First Trips of the Year....Finally!

[WIGuide]

This spring I swear mother nature has turned bipolar. With temps up and down we never know what we're going to get. Last week we had unseasonably high temps, like record high temps. I believe last Wednesday was nearly 90* and all week the temps were in the 70's and higher. Ice on local lakes seemed to be melting so fast you could see it happen. Even though there are still a lot of little projects I wanted take care of on the boat before the season gets into full swing, this past Friday the urge was too great and instead of working on the boat I decided that even if there was ice left on the lake I was going to go fishing instead. I went to a local lake that normally opens up quicker than others in the area and luckily it was mostly ice free. There were still some floating icebergs, a few iced over bays, and some ice still stuck to the shoreline in places. Main lake water temps were running about 45-47 despite the ice cubes floating around. 

 

Day 1

I took some time running the boat around making sure everything still worked and was ready for action. It was fairly windy, but air temps were in the 80's so it felt pretty good. I started on a main lake point with a brush pile with no luck. Tried a little rip rap next to a bit of a drop, again nada. I then hit a few little pockets with the same result. Finally, I ran into one at the mouth of bay/creek on some timber and thought there might be a school there, but after working it over for a few minutes I was no longer convinced. I moved on and found some serious rust that needed to be shaken off. I was coming up to a blow down and pitched a jig at it, mind you this jig was still tied on since last fall...same knot, same trailer, same everything. I thought I saw my line moving, reeled down and set the hook only for my jig to come flying back at me. There was resistance for a second, but with the boat moving and with the wind, I chalked it up to the long winter removing some of my feel and thought I set the hook on a branch. Pitched back, thought I felt it get heavy, set the hook again and again my jig came back. On the same laydown this happened twice more and I started to think I was loosing my mind. Fished for about another 10 minutes and decided to change rods, so as I go to put my jig on the hook hanger...I realized I busted the hook clean off at the bend. The trailer was still perfectly in tack, jig looked great, minus the missing hook ?. As I moved back in this creek, the water temp is usually a few degrees warmer in the spring than the main lake, but the warm weather had me questioning if my graph was reading right. Water temps inside the bay/creek were anywhere from 58-60*!! When I ran into the warmer water I ran into the bass, ended up catching 9 bass, a crappie, lost a few, and had a handful of other bites. Most fish were caught on a Berkley Stunna, with the exception of one on a jig and the biggest one came on a lipless crankbait. 

 

Day 2

With rain possible in the forecast I waited until afternoon when it was supposed to have passed. I headed back to the same lake with my girlfriend and wouldn't you know it, a rain shower popped up right after we got on the water and the temp dropped about 15 degrees to the low upper 50's, the water temps were a few degrees cooler too. I thought with the passing front and the sudden wind direction change, it might turn them off a little, but was I ever wrong. Dialing it a little on what I did the day before, it took me about 5 minutes to catch the first one and started rolling from there. They were crushing a jerkbait and I feel like more fish came into the area as they weren't on every piece of cover, but the ones they were on, they were stacked up on. In 3.5 hours I ended up catching 20 bass, a bluegill and lost 2 bass not to mention another handful of bites. I wanted to try to expand on my pattern, but the temps and wind, mixed with being damp had my girlfriend sitting down huddled in every extra piece of gear I brought with kept us in the same area slightly protected from the wind. She did manage to catch one of the biggest of the day and only fished for about 15 minutes of the whole time we were out there. Overall, it felt great to be back out on the water again, and felt like a bit of redemption for how last year ended. Although I didn't catch anything massive, the vast majority of what I caught was above average and of the fish I caught only 2 would have been under the 14" size limit. 

 

 

Most productive tackle for the weekend was without a doubt the Berkley Stunna in Shad Fillet and a Spro McStick in Pro Blue I believe. All the baits pictured did produce though and put multiple fish in the boat. 

One of the smallest of the weekend, but it was the first bass of 2023 so there was no way I wasn't taking a picture of it along with some of the ice cubes!

Below are some of the better ones of the weekend.

