5/18/26 – Everyone wants information. They search online, ask at bait shops, talk to friends, coworkers, or they just drive around checking ramps. I’m not doing that anymore. I don’t fish as much these days, and I don’t feel the need to go yank a few fish just to feed my ego. I keep information to myself because I don’t want to contribute to the decline in fish populations by giving away patterns that took years to learn.
If I told people there was big fish in the rocks, people would fish rocks and catch fish. If I said fish are biting in wood, people would catch fish in wood. If I said fast current, current breaks, clarity breaks, drop offs, deep water, shallow water, flats, ledges, no matter what I said, fish would be caught there.
When I go looking for fish, I don’t just check spots. I look at river levels, whether its rising or dropping, water clarity and current. I don’t know where the fish are, but I know where to look depending on conditions. Even knowing where to look isn’t that simple, I must figure out a pattern, what structure, what presentation, what time of day and so many things have to be figured in. So when I go looking, it’s not just spots, it’s patterns.
For example, when I go to Lake Erie, I may not catch fish for a few days, it takes time to get a pattern going. I do not ever go to where the boats are, I go to where they aren’t. This is a hard thing to do, to know people are catching fish, but I go my own way full of confidence in my abilities to get something going. If not, at least I tried. To me the satisfaction isn’t just catching fish, it’s how I do it alone without help.
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Fishing the Rock River in NW Illinois:
Fishing the Rock River can be great for Catfish, but fishing io tough for Bass and Walleye. I do most of my fishing on the Mississippi River, but that river gets hammered by fishermen,. The Rock is more peaceful, not as many fishermen because fishing is so slow and that I why I like going there, to get away from crowds and get wildlife photos!
Walleye
Walleye