Just last week over thirty of my TV Show viewers went down to the Rend Lake Resort for a few days of fishing.   We had a good time despite some terrible weather that just left before their arrival.

Many of us are spending some time in the field hunting. And there are others getting ready for the holidays. But a few anglers will find some of the biggest perch of the year inside the breakwalls off 95^th Street in Lake Michigan.

Be it in Lake Calumet or the Illinois River, crappie fishing will be great in December. 

What a beautiful time of year it is to be out on the water. To me, there’s no better place to be than on the Illinois River. Being lined with so many colorful trees along the shores, it’s definitely the place to be right now.

Okay, Pinckneyville Lake. I know it’s spelled correctly but pronouncing the name of this lake was a bit tricky.

During the dog days of summer, those who love to fish are always looking for a new hot spot. There is one that I learned about this past summer and it just gets better and better as the fishing season seems to be shutting down. Fall fishing is great on the Rock River. 

           Over the years I’ve fishing with a lot of different people and I learned a lot about fishing tube jigs. Hearing what other have to say about working tubes reinforces many of my thoughts on tube fishing and improves the catches.

Last year when I was in Minnesota, I caught a rock bass that was just shy of the two pound state record.   I was fishing a rocky reef on Lake Mille Lacs and was amazed about the huge rockets that it produced. It was never thought for a moment that one would be a record fish, but when it was learned that one hefty one pound, fourteen ounce rockbass almost made the record book, I put a target on their backs for this year.

Owning a boat brings a lot of fun for the entire family. What brings that fun to a screeching halt is when there is a boating accident. It also gets to be quite frustrating when boaters are having problems at the ramps, causing a back up for launching or getting off the water at the end of the day

Local ponds have been on fire lately. I’ve been getting so many emails and photos from Lincoln-Way anglers. I hear it all the time that it’s getting too hot to go fishing. Well I think you should forget about all that. Some nice fish can be caught and quite often we don’t have to go far from home to catch, “The Big One”.

It’s getting close to this time of year when the crappies will school up and relate to vertical structure. In come cases, they will suspend in deep water making it like their relating to their own vertical column created by hundreds upon hundreds of fish.

I’ve been receiving a lot of emails from local anglers catching some nice fish from nearby waters. There’s no doubt about it that bass fishing seems to be a favorite of so many anglers. Photos that I receive are often of bass at probably a five to one ratio over everything else.

Five o’clock in the morning is really early for me when it comes to fishing. I really don’t think the fish are awake yet. I’m not, that’s for sure.   But when Captain Ron Miltzow of Wake N Sea Sportfishing Charters says that we have to leave the harbor at five, my gosh, that means that I have to get up at about 3:30 AM. That’s almost like the day before.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. With family in Lake Geneva, trips there have been frequent. But years ago, it was an annual ritual to head further north to Vilas County for a week long fishing vacations.

One big event that comes up every year is the Kankakee River Valley Fishing Derby. It’s a fun event for the whole family and with a little luck, should you catch a tagged fish or a big fish, you can win some really cool prizes.

Here in Illinois we have a great number of lakes and rivers that have largemouth and smallmouth bass as well as striped bass. It doesn’t matter what kind of fishing you like to do, be it on a lake, river or pond, be it from the shore or from a boat, a fun bait to use is the buzzbait. 

Quite a few emails come to me from readers asking about fishing or some other aspect of the outdoors. Every once and awhile, when a question is asked, it sparks a memory of some experience I had. Let me share one of those stories with you.

I keep a fishing log and not that long ago I checked to see what kind of fishing was had at this time of the year.  With that documented information, I can have a better day on the water when the cooling lakes open.

Great fishing is not that far away. Have you ever heard anything like that before? Well believe it because it’s true.