Late August bass

An unseasonably cool August has brought us some really nice fishing days at a time when usually it’s way too hot to think about fishing until it’s nearly dark (or before it’s really light).  I’ve been enjoying it, even though the fishing has been a bit slow.  Most of the fish I’ve caught have been hooked out a ways from the shore, on the bottom.  This fellow weighed in at three pounds, one ounce.  (That’s the last exact weight you’ll likely hear from me this season, as I lost my trusty digital scale at the lake, not long after this photo was taken.)

Happy fishing!

Animated knots

I Stumbled on this site tonight–it’s a site where you can learn how to tie various knots by viewing Flash animations of each one.  Very clever, and nicely done.  I’m “knot-challenged” and I expect to benefit greatly from having animated instructions.  Maybe you’ll find it helpful, too.

I’ve been out several times over the last few weeks, and really didn’t have much luck–in fact, I’ve been skunked repeatedly.  I suspected that perhaps it was because I ran out of my favorite plastic worms–the five-inch Malopo-infused Wave Worms, in the red shad color.  I was having a hard time finding them locally, and although I could have dropped in at Cabela’s or Bass Pro Shops on one of my recent excursions to Kansas City, I knew that I’d pay a premium price there, and I’m nothing if not a cheap so-and-so.

So I bought a different brand of worms–some kind of silly flip-tail thing, a lot skinnier than my Wave Worms, and thought I’d give them a try.  I caught one or two fish in several tries, but I wasn’t impressed at all with these worms–they were just too skinny, too light, and not stinky enough, I think.

My wife gave me a Walmart gift card for my birthday, specifically for fishing stuff, and as luck would have it, they had my worms.  And wouldn’t you know it–the next two times out, I caught two fish each time on those great worms, and had more strikes than I’ve had in a long time.

(Just for the record, this is an unpaid endorsement   Hope you’re having a great summer, and wetting some line now and then!

Biggest one so far

Biggest one yet this season

Tonight is probably the last night of relatively temperate weather we’re going to have for a while–the weather folks are saying that a big heat wave is going to get underway tomorrow–so I decided to have a go at the lake while it’s still relatively cool.  It paid off when I caught this big fellow.  I didn’t get him weighed, but I’m guessing he was well over three pounds.  I photographed him with my phone camera alongside my foot, so there’d be a size reference (I wear a size 10-1/2 sneaker).

It took me a while to land this one–he was pulling so hard, I thought there was a good chance he might snap my line, and as it turned out, I got lucky.  A few casts later I hooked another good size one on the same rig–maybe a two-and-a-half or three-pounder, and as I was getting him close to the shore, he took off with my hook, sinker and worm.  When I inspected the end of my line, it was obvious that the knot had come untied.

Happy fishing!

Today’s score: Doug 4, fish 0

I had the opportunity to fish last evening, but it was quite hot, and I knew that I would have to leave the lake early, so I decided instead to get up early (5:30!) and head out this morning.  Good move.  It was pleasant and calm at the lake, although by the time I left, around 7:30 a.m., it had already begun to heat up–we’ve had a week of really hot days here in northeast Kansas (tomorrow is supposed to be a little cooler).

Anyway, I decided to return to the spot where I caught the last two a couple of days ago, a stretch of grassy bank between the old marina and the swimming dock.  The actual spot where I caught my last fish didn’t produce anything this morning, so I headed a little farther north, to a place where there is a sandy bank, almost like a little boat ramp area–I’ve seen paddlers launch canoes and kayaks there before–a guy jumped in the lake off the swimming dock and began doing laps across the middle of the lake, just across from where I was fishing, and he did a lot of laps.  I’m guessing he was training for an upcoming triathalon in our area, because when he was done swimming, he unhitched his bike from his car and started off around the lake.  I don’t know if there is a connection in this, but as soon as he started swimming, I started getting strikes.

Within about 20 minutes, with the guy doing laps 40 or 50 yards from me, I caught four bass–three that ran about two pounds each, and one smaller one.  When he stopped swimming, I didn’t get any more strikes.  It could just be a coincidence–the sun was getting higher and higher, of course–but I couldn’t help but wonder if his swimming was stirring up the food supply or something.

I had been casting into the grass at the shoreline, but when I got to the sandy bank, I just decided to drop a few casts out across the sandy bottom, and that’s where I caught all four of them.  Seems strange to me–I’ve always heard that bass like cover, but these guys were apparently patroling the sandy bottom.

A great morning of fishing–hope you’re getting some of the same!

Today’s score: Doug 2, fish 0

Caught on 6/25/2009

Maybe I’ve just been fishing in the wrong spots.  My last half-dozen times out I’ve been skunked more often than not.  This morning, after trying in vain in a favorite spot (that really hasn’t been producing of late), I took a bit of a walk up the bank, past a place where water from recent rains had cut a small channel in the bank.  In the past, I’ve found fish hanging around those places where water was running into the lake from the woods, so I thought I’d give it a try.  Nothing doing today.  But a little further up the shoreline there were some places that were freshly-mowed and afforded fairly decent access, so I started making short casts just beyond the grass, and within ten minutes I’d landed a couple of bass–the first one was about a pound and a quarter, and then I caught the one pictured at right, which I’m guessing weighed somewhere between two and three pounds.

Typical Kansas summer squall, viewed from my church parking lot, 6/24/2009

It’s been unbelievably hot and humid here lately–the heat index has been up around 110 the last two days–but yesterday we had a fairly impressive summer squall that blew up suddenly in the early evening and cooled things off for a couple of hours.  We’ve had so much rain over the past few weeks that the lake has been stained and murky almost non-stop for a long time.  That might help explain why I haven’t caught too many fish lately.  Yeah…that’s what we’ll say–it was the weather.

