Air Temperature: 46 - 58
Surface Temperature: 60 - 63
Water Clarity: Clear on South end of the lake, slightly stained on north end.
Skies: Sunny
Wind: 10-20mph N, gusts up to 30mph
I headed out to my favorite lake, only to find that a large tree had fallen across the access road to the boat launch. After wasting about 20 minutes trying to find an alternate path to the water, I was unsuccessful and decided to try somewhere else. There's a small pond that's close by, I had never fished there before, and decided that I would give it a shot.
After rerigging a few rods, I was ready to paddle out. I started fishing some lily pad edges, that dropped off quickly towards 20' of water. I started out swimming a green pumpkin PanHead jig, with a motor oil pepper Monkey Grub trailer (both made by Lunker City) and quickly hooked up with a small bass. A few casts later, a pickerel broke me off. That was my last PanHead jig in green pumpkin, so I switched to Z-Man Chatterbait in the same color combination, and picked up right where I left off. It didn't take long to establish a pattern. The fish were holding on isolated patches of grass along the edge of the pads. I was using a slow-medium retrieve, and twitching my rod and pausing for a split second and then repeat. The fish were hitting on that slight pause.
Once the sun started to get high, the action slowed down. I started flipping a jig at some isolated cover. With the wind blowing so hard, I couldn't stay still long enough to be able to detect a strike. This was where the day went downhill. I made a cast off the deep weed edge with a 3/4oz jig, and I felt something on the other end, so I set the hook. Bad idea... I was immediately hung up on something. I paddled to the opposite side of the snag to try to dislodge it. Once I got to the far side, one of the many 30 mph gusts of wind pushed me the wrong direction, as my rod doubled over, I frantically tried to push the release button on my reel, but it was too late. My rod snapped right in half. On the bright side, I got my jig back.
There were a few brief periods where the wind would die down to almost nothing, so I used the opportunity to throw a wacky rig around the lily pad edges, and was rewarded with a few more fish.
Although I didn't get any big fish, most were between 1 and 2 lbs, I was still happy with the result. Having never fished here before, I didn't know what to expect, but I quickly established a pattern, and was able to set some hooks. Given the conditions for today, I think I would have been satisfied just catching anything.
Total for the day: 13 Bass, 2 Pickerel
Pan Head Jig: 1 Bass
Chatterbait: 10 Bass 1 Pickerel
Wacky Rig: 2 Bass 1 Pickerel
This color combination is perfect when trying to imitate bluegill. The tail of the grub glows a neon/chartreuse color when the sun hits it, and it closely resembles the tail of a sunfish.
