Humble Pie

NumenOn the Water

Date:  5-22-16

Body of Water:  Reeds Lake

Boat:  Numenon

With:  Alone

Target: LMB

Time:  6 AM - 10:15 AM

Conditions:  Clear, mild easterly wind, water clear and 63 degrees F +/-

I started the morning with some cranking on the edge of the main off-shore hump with a Rapala DT3.  After a half hour of nothing, and with visibility into the water improving with the increasing daylight, I hit some new weed lines.  The senko hula swim bait turned nothing, but the weedless swim jig caught a small buck.  Between blind casts, I would scout any visible or bedding bass, but these consistently had no interest in eating my offerings (which also included the wacky senko and a double-tailed hula grub on a football head, too.)  The bass could certainly see these baits.  Some were simply ignored, some were watched with keen interest, and some were actively avoided; each in about equal proportions.

These sightings included many fine bass, so I dedicated myself to working these as hard as possible.  I worked one bass for a dozen casts or so.  He nosed the grub a couple of times, but never opened his mouth, and that seemed as close to success as I might get.

A near-keeper ate the senko, but it was getting pretty crowded here.  The least pressured fish were offshore, so I returned to the hump, this time armed with a chatter bait.  Working the hump's top and edges, I saw no fish, but I did catch another near-keeper from the hump's western point.

I made a quick milk-run of isolated beds that I'd seen the day before.  I figured I'd continue to try the hula grub on these fish while scouting the areas with the senko.  I suffered a few more rejections, but for some unknown reason a single guarding bass gulped the jig down, and I'd finally caught a legal-sized bass for the day; let's say one bass, two-plus pounds for the day's efforts.

What do I have to say about this?

The most unfortunate aspect of maintaining an open diary of one's modest fishing exploits is reporting on a day like this.  It was a fine day, just not as fine as I would like.  With four bass in four hours on four different presentations, having seen dozens of nice bass, I think one can safely conclude that the bass were simply "off".  They certainly were distracted.  

Meanwhile, our first summer-like weather of the season has arrived.  With lots of stuff going on in life, it might be a bit before I can get back out there.  I'm thinking at least some of the bass will be done spawning by then, and perhaps I can get a reliable bite (dare I think topwater?) going.  And muskies should be hitting their stride right now, too.

Blind Casting

NumenOn the Water

Date:  5-21-16

Body of Water:  Reeds Lake

Boat:  Numenon

With:  Mostly alone, but A and M visited for a bit

Target:  LMB

Time: 6:15 AM - Noon

Conditions:  Day of full moon; calm to slight NE wind; 55 - 70 degrees F; water very clear and 63 F +/-

What a difference a few weeks makes!  The lake was now crystal clear, warmer than I've encountered yet this year and the milfoil (as well as filamentous algae) was in full bloom.  Because of the warming water and the full moon conditions, I expected some bass to be selecting sites and mates, and at least a share of the bass were doing just that.  Conditions had clearly evolved from pre-spawn to the verge of spawning.

I started along the weed edges, but when the War Pig produced only a small pike, I hit the shallows in the vicinity of my best pre-spawn bites in search of visible fish.  I found some right away, too.  The bass weren't exactly bedding yet, but they were preparing and patrolling their chosen clearings within the weeds.  A few were stuck on objects, and a few pair were even spawning in the very shallows near the shoreline (these pairings seemed to be smaller fish, in general.)  Crappies were everywhere in the shallows, and I saw plenty of perch and 'gills, too.

I was repeatedly rejected with tubes and a drop-shot by visible, territorial bass.  I got my first good bite of the day on a blind-casted senko (wacky rigged; and it wasn't exactly blind-casted; I was searching the same depth and color changes where I was seeing multiple bass), and as I fought her to the boat, she was followed by her potential mate.  She was close to three pounds, and I thought I might be on to something; but for the most part, I continued to get rejected by visible bass, while the blind search for other biters was slow.

My next bite on the senko was a similar-sized fish, perhaps 45 minutes later.  This fish, too, was followed by a mate; perhaps I needed to focus on paired or grouped fish.  The big singles were impossible to ignore, though, and ate away at my time.

