The New Power: Powesse

I used to always [like] to think of myself as a versatile angler who takes advantage of all the pros in all styles of fishing. It was not until this last season I realized I wasn't really taking advantage of anything most of the time. I guess I need to detail this a little to understand what I mean.

If you look at a bass angler that builds his/her style around "power", they are covering a lot of water in a relatively short period of time. Like KVD does with a spinnerbait. If you fish in a "finesse" inspired strategy, you are giving much more subtle presentations of your lure, much more accurate casts and usually spending a much higher amount of time between casts, thus covering less water but focusing tighter on one specific area. Most anglers I know will say that these are the two different personalities you will see in bass fishing. Both have their place in varying conditions. Some pros have become masters of both which has made them very dangerous weapons on tournament days. But what if you could harness the power of both and employ them simultaneously?

Power and finesse. Two styles on totally different sides of the fishing spectrum. That is until you fold the fabric of space and time and combine the two. Just use a finesse type lure and fish it faster right? Nope. Not what I had in mind. One of the things I have noticed when fishing with others in my circle is how much they miss and pass by when full out power fishing. It never fails. They are racing the tide trying to pluck as many bass as they can on a short time span of a low tide and they miss or just pass up a prime little nook because they are in a rush. How hard would it be to drop the crankbait and pick up the drop shot rig for one cast to that bush hanging in the water? Or of more concern, how much time would that take? I assure you the possibility of a keeper is well worth the 2 minutes. In my opinion anyway. I mean, so a crankbait didn't get you hooked up on that rock pile but if you run a tube through there it might make something move! You never know.

Sometimes there is such thing as being too focused and I think that this is the reason spots inside spots get left alone. Now let me be honest here; anytime i find those [spots inside spots] they are usually sub legal fish, but I do find them. So if I have only learned one lesson in meditation this off season, it's that a major key is to absorb all surroundings, be attentive to EVERYTHING and if you can't get the lure you are fishing into that cubby hole, you surely have another bait that will get in there. And I call that... Powesse fishing.

Water: It's Not Just For Fish

When water falls from the skies and stays on land, that means it's snowing. Otherwise it is rain and readily seeps into the ground or flows into available bodies of water. So what happens when you get about 5 inches of frozen rain? Answer, 2 or 3 feet of snow. Which as I mentioned before, does not go anywhere until it melts. Thus the situation here in Delaware and the surrounding area. Over the last week and a half we have accumulated the equivalent average of 36 inches of snow. All of you from around here know that this is NOT normal. The snowiest winter in recorded history for this area has occurred and of course in the following paragraphs of this article I will speculate how this could/can affect fishing this year.

Temperatures will not stay below 32 degrees all summer long. I can promise you that. Not even through spring. If you just thought of the word "melt", you know what I am getting at. All that snow will be melting at some point. How quickly is the important question. Worst case scenario: We get hit with yet another heavy to moderate snow before the temps start to rise for spring. This area is famous for rapidly changing seasons and temperature patterns. So following our frozen tundra like environment we get warm, heavy spring rains which rapidly melt the 36 inches of snow which blanketed the entire Delmarva peninsula and beyond. You would see flooding in ways one does not ever want to think about. This type of flood would devastate our Nanticoke fishery here in DE and in MD. Homes would be taken and bridges would be destroyed. All the stars would really have to align, but when you think about it; haven't they already?

Now the scenario I would prefer, though it would still slow down fishing, is none the less the least destructive. If the temperatures warm and cool for a period long enough to melt the snow gradually, we would see water temps staying cold for a much longer into the spring. This could put an arrest on spawning untill much later in the season than a more typical occurring spawn. I would also expect to see post spawn patterns be a little off as well. And when I say "off" that could go either way if you think about it. The fish are on a timer. They only have the length of the growing season to spawn, feed and grow fat to prepare for the cold winter. So in theory, if the fish know they are a little behind schedule because the water was a little late to warm up, they know that. It could cause a big blow up of activity after they finally do get to spit the eggs out. But Bob, the fish wouldn't know the difference if the water stays in winter mode for longer into spring right? No. That is incorrect. Anyone with seasonal depression knows that this syndrome runs on the great clock in the sky. The sun. So as the days get longer but the water temps stay cold enough from snow melt to put stop to spawning, believe me SON! The fish know it!

Let's all just hope and pray that the temporarily impassable roads are the worst we get from all this snow fall. I would really hate to see this come around to bite us in the rear later down the road with drastic consequence. This has happened in other parts of the country where it took years to rebuild top notch fisheries from terrible floods. Right now as the snow continues to mount, it's impossible to say how it will all go away but one sure bet is that it will. Let us just hope that when it does, it's in a calm manner.