Warmwater Getting Underway

 

I was afraid both of us would get skunked.  

The water cold--somewhere in the 50's--I still thought the dark, rocky bottom of shallows would absorb plenty of the intense sunlight and temperatures in the 80's. That would draw something like a mass exodus of bass and pickerel. 

Brian always has me man the stern mounted electric, so I steered us across several hundred yards of 15- and 20-foot depths to a five-foot flat that always results in a fish on during the summer. Brian trolled a CP Swing; I trolled a Rapala X-Rap. Nothing happened, which alerted me to the fact that I had misjudged. 

We ended up trolling deeper. I let my Storm Hot 'n Tot do most of the work, Brian used the CP and also a Chatterbait. Whenever I got the chance, I cast shallow water with the X-Rap, feeling very determined to make real something of my expectation that fish would be there. Brian wanted to fish along the dam. No doubt the rip-rap is smallmouth bass habitat. We headed in that direction, trolling as we went, but when we got pretty close, I pointed out that we had only so much time to get back to the ramp. 

We turned back at that point, but now we know it is possible to make it all the way there. Brian uses two batteries. Although nearly all the charge would drain from the first once we got in the vicinity of the ramp, the second still had plenty. The sun positioned low over the ridge; Brian’s Chatterbait got hit when we still headed towards the dam but we'd forgotten all about that when he finally had a fish on, which proved to be the smallmouth of the first photograph, caught on the Chatterbait. He soon caught another on the CP Swing, the largest of his total of three, the last one also on the CP Swing. So instead of intense feeding during the warmth of the afternoon, an evening bite took place like what happens during the summer. 

I kept us trolling through about 10 feet of water for the most part. The Hot 'n Tot didn't dig against rocks on the bottom until nine-and-a-half feet deep. I'm pretty sure I can get that plug 15 feet deep by letting out more line. Tonight the CP Swing might have run three feet under the surface, but it sure did better than my crankbait. 

Before we turned to go in, I switched to the X-Rap and had us troll across five feet of water. That resulted in the pickerel I'm photographed with, so something of my expectation was made real. Nothing like steady action I had hoped for, but this evening inaugurated a warmwater season to look forward to.

I fished trout the other day, and I've been comparing apples to oranges, a fun mental exercise. I remember the September 1st outing from last year as a very desirable impression, something to build upon, a foundational experience for more yet to come. But don't I want to have my fun with my microlight and the stockers? I do, but not to the exclusion of getting out in the attempt to catch bass like the 21-incher from September. Not to mention that I'm still trying to beat my best smallmouth at 19 3/8th inches. And pickerel at only 24 1/2. This reservoir Brian and I are fishing has great resonance, as if memory enters into its being.   

  

September First