Lake Selections

Next Thursday the club will have it's December monthly meeting but as anyone who knows me realizes this is one of my yearly highlights. This is where we select the lakes that will comprise next years' schedule and I put a lot of thought into it. Most of us have a few lakes that we never do well on and a few that we do. I try and tailor my selections towards a schedule that would benefit my style of fishing the most. Most guys never give it a second thought until they are actually at the meeting but I think it gives me something to look forward to during the winter, especially if we've added a new lake to the schedule.

I have a few thoughts already as to lakes I'd like to see next year, a few new ones and several regulars that I think we don't take enough advantage of. I'm short on time and will elaborate on this topic as next Thursday approaches but here are a few early thoughts:

Pre-Season I love the fact that we fish two catch and release events a year, the bite is pretty good and the pleasure boaters aren't out yet. But I don't really enjoy the task of trying to put my partner on fish when I have a hard enough time catching my limit. One partner event is good but how do we eliminate the other? How about going out of state. There are several decent lakes just over the Indiana border where we can catch and keep year round and we could hold normal weigh-ins and eliminate the need for co-anglers. The club used to do this back in the day and the lakes are only about an hours drive. The only downfall would be the out-of-state license but a day pass is only a few bucks and could be purchased on the internet.

I love Hardy Dam as much as the next guy but a local catch and release event could be awesome if the right lake is picked. I would love to see us visit Devils Lake in mid-May when the smallies would be on beds and we wouldn't have to drive 2.5 hours to get to there. Everyone could easily practice and the turnout would be pretty good. We've been to Hardy the last two years and I wouldn't mind doing something different this year. And the largemouth fishing would be pretty good as an added bonus. I know of another club in Jackson that fished Devils and Michigan Center last May and both events took 16 pounds to win. I know last years' warm spring had a lot to do with the good fishing but it still sounds like a decent idea to me. I have a few other ideas that I'm working on as well and will pass them along shortly. Did I mention I really look forward to this meeting?

Dale Popp Award

I just wanted to comment briefly on winning the Dale Popp Jr sportsmanship award at the banquet a few weeks back. This award is given to the club member who displays exemplary sportsmanship qualities and conduct, adjectives that are not usually associated with my name, but I'll definitely take it. I was quite suprised but excited because it totally took me be suprise.

I don't consider myself as a great club member because I usually don't participate in many extracurricular activities and basically just fish the tournaments. I guess this blog was a big reason why I was chosen and that is great because it's something I love to do anyway. I'm just very grateful and would like to thank all that voted for me.

I know fishing is probably the last thing people are thinking about right now but the December meeting is two weeks away so this is a slight reminder. This is the meeting where the 2011 scheduled is voted on so start thinking about it. I have a few lakes in mind and a couple are new venues. I will comment on this topic in more detail next week and as usual will have a few suggestions for everyone to consider. Have a great Thanksgiving and keep an eye open for BPS and Cabelas sale flyers. There are great deals to be had this time of year.

New Boats

I've been a boat owner since 1992 and have bought only three rigs in those 18 years, two Bass Trackers and my current boat, a 17' Crestliner Fish Hawk. I never gave much thought to owning a fiberglass boat and loved everything about an aluminum one such as the ease of towing, the good gas mileage and the lack of maintenance. But when I had trolling motor problems this spring and was boatless for a month, I borrowed Mike Maske's 18' Javelin and I started to see the light.

Now that I think I really need to move up in boat, I've started taking notice of all the other rigs our club members fish out of. I never paid much attention before and didn't care what was different about Nitros and Rangers, they were all the same. Well being a research freak like I am, I am quickly learning the intricacies of each and have a pretty good idea which one might suit me.

I have now started taking notice of what club guys fish out of and have started to appreciate what a good boat means to an angler. Several SCMBC guys have purchased boats recently, Scott Rice, Jim VanAken, Leo Knox and Scott Hartman (pictured above) and I can't wait to add my name to that list.

I actually now can look at a boat from a distance and tell whether it's a Skeeter or Triton and can actually figure out if it's one of my club members or not, something I could never do in the past. I have really begun to see what an advantage a good boat is in fishing and hope it will improve me as a fisherman. I will miss being able to handle four footers with ease like I did in a deep-V but will no longer get passed by everyone during our tournament blast-offs.

I will be putting the Crestliner up for sale in the spring and hopefully getting into something new (or new to me) by April. This is the master plan and I'll be spending all winter doing more research and looking at the classifieds. Hopefully everything works out that way but I figure the worst case scenario will have me in that boat one more year. Anyone looking for a good walleye boat? Just let me know.

Day on the Lake (Part 2)

Well I was able to return to LeAnne two days later and hoped to convert on the fish that I had found. The water had warmed a little, 46.5 degrees but the sun was not out and it was a little windy. I had trouble getting the fish to bite on a stable sunny day and wondered if it would be even tougher today. After all, it was the second week of November.

