On Saturday I fished a power plant cooling lake 30 mins from home in central Illinois. The wind was nuts, but at least it meant it wasn't too crowded.
I was throwing a small silver Little Cleo spoon hoping for hybrid striped bass. Some people next to me were fishing with live minnows and catching them, so I felt confident I could get one too. I did not end up catching one, but what I did get was this massive buffalo. I've heard rumors from several sources that buffalo will hit spoons in the spring in this lake. If only one person told me it I'd be skeptical, but I've heard it from several credible people, and now I've seen it with my own eyes. It must be some sort of pre-spawn feeding frenzy.
I wasn't sure if it was a smallmouth or black buffalo, so when I got home I fired off the photo to a couple of biologists. The consensus is that it was a hybrid between the two. I've been trying hard for a pure black buffalo for my lifelist, so this bummed me out immensely. It was still an awesome fish. I didn't get a weight, but it may very well have been the largest freshwater fish I've ever caught.
On Saturday I drove down to a spillway 2 hrs and 30 mins from home. Pretty much everyone else was crappie fishing, but I set up with corn and alfalfa pellets to try for carp and buffalo. Didn't take long for the carp to show up.
Weird black colored carp.
I tied on a small jig to try for crappie, and my first hookup was another carp. This was my first carp on an artificial, so that was cool.
The guy next to us snagged a huge female walleye on accident. The weight was 11.5 lbs (or 11 point something, can't remember exactly). I've never seen a walleye this big. The state record is 14 lbs, so I would guess that most people haven't.
The crappie finally cooperated, and I ended up catching quite a few. Here's a textbook white crappie.
And here's a black crappie.
There were also bluegill and yellow bass mixed in. The bluegill are always pretty sad looking here.
I kept seeing muskie surface, so finally the desire got the best of me, and I switched to a large silver swimbait. Believe it or not, I hooked up on my 2nd cast.
It was a crazy weekend! I hope this is the start to a really awesome spring and not me burning through my fish karma early, haha.