Fox River

After the 8th year they should be around 2# !     Can’t wait!.

Carpio,

Did a bit of poking around on the Web...

Yellow Bass grow to an average of 4-inches in the first year, 7-inches the second, 9-inches the third and 10-inches at the end of the fourth year of life.

That's good news! Way more meat on a 7 inch Yellow Bass if compared to an 8 inch Gill.

Next year we should see a bunch of 7 inch Yellow Bass!

Ya caught 4 of those little yellow bass early this AM in the lake.

Tried all sorts of different things today.

Shiners, fatheads, crawlers, and plastics. I think we caught one Rockie on a fathead, other than that minnows were a bust.

Crawlers did ok, but the most productive bait was a mini-mite tipped with a 1 inch Gulp Fry.  Casted out the mini-mite and jigged it back in slowly over structure. 

We caught Crappie, Gills, Rockies, Smallies, Catfish, Yellow Bass, Drum, Carp, and Warmouth. 

Caught a decent Crappie, but didn't have a tape measure so unsure exactly how long he was. Got him back in the water quick so he could do his thing and make more.

Threw back the game fish and big pannies, and kept some 8 inch Gills and 9-10 inches Crappies for dinner.

The bite was consistent, but not over the top. It was enough to hold a guys interest. Lots of sorting today, but some ok ones too.

The 5 inch Yellow Bass were a nuisance.  Little piranhas - they'll strip you right quick!

Water was 68*F.

We made it out too CM. Nice work on the eye!!! 

Tried plastics tipped with 1 inch gulp fries, and caught maybe 6 pannies, but crawler half's fared much better.

We went through 5 dozen crawlers between two guys. 

Caught LM Bass, Warmouth, Yellow Bass, Catfish, Gills, Rockies and Drum. 

It heats up in fall pretty good, but we're not quite there yet.

No Crappies, eyes, or smallies today. My buddy lost a dandy LM on a swim bait, it broke water right by the boat and shook it out.  Was the biggest LM I've seen back there this year. Also lost what I'm guessing was a pike - it hit hard and bit me clean off in about 2 seconds flat!

Caught a Drum today, it had the head shake going on, thought for sure it was a nice Eye, but was  just a goat lol!

Kept 8 pannies for dinner...

I wanted to try minnows back there, but I never got around to getting any.  It's on the list!

Also saw a father and son duckhunting back there - always-enjoy seeing Dad's and their kids out there doing stuff like that.

Fished this morning with large roaches trying to catch something big and it wasn't great. Caught 1-catfish, 1-drum, 1-walleye and a few yellow bass on a small jig tipped with crawler.
There were small fish biting the head and tail of the roach so I went threw a dozen roaches fairly fast and only the yellow bass would bite the little jig. Large fatheads are by far the best bait for this area, they catch more and a wider variety. I did catch my first fox river walleye in close to forty years so I guess that's something.

Where I fish the yellow bass are all too small to keep so I don't think I'll be doing the taste test. Anyway I suffer from SAD Species Attention Disorder and I fished for white bass the last two Saturdays and I'm ready for something else. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet but I hope to get out there again.
Hopefully the rain will help the water levels because it was sure low last weekend.

Cat man.    Cook and eat them separately, you’ll taste the difference.

Brent,

I may have asked this before so I apologize if I'm a broken record. I was wondering what was the deepest spot you've ever found on the Waterford to Rochester stretch of the Fox. Thanks man.

Jimmy

I think I got it now Brent the yellow bass will have the yellowish hue, multiple lines extending to the tail and the line break by the anal fin, the white bass will only have one line extending to the tail and probably not have the line break at the anal fin. The eight I cleaned from Saturday only had one line extending to the tail and I doubt I could tell the difference in taste.

Nice CM!!!

Made it out solo today after getting back from Vilas.  1st spot was ok, 2nd spot was a bust, found some cooperative pannies on the third spot, and kept enough for dinner this evening. Was a decent bite, but not as good as last weekend. Caught a bunch of small Yellows, a Bullhead, Rockies, and Gills.  Smallies have been hiding the last two outings.

CM, Yellow Bass typically have a yellow hue to them, they also have more broken / off-set stripes than a White Bass.  Notice the broken stripes on the middle pic.

Also, yellow Bass are just awesome table fare, I think White Bass for the most part are fishy, and toss them back.

I might have to pull a page out of CM's book and try minnows.  We've been catching some Crappies on crawler half's, would imagine we'd do better with fatheads.

Another fabulous Saturday afternoon on the funtastic Fox River, the multi species mayhem continued this time with a little bigger minnows.
Results from today were 12+-White bass, 3-Blk. Crappie, 1-Yellow bass, 1-Catfish, 1-Northern Pike, 1-Perch for a total of 6 species. I have better idea now how to tell white from yellow bass and I think I only caught one yellow bass today and some nice white bass.
The Pike was probably around 26" and it's hard to tell by the picture but that catfish was dandy 5-6 pounder. Fishing around all that wood I get hung up 5 or 6 times an outing but I don't want to lose my bobber so I wait till I move and paddle over and get it free.
Today on one snag I paddled over to it, grabbed the float wrapped the line around my hand and started pulling and it starts to come towards the surface so I think I'm pulling up the whole branch so I'm getting ready to grab it and all of a sudden the biggest snapping turtle I ever seen comes up, it was like something you'd see on Swamp People. The thing had a head as big as my fist and I didn't get a good look at the shell but by judging by how far apart the legs were the shell had to be enormous. I was reaching for scissors to cut the line when the hooked popped out thank god.

You're doing great JJ - enjoy your posts Brutha!

Congrats Brent on the first official flathead catch on this thread. Next outing I'm going to bring some bigger minnows and see what I might catch. Riverside park is really scratching up ​my ​kayak ​I need to start launching at Wehmhoff Junker and paddle the extra 150 yards.

Great job Brent. I'm trying to sequester enough time to make a kayak trip up your way. Looks like a blast!!