Another year!
Made an upgrade to my sonar via an HDSI transducer. Seems to clear the SI up a good deal, still have not made much use of DI yet.
Have been twice so far for quick outings on a local 190acre reseivoir. First trip SWT was 36.8, still some ice in coves. I cruised the banks with SI, playing with settings and looking for structure. Found a pretty good looking spot on a point in 10-12ft, but could not really tell if I saw fish or not. They definitely weren't piled in there if any at all.
I tried to cast some 1/32oz natural bucktail jigs I had tied this winter. That proved difficult with my gear. Switched to 1/16oz for better castability.
I let sink to bottom, and retrieved in at a snails pace. I was able to hang up a few times, so atleast I was in the "right" spot. No bites or confidence any were likely to come, so I fiddled with my sonar a bit more before loading up to beat the coming rain.
3 days later, the temps were to be 50. Talked the wife into going with me after work, we loaded up quick and returned to the same lake.
SWT's were 41. I had plans to scope out a spot near the dam, I had seen several boats there before. Curious if they were fishing some brushpiles or such.
A boat was already in that area, so I chugged back to the spot I fished previously in 10-12ft. I didn't spend as much time with the sonar here as I wanted. Took me a few passes to even find the structure I had seen last time (even though I had it marked!) and oddly enough it did not appear the same to me. I eventually quit making circles and spotlocked over a bit of some brush. This times I tied on slip bobbers and jigs with paddletail plastics. Black/chart and pink/chart, and tipped with some crappie nibbles (I picked 8 jars up at Walmart for $.75ea!)
Had troubles with the light jigs pulling the line down to the stopper, and realized I had left my splitshot at home. Switched to 1/8oz jigs to alleviate the sinking issues.
Was much easier to fish this setup. I used the rod lengths to measure out about 9-9.5 ft tot he bobber stops, and it seems close enough. Adjusting mine a foot down had me hitting bottom by a few inches later.
Gave it a good attempt with no bites (or, really any hope of them), so I moved back towards the dam to check that spot out.
Using SI as I pulled past a point hitting a little deeper water towards the dam (22-25ft), I started seeing fish in SI in the water column. I switched to 2D and saw a good deal of decent sized short, blobby arches, mostly holding at 15-16ft. Many were close to bottom. This went on for a decent area, I cut the bobbers off, and we dropped jigs to bottom and pulled up a tad. Fished various depths as we sat. There was zero breeze at this point, so really no drift. I used the Ulterra to keep some sort of movement so we could backtrack through the fish we marked. No bites.
The wife switched to using the lil buddy heater and reading on her phone out of boredom. I threw out both rods and made some slow passes over the area. Tried various depths and speeds up to .4, but no luck. Hit the ramp and made it home a little before dark.
Its going to be 66 today. I feel like I'm coming down with a cold, might have to cut out of here early!