It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Yesterday's LCR trip is hard to describe...but it started early and cold. Beginning in March, Andy's opening time changed to 0600 on Sat. & Sun. (Yes, that was almost 1-1/2 hrs. before dawn.) "Springing forward" cut my sleep time another hour, and the night temp was low enough to freeze my rods so they had to be thawed before they would telescope!

As I finished climbing into the insulated bibs, Doodlum rolled in...also looking somewhat dazed (with a "tell me again why we're doing this?" expression.) Soon, I was headed down the lake to my first spot. My poor little camera tried very hard to make a picture out of this pre-dawn beautiful scene, but this is the best it could render (setting itself to f 3.3, 1/4 sec, ISO 400.)



Some time later, Doodlum arrived--claiming he had checked a spot along the way (more likely, he grabbed a power nap in the parking lot.)

The sun rose while we squeezed a few dinks out of the first spot, and then the bite shut down...for 8-1/4 hours. During that time, I visited 11 of the best LCR spots I know. Some were loaded with small pike, but most held nothing--I marked nothing and caught nothing. (It was a fantastic day on the water, though!)



Meanwhile, Doodlum had worked a number of his best spots in a different part of the lake, and that's where this report changes gears. During these hours he reported catching almost nothing: only one crappie (however, it went 16.25" and weighed 2 lb. 6 oz. ), two ring perch (however one was over 12" ), and a bunch of pesky pike (however one measured 24" .)

Then, we regrouped to try one last spot before pulling the plug and heading home.

The last spot held a school of shad and the specks had discovered them, too! In two hours, I landed 40 crappie, including two over 14", one over 13", and six others that were a keepable size. Minnows worked somewhat, but the fish REALLY liked my tried-and-true, 70's-era "Pinkie" jig (shown here with a couple of Steelies and a 1/32 oz. jig head for comparison.)



Doodlum tossed the BGBS (blue ice) at them with some success, but the Pinkie ruled...except for the the 15+ incher he added to his list of 4 citations for the day.



So.......once again, we learned that patience and persistence pays off.....buuuttt....if you take out one very lucky discovery and a stray whopper, yesterday would have been a huge bust. The water at LCR is still in the high 40s and the fish have not started to stage in the mouths of the creeks and coves. None that we caught showed any signs of getting into tuxedos. Things should improve a lot during the next few weeks.