Shaun Solomon
I am just about ready to get after it. Didn't get to do a lot of fishing the last several months as a result of some family stuff, but I am looking forward to the coming year. Should be a little easier this year, though I still have a lot of scouting to do before I settle into anything resembling a comfort zone.
I have bass on the brain. :hi:
Cold muddy water sucks. You basically have to hit the bass in the face in those conditions. They still feed, but their success ratio is way down.
I have no idea where to look for clear water, all the places I have fished so far are either backwaters of rivers or reservoirs.
Bass respond to different environmental conditions with remarkable physical adaptations. As water temperature decreases, their ability to sense their environment with the lateral line is diminished, so as a way to offset that loss, their visual acuity is somewhat improved. So in colder water, they rely a bit more on their eyes than in warmer water. (Anecdotally, this makes sense, as we can all relate to the diminishment of sensation in a limb exposed to the cold.)
What it boils down to is cold muddy water works against the bass by reducing their ability to utilize their lateral line OR their eyes to hunt. The "magic number" of 54º is about where the lateral line starts to be more effective again.
So... still waiting...
Yeah, it is really early yet. I just have ants in my pants. For years I would have been cooling my heels, literally, ice fishing this time of year. Seeing the open water has re-set the clock in my brain. All I want to do since I have moved out here is bass fish, I have not picked up the fly rod at all.
There are so many farm ponds around here, I need to grow a pair and start knocking on doors. I just hate to bother people. "Oh, look, what a surprise, another random stranger wants to have a go at my fish..."
I don't have a yak. I guess there are spots where people bank them? I would love to get them on my life list. Guaranteed PB, lol. I want to keep one just to experience it, but after that I would let them go I think.
SS
I went out yesterday to Waverly in Albany and blanked. I was only out there about an hour, and it looked like a mud pie, but it was nice to cast some line. There is a small flock of domesticated geese there that think their job is to harass and intimidate all comers, and it always amuses me to disabuse them of their misapprehensions. I don't mess with them, but they hiss and snap at me because I don't step lively when crossing their corner. I call them the hooligans.
Whelp, I guess that is my story. Maybe I will catch some fish next time.