A and M came out for a bit.  We shared some coffee, breakfast and the aquarium-like conditions.  I switched over to pan-fishing just to make sure it would work for the girls and caught a nice, 10-inch crappie on a suspended, homemade pink hair jig.  But even this bite was slow (some wax worms would have made a difference, I suspect.)    I did catch a small, buck bass on the senko before they called it quits, though.

I dropped the girls off at the dock and went to the sunken hump in the middle of the lake.  I thought it might be too early for this structure to produce (the bass spawn here later than along shore), and I covered a lot of water with swim jigs, War Pigs and jerk baits.  I saw just a few fish, but they were all nice quality.  Ultimately I went back to the senko, but I lost the one bite I had here.  Too bad, too, because it seemed like a very heavy fish.

At this point I was pretty much committed to the senko (although I did catch another small pike on a crappie-sized swim bait; this was a nice tussle on the ultra-light tackle.)  The wind was picking up a bit and the visibility wasn't as good; seeing fewer fish, I spent more time making educated but blind casts.  My last bite of the day was a four pound bass from a washout hole at the end of a private dock; once again, this bass was paired with another.  I ended my day with three keepers weighing about 9.5 pounds.  I was well on my way to another nice limit, but the pace of bites was just too slow to keep me out there any longer.

What do I have to say about this?

I'm neither good nor experienced at fishing for largemouth bass on the verge of spawning.  But the day stayed warm, and the moon is full; I plan to hit it again tomorrow morning.  I think there will be more bass shallow, these bass could be more committed to each other, and perhaps they'll be more aggressive in defending their turf.  I've tied on a couple of different swim baits and grubs, and maybe I can get some more bites tomorrow.  I've got several groups of nice fish located; let's see if I can convince more of them to eat!

LSC 2016.2

NumenOn the Water

Date:  5-11-16

Body of Water:  Lake St. Clair

Boat:  Numenon

With:  B and WL

Target:  Smallmouth Bass

Time:  9 AM - 3:30 PM

Conditions:  Started overcast with easterly winds to 10 mph, but cleared and calmed in the afternoon.  Air temperatures from 55 to 65 degrees F.  Water ranged from muddy and 56 F at the Mile Roads to stained and 55 F at the Edsel Ford House to clear and 49 F at the mouth of Big Muskamoot Bay (Old Channel area.)

This was a Charity Fishing event.  The father-son team of B and WL had donated some cash to local school causes, and I donated the day, gear and gas to share a smallmouth adventure on Lake St. Clair.  After last week's successful scouting, I was ready to go!

I had some mild concerns about water clarity/conditions based on the preceding day's winds.  But these were mild concerns, because it's a big lake with lots of options and my best fishing is still several hundred yards offshore, even when the bite is relatively shallow.

We ran down to the Edsel Ford House and found just a few boats working the area.  The water here was stained, but still had a few feet of clarity, and was 55 - 56 F.  It offered some promise, but I did wonder where everybody was.  We started fishing and within 15 minutes B landed the first smallie, a smallish keeper that hid a fire tiger, medium diver crank bait.  This was a good start, so we kept plugging away, and W caught his first bass on a pumpkin green Yamamota hula grub.  Meanwhile, I continued jerking and rattling up front, searching for that congregation of aggressive bass.  We didn't find anything else here, so after an hour we relocated to the Mile Roads area.  There were very few boats here, and the visibility was much reduced.  B caught a nice, had-fighting drum, but I didn't like this combination of conditions, and so I offered three choices.  Back to Edsel to grind it out; go farther south, where conditions were unknown; or across the lake, upwind, to the Old Channel area where I suspected the water would be clear and I had caught a couple of smaller fish the week before.

B was up for adventure, so we ran across the lake.  We observed the water getting clearer, calmer and cooler as we crossed, and conditions seemed much improved as we started to fish near the westernmost old lighthouse.  I caught my first fish of the day, a two-pounder, on a white X-Rap jerk bait, but that was it, here.  The eastern lighthouse provided a pair of twin bass on this same bait and a missed fish for W.

And then we started exploring.  We fished various breaks and flats.  The water was clear and about 50 F, so we kept moving, looking for visible or biting fish.  It just didn't happen!  We moved into shore along a very prominent break wall and fished that.  Despite the increased depth and sun absorption, the bass hadn't yet found this area!  

