For all who enjoy bass fishing in Illinois, enjoy the close-up arm wrestling style of extracting huge largemouth from the thick bushes, his or her time is just around the corner.  The months of April, May, and June provide plenty of opportunities for short line fishing here on Rend Lake in Southern Illinois.

For those of you who are still unfamiliar with Rend Lake, it is almost completely ringed with heavy duty buckbrush.  Now the correct name of this brush is button brush, but for all practical purposes to the Fishman and in this article, it is just buckbrush.

Let’s begin with equipment.  Folks, do not come to Rend Lake with 51/2 and six-foot rod’s spooled with 10 or 12 pound line with intentions of yanking big fish from heavy cover.  Crankbaiting points and rip-rap is just fine for this light gear, but when flippin the bushes, you need muscle.  My rod is 8′ in length and heavy action.  My reels are Abu Garcia with a big spool to handle the 25 pound yellow Stren line that I have used exclusively since 1980.  I can hear some of you hollering already - Yellow line!

When flippin a jig in the middle of a bush, the bait falls straight down.  I have heard it said that you could use a “well” rope and get away with it, flippin heavy cover.  But listen to this.  I have used yellow Stren in the water all over the country from Texas to Florida to the crystal-clear waters of Canada with great results.  Two years ago while doing a seminar, I caught five bass in a row, on two different baits, and folks, that’s as clear as you can get.

A 6 or 7 pound bass can suck your bait in from a foot and a half away and the line will just barely twitch.  That’s why I use a yellow Stren.  I can see it!  No matter what line you use flippin check it often and retie when need, especially after fighting a big bass over limbs and logs, as 9 out of 10 times when you’re line gets broken it is your own fault.

There are different patterns to establish even when you know bass are in the buckbrush.  For instance, when Rend Lake water level is 410 or higher, big fish will position way behind the bushes in those very hard to reach places.  This situation makes for successful spawns, but tough fishing.  The key here is to fish banks with steeper drops.  Make sure you can actually see dry land back there.  Stretches of bank where you see nothing but water for 100 yards behind the bush, to me, are not very encouraging.  You can’t get to them!

As the water hits the 408 or 409 mark, the bass will move to the center of these root wads.  When this occurs, flippin the outside or around the bush will produce nothing except the occasional aggressive fish.  To get a hit you have to be at the very base of the bush and no place else. I’ve had to drop my bait smack in the middle of the buckbrush, whether it’s a jig, worm, a salt craw or lizard, pick it up six or eight times and let it fall to get a bite!  That’s when things really heat up.

The battle is over in 10 or 15 seconds.  You can play with spinner bait or crank bait fish out in open water and watch them jump.  That’s fine.  When you hook a big old sow in the middle of a 10 foot around piece of brush, you play with them in the bottom of the boat.  It reminds me of arm wrestling with out the broken bones!  Believe me people.  There is nothing like it.

The good thing about Rend Lake, it being a shallow impoundment, is as long as there is water in the button brush, even in 100° weather, in July or August, there will be largemouth in there as well.  Get your flippin sticks re-spooled and ready to do battle and make it a point to fish Rend Lake in the spring and summer.  By the way, if you have a weak heart, flippin might not be your game.

Until next time, be safe and courteous to other Fishman, and I’ll see you on the boat ramp.

I am sure there is some great bass fishing in Texas.  That is why we planned on spending three months during the winter there.  We wanted to do some bass fishing, while it was just a dream at home due to the cold weather.  Our bass fishing in Texas turned in to a bust.

We had our RVs parked in Port Isabel Texas, where we were almost surrounded by salt water.  You mention fishing to anyone in this area, and they naturally assume that you’re going to be salt water fishing.  But that isn’t what we wanted.  We had brought our jon boat and gear to do some freshwater fishing.  We were brought to a rude awakening.

We tried talking to conservation officers, even went to the district conservation office, for information about freshwater fishing.  We soon learned that there was little freshwater open to the public.  The only freshwater we could find were reservoirs with limited access or Resaca’s.  Resaca’s are bodies of water left behind when the Rio Grande River changed course.  They are fresh water, but many are considered dead or with no access other than to adjacent property owners.  We did find one property owner who gave us permission to fish a Resaca, but had no luck. We had to fish from the bank, since we did not want to be in our boat with windy conditions.  There is a consistently strong breeze here most of the time. We realized we had made a bad decision of location for freshwater fishing in Texas during the winter.

We didn’t spend all of our time looking for places to fish.  We did a lot of sightseeing.  We drove the beach in our four-wheel-drive vehicles, and the gals collected a lot of seashells.  We also made one trip into Mexico.  We crossed the border at Progresso for some shopping and sightseeing.  We had quite an enjoyable day, which might have been attributed to the fact that we started drinking margaritas at 10:30 in the morning.  We had more margaritas when we enjoyed our lunch at a nice restaurant.  Thank goodness no one had to be carried back across the border as the Mexican army was there keeping a close eye on things.

