Charter Oak North - 8/15/10

After about a week of heat advisory inducing weather, it finally cooled off a bit.  I took advantage by heading out this morning to try to wet a line.  I got down to the lake to find a guy on one of the piers casting a fly rod with a popper.  I asked him if he was having any luck and he said that he hadn't but he sure was tearing up his poppers on the pier.  Been there, done that brother.  (Same pier even.)  
I headed down to another pier and tied on a 7" Powerworm in Blue Fleck.  (The second to last in a package that I bought back in March and have caught at least a dozen fish on.  Not bad for $3.50.)  Second cast, I hooked into a little 7-8 inch largemouth.  I would've taken a pic but I hooked him in the jaw and it took awhile to get him loose, didn't wanna keep him out of the water long.
It was a nice change of pace to catch a fish so easily/quickly, compared to my recent bass outings.  Got the monkey off my back early.
I cast a few more times on both sides of the pier and took a walk down one side of the water.  The lillypads that had taken over about half of the lake are now wilting and dying, leaving more patches of open water and making casting a little easier.
My uncle recently passed a bag full of older bass equipment to me so I decided to try out a red/purple 10" Bass Assassin worm for a bit.  Something was off while throwing it.  Probably just that I'm used to 7" worms.  I also don't think I had a big enough hook on to have hooked a fish (3/0).  I wasn't comfortable messing around with it so I switched to an older looking "Neonz" purple 7" Powerworm and went back to my original pier and quickly picked up fish #2:

Another 7-8" Largemouth.  (Note to self, don't take pics at this angle, makes fish look even smaller than he already is.)

Tossed a few more casts down the bank, working towards the exit.  No more bites.

The guy flycasting didn't catch anything while I was there (which makes me always feel proud, when I outfish someone around me.  It's probably wrong to think that way but I think its a Man instinct.), but there were 3 kids who came down the path loudly and started asking him questions about the fish and flyfishing. Although he could have been offended and given them the cold shoulder, he was explaining what he was doing and pointed out a big carp cruising along the shore.  (Oh wow! It's huuuuge!  Why don't you catch that one?!?)  I think that's one thing that makes angling/outdoor sports so awesome, there is so little elitism.   People just want to share their passion and get others involved.  (Although he did tell me one of the kids knocked over his flybox and he lost a bunch of his flies. After that he told them about another pond down a path that they should check out.)  :)

All in all, a good outing, especially for just an hour and fifteen minutes.  Got my fishing fix that's been missing for awhile.  Hopefully it keeps cooling down so I get out a little more often.

Alright, I'm off to go practice with my bow, hope you all had a good weekend.

My first firearm.

I find myself in a peculiar position.  I am still very interested in fishing, but my near-fanatical obsession of months passed has diminished slightly.  I mostly blame the sweltering heat.  I expect my obsession to pick back up once it cools off a bit and it's a little easier to fish from shore.

In the meantime, I've been doing some other outdoorsmanly things, mainly getting ready for hunting season by getting the bow my father passed on to me restrung and getting a FOID card so I can get a shotgun and do some hunting with that.   (BTW, if you're planning on buying a gun in Illinois anytime in the next six months or so, send in your FOID application now, you don't know how much you hate being restricted on buying a firearm until you're ready to buy one and can't.)

For my first firearm, to get some practice and shake off the rust, I picked up a Ruger 10/22.  Here's a pic:



I don't know why its showing as upside-down, I'll try to fix it when I have the time.

I got the chance to go out to the Chillicothe Sportsmen's Club to shoot it, and they have a nice lake on the property that they stock with bass, panfish and trout that I'd love to fish.  I'll be picking up an application as soon as I can afford the first year's fee's.  ($125 for the first year, not too bad for unlimited range/lake access.)

My current work schedule (11:30-8) isn't very conducive to fishing during the week.  My dream is to get everything organized to the point where I have work (and school starting in two weeks) through the week, a day just to spend with my wifey and a day just to spend with myself.  Right now, that isn't working out, and when I do get a day, the 90+ degree temps aren't making fishing a preferable option so there may be some more posts about the range and hunting preparations over the next couple months than fishing.  At least until it cools down a bit and I get the upcoming "Full-time employee, full time student, full time husband, part time angler, part time new hunter" schedule down pat.  Who knows, maybe I'll change the name of the blog to Intro to the Outdoors.  :)

As far as actual fishing, my dad and I are entered in a Carp tournament up on the Rock River the last weekend of this month.  Since my dad's nickname is King Carp, look forward to a recap and some pics of that.  (Hopefully it doesn't turn out like our father's day outing, with a big old skunk.)

Thats about it, hope you all have been able to get out a little more than I have.