Pleasant Surprise

The groundhog told us another 6 weeks of winter. After all that snow, this looked to be true. But here we are in early March and spring has sprung. The past week has been in the 50's and 60's with nights falling to around the mid 30's. Though that is cold, I see a trend working to the angler's favor here. That trend would be the warming type. Naysayers have told me that we'll dip back into the low 40's during the day later in the month, but I'm not buying it. This is an El Nino year and the same thing that gave us hell in the winter, will give us some bad ass fishing weather this spring and summer.

Was up at Bass Pro in Baltimore this past weekend with my dad. I could not help myself from purchasing some YUM money minnows. This off season I have been reading a lot of info on using swimbaits. Ya know; the when, where and how stuff. I have seen pretty good fish come on swimbaits and I would like to duplicate that this spring, before the spawn starts and I have to start throwing right at their faces.

I upgraded my jig arsenal by grabbing up a load of Explosive Tackle jigs in various natural and quasi natural colors. I love their Brown Shaka Brown color. It has an almost bronze glint to it that I think will make it contrast just enough with similar surrounding objects to collect a lot of attention. I had some other custom colors made that I'll be keeping secret until season's end. You can't expect me to divulge such information before I even have a chance to pound the scales with it, can you?

As I mentioned in another article about power vs. finesse fishing, I noted my lack of ability to perform the latter and how planned to remedy the shortfall. Enter Powell Rods. This west coast rod maker has already established it's self as a bass fishing mainstay in California and is peeking it's way into the Delmarva Peninsula angling public and could easily become a go-to brand all over the east coast, and for good reason. I have a sweet tooth for G Loomis rods. Understandable right? They are light and ultra ultra sensitive. They react nicely to the handler's direction so you can be precise with putting action on your lure and they are usually in the $250.00 range. Hold on, you just said $250.00! That is where G Loomis pales in comparison to Powell. The biggest number you will ever see on the price tag of a Powell rod... $170.00. And yes folks that also comes with all the cool accolades of the king Loomis. But if you like giving your money away for the sake of just a name, be my guest. But when I can feel that same hair drift past my line that you did, but at half the cost; don't whine like a biatch.