Had a couple of hours this evening to shorefish with my daughter, who is visiting from Fort Hood, TX.  Pretty slow bite, but we managed to pull in a few carp on corn.  This is probably the smallest carp that I have ever seen . . .    At first, I thought it was a crucian carp, but it had barbels and it was only in January 2014 when there was one recorded sighting in Cook County; so, I'm pretty sure it was a common. 

Excellent way to start 2021 on soft water; shoreline fishing with the usually bait . . . corn.  After the thaw, we normally experience lethargic fish, so today was not very normal.  These fish hit like freight trains and fought like champions.  Wondertucky1 and I lost three after serious battles, but pulled in sixteen (12 common carp and 4 mirrors).  We surely were not expecting the number of fish.  Looks like a promising year; hope the other species are as aggressive this spring!

Caught some quality fish out of the puddle this past week. Beautiful weather but USE CAUTION when venturing out at this point. Some definite weak spots in the ice and absolutely could go through if you step the wrong places. We were the only group out other than one group Sunday and someone fishing solo today close to shore. However absolutely crushed it every time out. Massive bass, pike, and channel cats. That bass was well over 5 pounds... 

Got out yesterday... fished southwest corner of lake about 40 yards from shore. Only saw two other people out and they were fishing the opposite end of the lake about 50 yards off Peterson park. It was definitely cold... we were the only foot prints or holes off this beach for at least a week. Between my two tip ups and my buddy’s two we had a total of 8 flags... 4 of which we connected. 3 snake pike and one decent large mouth... also jigged a micro silver tungsten tipped w a spike, quickly confirmed the bluegill are stunted ( 10-15 gills not one over 4” ) think 98-01 was when this lake had some nice gills and crappie. Anyways first time out on McCullom in a decade... use to be quite the regular lol. Anyone know if the aeration system is functioning? Didn’t see open water out by the deeper hole... didn’t voyage out either. 

The derby is cancelled.

Any word if the derby is happening?

Is there a Froggies derby this year? Any details if so?

Possibly our final time out this year on soft water.  Fishing from the shore this afternoon, Wondertucky1 and I brought in two channel cats, two common carp, and one mirror carp.  Not too bad for three hours of fishing . . . Happy Thanksgiving. 

First time out on the boat this year (1 May).  Extremely slow, but enough fish to keep the afternoon interesting.  Accidentally fin-hooked two carp; those were quite difficult to bring in.  Just like last year's spring fishing on this lake, reaction bites on fast movers worked best.

Fished the tourney on Saturday and did pretty well.  No flags all day but found a bunch of catfish in the morning between 8-10am then got some pannies after the school of kitty cats disappeared.   I won the panfish division with a 9" crappie and took 2nd in the catfish division with a 15.5"  Took home a couple nice raffle prizes too.   Will be back again next year...

BPM