April 9, 2011 / lakes in northern Illinois

[EAS]

My good friend Kevin and I have been trying to get out to fish together for the last few weeks. Seems like work or the weather always gets in the way. We had Saturday on the calendar and were thinking of doing some river kayaking. I was too wiped out to paddle moving water and we figured the local rivers would be busy on one of the first nice Saturdays of April. I arranged for us to fish some private lakes instead. We met up around 10:35 AM and launched the kayak. It was a great day to be on the water. We fished three different lakes in all and caught a nice variety of species, some nice sizes, and some decent numbers. Kevin worked deep and primarily fished a 4.5" Yamamoto Flappin' Hog (https://store.baits.com/home.php?cat=26) (more/less a creature bait) rigged on a 1/8-ounce Charlie Brewer Slider Head. I tossed a 1/2-ounce copper and black spinnerbait with tandem copper Colorado blades. It's one made by Tim of Timmay's Tackle. I worked timber, stickups, shallow flats, and near dropoffs.

Highlights from the outing were:

Kevin's 26" walleye
My 20.25" smallmouth bass
Kevin's 16" crappie
Kevin's 21" largemouth bass
My 18.5" largemouth bass (arm's-length shot)
Numerous doubles of largemouth bass
An 'on fire' bite around 6 PM as a breeze picked up and put a chop on the water.

The photos help to tell the rest...

http://www.fishthefox.com/photos/4-9-11/1.jpg

http://www.fishthefox.com/photos/4-9-11/2.jpg

http://www.fishthefox.com/photos/4-9-11/3.jpg

http://www.fishthefox.com/photos/4-9-11/4.jpg

http://www.fishthefox.com/photos/4-9-11/6.jpg

http://www.fishthefox.com/photos/4-9-11/7.jpg

http://www.fishthefox.com/photos/4-9-11/8.jpg

http://www.fishthefox.com/photos/4-9-11/9.jpg

http://www.fishthefox.com/photos/4-9-11/10.jpg

http://www.fishthefox.com/photos/4-9-11/13.jpg

[Jump n Fish]

Impressive show of fish there, especially that walleye. Kinda miss having those around.

[turkey]

sweet! awesome pics, bro!

[Bayou Shoal]

Nice catch! As always, awesome photography job.

[riverlover]

Nice goin' those are some great looking fish.