Big Trout at Pointe Aux Chenes December 3, 2016

I was more than a bit worried about how the cold front has affected fishing. So I got on the phone and made a few calls to find out exactly how this weather has changed how they are biting.

The first person I talked to was Eddie from Pointe Aux Chenes Kayak Rentals. He told me that the trout are in the main channel and biting at daylight and again in the late evening.

"Guys have been catching the big trout using a chartreuse Beetle Spin under a popping cork," states Eddie.

Everything that you could possibly need to catch trout is sold at Pointe Aux Chenes Kayak Rentals Tackle Shop. They also sell bait shrimp, minnows and live crabs. The best part of buying your bait from Eddie and Lisa is that they have current fishing information. If the fish are biting, they know about it and will tell you what to use and where.

Give Eddie a call at (225)573-4085.

Captain Ronnie of Shoreline Charters told me that bull reds are being caught using cut mullet or cracked crabs. The smaller reds biting on minnows or shrimp on corks. Trout are also biting on minnows under corks.

Capt Ronnie can be reached at (985)688-2772.

Fishing Report 11/16/16

Pointe Aux Chenes Area:

This photo was taken after one of Ronnies recent charters.

“The current has been really strong lately. There has been a shorter trout bite in the morning that is usually over around 8:30 am and then picks up again in the late afternoon,” states Eddie Mullen of PAC Kayak Rentals (225-573-4085). 

Anglers are using a color by Matrix Shad called lemonhead. They are also using a Fin Collectors color called motor oil. 

According to Ronnie of Shoreline Charters (985-688-2772) the bull reds are still biting well on cracked crabs. He also told me to fishing the changing tides. 

Smaller reds are being caught in the grass using Aqua Dream spoons. The water is clear right now so it is easy to spot the red that you want to catch. 

I am going to expand the report from now on. I would like to begin talking about the Cypremort Point area as well. 

Cypremort Point Area:

According to charter boat Captain Steve Smith (337) 654-3880 the water is beginning to salt up in the bay and the trout bite is really turning on. “Trout up to 18 inches have been caught recently, with large catches of them between 13 and 18 inches," states Smith.

Hot spots include the hammet, the cove, Arcemont reef, shark cove and the trash pile. 

The water is relatively clear, therefore preferred colors include anything with a sparkle in it such as Salt Water Assassin's chicken on a chain. Go with contrast colors in the stained water such as lemonheads.

“It took long time for the bay to salt up this year, but it is salting up nicely and the fish are really moving in now,” states Smith.

PAC Kayak Rentals

Its great to be back fishing again. Yesterday I went to PAC Kayak Rentals and visited a bit with Eddie Mullen. Eddie is one of those guys that you can't help but to like. He is one of the best hosts that you could ever ask for.

His kayak resort has everything that a kayaker could ever want. I met a guy there who was trailering his kayak. He told me that Eddie has the best kayak launch he has ever seen and he has been all over.

"I watched the kayakers launching their rigs across the bayou for a while. I thought about how it takes them longer than a boat to get ready, and I thought that I could design a launch for them that would make it easier," said Mullen.

And make it easier he sure did. The boater simply backs his truck up close to the launch, slides the kayak across two PVC pipes and then across a roller and into the bayou between two docks that are custon made to fit a kayak.

Mullen also has bait, a fish cleaning station complete with plastic bags and RV parking spots.

What makes his operation really interesting is that he also has a couple of large boats that are used to transport both kayak and angler to a spot closer to the fish. He has a boat capable of taking 4 yaks and one capable of taking 10.

Mullen also has a mothership, a large houseboat capable of sleeping 6. This is available for people who wish to spend the night.

This is a photo of the mothership. The next time I visit Eddie I will post pics of the launches. The sun was too intense for me to take any great pics of them.

He also has 4 kayaks that he will rent to someone like me who does not own one of his own.

Unfortunately, the day I went to visit with Mullen the current was ripping down the bayou and Eddie didn't think that it would be safe to send a guy like me who is not in good health out into it.

So he set me up with a container of huge shrimp and showed me where he thought I might be able to catch reds in the middle of the day.

I cast out and quickly lost my bait. Being a seasoned angler, I knew that I was going to have to downsize to see what had been robbing me. So I went back to the truck and retrieved my lightweight equipment.

I put  very small hook and bobber and baited up with a small piece of shrimp. After I cast out with this rig the bobber sank almost immediately. I set the hook and fought the fish in to see that it was a very small red, probably only 12 inches long. I caught two more of them during the next several casts.

I sat there and casted for another two hours and caught croakers and hardhead catfish. It was a very enjoyable afternoon, but then my poor health began to rear its ugly head and I became tired so it was time to go.

I would like to thank Eddie for a one of the better days I have had in a long time.

