Good day in 48 degree water
Thank God fish are cold blooded! Normally I post some examples of my catches with lures used. But today was mostly one of discovery. I'm relearning a lake I've fished for over 25 years and thought I knew like the back of my foot. Sonar provided answers such as the depth fish were caught and structure in the middle of the lake I never knew existed until today.
I found a few patterns: one where you pitch a jig & plastic into pad pockets in shallow water less than 5' deep. Too much trouble so I went to plan B: fish channels between pad groups in deeper water - in this case 6.5'. Crappie were very aggressive slamming a range of soft plastic designs rigged on 1/24 oz jigs. They ranged in size from 9-11" and most were 10". Y. perch as usual were small except one the measured 10" and a few bass. 40 fish in 48 degree water. Brrrrr!
I also wanted to see if fluorocarbon would do as well as braid for pitching and short casting very light lures. It did great.
As I was motoring back toward the launch over 1 mile away, I came upon three humps in the middle of nowhere. I put buoy markers on all three and will fish them tomorrow seeing as how nice the weather will be. Hopefully my new 2.5 hp 4-stroke motor will do as well as today. It stalled 70 yds from the launch and I had to row back after trying to restart 5x. (Didn't take the trolling motor seeing as how I would be fishing mostly in the weeds.)
After 4 days of bitter cold nights (mid 20's) and windy 48 degree days, today was pure pleasure. Calm and/or a light breeze and sunny made rowing much easier.