We fished our way around and into the Old Club harbor.  I'd never do this between Memorial and Labor Day, but it was deserted on this day.  It very much reminded me of the various marinas and developments on Muskegon Lake, where one can make hay on early season bass.  This harbor was connected to extensive flats on the west and the St. Clair River on the east, and featured bottlenecks to concentrate fish and room for them to make themselves home, too.  But all we got own here was a couple of pike. The first ate W's grub, the second ate my shad X-Rap.  Mine was small, but W's was a nice 30-incher, and at first we all thought he had a dandy bass.  These were the first LSC pike I've encountered and they were beautifully colored with distinct yellow spots.

We hit a couple of prominent rock piles on our way in (W wanted to beat the worst of the traffic), but came back in with the day's catch stuck on just five bass (for perhaps 7-8 pounds with one questionable "keeper"), two pike and the hard-fighting drum.  Kind of a slow day for LSC, but I'm still learning, I saw some new water, and it really was pleasant in the main.

What do I have to say about this?
I think water visibility was our greatest nemesis, but it's possible things were just "off", too.  B and W were willing to accept the slow bite as just fishing, but of course I wanted more for all of us.  We all might have felt a little better when a boat from West Virginia reported at the ramp that although they had caught 82 bass on Monday, their catch for this day was only four bass.  We all knew now that LSC was not at her best on this day, and I may have learned to try to avoid hard easterly winds, at least for this western shoreline area.

B and I road together on the way home and got to know more about each other.  He's clearly a good guy, and I invited him and W aboard, pretty much any time.  We talked about possible plans for future trips, and I know that we will be back at it!

B scored first.  He will score again!

C Lake

NumenOn the Water

Date:  5-8-16

Body of Water:  C Lake

Boat:  Numenon

With:  Alone

Target:  Muskellunge

Time:  6:45 AM - 9:30 AM

Conditions:  Clear and quiet; 50-60 degrees F; winds calm to inconsequential; water stained brown and 58-60 F

I was first on the water and enjoyed a quiet morning throwing bucktail spinners, jerk baits and a small Medussa along the weed line and over the weeds.  Crispy pond-leaf and musk grass were both green and abundant, but I encountered no fish.

What do I have to say about this?

It's always worth a shot to go muskie fishing, but unfortunately, this lake proved to be no more generous than M Lake the day before.  That's okay, though, because the day's quiet and subtle sunrise, as well as the entire weekend's abundant deer, turkeys, cranes, turtles and muskrats made the time on the water more than enjoyable.  Plus, I have to get back into Muskie Shape!  My back, neck, shoulders and hands are pretty sore after throwing the big stuff for the first few hours of the season.

Five Minute Muskie

NumenOn the Water

Date:  5-7-2016

Body of Water:  M Lake

Boat:  Numenon

With:  Alone

Target:  Muskellunge

Time:  9:30 AM - 1 PM

Conditions:  Cloudy but clearing with increasing NNW winds to over 15 mph; temperatures of 60-70 degrees F.  Water was green but clear to very clear and 57 - 59 F.

I started my Muskie Season by throwing bucktail spinners, twitch baits, gliders and rattle baits along the abundant weed lines of my favorite local Muskie Lake.  Just five minutes or less into the session, I saw a nice, mid-40's fish in about 6 feet of water with its head tucked into the weeds.  It was unresponsive to any lure nearby, but she was big enough to look for later in the session, too.  Although I did not find her again, I did see another, smaller fish in a very similar position near the end of my day's fishing.  Once again, this fish showed no interest in my bait, and I've no evidence that I moved another fish all day.

The fish were clearly weary from the spawn, and there were plenty of people out there trying for them!

What do I have to say about this?

Somehow this has become my relaxing fishing, while pursuing bass has become more serious.  This was an enjoyable session with lots of birds and turtles, and a minimal number of pleasure boaters.  Plenty of fishermen, yes!, but the pleasure folks weren't out in any number.

