with plenty of croakers to fry up. It was great to introduce young outdoorsmen to new activities in the outdoors and important to keep traditions alive.

a couple of up and coming outdoorsman with a limit of Frogs

Friday night I headed out on the home lake for some rod & reel action and to jug for some catfish. With high water and big storms rolling in it really had the cats turned on. We caught a few Channels rod and reel in the 5-12 lb range but did most of our damage on the jugs using whole bluegill and shad, with 18 catfish in the 5-15 lb range with big fish being a Flathead. In between checking the jugs and rebating I also took the frog gigs along and took a couple croakers for myself!

Flatheads & Frogs a good combo

Phil with a couple nice Channels

My brother with 2 more nice Channels

Sunday afternoon I headed down to the Kaskaskia River below Carlyle Lake in search of some White bass. The river has rose quite a bit with the recent rains but that didn’t seem to stop the White bass from biting as they were on fire.  Most of the fish were in the .75-1.5 lb range with big white being a fine 3 lb 6 oz specimen. We ended up keeping and cleaning 123 whites to feed the family for the annual 4th of July fish fry and easily caught over 200 on the day all on crawdads. It was just one of those days that as soon as the bait is in the water, a fish is on

biggest White Bass of the day

Cooler full of 123 White Bass fillets for the 4th of July fish fry

Overall it was a great weekend to be outdoors, don’t let the wet weather/ high water keep you away from fishing as it hasn’t seemed to bother the fish a bit. I hope everyone has a great 4th of July and is able to enjoy it, make sure to thank the ones that have made it all possible!

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