WOW. my fishing skills atrophied over the long winter!!!

[Darth-Baiter]

i went fishing today.  rainy has heck, but i brought rain gear.  

 

i had to go thru my gear twice to make sure i didnt forget anything.

right when i got to the lake, i put a dropshot hook into a finger...just to the barb.

i stepped in too deep, getting on my kayak and water went over my boot.

tying a lure, i hooked the line twice on my sunglasses and flipped them overboard, once.  (my dropshot rig did a 1 in a 1000 move and hooked an earpiece).

i dropped my net without noticing and found it deep in the bushes.  

i almost capsized trying to save a $20 crankbait.

my casting ACCURACY was nowhere to be found.  i casted into the trees 5x.  i could barely cast to shore.  cast ON SHORE, not a problem

a knot was suspect and i sent a spinnerbait to infinity (and beyond).  they actually fly pretty well without line connected to them.

i pulled my truck so far down the ramp i didnt have room to reverse my kayak to put it into the truck.  had to get in and scoot up.  

 

i did manage to catch a mix bag of LMB and smallies.  took my friends to the clinic.  i did well, catching fish.  if i could hit my targets i would have killed more.    wow, winter was Loooooonnnnngggg!

 

hopefully tomorrow is better.

[12poundbass]

Geez. Tough sledding!

[gim]

47 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

i sent a spinnerbait to infinity (and beyond)

[islandbass]

I’m we can all relate to this. Mama said there’s be days like this. 

[GRiver]

Like @islandbass said “we can relate”. But it sure beats sitting at home. 

[papajoe222]

I'm laughing because it was you and not me.

I do feel for you, though. While waiting in the store parking lot while the wife was shopping, I decided to dust off my pitching 'skills'. I felt like a rookie trying to hit an oil spot from 20ft. I know it was because I wasn't standing from an elevated spot.

Got two comments from passers by: "I don't believe you're going to catch anything and (obviously from another angler) You shoulda been here last week, we were killing them here."

[Darth-Baiter]

I had a blast and I’m exhausted. Haha. 

[TnRiver46]

That’s the best way to use a spinnerbait 

[Darth-Baiter]

12 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

I'm laughing because it was you and not me.

I do feel for you, though. While waiting in the store parking lot while the wife was shopping, I decided to dust off my pitching 'skills'. I felt like a rookie trying to hit an oil spot from 20ft. I know it was because I wasn't standing from an elevated spot.

Got two comments from passers by: "I don't believe you're going to catch anything and (obviously from another angler) You shoulda been here last week, we were killing them here."

i cant pitch like a pro from my driveway.  off a bassboat, it goes awry i bit.  i blame my buds trash talking.  he is the best trash talker on the planet.

[volzfan59]

I'm with you @Darth-Baiter, my first trip or two are always an adventure! 

[Susky River Rat]

This sounds like my normal trip. Just minus the fish. Glad you had a productive day!

[Bird]

What you experienced is not that uncommon for a first trip after a long winter...... working the rust off.

[NavyToad]

Don’t feel bad. I cast into low hanging trees all summer long. I even have a set of small pruning shears - get in, cut the branch, & get out. 

[volzfan59]

27 minutes ago, NavyToad said:

Don’t feel bad. I cast into low hanging trees all summer long. I even have a set of small pruning shears - get in, cut the branch, & get out. 

That's not a bad idea at all. I'm going to use it. Thank you 

[QED]

One of my best bass fishing buddies and I went fishing on the neighborhood lake where we would ordinarily just slay them.  On the most recent trip, our casting precision had gotten a little sloppy so it took a while to get back into the groove.  A perishable skill for sure.

[Spankey]

Kicked off my bass season off yesterday. No big mishaps. Boat ran fine, didn’t hit anything submerged, water was not in great shape but fishable. We just came off a lot of rain. 
 

Don’t think I made great bait choices but in my mind I thought I was doing right. Caught a few runt Smallies. I’ll take it, I was happy enough. 
 

I’m switching from being in trout mode to bass mode right now. Got a lot of fishing and catching in in the last 5 or 6 weeks. So casting, knot tying, detecting hits has been going on. Having a trout season sort of shakes away some of the winter cobwebs. Trout aren’t bass and bass aren’t trout but it makes the transition easier after a long winter. 

[Blue Raider Bob]

On 5/6/2023 at 9:07 PM, papajoe222 said:

I'm laughing because it was you and not me.

I do feel for you, though. While waiting in the store parking lot while the wife was shopping, I decided to dust off my pitching 'skills'. I felt like a rookie trying to hit an oil spot from 20ft. I know it was because I wasn't standing from an elevated spot.

Got two comments from passers by: "I don't believe you're going to catch anything and (obviously from another angler) You shoulda been here last week, we were killing them here."

I'm laughing so hard my eyes are leaking!

[casts_by_fly]

This is the story of my season this year.  I feel like I forgot how to fish.  The past two seasons I think I might have lost two fish total.  This season I've come unpinned on two 5+ bass (one on trebles, one on a single hook), cast a rod completely out of my hands and into the lake (successfully recovered), and struggled to catch fish when and where I should be able to pick them.  Due to various reasons including sick dogs, visitors, and trips I've not made it onto the water half as much as I'd have liked by now.

 

The good news is that I haven't broken anything and haven't hooked myself significantly.  Still plenty of time for that.

[TOXIC]

Although we fish year round and make a trip to Florida in February, we are coming up on our annual spring trip to Lake St Clair in about a week.  We have been trying to get out as often as we can here and staying out as long as we can to get into “fishing shape” for this trip.  It’s one thing to go out for a day, it’s a totally different thing to go out from sunup to sunset for a week straight on big water pretty much regardless of the conditions.  We call it combat fishing.  While there, I’ll be in bed by 7pm every night after eating dinner and a couple Jack&Cokes.  Full bottles of Aleve and Tylenol packed and clothing for both snow and sun because it’s “Pure Michigan”.?

[Darth-Baiter]

@casts_by_flytruly made me feel better about myself.  hahah

 

i have yet to toss a rod out of my hands.  yet.  hahaah

tomorrow, i am hitting the big lake.  i better get my S together. 

[casts_by_fly]

Try getting a backlash with braid while throwing a 3 oz A-rig.  When the spool finally catches it will launch right out of your hands.  The fact that it was 40 degrees air and water both probably didn't help with dexterity.  

[king fisher]

Welcome to my world

[Jleebesaw]

Lol! I went crappie fishing Saturday. First time out this year. No problems with the light spinning setups. Monday and Tuesday I went bass fishing. I spent as much time fixing backlashes and getting lures out of bushes as I did fishing! It was ridiculous. Happens to me every year!

[Darth-Baiter]

 

Muscle memory is coming back.  my backhand casting accuracy is on fire!!  forearm..still anyones guess.