Haven: First of the Season

Just wanted to work out the cob webs and see if I could get back in the full swing. Went out to Haven and threw a crank and spinner, but to no avail. Funny because the day before i was just up the road at Griffith sinking structure around the lake, the air temp got into the 70's and I know the shallows had to have heated up to the high 50's at least. Next thing I see is bass running around in the shallows like it's recess at the local elementary school. Back to haven, the day was for sure not the same as the day prior. A little windy, the night before had fallen into the low low 40's and snow melt runoff flowing like a river into the lake all week long. The temp that day got up into the 60's by 12:30 PM, but I just could not coax a bite. I think I cranked the paint off a Rapala DT6 in Fire tiger and spun the blades off a Strike King Perfect Skirt in blue and white. We started at a relatively shallow flat that made up the mouth of a creek coming into the main body. Water temps in the morning read 49.7 and by 1:00 PM the temp rose up by 2 tenths of a degree. Didn't matter... Not even the pickerel were willing to give my Strike King a try. Hard to tell what it was that locked up the fish, but between the pressure already mounted on the place, snow melt cooling down the water and a high pressure system rolling through, I'm guessing the fish were more like rocks at the bottom than, well, fish. And we all know that rocks won't bite a hook.

Winter's Last Stand

It's snowing like crazy right now and I was just saying yesterday that I thought spring was on it's way. Just as the first day of March rolls in, it's demeanor thus far expresses unkind intentions for this year. I am glad made the decision to force a fishing trip yesterday. I spun off the cover to the boat, loaded up the gear I took out for the winter, hooked up and took off for the Seaford boat ramp at the Nanny. (Nanticoke for those of you who don't know the slang) As soon as I launched, I fired up the big motor and headed up river to find some skinny water with good structure. The water temp was cold at 44 degrees, tide was way out and and still running out with the wind. All the spatter dock is still dead and has not even started to punch through the mud yet. Motoring up into some clear looking water I grabbed my G Loomis spinnerbait rod and tied on a Booyah spinnerbait with a gold and silver blade and a white skirt with a little chartreuse in it. Before I started throwing that, I also tied a green jig on my flipp'n rod and started putting it right in the bottoms of cover near deep banks. No takers there. I swam the spinnerbait across the cover a couple times and then fan casted more out toward the deeper water in the center. After repeating this in about three different places all in line with each other, I picked off a nice 4.5 - 5 pound fish, slamming my spinnerbait in about 5 feet of water. After that, the air temp was steady falling every 30 minutes and I could tell the ride back would be hell. Overall it took me about 35 minutes of fishing to catch a fish worthy of some notoriety. I picked the right place to go, and I am confident that I could have filled a limit in that area. The thought that I am learning the Nanticoke is a delighting prospect. I had a hard time with it last year and I thought i would never get it. The tide kills me every time. Well I can say as sure as it is snowing right now, I will be a force this year on the Nanny. As soon as this crappy winter takes a hike that is.

I Made It To the Classic

I wish I did as an angler. Last week I attended the 2009 Bassmaster Classic in Shreveport/Bossier City, LA with an invite as the DE B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Conservation Director. What a blast! I flew down the Thursday prior and got settled in my room. Later that evening, the coordinator put on a Texas Hold'em poker tournament. Had a great time with that. During the mornings we would have our conservation workshops, designed to help us along with the projects we encounter in our individual states. B.A.S.S. provided lunch each day and bused us all over to the huge fishing expo at the convention center. Then the bus would come grab us from the expo and run us over to the Century Tel to witness the weigh-in. After the weigh-in we would return to the hotel where any number of activities would be taking place. Dinner, drinks, pros, fishing talk or just chilling out in your room watching TV if it was a big day. Everyday was a big day. Day 2 weigh-in I was back stage, handling the fish as they got weighed in and sent to the tank truck to be released. Pretty sweet. Then back at the hotel, who shows up? Jason Quinn, my favorite angler on the Elite series tour! We just chilled out up in the hospitality room sipp'n on some Evan Williams Single Barrel. The whole trip was almost surreal. i could hardly believe I was seeing all the huge names in fishing right in front of my face, shaking their hands and even hanging out with them.