 

 

P.S. Mother nature flipped her crap again, and we went from 70's and 80's last week to waking up to 17" of snow overnight with more coming down during the day. We ended up with about 20". ?‍♂️

 

[Jar11591]

Awesome way to start the season!

[Dwight Hottle]

You cracked me up with broken jig hook story. 

[Swamp Girl]

I lived in southwestern and northwestern Wisconsin for 30 years. Now I live on the coast of Maine and some Mainers like to tout the sudden temperature changes, but coastal weather is NOTHING like inland weather, where it can go from 80s one day to 20 inches of snow a few days later. Good job on all those bass! Here, a 15-degree temperature swing is a big deal. 

[A-Jay]

Excellent read & report Sir !

Really enjoyed it.

Congrats on getting out there & doing some damage on the green bass population.

Hope the weather clears for you because then I know it will be clearing for me soon too.

Fish Hard

A-Jay

[WIGuide]

18 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

You cracked me up with broken jig hook story. 

It was one of those deals where I just had to laugh at myself. Made me feel a little better knowing I did still know what a bite feels like!

 

18 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I lived in southwestern and northwestern Wisconsin for 30 years. Now I live on the coast of Maine and some Mainers like to tout the sudden temperature changes, but coastal weather is NOTHING like inland weather, where it can go from 80s one day to 20 inches of snow a few days later. Good job on all those bass! Here, a 15-degree temperature swing is a big deal. 

Haha yeah 15 degree swing here can happen if a small front moves through. Last week after work walking the dog I was wearing shorts and tshirt and getting warm. These pictures were taken 3 days apart, I guess on the positive note, I understand where Mercury got their design idea for their 4 stroke pro xs haha. 

 

20 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Excellent read & report Sir !

Really enjoyed it.

Congrats on getting out there & doing some damage on the green bass population.

Hope the weather clears for you because then I know it will be clearing for me soon too.

Fish Hard

A-Jay

Thank you Sir! On a positive note the sun is shining today and starting to melt away the nastiness. Hopefully you'll be out there pounding the brown bass soon!

[Swamp Girl]

Now, that's a lotta snow! We got a 24-incher this year. The biggest snowfall I experienced in Maine was 31". So, yeah, we get snow, but not those temperature swings.

 

 

[gim]

23 hours ago, WIGuide said:

P.S. Mother nature flipped her crap again, and we went from 70's and 80's last week to waking up to 17" of snow overnight with more coming down during the day. We ended up with about 20"

Holy Hannah you got smoked over there. I got about 3 inches on Sunday but it’s pretty much already gone now.

[Bankbeater]

Nice write up and nice bass catching.

[bloom]

A bit to the north, we missed the brunt of that snow storm, maybe 3 inches wet slushy and heavy, Another storm of some sort on the way today.

Not much open water around here, the bigger lakes will be sometime in May. Thanks for the report, it was a fun read.

[WIGuide]

19 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Now, that's a lotta snow! We got a 24-incher this year. The biggest snowfall I experienced in Maine was 31". So, yeah, we get snow, but not those temperature swings.

It certainly is, especially to get in 14 hours or so. Usually these systems move through over a longer period of time, but this is the second time this year we got 15"+ overnight

 

18 hours ago, gimruis said:

Holy Hannah you got smoked over there. I got about 3 inches on Sunday but it’s pretty much already gone now.

Yeah I have a friend who lives over in the cities who was rubbing that in sending me pictures of his green grass on Monday lol

 

 

4 hours ago, bloom said:

A bit to the north, we missed the brunt of that snow storm, maybe 3 inches wet slushy and heavy, Another storm of some sort on the way today.

Not much open water around here, the bigger lakes will be sometime in May. Thanks for the report, it was a fun read.

Lucky duck! We're just getting rain down here which is helping get rid of the snow, but with water levels already so high that's not great either. 

How far north are you? I see you like fishing the Chip, that's one of my favorites as well.

[bloom]

Quote

ow far north are you? I see you like fishing the Chip, that's one of my favorites as well.

Hayward, I get to fish the Chip quite often.