We collectively decided that we did not want to spend three months in this area without being able to fish as we wanted.  Since we had both previously spent times RVing in Florida, we decided to make the trip for a two month stay in Florida.

Our bass fishing in Texas was a failure, but we had learned a lot.  Now, we were looking forward to some bass fishing in Florida.  So, after one month in Texas, we loaded up and made another 1250 mile trip so that we could bass fish in Florida for the next two winter months.

 More to come, after I am through fishing!

Bass Fishing in Texas II - The Trip

Things are quite different from my last entry made in January. It is now March, I am again drinking coffee this morning, and it is still dark outside at 3 a.m. as you would expect. The weather is clear with a waxing gibbous moon at 94% full and the temperature is 64°.  I’m still thinking about bass fishing in Texas, but I am in Florida.  Let me tell you how things could change so drastically.

A few days after Christmas, before New Year day, we started to Texas for the winter. Since my wife and I had spent the winter in Port Isabel Texas last winter, we decided to return there. We wanted to spend the winter in a warmer climate and had decided to do some bass fishing while we were there this year.  One of my brothers and his wife wanted to take their RV, travel with us, and spend the winter also. We really had some great plans that almost turned into an exodus.

We almost had our own caravan.  I drive an F150 super crew cab, 4×4, with an aluminum camper shell that has carrying racks over the short bed.  On top of my truck, tied down to the carrying racks, I had a 15′9″ aluminum Jon boat.  Inside the camper shell, we had a large barbecue grill on wheels, a trolling motor, two trolling motor batteries, lawn chairs, tools, and so on. We were pulling a 30 foot RV trailer with slide.  My brother was driving a diesel GMC 2500 super crew pulling a 27 foot fifth wheel RV with slide. In the bed of his truck, he was carrying a 4 hp Mercury outboard motor, gas tank, lawn chairs, and so on.  I am sure we presented quite an unusual picture, as we passed or were passed, on our journey.

We traveled about 1250 miles through Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas to reach our destination.  We set a relatively leisurely pace, generally stopped early, and traveled a maximum of 420 miles on any day.  As I only get about 8 miles per gallon pulling my RV, we made many stops.  We had three overnights and arrived in Port Isabel Texas mid afternoon of the fourth day.  Our communication, between trucks, was by walkie-talkies given to me by one of my daughters as a Christmas present.  They proved to be very handy.  The only problem we encountered was when I had a tire blowout on my RV.  That situation was taken care of by simply calling for emergency roadside service through a subscription I had made with a leading RV club.  That subscription turned out to be a top value.

The trip proved to be a little more expensive than anticipated, primarily due to the cost of fuel.  But I had taken some steps to help alleviate that expense.  I am considered a frugal guy and knew why budget and how to budget, so I put that knowledge to work.  I had previously obtained a credit card with rewards which gave me 5% back on fuel.  At about three dollars a gallon, that amounts to about $.15 per gallon.  Most people will go out of their way to save $.15 per gallon.  I also joined a discount camping club.  That club allows me to save 50% off of the regular camping fees.  These things, along with my emergency roadside service subscription, help me to control my travel expenses.

We arrived at our campground in Port Isabel Texas at about 1:30 p.m. New Year’s Day.  We were ready for some Texas bass fishing.  More later.

I sit here in the breakfast nook drinking my second cup of coffee. Outside, it’s still dark, about 18°, and overcast. But, I’m thinking about bass fishing in Texas. Here in Southern Illinois, which is home, at this time of year there really isn’t any bass fishing going on.

I plan to go to South Texas to do some bass fishing. My wife and I spent three months in South Texas last winter and we are going back this year. A nice addition is that my brother and his wife are taking their RV and going with us. We intend to take a fishing boat with us and do some bass fishing while we are there. We are all looking forward, anticipating an enjoyable time with much warmer weather than here at home.

We have plans to park our RVs in Port Isabel, Texas and would like to do some bass fishing while we are there. Port Isabel is on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, just opposite South Padre Island. As a matter of fact, South Padre Island is on one end of the bridge and Port Isabel is on the mainland end of the bridge going to the island. Actually, Port Isabel is on the shore of Laguna Madre. Laguna Madre is a bay protected by barrier islands and a part of the intercoastal waterway.

Most of the fishing done in this area is salt water fishing. We hope that we will be able to find freshwater so that we can do some serious bass fishing. My searching on the Internet has revealed little information. Most of what I have found are bodies of water, called resacas, left behind when the Rio Grande change course. By using virtual maps online it appears that most of these waters have little if any public access. We may have trouble finding a place to fish, especially if we want to use the boat that we’re taking.

We are going to South Texas, regardless as to whether we are able to do much bass fishing or not. I am just sitting here this morning trying to figure ways to make that fishing successful. I’ll keep you posted as to our planning and trip and let you know what happens.

Hoping for great bass fishing in South Texas.

