Pattaconk Lake 5/3 & 5/4/2014 Anchors Away!

5/3/14- Got on the water a little bit after 8:00.  The air was in the low 50's, water temp ranged from 55-61 throughout the day, with about 7-8 ft of visiblity, the sun was bright and not a cloud to be found to begin the day.  I have only fished Pattaconk one other time and didn't have any luck.  Of course that was from shore, so I didn't know what to expect in the kayak.  I began working the edges of a large flat with a crankbait, but to no avail.  I moved in a little closer to the bank and began pitching a jig at some fallen trees.  Still nothing.

I then moved to the sunny side of the lake, hoping that the water would be a little warmer. I tried working a drop shot on the outside weed line, but the wind kept pushing me away from my target.  Not having an anchor makes dropshotting an extremely difficult task when it's windy.  I quickly gave up on that and moved further up hoping to find some bass shallow.  With the wind blowing steady, I figured I could throw a spinnerbait.  So I tied on a 9/16 oz Booyah! bluegill colored spinnerbait with tandem willow blades.  I chucked it into a small alcove, and as soon as it hit the water, a fish nailed it.  It wasn't big, but it was a fish.  I continued working the same edge,  and landed a pickerel a little ways down. I paddled back up to where I caught the bass, and casted in the same general area, and same thing.  As soon as it hit the water, fish on.  This was the last of the action for the day.

These were the two fish.  Both males moving up shallow to stage beds.  I was marking some larger fish on the weed lines outside of these shallow areas,  I'm guessing those were the females waiting for the males to get everything ready for them so they could... well... ya know.

5/4/14- I decided to hit Pattaconk again, this time taking my brother Josh with me.  The air was 53, water again, was ranging between 55-61, and it was windy.  VERY windy.  Good thing we both had acquired anchors.  On the water about 6:15, we started out in the exact same manner as the day before.  Eventually moving back to the extreme shallow areas, I threw the same spinnerbait, and again as soon as it hit the water, fish on.  Again it was a dinky bass.  I did this one more time, and caught another.  Josh was on the other side of the lake, and from what I could tell, did not look very pleased.  Once we rendezvoused, out of the wind, I found out why.  The anchor that he had just purchased a few days prior, had been swallowed up by the depths of Pattaconk Lake.  At this point we decided to call it quits, the wind was just getting to be too much.