One of the things that gets me, is how much of a big commercial the whole thing is. Everywhere you see the logos of any one of numerous vendors trying to pound the image of their logo into your head like a subliminal message. I can't really say anything because I have my favorites. Ironically none of them have anything to so with my favorite angler. As you can see in the rest of my blog, I pick what catches fish. But one company that has be steadily consistent in producing for me is YUM. Just a me thing.

Some things I was able to learn from attending this event; a lot. I noticed these guys are constantly moving. Always swinging to promote their sponsors. It would seem like a life of sales... a traveling salesman that goes fishing to show you the product and wins money doing it. These guys are becoming more and more famous all the time. The sport of bass fishing gets more and more popular every year, and when I get there, I'm gonna be a star.

Coffee in the Morning, Tea at Night

Other than the prospect that I am headed to the Bassmaster Classic on Thursday, I am bursting at the seems to get out of cabin. The weather here can't seem to figure out what it wants to do. Last week we saw temps into the 60's on Saturday, and by Thursday the wind was blowing at 60 mph and it was like 39 degrees. I know with rising temps and sunny skies, the water warms up here around 5 to 8 degrees per day. So what are the fish doing? My guess is the temp rise has sent them into their pre-spawn locations and very soon, the males will move up onto the beds. When? I have not a clue. With the movement though, I can bet they are feeding on the nice days. I have the sneaking suspicion that there are guys out there right now catching fish even though the weather has thrown us a cold front. The temps are not in freezing range, so the water temps are probably not changing drastically. Like I mentioned before, I think they are reacting, but not like they do when water begins to freeze (moving deep). So come March in my next tournament, everything will have changed. I have a general idea of what I [should] look for. Having never fished a tournament during pre-spawn seasons puts me at a disadvantage to the other guys I am fishing against. Expanding on what I was speculating about earlier, I will have my best chances by knowing what is normal for the season and then making small adjustments during the tournament and sticking to it. There are too many changing variables to be able to keep track of. I will just have to get to the spot I have already chosen [in my mind where fish will be concentrated] and stick with it during the whole day. That way, I eliminate variables that will affect the rest of the Lake. I am thinking five bites will win this tournament.

I won't go into too much detail about what changes I am bringing to the water after the break this year. What I will say is that I have learned what my strong points are on different venues and what will catch fish at these places. I have taken that knowledge and modified to what others [I know] are not doing. I have always thought that spots should not be held as much of a secret as the lures they are throwing. If you are on pressured fish or as some will say "burned fish" you will want to be throwing something they have never seen before or have not seen in a long time. Because of that fact, I keep what I am throwing that day split up into 2 groups. The first group is my general population or "given baits". These are the lures that are usually among general knowledge to anglers, that they will catch fish. I will keep these presented on the deck of my boat in plain view. The other category are the "unpopular hots''. These are the lures that I have taken a chance with, and come up with excellent results. They are mainly unpopular or not a "fad lure" as I like to call your sexy shad lipless and similar lures currently taking the top of the charts in popularity. No. These are the lures that are selling like the movement of pond water ultimately translating into the fact that they are not being presented to fish. So in other words, there are a whole lot of fish out there that have not seen these lures. These are the ones that I tie on after I get out there and they get clipped off before I return for weigh-in. New for '09 bitches!!!

Changing Seasons

Okay I might be a little preemptive here, but the temps here have been... well... not freezing. So is spring (or at least the early stages) here? I know the bass have got to be active right now, trying to feed up for spawning. I was contemplating getting the boat out yesterday but this damn cold I caught is just kick'n my ass. I managed to spool up some line on a few of my rods. I spun on some of the new Stren Sonic Braid on my flipp'n rod so I am looking foward to see how improved Stren's new braided line is. Right now, the fish should be holding tight to deep structure at night and early day, then moving shallower when the sun hits and warms the water for a few hours. I would definatley have to say they are activly feeding the lakes where there are fish ladders, where anadromous bait fishes like alewife are migrating into freshwater systems to spawn. I'm not positive, but I would have to go down and look. In the river it's hard to say what these fish might be doing right now. I don't think it's really warm enough yet in the Nanticoke, but you never know. That place is as random as they come.