This is a halibut I caught while fishing offshore on a charter boat in Homer, Alaska. It is not as expensive as you might think to take one of these charters out. But BEWARE, if you take one of those less expensive charters, those boats tend to be crowded. I have always caught my limit on a crowded charter though. I just wait until most of the other customers are tired and stop fishing. Most people can take halibut fishing for about 45 minutes, and then they are completely exhausted. Just remember that Homer is the halibut fishing capital of the world for a reason. The reason is in the photo here!

This is a photo of a nice dolly varden trout I caught while on a float trip down the Kenai River with Alaska Troutfitters. I had a great time with this guide. We caught so many fish. This fish was caught at the outlet of Kenai Lake, in fact, we were only about 100 yards off of the bridge.

This was caught using a bead. If you have fished in Alaska for trout, you have probably used beads. We were fishing in late August.

This is a photo of a red salmon I caught during the 2012 season. It was caught using casting tackle. The rod was an 8-foot long Lake Fork Outfitters medium heavy casting rod. I was using a three way rig and a Russian River fly.

There were thousands of these tomato looking things in the river that day. I was fishing in the confluence of the Russian and Kenai Rivers. There is a ferry that will take you across the river for a fee. If you can get to this area for the second half of July or the first part of August, it would really be worth your while.

Fishing From The Bank

Being down here in Louisiana has made me think. First of all, this is the first time since I was 23 that I don't own a boat, secondly, even if I did own a boat, it would not be down here!

This fact prompted me to remember my roots, and that is bank fishing. Because of this, I dug way back into my memory banks and put together an article that blends the two parts of my life, as a bank angler and as a boat angler.

i hope you enjoy this article. You can find it here

Crappies at Shabbona Lake

It felt good to get out on my old boat that I sold to Shabbona's Lakeside and fish for some crappies with my good buddy Denny Sands last Friday!

Here is a photo of one of the crappies we caught.

The crappies were caught over a crib on the south shore close to the entrance of the no motor zone.

I can't wait to go down to Louisiana and fish for some redfish and bass! Then it is back to Alaska just in time for the salmon run!

Essential Equipment List For Duck Hunting

I realize that this blog is entitled Jay's Fishing Page, but I can't get enough hunting as well. I am absolutely obsessed with BOTH of the important outdoor sports; HUNTING AND FISHING!

One thing I am really going to miss about Illinois is the waterfowl hunting. I loved the goose hunting around Chicago, and I could never get enough of the duck hunting in the Illinois River Valley.

Just look at this photo, these guys are collecting their decoys after a morning hunt. Wow, does this bring back memories. Except when I hunted ducks, I usually had on heavy winter parkas.

If you are new to duck hunting, or you regularly buy gifts for a waterfowler, I encourage you to check out this article.

The article can be found by clicking here

Some Walleye Advice For Shabbona Lake in April

With walleye record weekend fastly approaching, you might want some tips. It is not going to be easy for you guys to catch walleyes on Shabbona Lake in April, but it can be done. Here are some ideas:

1) I would try slow trolling along the dam face with fathead minnows. This is only possible if you have a large portion of the shoreline to yourself. I would use just a sinker and a minnow on a hook. I think the best method would be to use a bottom bouncer and a 6-10 foot lead, depending on how practiced you are on this presentation. Use your trolling motor and keep yourself moving at a very slow pace. Bounce your bottom bouncer up and down on the bottom to keep it on the bottom at the depth changes. Experiment with depths from 6 - more than 20 feet . The thing about this is, don't give up. It is going to be slow going.

2) If I wanted a really big walleye, I would sit in the deep trees and wait. I think the best place to sit is area 24. If you are not familar with area 24 on the lake map, go into Shabbona's Lakeside Bait, Tackle and Boat Rental and buy yourself a lake map. It has a fish by numbers feature. I would sit in shallow water and cast out to deep water with a fathead minnow and a slip bobber. Use as many rods as you are allowed to use and have your minnows at different depths. Sit in one spot for about an hour, and then move to another spot.

3) The rock piles on Old Indian Road always hold walleyes. Move up and down the road bed until you see one of the pyramid shaped rock piles on your locator. If there are walleyes holding on it, you will see them lying about a foot above the bottom of the lake. Once you see the fish, throw out your structure marker. Put your minnow under a slip bobber right into the face of the walleyes. You want this minnow swimming around as close to the fish as you can place it. Fish are opportunistic feeders and if you place a juicy minnow in their faces, they will eat.

Good luck guys! I hope you catch a big one next weekend.

The Iditarod

I realize that the Iditarod has nothing to do with fishing, but it is interesting nonetheless. These pics were taken in Anchorage, the town where I live.

Dallas Seavey won the race this year. This is one of his dogs!

More of the Seavey dogs! They are ready to go! The City of Anchorage didn't need to put much snow on the streets this year for this event!

