Ice out - Finally!! + Berkley Gulp 2.5 inch minnows
Today I went down to Chautauqua lake and saw my favorite canal was ice free finally. I had other plans, but I pulled my pole out and took a cast under the bridge. Crappie on first cast!! weee!! Only 9.5 inches, but sure looked good. Next cast a perch then another and another and another till I had been standing in that spot for over 4 hours and my back was gettin sore and I was wearing the skin off my landing finger with a fish on just about every cast I made. Also got a little too much sun and to heck with whatever plans I had.
Got about 25 crappies all the same size and 80 or so perch, 1 smallie, 1 largemouth, 1 22 inch sucker(first one I've caught on a jig in that lake in over 30 yrs fishing there), some bluegill, and a 10 inch brown trout. (Only the 2nd or 3rd from the lake in the same time period.)
While I stood there I watched the lake go from about 80% ice coverage to almost nothing. It just all melted and drifted off down the lake and by dark the lake was totally clear from what I saw.
It was a satisfying and interesting afternoon.
One more thing. The other day I was in Erie and stopped by FishUSA National headquarters. They had just got in their first shipment of the new 2.5 inch Gulp Alive minnows, so I held my nose and bought a pack to see how they worked. I pulled em out while I was at the lake today and smacked pretty much everything on em. Figures after all the complaining I've dome about their cost. Turns out its a good bait, except for two things. They are soft and fall apart pretty quick for a plastic bait that expensive. After a couple fish its usually almost ready to fall off the hook, so I pinch the head off rehook it and can get a few more fish on it till something tears it off. Not very durable for sure, but it caught fish. Second thing. They say fish grab it and hold on, but most of the fish I could see hit it when I didn't set the hook just to see what they would do just spit it out and took off. No holding or rehitting because it tasted so awesome to them like the ads say. Maybe the scent makes them hit more initially along side the definite emerald shiner look of the minnow. I did also seem to catch more large fish with it than the panfish assassins I was using as well, but may be attributed to the fact that the minnows are twice as long as the assassins.
Aside from the price, durability issues, and not quite living up to their claims, the lure gets fish. Better than live minnows? - debatable. Better than other plastics? - also debatable. Will I buy more when this pack runs out? - Hmm... I will want to if my further use of them proves productive, but I will still hold my nose about the price. What it does give you is a very minnow like bait to use on regular jigs for casting. One last thing I found out. The Gulp Minnows in the packs are exactly the same as the bucket minnows. The only difference with the buckets is the bucket, number of baits, and more juice for the baits to "swim" in. *GRIZZ still grumbles about the price* Yes I recommend spending more money on rods and reels to get better stuff because I feel its worth the extra doe, but I hate being railroaded into paying too much for things that are not worth what they cost. If I spend my hard earned money on something premium, I expect something premium.