Day to Day

Well if you have read my other posts, you are up-to-date. So now I can pretty much just go day to day. I have been fighting a cold/caught that has been going around. You can never tell who you caught it from, since my wife had it, my son, people at work. I hoped I could perhaps escape it. NOT! Which sucks because I could be out there fishing right now. After that last cold snap, here we have a 62 degree day and I can't do anything. A wasted opportunity. I had a flat on the trailer so I took it off and dropped it of up at the tire shop. They fixed it, but I have not had a chance to go pick it up. Work is busy right now, I had Andrew by myself for most of this week as Amanda was in Florida. Then I started getting sick. I think it was right around Thursday and it just seems to linger. Oh well; I guess I can still get some stuff ready for spring, like my rods and bait boxes.

Club'n

So I recently joined a B.A.S.S. Federation Nation affiliated club. I signed up with the Eastern Shore Bassmasters back in September and so far, I enjoy it. At first it was a little intimidating because I was not sure just how I would stack up to the other guys' level of competitive fishing. I think I have held my own pretty well so far, finishing out the fall/winter portion of the tournament season in 4th place. Our tournaments will begin again in late March, but back to my start with the club. From the minute I was voted into the club, I knew it was for me. I got along great with our club president, Dave Perrego and the rest of the members. I actually had to fish with two of them before I could be voted on. The first was Jon White. Kind of a rough around the edges type of guy like myself, and you could tell he was the kid that did not have the type of upbringing that puts kids these days on a soft pillow of love and compassion, which gives them the wrong idea about the real world. No, this guy I can tell, had that tough love growing up and as a result, disappointment does not affect him as much as the majority of folks. Just like me. We fished together on my boat in a club tournament and caught zero. It was real tough fishing that day and needless to say we both thought it could have gone better, but neither one of us pitched a bitch fit about it. What's done is done... move on to the next tournament. I think the general attitude on the boat that day solidified a new friendship. The 2nd member I fished with was Toni Asti. A young kid (20 I think) that has his whole life ahead of him and he knows it. Goes to college, keeps up with meetings and a good angler as well. We met at McGinnes pond one day after work just to fish for fun and I had made the claim to him before that day, that McGinnes was almost always on. Well we must have hit it on one of those almost days because we had a nothing start. Keeping at it, Toni kept skipping his worm into and under covers to pull his first one off some USAV just out from the bank; a nice 2 pounder. Then, if I remember correctly, we headed out of the cove and he caught his second right in the middle of the mouth of the cove. Okay, now I'm getting worried. I trolled back into the very head of the creek arm and he switched to a frog and began to pull it across the mats of pads that filled the corner of the pond. I was flipping a YUM Gonzo Grub to the edges of the pads. Sure enough, one smacked his frog and he brought it to the boat. "I knew he was there" Tony said. "I could see the pads moving, and there's no wind". I ended the day with nothing and I am convinced that every time a new person comes on my boat for the first time, I will NOT catch fish that day. By now this story probably makes it sound like I never catch anything. I swear I do, but I am usually by myself. Well our outing was not a complete failure for me. Tony gave me some great info about the club. What to expect from the other members, meetings, tournaments and I made a new friend. I think putting Toni on fish could have influenced his vote to bring me in the club. What's that they say about first impressions? Just kidding. Toni, if you are reading this, you're a good guy, I look forward to our many fishing adventures that have yet to come. Keep up the good work in school and your head in the game. You are for sure going somewhere. I know you have not quite figured out what it is you are meant to do, but I assure you from my own experience in life that you don't pick it, it picks you. You'll know what it is when it comes. You may have to try a few different things in life to find out, but as long as you are doing the right thing by staying out of trouble, your calling will "call you".