4-25-12 – The Wind Kept Us Working

On the way home from yesterdays trip, we made plans to fish a small inland pond that holds some decent bass and crappie but neither of us could get the giant  bluegill and crappie from the Connecticut River off our minds. When we met up this morning both of us were like “lets go to the river!” After fixing a few issues with the boat and checking the weather, we headed out. The report was partly cloudy with winds in the low teens out of the south west. Less than ideal conditions for the section of river we were hitting but we knew the fish were there.

We got on the water a little after 10am. The chop was more than expected and the water hadn’t cleared up at all. Uh oh…. We motored in finding the water had cooled down into the low 50’s and the warmest it got all day was 54 degrees. Regardless, we began fishing but had to work hard for the fish we got.

We fished the two main spots we had been catching fish at and managed to pull a few. Mostly bluegill but a few crappie. We worked back and forth looking for the fish but couldn’t find good numbers of them. We worked over all the submerged structure we knew of and through the channel. The fish seemed to be very good at eluding us so far! Everywhere we went, we had to drop the anchors in order to stay put until a big gust would move us on unwillingly. It seemed to be more frustrating than the quality of fishing was worth.

After a slow day of fishing, Bobby gave me permission to choose one more spot before motoring back to the launch. We had a 4 o’clock deadline to leave because of prior commitments. I chose a tree that held two nice bluegill the day before but hadn’t produced anything yet on this trip. Bobby was less than impressed with my choice but agreed because he thought it would be a quick pit stop.

The first cast on the tree gave up a crappie so we dropped the anchor. After a few more casts we realized there were a lot of fish in this tree and we needed to reposition. As we hoisted the anchor to move, we realized that the fish were holding on submerged tree branches we couldn’t see. A large section of the tree came up on the rope so we untangled it and dropped it back down as stealthy as possible. We backed out slowly and set the anchor so that we could efficiently fish the entire area.

We fished the visible parts of the tree and all the water surrounding. We were able to determine that the diameter of the sunken tree reached far more water that previously imagined.  We snagged into remnants of the oak crown several times pulling fish in. Knowing that this tree was big, we cruised around and tried to get a bearing on where else there were parts of the tree. After putting another 12 nice crappie and a few gills in the boat, we packed up to head home.

We fished pretty hard today but didn’t get much for results until we were beaten up and ready to head home. We spent a lot of time today hoisting and dropping anchors, motoring around to get back in a decent positioning, and reeling in wind drifted casts. Even though the fishing was slow we caught some real nice fish. One crappie weighed 1 – 3/4 pounds and a few bluegill were just under a pound. I am glad we didn’t give up and never underestimate the power of “one more spot”!

Mainly, we fished “Live” Baby Shad by Lake Fork Trophy Lures today after their great productivity the last few days. The best color today was anything dark. The clouds gave way to some sunshine towards the afternoon and the dark baits must have silhouetted better against the stained water. Once again, the fish liked the baits moving along quickly popping constantly under a bobber.

I think after this afternoons discovery, we will be back early tomorrow morning!

As we were catching fish earlier in the day, this sick looking bass came in and we notice the fish bite slow. Once the bass moved on the fish turned back on. This scenario played out several times throughout the next hour. The panfish really didn’t like this bass!

Check out this fish with a partially missing gill cover and a stick protruding from its belly!