This is Dallas Seavey, this year's winner. He is a nice guy. I talked to him for several minutes this day. His father and grandfather also ran the race against him.

I couldn't resist taking this photo. This is such a cool carving. Look at the belly on this thing!

This dog screams, "LET ME OUT!"

The official starting line!

And there off!

This was an exciting day going to the Ceremonial Launch of Iditarod 2012!

The Ice Is Melting

The ice is melting up here finally, but we still have a long way to go before any open water fishing is going to take place. I am going to be in Illinois for the last week of April. I am going to stop by Shabbona's  Lakeside on Friday afternoon to have a beer and talk with the Sand's for a while! Then I will be in Louisana for training for a whole month! OMG it is going to be HOT. We Alaskans don't like hot weather!

Been Ice Fishing a Few Times

This is what the arctic char we have been catching through the ice look like. They have ranged in size from 2 - 10 pounds. The ice has been thick. It is a pain with the snow being 4 feet deep and the ice being 2 - 4 feet thick. But, it is warming up and I hope to catch some bigger fish soon.

Fishing In Alaska

I realize that it has been months since I have posted anything here. Please be patient with me because I am going to begin fishing in Alaska soon, and there will be some great photos of salmon, trout and even some halibut.

Smallies, largemouths, what a night

June 1st, 2011

i was not very excited about fishing tonight because the lake was really muddy. Then we got out and caught a crappie right away. Then my customers decided that they wanted to go bass fishing, so we tied on some wacky rigs and hit the inside weedlines of the northeast and east bays. We caught a few largemouths and one nice smallie over by the rock pile in the on the roadbed.

The we hit the dam face and caught several more smallies and a few largemouths. These are the two big smallmouths that we caught.

Caught using a leech.

Caught wacky rigging a Yum dinger.

The bass fishing is only going to improve, if you would like to book a trip, email me at dekalbfish@ yahoo.com

A good fishing story

Last weekend I was crappie fishing on Shabbona. My bobber went down and I assumed that it was another crappie. When I reared back to set the hook, my rod bent over double.

I fought the fish for a few minutes and then handed the rod off to one of my customers. He fought the fish for a few minutes and then we saw that it was a huge muskie.

The muskie came close and then just opened his mouth and spit something out. We brought the fish aboard to discover that it was a large gizzard shad. Look at this photo! what a mess!

This shad was a bloddy mess.

Great Fishing At Shabbona Lake

Sorry that I have not posted in so long, I have been spending most of my time on the lake lately.

Just look at all of these crappies. They were divided up three ways and we all went home with some nice ones.

This was a big fish. Deb had a great time with it!

Jim caught this bluegill using a beetle spin. It was a big one!

First nice bass of the season on Shabbona.

Big bass have been caught at Shabbona lately

Here is a huge bass that was caught by an angler casting a rattle trap in the shallow waters over the emerging weeds.

Here is another bass that was caught in hte last week.

Just look at this thing. They are everywhere on Shabbona nowadays. I can't wait to get back out there. If you want to book a trip, I have some openings coming up. Just email me! dekalbfish@yahoo.com

Let me help you pay for your gas during a guide trip with me

I hate paying for gas when it gets this expensive and I know that you do as well. What I am going to do is this.

From now until June 15, I am going to take $25 off of any guide trip that I book. This discount is not good with any other discount I have already offered and you must tell me that you are taking the high cost of gas discount when you book the trip.

Think about it, at $4/gallon, $25 buys you 6.25 gallons. In my Santa Fe, that will take me $120 miles. You wanted to fish anyhow, why not book a trip with me and not have to worry about controlling a rental boat, and have the benefit of my experience telling you where to catch fish!

I was on Shabbona Lake last evening

We got a break in the storms for a couple of hours yesterday. I didn't want to risk taking my boat out and having it rain another 5 inches while we are trying to trailer it so I fished from the shore.  I picked up my 10 year old son Matt from school and off we were to Shabbona for some early season crappie action in between storms.

One of my buddies (Jeff) was already there and he had the same idea that he didn't want to have his boat out ont he lake.

We fished in the no-motor zone over by what I call "crappie island." Jeff had hooked into a muskie using a Mini Mite just a few moments before I arrived so he was excited.

We caught a few crappies in the shallows by the island, but fishing was slow. Then we decided to move a bit east to the edge of the trees. There is a blown down tree by this edge that has held crappies in the early season for as long as I can remember.

We each caught several crappies up to 11 inches long and we managed to fill Jeff's 10 fish limit in a little over an hour. The wind was whipping around about 20 mph, the temperature was dropping rapidly, and it was raining off and on the whole time and we managed to catch 10 crappies that were over 9 inches long in a little over an hour, I think we did well considering the terrible conditions we were faced with.