Coffeen Lake, Montgomery County, Illinois, August 14th, 2011: Incredible day of Largmouth fishing!

Coffeen Lake is one of 3 nice size lakes around Litchefield, IL. I fished this lake in May with my friend Ray off the kayaks, and we had a little success then, so I figured I would come back. I am glad I did....This lake has some really nice Largmouths in it!

The lake is still a little high- I was going to try and paddle the whole lake, but there is a railroad track levy half through it. Due to the high water, you cannot go through the tunnel (it is almost entirely under water.

I caught over (7) bass, a few in the 15-16" range. What I noticed about the ones I caught at this fishery were how fat they were. Little footballs! Also, I noticed what fight they had! I have caught a few bass in last months that have been like catching a branch, but not these. I really thought at first I had landed a smallmouth or something.

My success was based on a spinning rod, with a carolina rig, and a zoom trick worm. I think the secret today was the carolina rig. I think this rig causes action on the worm, but not as much horizontal movement. Could that be the secret to getting on large numbers of bass in the late summer? I am looking forward to trying this at Table Rock Lake in a few weeks as see if it holds true there as well.

Fish ON!

Mike

Trout Fishing Roaring River SP and Bennett Spring SP, Late July 2011

I took a few weeks off with the kayak, and decided to dust off the trout gear and fly rods and head out to Roaring River SP (near Cassville, MO) and Bennett Spring SP (near Lebanon, Mo) on this particular week.  It felt good to get the waders on again, but it was very hot out. 
At Roaring River we fished about 1/2 day, and I caught one on a silver/blue Little Cleo spoon.  We also worked powerbait trout worms and eggs, but that was all we caught for the day.  The fishing seemed to be a bit slow, possibly due to the heat.

A few days later I hit Bennett Springs.  I caught one nice trout on a spoon, and fished every zone.
Started in zone 3 with soft plastic worms, then I went to zone 2 and threw a Little Cleo Spoon (this is where I caught my fish at Bennett, and finally I ended the day in Zone 1 with a fly rod (no luck there).  Overall, it was great to get out and do this type of fishing.  A lot of things differ between going after bass/panfish type fish and going after trout.  It was good to at least get re-versed again in the differences.

Fish ON!

Mike