Summer's over....lol

It appears that the "all good things must come to an end" idea has finally hit home here. 40 degrees and a real rain this morning. Both of these are something we haven't seen much of in the last Month and a half. Of course the rain has come along in the company of wind, like we need any of that element.

For a northern tier state, all this heat has put temps in the water that neither the fish or the fisherman are accustomed to and that has been creating some concerns with a younger generation about how this will affect the crappie/sunfish spawning. Being an old goat my predictions were always that some natural stumbling block would come along and throw a chink in the worries of the concerned youth. lol. Here it is.... a mighty three-fold attack by the trio of water-temp busters. I doesn't appear that this glitch is going to have very long teeth though, given last night's future cast for the weather.

I do have to say though, that this spring's weather provided me we a couple of absolutely cherry weeks of crappie fishing. I hit my favorite pond 2 days after ice out, which in actuality is about three weeks later than usual, but then the ice out was three weeks ahead of time. I guess I broke even. Two days missed would have blanked me because my usual ice out, or near ice out, fishing compadre and dock owner was fishing his dock three times a day up until the ice went south and those two days until I came along. My first cast of the season put fresh fish in my keep-bag.The next 7 trips out to the dock have been stellar, showing me both numbers and size quality every single trip. Last Weds the lake began to rise during the annual spring up-draw to get it to summer pool level. Thursday's fishing wasn't what Weds gave us yet it was still quality fishing. On Thursday we noted the warmth of the water and thus the concerns began. This rain is cold...based on my going to the mailbox and getting soaked in the process. An east wind of about 30mph is moving the air-borne water sideways and this 40 degree air temp crap is not at all appreciated.

I knew yesterday that Mother Nature was going to deal us a blow.... aches and pains associated with age were hounding me all day and even my mental acuity was off the mark. So this change is good for something. The aches and pains have blown well into South Dakota by now and I am feeling as sharp as a tack. I think while things are on the up and up I'll go sit at the shooting table and make some plastics. Weaher changes are quick to happen up here and I don't want to get caught when another comes alone, especially when I working with hot plastic. Too wet, too windy, too cold to fish for this old bird so playing inside is the prudent thing to do today. I can see from the window that my tomorrow will be spent getting the yard mowed. Imagine...having to mow a yard in Minnesota in March.

Here's hoping your lawn mower starts as well as mine did. First pull. I suppose I should sharpen the blades though. The hedge needs trimming, too, and the roses and the wild grape that is smoothering the back fence. And a pile of brush to run through the chipper. In the yard this week for sure, provided the rain clears off enough. Then I'll be ready for April and planting potatoes on Good Friday. Still need to put in a few radishes and some lettuce though.

I am enjoying the blooming magnolias all over Minneapolis, and the first of the ornamental plums, just so my peach blossoms don't get nipped yet before it really gets to be summer... They are about ready to pop.

Fishing should recover from this cold snap by the end of the week, too.

luck and sharp hooks to you, and some more warm weather to soften the aches a bit wouldn't hurt much either. I definitely know what you mean by that.

dutch

The day started out bright but real windy but by 4:30 when we got on the water, it was overcast, chilly and still windy. On the way back in along the shoreline, a couple of guys said they had caught a couple. No fast bite, but that still told us the crappies were still up. We went to the back of the bay where we left off last time, but it was a dead sea. We moved up along the shoreline a bit and started to hunt. Eventually we found fish, but they didn't want a retrieve of any kind. The first came from letting the jig lay on the bottom and then just reeling up enough slack to give it a twitch. I had gone down in size hook on the 32nd oz jig to a size 8 and downsized the tail to a pearl inch and a half Southern Pro stinger. That took a couple putting us on the spot, but I kept hanging up, losing my jig and having to retie even with the smaller hook. There was enough wind that line control was pretty miserable. My buddy put out a small bobber about 3 feet over a 2 1/4 inch tail and started getting some real soft bite and catching some crappies. I followed suit with a 2" Galand Baby Shad. We let the wind move the bobber over the surface only reeling about enough to keep contact with the bobber and ended up releasing something like 2 or 3 dozen small to medium crappies over the next couple of hours. Tonight they did not want any kind of horizontal retrieve. The bite was so light that even the tiny bobbers were not taken under. We got so that we set the hook on any kind of extra pressure on the line when the bobers just looked to be acting a little strange. Only one sunny and no sunny nibble at all this evening and no bonus fish, except for one 3" largemouth that must be so stupid that it will never grow up...

Interestingly we found the fish on one presentation, but caught most of the rest on quite a different one, using the larger size of tails. For all that fronts are moving through including a real drop in temperature, the crappies were still up shallow, although not as shallow as the last time we were out when the weather was much warmer.

Nothing fast this evening and we had to work pretty hard for our crappies, nothing big either, but the numbers were satisfying despite the weather, once we found them. It was a really soft bite this evening, too, even for crappies and there was just too much wind for a waggler float, and they still wanted a dead slow, essentially stop, presentation.

We followed our normal practise and released everything, which is what allowed the numbers.

Good story no 1 thanks for the report. Do you fish from the bank? Sounds like you caught plenty...

I teamed up with my fishing partner the better part of a decade ago. We fish totally on foot year around, banks (true shoreline) lake retaining walls and public fishing docks during open water and on the ice once it is fit. One or the other of us is on the water nearly every day of the year, if it is at all fit someplace or other, generally when we are together it is after work, since he works weekdays and I work weekends, for outings of maybe 2 to 4 hours at a time. We have developed a very effective teamwork system involving quite a variety of presentations and one or the other of us is regularly introducing a new twist, technique, or offering. We either get on fish quickly or we change out presentations, colors or tails, or we move. Since there is street parking convenient to all kinds of fishing opportunities here in the Twin Cities moving is easy and relatively quick; so we will move at a drop of the hat. We have also developed kits that are quite extensive in variety but easily fit in a shoulder bag; so what we carry can be easily relocated in a single, relatively light load. Fishing UL reduces the weight and volume of that kit dramatically.

We fish exclusively catch and release which releases us from bag limits; so we get to try out new things on strong bites when we know we have concentrations of crappie to play with. Some work, some don't. No question whatsoever that teamwork is an important part of what success we enjoy.

Shoreline fishing in our metro offers convenient access to perhaps hundreds of potentially productive locations for crappie fishing and a very important ease in movement between them. We normally park somewhere on the street generally with only a relatively short walk to the water. We work between dozens of locations and have only just begun to scratch the surface here in the Twin Cities.

We do okay.

That sounds like fun, and sounds like you guys enjoy it together...Thanks, and Good Luck...