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?