LSC 2016.1

NumenOn the Water

Date:  5-3-2016

Body of Water:  Lake St. Clair

Boat:  Numenon

With:  Alone

Target:  Smallmouth Bass

Time:  7:30 AM - 3:30 PM

Conditions:  Nice gentle day; started overcast but cleared; winds calm to less than 10 mph, generally SE; air temps 45 - 65 degrees F; water temps 48 to 52, but generally about 50 degrees F.  Some mild stain to water in areas, but very clear elsewhere.

I suspected I would start in the area of my previous success, but this wasn't based on any real Intel so much as the knowledge that the bass were certainly pre-spawn, and they were known to spawn in the area off the "Mile Roads" on the lake's west side.  There's no better search bait for smallies than a jerk bait, so that was my probable starting point.  As an added bonus, this combination of conditions and plans just felt pretty good; I was confident that I'd find some quality smallmouths over the course of the day. To have these plans verbally validated by a couple of Ohioans with a tricked-out Ranger bass boat in the parking lot just increased my confidence.  They'd  reportedly caught them pretty good the day before; they added the need for clear water, too.

I stopped at the community hole where I'd done well last year (around 12 Mile Road in less than 11 feet of water) and I was fishing before 8 AM.  I started with a Berkley Fire Stick, but I worked in rattle baits and cranks, too, as I searched for that first strike or bass sighting of the day.  But it proved to be slow going for me and the other 20 boats in the general area.  After an hour and with nothing to loose, I decided to scout for new water.  I'd selected a specific spot based on my GPS mapping.   This was really just a noted indentation in the break line at the depth of interest, and I was somewhat surprised to find another couple of dozen boats in the immediate vicinity of Ford's Cove.

As the boats milled around in the area from maybe 3 to 12 feet of water, I noted a few surreptitious hookups.  These folks were using apparent finesse tactics, and they were doing everything they could to not attract attention to themselves or their bass.  I made a switch from power to finest and pick up my rig with a black-over-blue hair jigs.  Working a barely visible color edge in about seven feet of water, a fish flashed as it sucked in my bucktail.  I set the hook and the rod loaded with a heavy fish.  It was just a drum, and the water was too cold for it really fight that well, but it was big; it was the first fish of the day; and I had finally caught a fish on one of my precious hair jigs.  Things were looking up!

This drum was the first to stretch my line.  It provided a fine visual strike on my black-over-blue bucktail jig.

Shortly thereafter, I saw my parking lot friends jerk-baiting in slightly deeper water (perhaps 9 feet), and one of them hooked up with a nice bass.  I switched back over to jerking, and after a few casts decided to go with a silver and pink X-Rap.  I'd been throwing darker and more natural jerks so far and I thought maybe this change would wake them up!

Maybe it did,or perhaps it was the day's clouds finally burning off, but within a half dozen casts, at about 10:45 AM, I got hit and a solid 2-pounder came aboard.  For the next half hour, I was repeatedly rewarded for applying my new formula; long cast, wind it down, three short jerks pause; two or jerks and a long pause.  Repeat if you have the chance, but expect to get hit on that second, long pause!

The day was looking brighter and this second bass was simply beautiful!

Things just continued to get better...

... and better!

I wish the lighting were better for this golden butterball of a bass.

These fish were certainly worth the drive!  With an average weight over three pounds, and a couple over four to probably five pounds, I quickly put together a fine virtual limit estimated at 17 or 18 pounds.

I was now the area's Hot Stick, and folks were edging in from all sides.  After photographing and releasing the last, biggest bass, I could tell that my sweet spot in 10 or 11 feet of water was being covered by others.  I edged off and continued to search for another group of bass, and when I didn't find any after 20 minutes or so, I decided to eat lunch while making a run to new, uncrowded water.

Well, I ran away from the best fish that I had found.  I did catch a few others to 2.5 pounds or so (green pumpkin tubes and Ned presented in precise spots got bit, while I searched for active bass with the X-Rap), but mostly I ended up eliminating water for the next trip; I know where to concentrate my efforts in the short- to mid-term on this lake.

What do I have to say about this?

One certainly can't complain with such nice fish, even if you allow yourself to lose contact with them, and a veritable limit of 17+ pounds is a good catch for me, anytime.  Plus, I completed my final Bass Goal of the season with that biggest smallie, which I believe to be the biggest ever aboard Numenon.  Finally, with my primary scouting mission successfully accomplished, I'm feeling good about the prospects for success next week.