The rain finally ended and with an expected cold front, Walt & I were anxious to get out on the lake. To us, a cold front = windy conditions. Perfect for our brand of drift fishing. However, if I haven't learned my lesson by now - the weather folks are always only "partly" correct. They eagerly point to one area where everything came together as expected. I love weathermen.
Anyway, they predicted sunny skies, high pressure and winds out of the south at 10 - 15 mph. They did NOT say "when" those winds were going to occur! My bad. Walt & I launched around 7:40 am this morning. Air was 60 degrees with the water at 73 degrees. When we pulled off at 2 pm, the air had risen to the low 80's, as expected. Nice day!
Problem was, there was almost no wind until about 10 am.....then the wind was only sporadic with calm to gusts over 10 mph and from varying directions. Sometimes we'd be sailing along....other times stuck in a dead calm. This is why in the first 2 hrs. we only had 7 fish caught & released! Not good.
By the time 2 pm rolled around (our usual quitting time), we had boated & released 43 fish. Crappie were the main species, but followed by a strong second were the bluegills. Walt seemed to be really keyed in on those today. Some really nice ones too.
I went through a plethora of lures; from straight tails to creature styles, paddle tails and curly tails. When the wind was blowing, it didn't appear to matter much what you were drifting with or casting. They'd smack it hard and deep. Speed is the key factor. We even tried trolling; and we did catch a few that way. But we prefer drifting. (An old man's method!)
Here are some pictures of our fish today, starting with Walt and the best of the day:
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Now here's a few of mine:
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Walt is just a little photo-shy....but I'm working on him! We had a close fly-over with a bald eagle today as well, which was the pinnacle of the trip. Love those beautiful birds. This coming week doesn't look good for us.....a few doctor's appointments and such. May not be posting until the weekend. God Bless you all and "Tight Lines"! :)
