Monday on the water

Got out on the water today by myself. Fished the golf course pond. Caught plenty of small bass, regular sized bass and chunky bluegills. The smallest measured bass went 5 inches. They were twice the size of the lure. Hard to believe that they could manage to eat a fish half their size. Again the Mepps was the big producer. I even caught a few with an ultralight pole. They are great sport on light tackle. They really put a bend in the pole. I used the fish finder. It showed the deepest parts to be just over 19 feet deep. I was surprised to see that just a few feet off the bank the water was 5 feet deep. No real shallow parts on this lake. That may be why fishing just off the bank is productive here.

Spring is marching forward. The trees are taking shape. There was a pollen scum on the pond and it was evident on rocks and roots bordering the water. I saw a snake make it's way across the water. A beaver also decide to show up. The back part of the pond looks like someone has removed the floating timber and branches. That spot has been productive in the past. Year before that they removed 2 fallen trees that held lots of fish. Not sure of the reason they did that, but it doesn't help the fish when they need a place to hide.

It's hard to get a good picture when you are by yourself.

These bluegills are nice and chunky.

Will the sun ever shine again?

It is still very dreary with tons of cloud cover. I haven't seen the sun in a few days. Hopefully soon it will warm up and we'll be done with winter for good.

I took the portabote out after work. I went to Sewell pond hoping to try for some bass in the farther reaches in the back of the pond. Most bank anglers can't get in there easily, so I figured with the boat they'd be easy pickings. When I got back there I noticed that the weeds had grown quite a bit from the bottom. It only left about 2 feet of water that was fishable. Most of my casts with a mepps came back covered with weeds. After a few minutes of that I switched to plan B. I ditched the spinning pole for the fly pole. I motored over to deeper water. As I moved I could see the weeds moving lower and lower. I didn't anchor, I just let the wind push the boat across the pond. I raised the trolling motor up just until the prop was barely in the water. After a few casts I was landing crappies. They weren't the biggest in the pond, I've caught some very large crappie out of that pond. But after not catching anything they were welcomed.

I managed 13 fish, a mix of crappie and bluegills. Mostly crappie. I used a zug bug nymph that has been on the pole a while. The fly is starting to look worse for the wear. This spring it has been my go to panfish fly. It produces quite often when nothing else is working.

Hopefully soon I'll be able to target some other species. The local fishing reports are starting to mention that the shad are showing up in decent numbers. Before long spring will be in full bloom and most everything with fins will be active and feeding.

Still Windy, when will it end?

Headed to AAFB for some more fishing. Today we christened the new porta-bote. It was a decent maiden voyage with 22 fish boat. Had 1 nice healthy yellow perch and the rest were fiesty pickerel. Best measured 22 1/2 inches. Lots of fish in the 18 - 20 inch range.


Wind blew the boat all over the pond. I had a nice wind burnt face. I had to reposition the boat all day. Dropped the anchor a whole lot of times.

There were a lots of takeoffs and landings. Even some touch & go practicing. It got noisy a few times.

A tanker coming in for a landing.

Nice fat perch. I didn't even know there were any in this lake.

Look how happy DC gets with her first pickerel of the year.