My wife and I spent September, 2007 in a RV campground about 6 miles north of Mountain View, Arkansas. This was our first trip to this area. We had a great time.

We love to travel in our RV which is a 30′ with slide, trailer. We have all the amenities of home away from home. We pull it with a Ford F150, super crew cab, 4×4, with a topper over the short bed. Since we both love to do bass fishing from a boat, we haul the boat on top of the truck. I am able to load and unload the boat by myself with a special arrangement mounted to the trucks rear bumper.

The full service campground we stayed in sets right on the bank of Sylamore Creek. We chose this to be able to do some bass fishing while there. About two hundred yards downstream the creek empties into the White River which is a popular fishing destination. We launched our boat into the creek and fished both the creek and the river.

We had some success catching small mouth bass and sunfish on artificial lures. We used bait cast, spin cast and open face spinning reels tossing spinners, spoons, rooster tails, and even some small crank baits. The action was not great, but we had fun in a new setting for us.

The locals were very helpful by providing us tips about where and how to fish. They told us about Mirror Lake, supposedly full of rainbow trout. We were told where to fish, what bait to use, and even how to rig the bait. Their advice turned out to be good as we were quite successful. Our bass fishing quickly turned into rainbow trout catching.

Blanchard Springs is water coming from Blanchard Springs Cavern. The Forest Service offers tours of the cavern. The picture below is of water coming out of the cavern forming a stream.

The stream is dammed to form Mirror Lake. This is a small lake that is stocked with trout by the state of Arkansas. We watched the stocking process one time and saw many adult, nice sized, fish being put into the lake. Below is a picture, at the lake, of some of the trout we caught.

Author: William Grimes

Article:
These are some of the things we saw and did while fishing for peacock bass on the Nanay River. I wish I could show you the pink river dolphins, the strangler fig, the red spotted green discus, the big fish that got away.

We began our adventure expedition in the riverboat, Dawn on the Amazon, at the confluence of the Nanay and the Amazon River, departing Iquitos, Peru, at first light.

We motored upstream past Padre Cocha, home of the wonderful Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm we had visited the day before. Past Santo Tomas, the Iquitos waterworks, Llanchama, the Allpahuayo-Mishana Reserve, and eventually the village of Santa Maria, last outpost of civilization.

In Santa Maria the electrical generator is turned on at 7:00 p.m. and turned off at 10:00 p.m. The beer is always skunked.
Very few people live in the jungle upstream of Santa Maria.

As we fished our way upstream it was as if we were going back in time to a way of life that disappeared in most of the world over one hundred years ago. We were sport fishing, everyone else was survival fishing. Four days and three hundred kilometers later we realized we were sport fishing for survival, living on what we caught.

To do it like a native, we would have had a fire platform on a sand base and cooked yucca and fish over a charcoal fire. We used a Coleman stove and supplemented yucca with rice and potatoes and ripe, juicy, tropical fruit. With a glass or two of wine from Chile.

Over the course of time, as the Nanay River meandered through the rainforest for thousands of years, many of the ox-bow bends were cut from the original stream bed by the annual floods.
These natural banana shaped lakes are called cochas. It is in the black tannic acid water of the cochas, that we sought the holy grail of sport fishing, the peacock bass.

In a lifetime of fishing, only a few days stand out from all the rest as distinctly memorable. One of those days occurred on this voyage. I only caught three peacock bass that day, but fought several big, fierce, toothy fazaco for hours.

I caught five of the largest fazaco I have ever caught on six consecutive casts during part of the feeding frenzy. I was exhausted. The fishing was so great we decided to stay and fish that cocha again the next day and never got a bite.

Our catch for the trip was 140 peacock bass, but we lost count of the fazaco, black piranha, pike cichlid, acarahuasu, and other species. I am guessing they totaled two or three times the number of peacocks.

The most productive lures were spinner baits, in line spinners, and Excalibur’s Pop’n-Image, in that order. We fished the Pop’n Image hard in two colors. The blue shade caught fish, the green shade never caught one.

As always the peacock bass relates to cover. Find submerged timber in the shade, and make several casts around it. Spinner baits are good to search the thick cover with because they do not get hung up very often and can be fished faster than many lures.

One way to catch peacock bass is to find where they are feeding.
Listen for their distinctive splashing sounds and watch for them to follow your lure back to the canoe. Once you find fish, slow down, make more casts, try different lures.

Start out slow and quiet. If that does not work switch to a popper, chugger, rattle, or propeller bait. The native fishermen slap the water with their poles or paddles before they give up on a place. When in Rome, do as the Romans. In my opinion, inch for inch and pound for pound, the peacock bass is the hardest fighting fresh water fish I have ever encountered. I also believe the peacock bass is one of the smartest and most difficult species of fish to catch, especially in the high-water months from November to May.

About the author:
Bill Grimes owns and operates
Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises custom cruises on the upper Amazon River and its tributaries from Iquitos, Peru. For details, visit his website at http://www.dawnontheamazon.com.