Fish Catching Travel
Another cold and windy day, so of course since I am obviously nuts, it was off to the lake. The old saying, “Put on your big boy pants.” definitely applied today. It was a 2 pair of big boy pants day. The wind was blowing 20+ out of the north, it was 32 degrees, and it was flat ugly when I got to the lake at 11:00. No wonder I had the lake to myself. But I just could not resist.
Being so ugly it was one of those days where you fished where you could, not where you wanted to. Starting with a Strike King Swim Jig seemed logical, and for an hour not even a bite. So I picked up a spinnerbait and caught a small one right off the bat. And that was the last one of the day. That front did not have them in a chasing mood. So with that result it was time to stick with the Swim Jig.
It is still a matter of fishing the grass and letting the bait tick sunken grass. I finally caught one, then another. One was ok, it was just to cold to bother with a picture. When I got to the back of a protected cove I caught this one first.
Not a bad one considering the conditions.
About 4 casts later I did something I rarely do anymore, I broke one off. Unlike most of the bites right now she did not come from behind and eat it, she must have been going the other way. All I know it was a good fish. But that aside, right now they are so hard to feel, and the wind does not help. I am still reeling it at a medium speed and watching the line so close. You will either feel it tighten up, or see it moving sideways. No matter what set the hook if it feels any different.
I picked up another one in there and it was time for another move. So next it was a shallow main lake bank covered in grass. Even with the front I am still finding them shallow. After a long stretch I had one swim with it, and managed to put it in the boat.
Do I look cold? I was, it was ugly out there.
I do want to say one thing, I hate Coots. There are tons of them at the lake, and they have this annoying habit of pulling up grass to eat some part of it. The rest just floats on the surface and makes fishing some banks a mess. Of course I am headed down the bank and about 100 of them are just swimming along in front of me. To bad I let it get to me, it ended up costing me a big fish.
I was looking at the ducks and silently cussing them when I made a cast parallel to the outside of a grass edge. All of a sudden I realized that one had it and was swimming right at me. In fact she swam almost all the way to the boat before I realized it was on. By time I set the hook I had no tension, but I did feel her. It was so close to the boat that when I set the hook, and she came off, a huge boil came up right next to the boat. Like I said, if you are fishing that bait right now you have to concentrate every second. The good thing is that as soon as this winter thing gets it out of it’s system they will hit it harder.
So finally at 4 I quit. Even with boots, enough clothes that I looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, and double gloves, I was cold to the bone. After years of winter fishing in Arkansas it was not unexpected. But this is South Texas, and I am ready for real spring. The fish on the other hand are looking to spawn, this weather just won’t let them.
All in all not a bad day. I put 6 in the boat, missed a couple, broke one off and lost a big one at the boat. That is what keeps me going right now. The size of the fish shallow is improving every day, even with these weather conditions. Who knows, the weather may straighten up enough to get me back to the Gulf. I do have some unfinished business with the trout at Baffin, I haven’t forgotten how they mistreated me last month. So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
