Fishing with Kate

NumenOn the Water

Date:  3-18-16

Body of Water:  Reeds Lake

Boat:  Numenon

With:  Kate

Target:  Largemouth Bass

Time:  10 AM - 1:30 PM

Conditions:  Overcast but clearing; 36 to about 45 degrees F; NW winds < 15 mph; water was cloudy, high and 41-42 F

With Kate in the boat for the first time in quite a while, the goal for the day was to enjoy each other's company!  That goal was easily met, but of course I was doing my best to get her a fish (any fish) and to get myself the biggest bass possible.  I fell a little short on those, but they were distant secondary goals at best.

This is the first March with legalized bass fishing in Michigan, so other than my distant Rhode Island past, this was a New World to me.  With water temps in the low 40's, more wind than I'd like, reduced water visibility and no real chance for water temps to climb during the day, I reduced our arsenal to this: jerk baits, float and fly and shallow cranks for Kate; and hair jigs, jerks, cranks and rattle baits for me.  Hair jigs weren't used much because of the limited visibility, and I ended up throwing mostly jerk baits (shallower) and crank baits (deeper.)


I converted two hits into two pike, but never encountered a bass (to my knowledge.)  I know it could have happened, so that plus the enjoyable day were enough for me.  I also know that our timing was a little off (the weather was modestly ameliorating as we got off the lake), but we were home, clean and ready for a fun evening by the time the rest of the family arrived home.  We did things right!

First Casting Fish of 2016 was a small pike.

The Rapala Shadow Rap did its work.

A beautifully colored and fit pike

Pike No. 2 ate a Rapala No. 7 Tail Dancer.

Just off the spawn, this pike was skinny!

What do I have to say about this?

Other than not catching a 7-pound bass (or, indeed, any bass), it was a good day!  Kate enjoyed herself, she was warm and dry, and we relaxed together.  The only real issue of the day was a failed battery right at the ramp on our way home; and I'm pretty sure that was a loose connection as opposed to a function/reliability issue.  We'll find out next trip, but in the meantime I've got cables and an extra battery in Numenon, just in case.

Brownie

NumenOn the Water

Date:  3-13-16

Body of Water:  Lake Michigan, Pt. Sheldon

Boat:  Numenon

With:  Alone

Target: Brown Trout

Time:  8 AM - Noon

Conditions:  Overcast and rain showers; east wind about 15 mph; 45-48 degrees; water temperatures of 37 - 41 degrees F, but generally about 38 F

After a warm stretch and a couple of sunny days, it was time for Numenon's 2016 debut.  Of course a wet front was sliding through, so although I had the boat rigged with 8 rods and the mast and tethered boards ready to go, nobody chose to accompany me.    I launched, alone, into a steady drizzle that lasted all day.

I was mildly pleased to find 37-38 degree water along the north shoreline as this is at the lower end of the range where I can reasonably expect to encounter a brown, and as I set the second rod, I noticed my inside board slide back.  (I was now using in-line boards since I was alone.)  It didn't feel like much; but it was the first fish of the Open Water season, and it was the targeted species!  But at maybe 12 inches, it was possibly the smallest brown trout I've ever caught on Lake Michigan.  I let it go to grow, and given this fast start, expected some more action.

This fish had eaten an F9 Original Rapala in Brown Trout pattern.  The bait was trolled at about 2.2 mph and was in about 8 feet of water on the outside edge of the first or second sand bar when it was hit.

But four hours and 8 or 9 miles later, All spent in about 7 to 16 feet of water, I'd not had another bump.  There would be no trophies or gift fish by which to remember this trip.  I'll have to remember it as a quiet, problem-free start to a new season.  That's enough!

What do I have to say about this?

A quiet, problem-free start to the season is enough!  Good gear makes bad weather more tolerable, and I was only slightly damp around the edges when I went home for lunch.  I knew odds for memorable success were stacked against me with cold water and easterly winds.  Plus, the season is very young, and I may even have the chance to chase Browns again this season!  The last few have all been one-and-done for Browns, for me, and yet I love fishing for them so much.

