Went out non-ice fishing for the first time in 2008 and I got my first sunburn. Not that big a deal - the sunburn part, I mean. All part of being a fair-skinned, blue-eyed redhead. I got burned just a little around the edges despite 2 slathers of 50 sunscreen.
We used to put some big crappie in the boat on this lake when the water was much higher, up in the wood and brush, but the water dropped several feet. There's still some wood, but not in as many areas so the crappie moved on to lilly pads and roots, and up into the cattails.
Several seasons ago, big crappie in the cattails was a blast!! But the water has dropped more and now the cattails may be too shallow? Last year didn't pan out much, but I must have some optimism in me because I go back.
Wouldn't you go back to fish stuff like this?!?
Actually, here is a stretch more like what we've wacked them from before:
You can see some pads just coming up. In fact, they seemed to sprout out of nothing as the day progressed. I was casting to them on the way in to the back when I caught my only crappie of the day. Probably doesn't seem wise to give away the climax of the story already, but it's the truth. Caught this one on a Gulp! maggot and slip bobber from youth pads:
Not huge, but it's a crappie. And that's all she wrote.
But that is not the end of my story. It takes time to get sunburned with a lot of 50 power sunscreen...
I was thinking how nice it would be to slam the metal to a big ole dogfish when I looked down to see one swimming right out from under my boat.
Like a gift! A big slimy, ancient, tooth gift...
A little jumpy though because it started to swim off when I reached for my ever present (in the spring for sure) dogfish wacking lure. But when my dogfish wacking lure hit the water, ole doggy changed its mind and that was all she wrote... well, after some spectacular jumps, body-jerking, rolling, twisting and teeth-gnashing, I got it in:
Way to start off the year!! After that though, it was a bunch of bait-stealers although I did manage to snatch this little bandit. Little being the key, but huge compared to the real tiny bait stealers...
Still, a little show stopper with all of the colors though, don't you think?
But the real cool deal was way in the very back. Normally, there are a lot of bass roaming around these same areas and I wasn't seeing many... until I got right on top of the cattails - then I saw this dude here. Not a big surprise, but a pleasant one nonetheless:
April 20th and I see my first bass on a bed!!! 15 to 16 inch male. I'm pretty sure it's the male because an 18 or so inch female was swimming in and out, but much more shy than this little trooper - he wasn't shy at all as long as I didn't make loud noises.
Then I saw, farther back in the cattails, another suspicious spot followed by having an almost 4 pound female come out to see what I was up to. I watched what I thought was the bed, but saw nothing at first. Finally, a shy 13 to 14 inch male stuck his head out from other some grass. I'm thinking, you go boy! Got hisself a pretty big female and she wants me to leave. For crying out loud, I interrupted their happy time.
I tried and I tried to get a picture of both of them on the bed. At times they were getting frisky, nipping, bumping and pecking at each other. I just couldn't get a good shot of both without glare or spooking the big female off. The best I could do it use super stealth mode to get them unawares of my presence and shoot this pic:
I could see the female just to the right pointed right at me behind the new cattails to the right. Oh well, I tried. I saw another good sized male hanging out farther down the edge near a hole in the cattails. I figured I'd got back to the bait stealers and leave the lovebirds alone.
Eventually, I had to get more exercise and row back to the campground. I'm thinking though, opening weekend might be more than a little exciting on the lake next weekend...?!?
Problem is, I don't think I can float my boat at the ramp and without 4-wheel drive... I may not make it out from even trying (the last time did not go well...). Anyone have a smaller boat and 4-wheel drive want to meet me in Barry County here next weekend???
I happen to know there's a nice one living here...