I decided to hit a few of the small bays where I saw fish in two days earlier but could not manage a bite. I knew where the fish were and decided to go and try to catch them instead of trying to find new fish.

9:30 Moving back into my big bay I noticed the bait was still there and figured the bass were too. I caught one rather quickly on a Zoom Super Fluke although it was only 13 inches long. Moving further back into the bay I noticed that although the sun was not out and it felt colder, the bait seemed to be more active which suprised me. I decided that a Manns Baby Minus-1 crankbait would be the best bet but after one pass through my best area I had not received one bite. I could see the pike still feeding as was the case two days prior and figured the bass would not be far behind. These fish are still here and they'll bite something but what?

10: 00 A spinnerbait seemed like the logical choice because it resemble a school of bait and could be worked through the weeds effectively. Five minutes later my hunch was answered with a solid keeper on a slow rolled 1/2 oz white Nichols spinnerbait with white blades. A few minutes later I caught another solid keeper on the spinner and figured I'd figured them out. But after fishing the whole area without another biteI knew some tweeking needed to be done.

10:30 With the sun starting to pop out I decided I needed to try and match the bait a little more closely. I downsized to a 3/8 oz spinnerbait with silver blades and a more translucent skirt. The move paid off handsomely as my first cast resulted in a 4 pound largemouth that inhaled the spinnerbait as I slow rolled it through the sparse weeds. I followed that up with a 3 lb fish, two that went 2.5 lbs and another that went 2 lbs even. My slight adjustment however so insignificant was all I needed. I caught a few more good ones and lost one that was close to 4 lbs and then one that was near 3 lbs.

11:30 Afte the onslaught was over I decided to try and find a few new areas where I could exploit the biting fish but was unable to replicate what I'd found in my backwater bay area. I'm not sure why this seemed to be the only spot where I could catch them but after fishing deep into several backwater areas, I was convinced this spot was unique.

12:30 Well I once again had to be to work soon and never returned to my hot spot but explored a lot of the lake that I'd never seen and made a few notes for future reference. I ended up catching about 10 fish with 7 being keeper size and 12.5 pounds for the best five. Not bad for this time of year and I was very satisfied being able to figure out how to catch fish that I'd found earlier. Who'd have thought the bait of choice would be a spinnerbait but I was proud I could figure it out and do so well on an unfamiliar lake. Why can't I do that in our tournaments?

Day on the Lake

Everyone loves the "Day on the Lake" segment in the Bassmaster magazine and I think it's the most helpful information that you can get when trying to figure out how to catch fish on a new lake or any lake for that matter. I had the opportunity to explore a new lake this past week and thought it would be cool to do my own mini day on the lake journal. My lake was LeAnne which is a private lake in the Somerset area. It is man made and is about 350 acres. Here's how my day went.

I arrived at LeAnne at about 9am and noticed that the water temps were about 45 degrees and the water was fairly clear. Being so cold I decided to focus on the sunny (west) bank and seek out quick dropping breaks which are key this time of year. I found such and area and started working a rip-rap bank that dropped quickly into 12 fow. I started with a medium diving crankbait and then backed off a little with a suspending jerkbait. The weather had been cold and just started warming up so the fish may be a little sluggish to start.

9:30 After no bites I continued north and found a steep dropping bank next to the dam. I threw the jerkbait along with a white Zoom Super Fluke but had no takers. There is a narrow channel at the north east end of the lake that opens up into a large bay and I continued into the bay alternating between a Fluke and Jerkbait.

Fishing back into the bay I had hoped the water would be a little warmer and looked for signs of baitfish but found neither. These areas usually stay warmer longer and the bait migrate to them, as do the bass. This lake does not have a lot of vegetation and is fairly featureless so I figured I'd just cover water until I found something.

10:00 I worked out of the bay with a shallow running crankbait and finally had a bite from a small fish and then another. I missed both but noticed some shallow eel grass which held lots of baitfish and probably the bass. I needed to find some more of that.

10:30 Having no luck in the first major bay I decided to head out to the main lake and fish some points. These are great fall locations that allow fish to move up and down in the water column easily and this lake had several decent ones. I headed to the biggest point on the lake which had sun on it and also had a very quick drop. I threw a deeper diving crankbait in a crawfish pattern and hauled water but noticed that it transitioned into a small flat and then to another point. I fished the flat and on my second cast had a big fish bite. After a good fight I lipped my first bass of the day, 4 pounds even. But that was the only bite on the flat and adjacent point, so much for my point pattern.

11:00 The sun was out now and the water was warming slightly to 45.5 degrees so I decided to fish the main lake a little longer before hitting some more bays. There is a big island on LeAnne with a few small humps surrounding it and it looking intriguing. There was a little vegetation around the humps (something that I was finding quite rare on LeAnne) and lots of bait so I pulled out a Strike King Red Eye Shad and started slow rolling it. The baitfish looked like shad or very small bluegill and the rattle bait resembled it perfectly. But after 15 minutes all I caught was a small pike.