First Cast 2016

NumenOn the Water

Date:  3-11-16

Body of Water:  Reeds Lake

Boat:  None, Shore

With:  Alone

Target: LMB

Time:  1 PM - 2 PM

Conditions:  Sunny and 50 F; dead calm; super clear water; day after ice out

Reeds Lake gave up her ice on March10, 2016, and on Friday, March 11 I found myself at my work desk, but without a vehicle and looking for a ride home later that day.  I ended up with two choices; one a bit after my regular work time, and one at Noon.  My first inclination was to work all day and take the later ride, but it was, after all, Friday.  It was also so sunny and calm, and I haven't yet made a cast in 2016, and I'd tied all those hair jigs all winter, and a couple of rods were already rigged, and in the end, it was a foregone conclusion that I'd leave work early and at least make a few casts.

I fished from shore because the docks are not yet in and I had no partner help launch Numenon.  That was OK, though, because it forced me to fish slowly and carefully with hair jigs and jerk baits, perfect for the cold-water conditions.  I could only reach a certain amount of water, but my reach did include some weeds, edges, rocks and flats.  There was a chance for success, but I never had any indication of a fish.   That was OK, too, because it was a beautiful, generally carefree day and the catching will only get better as the season progresses.

First Cast 2016!  I selected a 1/16-ounce black bucktail jig to slither and scratch the bottom.

What do I have to say about this?

I am now willing to consider winter to be over.  We might have some more crappy weather before spring really settles in, but the ice is gone, I think I will have a chance to get the boat out soon,  I've made a few casts and my hair jigs look sweet!  I used both a 1/16-ounce black bucktail and an olive 1/8-ounce football-head silicone-and-rabbit craw, and they both exceeded my expectations with how awesome they looked in the water.  Of course, I lost both of them (one to a rock and one to a snagged line), and that hurt more than usual.  But I think these will be important lures for me in this and future seasons.  I have no doubt that they will produce.

Presidents' Day 2016

NumenOn the Water

Date:  2-15-16

Body of Water:  McEwen Lake

Boat:  None, Ice fishing

With:  Alone

Target:  Crappies

Time:  1 PM - 5 PM

Conditions:  Overcast with snow flurries, about 25 F with southerly winds; about 6 inches of solid ice with an inch of snow cover.  Several other groups on the ice targeting both shallow pike and basin panfish.

This year's version of the Polar Vortex just skirted Michigan on its way to the East Coast.  It brought cold, but not super-cold conditions to West Michigan for this past weekend.  This glancing blow made it easy to stay inside, tie more hair jigs, and wait for more amenable conditions on President's Day.

Conditions on Monday were more amenable, just less so than predicted.  It was still quite fishable, local ice conditions had finally firmed up, and light snow cover made moving on the ice easy.  But it was cold enough to make the pursuit of comfort a task, and not a given.

Once again I targeted suspended crappies, and I encountered similar, although diminished, conditions.  The fish were there*, but in lesser numbers.  They were feeding less and refusing more.  The ones I did catch** were generally smaller (two crappies in the double digits among the eight assorted crappies and bluegills I landed.)  It was usually just one from each hole, and each fish took some effort to coax into biting.  All in all, it felt like mid- to late-winter; as I guess it actually is.

What do I have to say about this?

Black/White or Yes/No are too simplistic notions for fishing, and so I tend to think at least in trinary terms.  Here I think the individual legs for my functional 3-legged stool are Comfort, Ease and Efficiency.  I tend to seek easy and efficient ice fishing opportunities (at least for panfish; I can work or suffer for trout and pike), but let's face it, these factors are enabled or limited by comfort.  In this case, I chose to maximize ease and efficiency by traveling light, that is without the portable shanty.  It just turned out to be too darned cold for this strategy to work out.  The cold diminished my enjoyment out there and sapped my sonar's battery such that I was getting off the ice just as Prime Time was settling in.  This was probably no big loss (the bite was hardly ramping up when the sonar finally quit), it just left the trip something short of perfection.  This is what I'll remember the trip for; leaving early had a bigger impact on me than hunting the fish successfully.

Of course, lugging the shelter up from the basement, fitting it into the truck and dragging it across the ice and from hole to hole would have diminished my ease and efficiency; it's all work and it all takes time.

I'll just have to continue to seek my Personal Balance with every trip.

Meanwhile, Facebook reminds me that two years ago I had AmyBaby22 parked in our temporary back yard, I was making bait with ease and my biggest problem was hooking up with toothy predators.  (Of course, anchor and wind issues had not yet arisen as part of that trip.)

*  I fished in the deepest part of the main lake basin, and generally from 35 to 40 feet of water.

**  All my fish succumbed to a small, plain gold Swedish Pimple tipped with maggots.  More aggressive and less aggressive baits were consistently ignored.  The bait was usually just hanging there after a small lift.  Generally the highest fish in the column would be the biter.

