bass
Got my first trip of the year in under the belt. It was a gorgeous, but cold day. Thankfully there was little to no wind all day long. The water temp had dropped from 48 last Friday, down to 40 on the 2nd. I figured that with the cold water that the bite would be slow.
Since it was so calm I decided to try and fish off anchor, using my paddle to gently hold me in place. This worked quite well in the harbor where there is no current. On my first cast I was sitting there holding my position and staring at my rod tip when I saw a little bounce. I set the paddle down and picked up the rod. It was exciting to feel a sturgeon nibbling away.
I reeled in to set the hook, but it was clean miss. I set the rod back down and picked the paddle back up. After a few more minutes I saw the tip wiggle again. This time I was more careful to make sure the fish had not dropped the bait before I started reeling. Woo hoo, a nice 4 foot sturgeon on my first off anchor attempt:
I was stoked for a hot day of action, unfortunately this was not to be. After another hour of moving my casts around I picked up a good sized shaker. At that point I realized the harbor bite was not going to be red hot so I decided to check out some spots out in the current.
I tried the spot I had done well at last week, but I did not get a sniff. However, I was very impatient at this spot since I had high expectations. It turns out this this was a mistake.
For most of the rest of the day I moved up and down the river, spending a lot of time exploring and some time fishing. I put in 11 miles on the kayak over the course of the day. Sounds like a lot, but it really did not feel all that hard. Since the bite was slow I was just enjoying riding around and getting some exercise.
Finally, I went back into the harbor to where I had my earlier success. I quickly missed two fish (fishing off anchor again) and then could not get another bite.
Finally, I decided to head back to the magic spot from last week and got there about 3:20pm. This time I decided to anchor a bit shallower (34'). Turns out that this was a good decision. Pretty quickly after anchoring and dropping a bait back I got that special feeling:
I ended up catch 1 keeper (that I am fighting above) and 6 shakers from that spot:
On my last cast of the day at 4:37pm I caught my last fish, a shaker that was just short of keeper sized:
It is always nice to leave them while they are still biting.
So, I spent most of the day not doing squat, but once I did find them the bite was much better than I would have expected in the 40 degree water.
I think the lesson that I learned is to be a bit more patient when fishing a spot that was good the week before. The first time I fished that spot, I had anchored at the same depth (37') as the previous week, but because the river had dropped that had put me a fair bit further from shore. I think the key to the spot was the edge of the drop and not the depth. I should have figured that out the first time, but I let the notion that the bite should be slow in the cold water cloud my better judgement.
So, a new year starts with a new lesson.
Since it was so calm I decided to try and fish off anchor, using my paddle to gently hold me in place. This worked quite well in the harbor where there is no current. On my first cast I was sitting there holding my position and staring at my rod tip when I saw a little bounce. I set the paddle down and picked up the rod. It was exciting to feel a sturgeon nibbling away.
I reeled in to set the hook, but it was clean miss. I set the rod back down and picked the paddle back up. After a few more minutes I saw the tip wiggle again. This time I was more careful to make sure the fish had not dropped the bait before I started reeling. Woo hoo, a nice 4 foot sturgeon on my first off anchor attempt:
I was stoked for a hot day of action, unfortunately this was not to be. After another hour of moving my casts around I picked up a good sized shaker. At that point I realized the harbor bite was not going to be red hot so I decided to check out some spots out in the current.
I tried the spot I had done well at last week, but I did not get a sniff. However, I was very impatient at this spot since I had high expectations. It turns out this this was a mistake.
For most of the rest of the day I moved up and down the river, spending a lot of time exploring and some time fishing. I put in 11 miles on the kayak over the course of the day. Sounds like a lot, but it really did not feel all that hard. Since the bite was slow I was just enjoying riding around and getting some exercise.
Finally, I went back into the harbor to where I had my earlier success. I quickly missed two fish (fishing off anchor again) and then could not get another bite.
Finally, I decided to head back to the magic spot from last week and got there about 3:20pm. This time I decided to anchor a bit shallower (34'). Turns out that this was a good decision. Pretty quickly after anchoring and dropping a bait back I got that special feeling:
I ended up catch 1 keeper (that I am fighting above) and 6 shakers from that spot:
On my last cast of the day at 4:37pm I caught my last fish, a shaker that was just short of keeper sized:
It is always nice to leave them while they are still biting.
So, I spent most of the day not doing squat, but once I did find them the bite was much better than I would have expected in the 40 degree water.
I think the lesson that I learned is to be a bit more patient when fishing a spot that was good the week before. The first time I fished that spot, I had anchored at the same depth (37') as the previous week, but because the river had dropped that had put me a fair bit further from shore. I think the key to the spot was the edge of the drop and not the depth. I should have figured that out the first time, but I let the notion that the bite should be slow in the cold water cloud my better judgement.
So, a new year starts with a new lesson.
