I wasn't expecting to be fishing the new year's weekend from a boat, however yesterday and today I found myself floating in water on a boat as opposed to walking on it. Yesterday (New Year's Day) I hope everyone found something to do outside. It was beautiful, 55 degrees and mostly sunny, yes, in January, in Connecticut! I received a text message from my friend Jon around 11:30am and he asked if I had any thoughts on fishing. I sent him back a message, "meet me in Marlborough at 1:00p.m. and we'll go." Done deal. Since it was a new calendar year, I needed a new fishing license. In the past this would be a problem, being that it was a Sunday, a national holiday, and close to noon, however technology has made it so that in most states you can purchase your license online through the state's environmental protection website. The all waters (fresh and salt) license is $38.00 this year in CT, but hopefully it does actually go into the CT DEEP's fund and not the general fund for the state.
After launching the canoe, Jon and I paddled straight out about 100 yards off shore and stopped to make some casts. On Jon's second cast the first fish of the new year was caught. Smiling faces greeted a 9" largemouth bass as it came aboard the canoe to be unhooked and released. We were both using jigs as they can be fished slow to accommodate the lethargic movements of fish with water temperatures right around the 32 degree mark. We fished the Southeastern bank first since the sun shines on this side of the lake for the longest period of the day, but maintained a fair distance from shore because we also wanted to allow our retrieve to move from shallow to deeper water. My first fish of the new year came along this bank, and I thought I had a decent sized bass but to my surprise it was a huge perch.
I was fishing a 3.5" reaction innovations "Sweet Beaver" in pumpkin/chartreuse color on a spot remover 1/4 ounce jighead. The spot remover jig head has a flat head allowing the "creature" bait that resembles a crayfish to stand up off the bottom. This imitates a crayfish as it tries to defend itself while in the open.
So, I will cast the lure in towards shore, allow it to sink and rest for a few seconds, and then hop or jig it back along the bottom with intermittent rests.
It is usually during the pause or during the first jig after a pause that the fish will strike the lure. This technique will typically boat fish at all times of the year, and produces good results, unless the fish are suspending higher in the water column. However, if the fish do receive this technique well, you can be quite certain that it will be a productive pattern for the rest of the day.
Following this perch, I would find two more along the same bank in the same size range, along with a skinny 14" smallmouth bass.
Based on how fat and healthy looking the perch were, they seem to be out-competing the bass in terms of finding and catching forage. Another boat with two anglers we also out fishing but were trolling the deepest areas of the lake for trout. I didn't see if they had caught anything, but gave them a wave hello as they past while I released a perch. About half-way down the lake Jon and I decided to switch sides of the lake and paddled to the western shoreline. Jon switched his jig from a small 1/16 ounce jig to a 1/4 ounce grub-tail style jig and found an 8" perch. He turned and asked why isn't mine as big? I joked back, well the big perch want a big snack to eat. Yet a few casts later, Jon debunked my theory and landed a perch as big if not larger than my first fish. I asked him to hold it up for a picture just as he was about to release it. He pulled the fish back from one side of the boat, and while it was over his lap, it flopped and went into the water on the other side of the boat. We both laughed and figured the fish was camera shy.
The western bank of the lake had considerably more birch trees that grew close to the bank, and a good amount of them were tipped over into the water creating cover for fish. Targeting these blow-downs we found some decent pickerel hiding in and around the birches.
No comments:
Post a Comment