...And Again

NumenOn the Water

Date:  1-31-16

Body of Water:  McEwen Lake

Boat:  None, Ice Fishing

With:  KS

Target: Panfish and Pike

Time:  8 AM - Noon

Conditions:  Overcast, calm and above freezing; rising to near 50 degrees F before raining

Today's experience was very similar to yesterday's, except it was less crowded and so there was more room to roam, I had a friend along, and we added some tip-up action to the mix.  And while the panfishing was tough once again, another meal or two was provided to my friend's family, and all in all, it was a more pleasant experience. 

We arrived to a lake apparently without suspended panfish.  We scouted a few holes in the basin and generally came up empty.  We therefore took our time setting four tip-ups targeting pike in 7 to 25 feet or so of water (half suckers, half shiners), and when we returned to base camp, some fish were now beneath our feet!  I immediately enticed the highest fish to eat a small gold Pimple with maggots, and once again, it looked like it might be easy.  Of course it wasn't; while I fished over fish for most of the day, they were generally difficult to fool.

By running and gunning over a milk run of a dozen holes or so from 30 to 39 feet of water, and by concentrating my efforts on the highest visible fish (and not wasting too much time on visible fish lower in the water column), I pieced together a decent catch of a dozen panfish.  All but one were crappies to over 11 inches, the other was a nice suspended bluegill.  The gold Pimple was by far the best producer, although a teardrop with maggots produced two bonus fish in quick succession.  The Jigging Rap was an obvious turnoff today; it resulted in firm rejections.  KS was unable to land any fish on the slab spoon.

While all this was going on, we entertained six flags.  Four were "empty" and probably caused by small fish harassing the baits; the others produced a 14-inch bass and a 20-inch pike.  Both of these ate shiners suspended about half-way down over 11 feet of water, right on the edge of some nice green cabbage.

At this moment, the possibilities are unlimited; this could be a 45-incher!

OK, it wasn't 45 inches; it wasn't even 24; but it did provide that initial excitement!  Note too, no gloves!  Baseball cap instead of a knit cap, and no coat!

I'll remember this trip for the fish I didn't land.  I lost a very nice (14-inch class) crappie at the hole.  It became entangled in my transducer; I should be more careful, and I know it!  The fish totally obscured the hole; it's nice to know that there are some even larger crappies out there.

What do I have to say about this?

This is one of KS' childhood lakes, and so he always enjoys his time out there.  I enjoyed his company, but I also appreciated songbirds and a bit more solitude than the previous day.  Plus, I was able to cover more water today, and if there was a secret for today's "success" it was to find as many fish high in the water column as possible, and to focus on those with a bait they would eat.

2016 Off to a Crappie Start

NumenOn the Water

Date:  1-30-16

Body of Water:  McEwen Lake

Boat:  None, Ice

With:  Alone

Target: Panfish and Pike

Time:  8 AM - 1 PM

Conditions: Mild and mostly sunny; light southerly winds and about 33-38 degrees F; 5+ inches of solid ice

This was my first excursion on the ice for the season; I'd chosen to tie hair jigs last weekend rather than test our first available ice.  This week things firmed up nicely, and the crowds were on Reeds Lake; so I knew that conditions on this lake would be safe.

I arrived to a crowd, and while I was able to set up for suspended panfish in my location of choice (the deepest water I'm aware of in this lake), various groups had flooded my primary areas for pike fishing with tip-ups.  I was able to watch these groups chase flags all morning, but it didn't appear that anything of any size was caught; meanwhile, I scouted different areas with my tip-ups while I roamed the basin with my sonar hunting panfish.

My tip-ups (which spent most of their time in 12 and 25 feet of water, with live baitfish suspended 4-5 feet off bottom) were silent.  The panfishing was pretty tough!

It took me a few holes to find any suspended fish, and this hole (38 feet of water) produced most of the day's fish.  I fished other holes in 17 to 39 feet of water, but these produced no more than a fish each, with many zeroes, too.

Once I found the productive hole, it looked like it might be  productive morning.  While the first few fish did not respond to my array of baits (Jigging Rap, Pimple and Slab Spoon), an early drop was intercepted by a fish up high as the Rap descended.  This crappie inhaled the bait and was about as aggressive as I could ever want; it appeared to be Game On!

While the Jigging Rap obviously moved fish (I could see them on the sonar's screen), I was getting lots of rejections; and I was soon including a bare tear-drop (with spike maggots) in my presentation array.

