Thread: Tough conditions today, 4-21

After last weeks heat wave, we had the wood stove back on for a few days earlier this week. Today we made it back up to 70 degrees and I said "that's fishing weather"! Got a late start, didn't get launched and set up until about 5:15. Air temp at 69, water temp between 56 and 58. 1st fish in the boat about 5:16, didn't even get the second line in the water before the first one curled over sharply. A nice bluegill to start the trip.



That's about an 8" fish and would be the largest of the night for quite a while. Wind was tough once again, I trolled up the lake getting pushed around quite a bit by it, boat control was difficult. Wind was from the ESE at the start of my trip and ended up from the NE by the end of the trip.
I soon decided to move over to a protected cove and so some casting around in the calm, shallow water of 2-8' deep or so. A couple of small bluegill came quickly and then a cast about 3' off shore resulted in this nice bass.

Not a great picture but he was pushing 18" and maybe 2 1/2 pounds or a bit better. Solid, healthy fish that gave me a good tussle. The first crappie of the night followed not too long after, maybe 10". If you look closely under the gills you may see a bit of spawning colors starting on this one.


A few smaller bass and quite a few average 'gills would be pulled from the shallows but I was looking some bigger specimens. I headed out to the deep water again and found a lot of schools suspended at 15-20' over the deepest holes of 30-35'. They weren't hard biters but I managed 3 bigger bluegills of near 9". Gotta remember the stick next time.
Temperature was dropping fast and I was getting chilly so headed in toward the beach and landed the last fish of the night, my best crappie of the season of about 12". Got him on the troll in about 15' of water.


I called it a night right at 7:30 with the air temp down to 56 and the wind still blowing.
Totals for the night would be the 2 crappie, the one big bass and 4 smaller ones, 1 big perch of about 12" from the deep open water and probably 20 'gills of various sizes. I'd call that a darn good trip for this early in the season in these parts.

Great to see your early season catches 6poundtest!