Illinoisgiller
07-21-2006, 02:54 PM
A couple days ago we had planned a gilling trip to southeast Iowa. The plan was to leave at 5:00 am SHARP. Well, be advised there was a little matter of a wife and grandson that like to sleep in .:rolleyes: 6:30 am we got away for the trek to fishin country. We lost track of our destination and stopped by a small Illinois lake along the way. The water was gin clear and ripple free . I and my grandson loaded into out float tubes and worked the deeper water. The bite turned out to be real soft. It was tough getting the gills and most were smaller than we usually get there .The ones I got were taken on my trusted tiny Grizzly Jig "Water Flea" tipped w/wax worm. After an hour I was the only one with many fish .The wife had got a couple from a dock.
We loaded up and headed to Iowa .I quickly cleaned the few gills and since the wind had picked up headed to the upper end of the lake. I got a few red ear in 9' of water. I was double jigging then with a top pink sparkle jig in 1/124th oz. Some took the top jig and some the bottom.:confused: By then the weather was brutal hot so we cleaned the fish and headed home.
By the time we hit IL. it got real windy and the much needed rain started. We stopped at another small lake after the rain passed. This lake has a 10 fish limit. We got on the gills there and got one short of our limit till we ran out of wax worms.
This is the long version of a statement-- The gill bite is well into the summer slump, but can be overcome with a little bull headedness.
We had enough fillets for an evening fry and another the next day with relatives .:D Mike
We loaded up and headed to Iowa .I quickly cleaned the few gills and since the wind had picked up headed to the upper end of the lake. I got a few red ear in 9' of water. I was double jigging then with a top pink sparkle jig in 1/124th oz. Some took the top jig and some the bottom.:confused: By then the weather was brutal hot so we cleaned the fish and headed home.
By the time we hit IL. it got real windy and the much needed rain started. We stopped at another small lake after the rain passed. This lake has a 10 fish limit. We got on the gills there and got one short of our limit till we ran out of wax worms.
This is the long version of a statement-- The gill bite is well into the summer slump, but can be overcome with a little bull headedness.
We had enough fillets for an evening fry and another the next day with relatives .:D Mike