Deep fish, for the most part, would not bite.  Shallower fish in the same hole were less abundant, but more likely to bite.  When these fish started rejecting the Jigging Rap I switched to Size 4 Rattling Rap, and this too was initially effective.  Occasionally I could get a few fish fired up and catch two or three in succession, but usually I was picking off individual fish, which for whatever reason, ate.  Surprisingly, most of these bites were confidently aggressive, too; when they went, they went.

I hope I never have to ice fish without a sonar again; and GPS on the ice (with waypoints from my boat) is awfully nice to have!

Not exactly The Most Dangerous Game, but ...

I finished with 10 or so panfish; mostly crappies with a couple of bluegills.  Average crappie size was decent, better than could be expected on most local lakes, and the biggest was about a foot long.  A select five were harvested for a meal upon request of a good friend.  This harvest gave some tangible value to these panfishing efforts.

What do I have to say about this?

These were nice, comfortable conditions to start my ice fishing season.  Even if a bit crowded, I enjoy this lake for the natural, generally undeveloped setting, and the crappies are worthwhile.  It was good to finally get a 2016 Fish, and I'm going back tomorrow, so I guess it was worth it!

Florida Bonus - End of 2015

NumenOn the Water

Date:  December 23-25, 2015

Body of Water:  Atlantic Ocean, Cocoa Beach and Port Canaveral, Florida

Boat:  None

With:  Alone

Target:  Any piscivorous fish

Time:  Various

Conditions:  Generally warm and windy, especially for the season

We met in Cocoa Beach, Florida for a few days of relaxation prior to departing on a cruise, so of course I brought some fishing tackle.  In fact, I brought the tackle I could, which included a couple of travel rods and matching reels as well as a couple of small boxes of spoons, jigs and miscellaneous accessories.  I fished simply, where I could and when I could.  Any fish were welcome at any time, but secretly I hoped to run into some bluefish, Spanish Mackerel, or perhaps a snook, flounder or redfish.

After a few sessions of surf fishing in my new back yard, I realized the ESE winds had simply churned the water up too much for effective fishing.  There were mullet right behind the first breakers (I could see them jumping and I snagged a couple), but all the obvious life (porpoises and birds) were out beyond the last breakers and well out of range.  I relocated to Jetty Park at Port Canaveral's mouth for a couple of sessions on the afternoon of Christmas Eve and on Christmas morning, prior to breakfast.  The fishing here was a bit less intimate (I was on a pier some 6 to 12 feet or so above the water, depending on tide), but I felt like I had a better chance here.  At least there was more obvious life here; turtles, schools of mullet, pelicans and rainbait all paraded by, and very occasionally another fisherman would hook up.  (Almost inevitably this would turn out to be a ray.)

The surf was heavy and provided much whitewater cover for predators.  But after days of pounding, the water was too sandy to expect much success.

The morning's orange quickly transitioned to yellow each day.

My Diawa Pro Minnow seemed like a reasonable mullet imitation.  Mullet were running just behind the first breaker from the beach, and their presences buoyed my enthusiastic efforts.  Dolphins were visibly feeding on mullet in clearer water well off the beach.  Note the blue undertones; blue is a notably hot color for stripers when mullet are present.

 I tried various presentations from the pier, but settled in on covering water with a castable spoon.  My time was limited, and probing around with a jig or grub wasn't working, and the bait fishermen were hardly doing well, so why not focus on any available pelagics that might wander in or out of the port mouth with the tides?  I was lucky to catch a small Spanish on my first trip, but he seemed to be alone.  When a fishing neighbor indicated that the fishing had been better that morning (higher tide and lower light levels), I decided to come back the next morning.  

The only fair-hooked fish of this trip was a small Spanish Mackerel; my first ever from shore.  I swung and missed on another, too.

Just before 7 AM and well before sunrise, my third cast or so was briefly intercepted.  I swung and missed; but that was okay, because my line was 90% shredded just above the lure.  Had I connected, I surely would have broken off.  I gladly retied and cast again; but there were no more strikes to be had; and no more mackerel to be caught within my zone of awareness until I left to join the family for breakfast.

Port Canaveral Christmas Full Moonset.

Another beautiful sunrise unfolds, but only to reveal another slow bite.

What do I have to say about this?

This was all bonus fishing; the trip was really about being together with family and convening prior to a celebratory cruise.  I was simply pleased to have had a couple of bites, to have caught a fish, and to have done so in warmth and comfort.