I have been out fishing twice over the past few days without getting skunked. The bass are now active. All my tackle has the barbs crimped for easy catch and release. It also makes landing them a little harder because if you don't keep tension on the line they will get away.
Saturday morning the 15th I got up at 4:30 and was at the club pond around 05:15. It was still dark and the fish must have been asleep because there was zero activity. That is, until early dawn at 06:00 when it seemed like a switch got flipped and they started jumping and biting. First I caught a Smallmouth Bass by hooking it in the side. It must have swam by my lure just right as I was reeling it in. It was hooked solid but easily unhooked and released with just a small wound. It swam away fast. Next I had two good sized fish on the line but lost them both about 12 feet from shore. It could have been the same fish for all I know. I then landed two good sized Bluegills. Not very long but they both tried to swallow my lure whole and the hook got them solidly in the lip. They fought hard enough to activate the drag which I tightened up. Bloop... back in the drink they went. The last fish of the day was a good sized Largemouth Bass. He put up a good fight and I successfully got him to shore. The hook was through his upper lip and easily removed. I took a good look at him and tossed him back. Our club pond is stocked with Trout, but I don't fish for them. IMHO they are too fragile for catch and release and since my wife won't eat game fish I don't keep anything.
I went fishing at the club pond again last night after shift. I only caught and landed a single Largemouth Bass just as it was getting dark. I was using a wiggly floating plug that had two treble hooks. The bass hit it right after the lure hit the water and tried to swallow the whole thing because he had both treble hooks stuck in his mouth. Again, crimped barbs so easily removed and it swam away as soon as it hit the water. As I started to leave, I passed the deep swamp created by a beaver dam. Holy cow... the fish were super active breaking the surface every where. I parked in a pull off and started casting from the edge of the road. I got one bite early and then nothing as it got darker. I will try fishing there instead of the pond on my next outing which will hopefully be tomorrow evening.
A word about Bluegills. They are the favorite fish for kids to catch and considered not worth anything by most fisherman. There is no bag limit and kids will fill a 5-gallon bucket full of them. When I was a teen, I used to go fishing with my neighbor in his canoe at Shenipsit Lake in the wee hours of the morning. We would actually fish for Bluegills because they were HUGE! They were big enough to fillet, so I would keep 2 or 3 of the largest ones for my lunch. I would dip the fillets in raw egg and roll them in bread crumbs, then pan fry them with some onions. YUM!
Once the weather warms up a little more I will expand my horizons by fishing some wild woodland ponds and some Army Corps of Engineers dammed up water ways from my kayak.
"considered not worth anything by most fisherman"
ReplyDeleteThem is great eating !!!!!
If all I caught all day was Bluegills, it would be a good day
Yup. If they were bigger like the ones I caught as a kid I'd probably keep them and eat them myself.
DeleteDarn it now I'm pissed my pond is still frozen. Bluegills for the win!
ReplyDeleteWinter in Kommiecticut started out cold, but then never got frigid and stayed above normal the rest of the season. The ground never froze and the waters never got any more than a skim of ice. You could have launched and fished from a boat instead of ice fishing.
DeleteThem bluegills are the bait for big flathead. Here in north central Oklahoma it's what we use on the river
ReplyDeleteBackwoods Okie
Small bluegills as bait for largemouth bass. I’m jealous…still have 2 ft of snow and 3+ ft of ice on the lakes. And we have no bass, no bluegill,perch nor crappie, no walleye or muskie. We do, however, have rainbows & char that’ll swallow you whole, northern pike willing to take on unsuspecting moose and more salmon than I can fit in my freezer. It’s an even trade…. (still jealous, though…)
ReplyDeleteGood onya. Thanks to Gramps that is my favorite activity even though I do little of it these days. Grew up and still in largemouth country but some places have smallmouth which I prefer to fish for with lite tackle, they fight more, tastier also, what few I've eaten. My Dad loved eating the perch and blue gill, me not so much.
ReplyDelete