My Wife and I went down to Mokwonago to fish the river.
Our target fish were Bowfin, Longnose Gar, Orangespotted sunfish and Lake Chubsuckers.
The Water was High due to the rain, that moved the fish out and down stream.
We only saw a few Gar and had one on, a Roughly 35" fish. It pulled loose in the fight in the current.
I spotted the Chubsuckers in the weed pockets again, they were pulling at the plants eating small bugs, I had one hit a waxworm but set the hook too soon and scattered the school.
Finally I picked up a decent sized Grass Pickerel around 10"
He hit a medium shiner when I was casting for bowfin.
I picked up a nice bowfin after some hunting. they were tight in the weeds and I found him by probing the pockets.
I reeled the shiner right to the rod tip and opened the bail, then held the line in my finger.
I crouched low and tried to see under the mats of weeds. When they were spotted I pushed the rod tip far into the weeds, at one point half of the rod was under an undercut. I waited for the thump and pulled the rod out after I let out line.
The trick was pulling the fish back out of the weeds, then they ran into the fast water. A real fight! as always with bowfin.
We ran into several schools of Longear sunfish while looking for Orangespots, also got a few beautiful warmouth.
On one of the longear nests we noticed something odd in it. It was a toy ninja laying in the middle of the nest. Very funny.
Fishing was hard and it took alot of wading to find fish.
The total count for today was
2 Warmouth
12 Longear sunfish
6 Bluegill
2 Dogfish
3 Northern
2 Grass pickerel
1 Black Crappie
3 Green sunfish
1 Pumpkinseed X Green sunfish
Here are some pics. I have Higer rez shots if anyone wants to see these longear in their full glory.
Nija in a Nest
Bowfin
Warmouth
Warmouth
Longear
Longear
Tomorrow the hunt starts for Orangespots again, this time in a spot a little closer to home