5-11-12 – Finally Put The Boat In

So after a few full weeks of working every day it was a nice to have a personal day. At least until 4pm when I had to go to my weekend job that is! I came across a few cool things since my last post.

In the past two weeks, I came across seven license plates. Six were old and just one was a newer model. Here’s one of the better pictures I managed to take in the cold water before my hands froze.

Opening day of turkey season I was heading out to my spot around 4:30 am. I had my decoys set up and was just about to sit down at 4:45 when a partridge flushed from right where I had picked to sit. It startled me pretty bad but I stayed for 45 minutes before realizing the turkeys had moved on to a new patch of woods. The following day I was passing by and kicked the grouse out again. With a quick peek into where she flushed from I found out why she was holding so tight. I snapped this picture of her nine eggs before vacating the area quickly in an attempt to not disturb her further. I returned the following day and she is still sitting on the nest so she must be fine with my passing by. I found a spot 75 yards away that I can watcher her from without being a threat. I will work on more pictures of her on the nest but its pretty brushed in.

I went out turkey hunting this morning and had an unsuccessful attempt with the longbeards I have been seeing. I called in four hens but called it quits so I could finish up mowing the lawn before my buddy showed up around 11am to hit the water.  The birds are there just not making much for noise so far this season.The quality keeps me coming back so hopefully I can connect one of these days!

A nice looking double beard!

Around 11:30 am, we launched the boat at my camp on rough water. Days like today I usually skip bass fishing and go search for native brookies in the small streams surrounding my camp. Regardless, the time of year is just about right for the bass spawn so we shoved off after warming the motor up. The water temp is still a bit cold for the spawn but being mid-May it won’t be long till the beds are occupied.

We drove across the lake trying to get on calmer water. The spot we began at was still rough but is usually a good early season spot for spawning pickerel. I figured if nothing else we would catch a few toothy fish as they spawn as cooler temps than the bass. As we were drifting in and getting our rods ready for the day we could see beds. We figured it wouldn’t take long to be on fish!

That was unfortunately not the case. We fished a good deal of the east shore of the lake as it offered a slight break from the relentlessness wind. We went close to an hour without a bite before making a move to the north end of the lake and on the west shore. The water was much calmer which allowed us to fish slower and prime bedding areas.

On the first dock we fished, I missed a bass. It got off with about half of my rubber worm after a few cranks towards the boat. I quickly re-rigged my presentation and began casting again. A few more casts at the same spot produced my first bass at camp this summer! Not a monster but it was good to be back at it! I’m sure I will have some much better bass to post throughout the summer.

We managed to hook into a few more bass throughout the day but the bite was slow. Biggest fish was right around 15″. Hopefully the spawn isn’t over! Remembering that the fish on the Connecticut River were spawned out has me concerned but I think the time is yet come. We were off the water around 2:30 pm with the intentions of hitting a small brook for a quick pit stop on the way home.

If you look back at a post back from early April titled “Scouting For Trout And Turkey“, I talked about how I had found some brookies cruising around in pools that I like to fish in the summer. One of the mentioned pools was where we hit today and it was still loaded. We either caught fish, hooked and dropped them, or had chasers nearly every cast. The water is clear to the bottom so we could see exactly what the fish were doing. Next trip out I’ll be sure to bring the GoPro and fly rod!