The temperature was around 42 degrees when I put the pelican in the water around 11:30. I was targetting pickerel, but would take whatever wanted to put a bend in my pole. I brought 2 batteries since I knew I might be doing a bit of trolling until I could locate some fish. It was clear sunny skies when I started.
After launching I headed to the right of the boat ramp. I fished the end of the first peninsula and the standing timber with no luck. I started trolling across the face of the dam then headed up lake past the long cove. That's where I caught the crappie. Not great sized but a fish none the less. I would occasionally catch grass on the treble hooks. I was pulling 2 lures thru the water with the 1 I thought ran deeper on the outside.
By the time I was almost directly across from the boat ramp I caught the bass.
It was just after 1:30. The bass was so pale it almost looked like another species of fish. I was trying different lures on and off. I just couldn't find anything that would consistently catch fish. I headed up to the skinny part of the lake. I tried casting up there. Twice when my lure landed I spooked something in the water as it would ripple the water as the lure hit the water. I didn't catch anything up there either.I trolled past the next bank heading towards the standing timber where I caught a few fish 2 weeks ago. I know that Andy, Chuck & Brian had caught fish there also. I even tied on a small crappie lure and tried jigging it in the timber without success. By now the sky was heavily overcast. Andy showed up. I don't know if he had any luck, but he was moving around a lot.
I made my way over to the boat ramp. 2 fish in almost 5 hours worth of fishing. Not the best day on the water but I'll take it for a December day. Most years I'm done with freshwater fishing in MD by this time of the year, but I have quite a bit of time on my hands now not working full time. I need to become a better coldweather angler. I ended up losing 2 lures, which is unusual when fishing from a boat. Most times I just go opposite the snag and it comes out, but not today. I did hang up quite a bit trolling so hopefully that means I was close to the bottom most of the time.
Here are the lures I tried.
I found some more exposed manmade structures at the headwaters of the lake.
