Get Back Jack!

It's nice to just have a few minutes to catch up with all of you. This day off couldn't have come soon enough. The busy schedules we all  have sometimes makes it hard to blog as much as we would like. I find this morning's bright sunshine and a good cup of coffee a bit different from the hectic pace of the last week or so. I'm taking time today to enjoy it!  The Christmas season is filled with so much to do and so little time that we rarely stop for even a moment. Before we know it the New Year has come and gone and it soon becomes just another blur in our memories of Holidays past. My wish for all of you this Christmas is that you can pause for awhile, reflect on what Christmas is truly all  about, and share that very special gift with those who you hold deepest in your hearts. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and wishes for a safe and Happy New Year!

The last few winters around here in Illinois have been relatively cold with plenty of snow and ice. I was starting to really enjoy them. A new found commitment to ice fishing, my weekends and late afternoons were spent drilling holes, setting up the portable shelter, and jigging up a few gills, with an occasional bass and crappie thrown in for added excitement. What a way to spend a cold winters day. With my Coleman heater and a few good layers, I could sit out in the shanty for hours and be quite comfortable. Last year I purchased my first underwater camera (I returned it at the end of the season because it was shorting the battery out, and it wouldn't recharge.) Watching finicky pan fish take your ice jig and not even feeling them bite was a real lesson. All the times I had spent ice fishing before, that had ended in futility, with us wondering why we couldn't catch anything, were now completely explained. You have no idea of how excited I was for this season to begin. With a new underwater camera on the way and my friend Rich's new flasher we will have all the tools we need to have a successful winter of fishing...but we have no ice!

Yes, you heard me right. There is no ice at this point in Illinois and I am wondering what I am going to do without it. I would like to take a trip up north if time and money permits me to do so, but at this point it is very frustrating. So I sit here at my kitchen table, preparing to spend this day shopping with my son Bryan and getting ready for our Family Christmas, while waiting patiently for Jack Frost to get his lazy ass back to work so we can go ice fishing!



Thanks again to all of you who read and follow the Blogs at Fishing Headquarters and at Cappy's Pond.

Where Is Cappy?

Most of you have probably been wondering where the hell I ran off to, since you haven't seen any new posts from the pond. Well to tell you the truth I've been working! I know it is hard to believe that someone who enjoys fishing as much as I do would actually have a job, but I've got to pay the bills just like everyone else. The early mornings during the week are spent reading e-mails, checking on work related technical information and preparing my car for the long day in it. My position at Toshiba is going quite well but the days are long enough that I don't have much energy left during the evening hours. I'm lucky if I can stay awake past 9:00pm and I try to spend as much of it with Shirley and Bryan as is possible.

For the moment the blog at Cappy's Pond has taken a back seat on the weekends just so I can get out and fish a bit. The good news is that with each week I get a little more comfortable with the job and I'm sure that within a short time I'll be back strong with my writing. I really miss it, and I hope you do as well.

We did manage to get out this last weekend for a few hours at the pond and to my surprise I was able to wrangle up this catfish.

It was a collective effort. I reeled the fish in while using Bryan's rod and reel since he had to make his usual visit to the park. Tyler gave me a few catfish tips and pointers that I used to my advantage. His theory was that the catfish can smell the bait and will move into the general area but might not be able to find it. He suggested that I move it an inch or two to help trigger a strike from an interested onlooker. The boy was right! I moved the bait about an inch and it smacked it! My nephew and son are becoming quite the catfish kings. Sure was nice to feel a fish at the end of the line, even if I let the boys take all the credit with the pictures.

Well, it's off to bed for now, but I hope to be writing more posts soon. With the cold weather expected to hit later this week, ice fishing won't be far off. I'm looking forward to it!

Thanks again for visiting with us at The Fishing Headquarters & Cappy's Pond, and remember you can't catch any fish if your line isn't in the water.

I'll "B" At The Park!

Yesterday morning my son Bryan and I or "B" as we like to call him, managed to get out to our local fishing hole with my nephew Tyler to search for some big cats. The weather was hot and sticky, making for good catting weather in my book. The bite was slow however and we waited patiently for almost three hours for something big to happen. Other than a few small pick ups that resulted in empty hooks we were quite disappointed in our results based on the perfect conditions. We set up in three different locations with the same old story until we decided to give it the old college try (very fitting for the first day of the college football season) and moved over to one last spot.

Our presentation is quite simple and easy to use. A 6.5ft Daiwa medium action spinning rod/reel combo with 10lb test Trilene XL line. A Eagle Claw # 2 (red) snelled hook and a 1/2 oz sinker 12 to 18 inches up from the hook. Bring a few comfortable lawn chairs and plenty of water and snacks (we forgot them) and some Oscar Meyer franks for bait!

B decided that it would be more exciting if he went over to the playground to look for his friends from school, rather than sit with his boring old Dad and cousin and fry in the sun like fried chicken on a barbecue grill. He disappeared for an hour or so in the middle of our three hours of zilch, only to return and ask, "Are you getting any?" My response was the usual, "No, but at least we are trying."

I decided to give up on the cats and started searching the nephews tackle bag for a good bass bait, when B's line went slack and I told him that he had a bite. He gave it a few seconds, patiently reeling up the slack line, felt the weight of the fish and set the hook. We knew right away he had hooked into a good fish and the battle was on. The rod was bent over, but he is a strong kid and does a nice job fighting the fish. After a few good pictures we released the monster back into the pond for another tussle for some other kids.

Now this is the second time in the last two weeks that B has managed to catch the big one and Tyler and I have been skunked! I'm not sure what is going on here but the next time we go for the big cats...I'll be at the park!

Thanks for visiting us at Cappy's Pond and The Fishing Headquarters. Check out the videos on YouTube @ Cappy's Pond. Remember you can't catch any fish if your line isn't in the water!