11:30 It was starting to get warm and I decided to spend the rest of my day in the bays and cuts. This lake has lots of these and the biggest was located in the south east section of the lake. I again started working my way in, throwing the suspending jerkbait off the breaks that contained gravel and looked perfect, to me anyway. I came to a big Y in the bay and headed to the smaller section that dead-ended. I didn't catch anything but saw lots of weeds and more fish, a good sign.

As I worked back toward the center of the Y, I noticed a small pad field that butted up to deep water. Perfect I thought and threw my jerkbait to the outer edge of the pads. Two jerks later I had a vicious strike and shortly was sliding the net under a fish that looked bigger than the first. 4.3 pounds officially, I was starting to like LeAnne.

The other section of the Y went back quite a way and as I proceeded I noticed more bait and weeds and started seeing a few big bass cruising. The water was calm which didn't help but as I came to the back end of the cut I saw tons of bait cruising and more and more skittish bass. I caught one just short of being a keeper on a Super Fluke but most of the fish could see me coming from a mile away and even with long casts, couldn't muster a bite.

12:00 I finally found what I was looking for, lots of bait jammed into a small backwater area and lots of bass. I actually saw several fish feeding along with lots of pike slashing through the bait schools. It was an awesome sight, especially in 46 degree water and I had a front row seat. Baitfish were jumping, pike and bass were eating and I couldn't get a bite for nothing. I threw the rattle bait, the Fluke and a small crankbait to no avail. I even tried a senko but nada. Time was getting short and I found the honey hole but had to be to work soon.

12:30 Reluctantly I left my bay and wanted to scout out a few other areas. One more try with a Super Fluke on the gravel banks leading into the cut resulted in a bite from a 2 pounder which I promptly broke off but the fish were starting to get active, just in time for me to leave. I idled into a few small bays and saw big fish set up way in the back of each, just like I figured I would but it was time to go.

12:45 I ended my day with six bites, caught three and two big ones equalling 8.3 pounds. Not bad for November 10th but I knew the bite would improve. If I were to come back tomorrow I would focus my efforts on the big Y-shaped bay and find a way to get those fish to bite. I was proud of myself for finding these fish on an unfamiliar lake but disappointed I couldn't figure out how to catch them. I'm sure a few other smaller bays would hold fish as well and this is a pattern I could run and hopefully catch a few more. Maybe a little cloud cover or wind would help but everything is a crap-shoot this time of year.

Fortunately for me, I will be able to return in a few days and I'll post on whether I was able to catch these fish or not. Finding them is half the battle and I'm looking forward to the test.

Club Banquet

The 2010 season is officially in the books with the completion of the season ending banquet and it was a great ending. Mike Pritchard picked an awesome venue with Steves Ranch House doing the hosting and everything was top notch. I am without my computer for a few days but will post a few pictures when I'm back online.

Back to the Banquet. The food was great and Mike did an excellent job with the prizes as well. It was a cozy atmosphere and probably one of the best setups for our small gathering. Having a room to ourselves is a big deal and I'd love to go back next year. This is probably my 10th banquet and I have more fun each year.

Back in the day it seemed like the party was a little more formal and I always thought it was a little "stuffy". But now it seems like the mood is more casual and whether that's due to smaller crowds or just everyone getting along better, I think it is definitely for the better.

And who would have thunk I'd win any sort of sportsmanship award but that's just what happened. I took home the Dale Popp award and was quite honored to do so. I'll comment more on the award later, the weather is good and all my free time will be spent on the water so everything will be delayed a few days. The bottom line is that the banquet was a success and thanks to everyone who helped make it that way.

Club Banquet

Don't forget the Club Banquet is this coming weekend at Steve's Ranch House Restaurant in Jackson. Saturday night the festivities start with happy hour from 5:30-6:30 and dinner will be served shortly after. I've heard it will be a prime rib buffet but I'm sure it'll be good no matter what they serve up.

The highlight for me is of course the raffle when I hope to win a rod that is much more expensive than I would pay myself. This has happened a few times over the years but it seems like I usually come home with a coffee cup or candle holder more often than a $150 rod. Whatever I win, that's not the point. I just like seeing everyone, talking some shop and having a few drinks with my fishing buddies. Be prepared though, I've already been thinking about the lakes I'd like to see on next years schedule and I'll probably start dropping some hints Saturday night.

Hope to see everyone there and bring a few extra dollars for the raffle and 50/50. I've heard the grand prize is a cardboard cutout of Matt Morgan but I cannot confirm that so hopefully I heard wrong. That's probably what I'd win so a coffee mug might not be so bad.