Woohooo! Fishing Season Is On Its Way!

What good news about fishing could possibly waddle it's way into our lives on the back of a 14 inch tall rodent?  Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow today but what he did see is an early fishing season for those of us suffering from cabin feaver. Spring is coming early this year!!

I know...  it's just a silly holiday that lacks any scientific basis but for a guy with the outdoor itch it's something to grab on to.

This year while it's been great for me ithas left me with very little time afield.  Work and family obligations have yielded little time for hunting. Also mother nature has been very finicky this winter yielding little ice for ice fishing. So yeah, thanks Phil for bringing spring to us just a bit sooner in order to cure our cabin fever.

Finally Got Out To Fish A Bit

Finally, I got a chance to get out and do some fishing today.  After having the itch for the last few weeks I was able to sneak out for a bit after work today.  The day started with me throwing a couple rods in the car and grabbing a light tray of baits before I headed in for work this morning with the intention of sneaking in some fishing directly after work.  With rods and bait box packed I went to work trying to keep as busy as possible so quitting time would come as soon as possible.

Unfortunately as it always does quitting time took forever to arrive but when it did I disappeared

without a goodbye to the coworker bees and headed to Newburgh lake to harass whatever would be willing to bite. Less than ten minutes after getting off and I'm at the lake slow rolling spinner baits  hoping for a hungry bass or pike.  20 minutes in and I've caught nothing but a wet jacket because of the in and out rain we had today. Neither the spinnerbait nor the bitsy bug looked very enticing to the resident bass so I decided to switch out for a basspro XTS-Vibrator lipless crankbait in the tilapia.  Just two quick cast later and "Smack" fish on.  of course my assumption is this has to be a nice 17 inch bass or better because of how aggressive the bite was but low and behold the first bass of the year and it's a twelve incher with Napoleonic Disorder

Overall the fishing was a bit slow with me only catching 3 more bass and losing 2 closer to the bank, all of which were  pretty small ranging between 12 and 14 inches.  But all in all it was a great trip out.

My Easter Fishing Ice Breaker

So this past Easter Sunday I decided, since I had the day off, to get out and jump start my spring bass fishing.  So as of the Thursday prior to Easter Sunday I was checking the weather to see if it would be nice enough to get out on the water and chase a few fish.  To my pleasant surprise the weather man said the temps would be in the high sixties this Easter and since I stay in Michigan I decided this is a huge blessing as it's not uncommon to get a spring snow fall or bout of very cold rain. 

   

    So with the excitement of being able to sneak out finally I set my alarm for a late 9am start, late for fishing but why not have a lazy day off.  My late start didn't exactly happen as a I'd preferred as my body is wired for not sleeping past 7am and apparently my cat Phil decided 7am was a perfect time to break out the early morning easter love, as seen in the picture above.  Whoever said cats aren't very affectionate haven't met "Mr. Lover Man" Phil.  So a few Sunday morning cartoons and a lot of kitty love later I was off to my usual haunt of Newburgh Lake to chase whatever fish I could.
   To my surprise when I arrived at the lake at about 10:30 there weren't that many people walking the shore or out on kayaks fishing, just a few of us chasing early season largemouth bass.  A couple of guys using large spinnerbaits, one gentleman throwing a rattle trap, another young man using a jerk bait quite successfully and his buddy who was switching up quite a bit from bait to bait.

    As for myself I decided since the water was still cold I'd start out with black and yellow beetle spin which was very successful for me to start.  In fact I caught about 5 smaller bass, all between 12 and 15 inches in length.  With the beetle spin I found that the bass were actually striking it pretty aggressively despite the cold water, but only when the beetle spin was being slowly and deeply retrieved.  So on every cast when the bait hit the water I'd count to seven to allow the bait to drop down just deep enough to be retrieved above the recently emerging grass then slow rolling it back resulting in frequent strikes.                                                                         After a while and a quick circuit of the point I was fishing I decided to switch back to an old standby of mine, an inline spinner I tie that has a brown wooly bugger as the tail end which I can only describe as a wooly spinner.  (I'll post a picture and how to blog later)  This made the difference for me this day, because even though this bait isn't much larger than the beetle spin it could be retrieved at a slower rate as well it's undulating wooly bugger tail and gold spinner really gave the bait a more lifelike profile in the cold clear water this day.  So while I caught 5 smaller bass on the beetle spin my little wooly spinner drew in another 7 bass 3 of which were over 17 inches. 

   

With the wooly spinner catching the fish that it did, the hackle and marabou of the bait started to get a bit funky looking so I switched out for a 6 inch black Zoom Super Fluke with green glitter around the head.  Unfortunately this bait didn't do as well as the other two baits but it did draw in 3 other fish which was cool cause by this point I was making my way back to the car anyway.  However the great thing about the breaking out the fluke is that there is a flat that is normally filled with lily pads during the summer that was pretty barren at this time except for a small patch of lilies about 50 yards out from the shore that I could reach with either of the other two baits I'd fished with earlier.  So I decided to give the heavier fluke a cast to see if I could get out just beyond that small stand of lily pads.  Well much to my happiness one cast dropped my fluke just on the other side of the middle of the pads.  With a quick pop of the rod tip the fluke jerked and hung up on a pad and with two more light jerks to simulate a stuck bait fish all I was was  sudden splash of water and the lily pads sway.  I set the hook and a few minutes of fighting later I landed one of my bigger fish of the day on the Zoom Super Fluke from the one location that everyone who I had talked to earlier handed had so much as a nibble.  (Sorry about the blurry image as my phone's camera lens has a a few scratches on it.)  Overall I had a great Easter Sunday thanks to an over affectionate kitty and quite a few bass willing to chase my baits.  :)

Thanks for reading,

Kwan & Phil