Cooling Lakes About To Open !

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Permalink Reply by Jim Gronaw on February 4, 2010 at 1:00pm

Hey Joe... I hope you checked out Bill Modica's spoonin info on this site. I started using them this year because his success just was too good not to give it a try.

Couple things...there is a learning curve to spoongilling and it takes some practice to get in the game. I would recommend you fish a lake that has lots of gills and at least some 8 inch or better specimens to try out the spoons. I have had my best luck on 1/16 th oz Rattlin Flash spoons tipped with worm pieces or Gulp baits. I fish them slow with the occasional twitch or pop, then anticipate a strike shortly after the twitch. The movement is the trigger. Any quality 4 lb test will do, but 6 lb Fireline Crystal, with an 18 in 6 lb flourocarbon leader, may aid in strike detection in cold water. Switch the treble hooks with the single hook that comes with it and put it on so that the hook point faces the opposite side of the rattle. I also use a small swivel so I can quickly change color/ or
sizes as needed.

All this is Bills stuff, not mine. He is the master. After tirelessly watching his videos and taking mental notes, I finally got to the point where I was catching up to 2 dozen gills on a good outing with the spoons.

I did notice that some of the larger fish, to include my personal best hybrid sunfish, showed a preference for the 1/5 oz Swedish Pimple...an old ice fishing standby for magnum yellow perch. This fish measured 11 1/2 inches and weighed between 1-10 and 1-12. I released the fish, and it may be a 2 pounder this coming year.

Joe, I hope this all helps. One thing I would advise is to not 'give up' quickly, as some anglers do, when trying out new and innovative tactics such as spoon gilling. Good Luck!

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Permalink Reply by Josh Milczski (Omaha) on February 8, 2010 at 7:38pm

Man, I've been looking at getting into spoons this spring...now more than ever.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Gronaw on February 13, 2010 at 7:24pm

Hey Josh...it may be best to learn the spoon gig at a local pond or water that has an abundance of gills and some sizable fish to boot. It's a good idea to tip the spoons with the preffered bait of the region and be willing to stick with it, even if the old reliable tactics are working for other anglers. And you'll catch other stuff, like bass and crappies, right along.

Good Luck!

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Permalink Reply by Joe Hinton on February 13, 2010 at 6:15pm

I just bought $30 worth of spoons from overstock. com, didn't feel cheated after the sale. I'm stocking up because I'm sure to lose a few before I get the technique correct and score some fish. Chomping at the bits to get out there 3/1, to see what happens. Again, I'll be fishing from the shore so that does present a challenge. I'm up for it, I will of course have the slip bobber as back-up. Any tips from the big-guys?

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Permalink Reply by Johnny wilkins on February 14, 2010 at 1:15pm

Joe - Which cooling lake are we going to? I am up for some shore fishing.
I have never fished the cooling lakes but have friends who do fish them. I understand that it can get windy out on those lakes so depending on your slip bobber, we will have better setups for you. I should have some of the new ground bait with me if all goes right.
What are we going to catch there? Can you email me a link to that cooling lake so I can start making plans?

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Permalink Reply by Johnny wilkins on February 28, 2010 at 7:53pm

Joe-
Cooling lakes open tomorrow. Are you going? I am going to order some bait so I can go on the weekend. Warm front coming Friday, Saturday.

I would like to go if you want to.

John

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Permalink Reply by jim cosgrove on March 4, 2010 at 12:26pm

went to braidwood 3/3.small cats.heard rumors of gills on waxworms.went to the kankakee first stil ice on backwaters.nice to get out and stretch the legs.

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Permalink Reply by Johnny wilkins on March 4, 2010 at 1:08pm

Thank you for the update!
Nice to have some fish on the line I bet.
My wife is just out of day surgery - I am out of action for a couple of days... will have to go next weekend if I can't get out Saturday.
The walk to the shore fishing is long at Braidwood huh? Is it muddy - or will it be muddy?

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Permalink Reply by Joe Hinton on March 4, 2010 at 5:10pm

I went to the opening as intended, kind of cold that morning. I wasn't able to cast any spoons because of the high winds blowing toward shore. I changed equipment and went with an adjusting float tipped with a bee moth on the hook. I hooked a nice gill on the first cast (7 in) then the small catfish took over. Those small cats were so persistent at hitting the falling bait that I finally gave up (after three hours) with unhooking and releasing them with few opps to catch gills I quit, and went home with five bluegills worth keeping. A Good Day !

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Permalink Reply by Johnny wilkins on March 14, 2010 at 2:23pm

Joe-
I fished the same spot but about 30 yards down the rock dam.
A lot of miniature catfish and a few gills. I also had a massive school of mini shiners in front of me. They were the things hitting your bait on the way down.

I ended up hooking about 6 of those shiners:

I think if we want bigger cats on this water, we need to go with baits that won't fit in the small cats mouth (and possibly fish on another end)...

Have you ever fished at the other side? How far down the rock dam did you fish? The day got windy and the waves were tough to fish. In the picture you posted above - did you go to the right or did you head down the dam?
I want to fish there this week early in the morning before it gets wavy. I fished the late afternoon and there were some 2 foot waves from the bass boats with steady foot waves. That water was HOT! Next time I am bringing some scrambled eggs in a ziplock so I can cook them.

I want to find the East shore so that the waves aren't so bad.. Have you been back since? My 4 hours there got me 48 fish. I know I can do better there but those small channel cats were a pain in the rumpus.

John

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Permalink Reply by Joe Hinton on March 15, 2010 at 5:34pm

John,
Pain in the rumpus for sure. The whole while I was thinking that if I were after catfish as my desired catch, not one would be biting ! So anyway, I went to the right down about 50 yards into the tall grasses. Those tall grasses really make a difference when the wind is blowing hard. Yes, I have fished the other side (East) down the road by the High School and graveyard, both sides can be quite windy because of the size of the lake.
I do intend to go back one day this week on a sunny day so I can warm myself as I fish.
Oh yea, I put together a 10ft rod combo to see what I might experience in the casting of a slip bobber for distance and adjusting for depth as I read you telling a person about that method. I will report on what happened.
Joe

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Permalink Reply by Johnny wilkins on March 18, 2010 at 6:54am

The surface temperature rose to 68 degrees there- it is a Nuclear Power Plant cooling lake.
I was there yesterday and caught 123 fish - that's the good news.
I am sad to say this lake is mismanaged and the stocking program there is all based on one species - the bass. It is obvious to me when there are a billion shiners in front of me- (I know because I hooked around 35 of them)- that they are stocking this bait fish for their bass or they stocked way too many of these fish. They also appear to have been stocking channel catfish because I caught 62 miniature channel catfish. My hands are all cut up from unhooking these freaks. I don't know how many nice bluegills are there because I couldn't keep my bait in the water long enough to get it in front of the gills I caught 5 nice gills and a few small ones but I couldn't sustain a bluegill bite. The shiners were batting my bait around like a volleyball. If I return to that lake I will head down the grassy trail next time with a longer telescopic pole.
Joe- the water was well over 12 feet just 15 feet out off the rocks.
I would have rigged it slip float had I known how deep it was.
The coolest thing I had going was I was hooking and landing shiners. I then rigged them up on a float an caught a decent bass and the two largest cats on the day. Small-to-medium shiners is the way to go there on the rocks.
I also saw a Korean lady with a large rectangular cooler which I helped fill to the top with channel cats. She was well on her way without me helping. She had a huge son so she was able to lift that cooler out of those rocks to her truck.

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