My apprehensions about water temperature quickly dispelled, because I wisely decided to bring along my portable sonar unit again. Last I did that, I learned a lot about the lake's depths, but today that temperature concerned me, and Brian and I found in short order that it was 53. Not bad.
Of course, with the air temp never getting out of the low 50's--when we drove off at 6:03 p.m. it was 49, and an hour or more before that, I plainly saw my breath--that water was cooling. I've known early season bass to turn on when it's warming. Conditions such as Wednesday's with the high temp just about 70. Brian was out there on the same lake with Mark Licht that day, and they did great, Brian's biggest largemouth about 6 pounds, five of his six bass over four pounds, but in total, they caught 11 fish, compared to our 13 fish in the cold yesterday.
That might be a photo of the biggest, above. I'm not sure, because I caught two bass well over four pounds--4.87 pounds, and 4.32 pounds. Another one of mine might have been only a quarter pound under four, another about three-and-a-half, a two and something 17-incher, a smallish bass of about two pounds, and another bass of about two-and-a-half. The crappie in the photo below hit a MiniKing spinnerbait and put up a real good fight on a light rod. My pickerel came off the hook when I was lifting it into the boat, falling against the gunwale, then into the water, not into the boat, so you decide if that was really a catch.
Brian called it a cigar. Suffice it to say not every fish is photographed. Brian did catch three nice bass; possibly every one of them was over three pounds. His pickerel was a nice one, too.
Brian is committed to the Chatterbait. I like to use different lures. I started with a Chatterbait. Who would argue against its success the day before? I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to bring my light rod, but that MiniKing spinnerbait was looking good, and I did not deny it. Nor once we had cast Chatterbaits for three or four minutes to no takers among residual weedbeds. The MiniKing got hit after five or 10 minutes. I repeated the same cast and hooked up. At first I thought pickerel, then it felt like a nice bass, but it turned out to be a crappie only about 13 inches long! Partly, it was that light rod. One I built from a St. Croix blank that cost me $70.00 in 2005.
The wind was a about right but a little catty-cornered. It generally blew us up towards the back of the lake but at about a 45-degree angle. Again & again, we had to paddle away from shore. For a fairly long while--altogether we fished maybe four-and-a-half hours--I cast that spinnerbait, catching the pickerel and the smallest bass. A pickerel that small never would have hit a Chatterbait. Those are big lures for big fish. The bass might have hit it. And might not have. It was only about 16 inches long. Didn't even fight as hard as the crappie had. It got me thinking about small lures for small fish. I have nothing against catching smaller ones, and I caught plenty of big ones yesterday. It was nice catching small ones, too. I also caught a 19-inch largemouth on that little spinnerbait.
I tried the Chatterbait repeatedly but nothing would hit. But I like to think I'm good at guessing where to place a Senko-type worm rigged Wacky. If you're casting to the water, you're not doing it right. Out in front of you is a lot of water. In this lake we fish, for example, it's mostly about five feet deep. There's weeds, but interspersed, and much of the time you can't tell where. All that water will only blind you if you don't create a spatial abstract of it and zero in on where your mind tells you to cast. Otherwise, it's just random and will only wear you down. It's not magic, but by using the mind, you create energy rather than lose it. The argument is simple. If you're interesting yourself at a guessing game, by which you convert the raw mass of water into a grid that tells you where to pinpoint the cast, you might rise to the occasion. You will, if results begin to suggest--as they have for me--that the unconscious mind is capable of putting you on fish.
I had a rod at the ready. Pre-rigged with a brown Shim-E-Stick, good color for the overcast conditions. I picked it up and began my guessing game, which soon paid off with the 17-incher. Brian had caught one or two on his Chatterbait. Soon we positioned behind an island, and a bass picked up that Shim-E-Stick as I let it rest on bottom. It weighed 4.87 pounds, 20 1/2 inches. I caught another one of about 18 1/2 inches after I put my rod in a rod holder, letting the worm kind of deadstick. (The canoe drifted very slowly in the calm behind that island.) The bass took drag as the rod bent in the holder. As we began heading back to Brian's truck, I caught one about 16 1/2 inches on the brown worm nearly against the bank. Brian had caught his pickerel and his last bass. Before we really began the long paddle back, I gave that Chatterbait one last try.
I had caught fish on both of my lighter rods. I wanted to even the score. Along that island shoreline, we've caught a lot of fish. I began by casting pretty close and parallel, and intended to progressively work my way out, not getting very far when I got whomped. The bass weighed 4.32 pounds, 20 inches.
