St. Mary's Lake Grand Slam 11/17/08

Sunset - Tramonte

Pickerel - Luccetto

Put the kayak in around 1pm. Very overcast and around 52 degrees air temperature. Slight wind but nothing unmanageable. Used a rapala count down in shad, a mepps spinner, chartruese crankbait and a rapala jointed minnow. Caught all my fish in the standing timber. Ended up with 7 fish a bluegill, pickerel, 2 crappie and 3 bass. The biggest bass and the pickerel were my largest out of the lake this year. Better late than never I guess. 2 other people fishing and both were outcatching me.

The pickerel was strong enough to pull the kayak around a bit. Know as a 'Sleigh ride', it's been a while since I've caught a freshwater fish in the kayak that was able to give me a ride.

Ho usato il kayak. Preso 7 pesci. Bluegill, luccetto, crappie & bass. Il bass & luccetto erano i piu grandi che ho preso del quel lago quest anno. Nouvoloso col poco sole. Usavo il rapala countdown e un crankbait colore chartreuse. Mepps = cappotto.

Saluti tutti i soci del pescaOK.

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.

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.

Cold & windy

It was lousy weather this weekend for doing anything outdoors. I managed to get away on the water for a few hours yesterday. Went to St Mary's lake.

Total take was 6 fish. 5 bass and a bluegill. All caught by DC. I had the big skunk. That's how it goes some times.