Good luck, fellow anglers–I hope you’re getting some time to fish!

Warmer water, more fish activity

I pretty little bass I caught one evening earlier this week

It’s been so nice the past few days around here, with high temperatures in the 80’s and sunshine all day–the water temperature at the local lakes is coming up to the point that the bass are active now.  I’m seeing more and more surface activity, and although I’m not exactly tearing it up–I’ve only caught three fish so far this spring–I’m getting more strikes, and having a great time.  Hope you’re getting out, too.

What a nice evening it was!

First fish of the year

Finally.  You’d have thought that by now, end of April, beginning of May, I’d have caught that first fish of the year before now.  It’s taken an unusually long time for the water to warm up this year–we’ve had some late cold snaps and a lot of dreary weather in the past few weeks, so I guess that’s probably one reason it’s taken so long to land that first one.

This past Tuesday, we had a break in the weather–it was sunny and warm and beautiful all day long, and after work, I decided I would head out to the lake for a couple of hours.  I didn’t think there was a good chance of catching a fish, because we’d had rain for several days before then, and I figured the water would be murky and stained.  My route to the small lake I’ve been fishing most often takes me across the dam of a larger reservoir, and that evening I counted no fewer than 30 cars parked along the road at the south end of the dam, a favorite fishing spot.  There were guys fishing along the dam, spaced about 10 yards apart for practically the entire length of the dam, it seemed.  That’s a good sign.

“My” lake was crowded, too–all of my usual fishing spots were occupied, so I had to drive halfway around the lake, almost to the stop sign where the road turns to gravel.  There was a place at the bottom of a steep bank that looked accessible and not terribly overgrown, so I parked and headed down the bank.  The only reason the bank at the water’s edge wasn’t muddy was that it was strewn with woody debris that had washed out of the woods during the torrential rains we had had a few days earlier.

Fish were boiling up and jumping not far from shore–that was new.  Every other time I’d fished that lake this year, there was no top-water presence of fish that I could detect.  Again, a good sign.

I worked about 30 yards of shoreline, and the water in that finger of the lake was pretty shallow toward the middle, but a little deeper closer to the shore.  On a cast along the bank, I actually had a fish on the line for a few seconds, but he got loose before I could set the hook.  A few casts later, I felt a very light tap (seems typical for this time of year), and when he began to run, I set the hook and began hauling him in.  He put up a fight, and I was impressed when I finally landed him–I tried to weigh him, but the scale didn’t cooperate.  I did get him measured, though, and he was every bit of 18 inches long, which, in my book, is a good-sized bass.

It’s always great to catch that first one of the season.  Good luck to you, too!

First day out, 2009

Well, it wasn’t much.  But with the temperature at nearly 50 degrees Fahrenheit this morning, I just had to give it a try.  When I arrived at the lake, I was initially disheartened to find much of it still iced-over, but as I drove around to my usual spring fishing spot, thankfully there was open water.  A warm winter day in Kansas usually means there is a stiff wind from the south, but today the air was pretty calm–except for the fact that the trees were all bare and there was no live grass at the water’s edge, you could have thought it was a day in early April.

I gave it my best shot, but no luck today–not even a nibble.  I suspect most of the fish are in deeper, warmer water, and I tried to cast as far and as deep as I could, but if the truth be told, I wasn’t really expecting to catch anything today.  That’s almost never a problem for me–I just enjoy being outdoors and standing on the bank, taking in the fresh air, listening to the wildlife all around (and today there were large flocks of geese on the water and in the air, honking up a storm).

My spinning reel was a bit noisy, though–which reminded me that I haven’t done any winter maintenance on my gear, so that goes on the to-do list.  I usually like to take my reels apart and clean out the grit and lubricate the gears (I typically use a little Vaseline for this), and load them up with fresh line before I head out for the first time.

This year there will be a new twist in my fishing outings:  my favorite local fishing lake, Douglas County State Fishing Lake, has been closed for several years for maintenance–they drained it and worked on the dam and set out some brush piles to improve fish habitat–and as of the first of the year, it’s open again for fishing.  I haven’t fished it yet, but I will.  I’ve heard that you need to give a new lake a few years to develop before the fishing gets good again, but this lake has been closed to fishing for a pretty long time since they began filling it up again, so I’m optimistic that it will produce some nice bass fishing by summer time.

Here’s hoping that you get out sometime soon, too!

Last fishing day of 2008

It was 55 degrees here today, with bright sunshine all afternoon, so I decided (against all reason) to go ahead and wet a line one last time before my 2008 fishing license expires.  Although we’ve had some really cold weather lately, we’ve also had some very warm days recently (over 65 degrees a couple of days ago), so most of the lake was thawed out. There was still some ice up in the coves, but the spot I chose gave me access to a good deal of open water.

I must confess here that I know absolutely nothing about how to fish effectively this time of year.  My assumption is that the fish are all deep, in water that (I presume) is somewhat warmer than at the surface, so I tossed my plastic worm as far as I could and let it sink all the way to the bottom before I retrieved it.  That was a bust, so I decided that the ice shelf to the west of where I was standing was more or less the equivalent of “cover” that bass seem to like so much, so I tossed my worm up onto the ice, and drug it off the edge, letting it fall quietly in the water.  Still nothing.

I carried on this way for about an hour with not a single nibble.  And although I would really love to tell you at this point that on my last cast of the day, a lunker finally struck my lure at the edge of the ice, I can’t.  It just didn’t happen.  No fish for me today.

But it was still worth being there.  The sun was low in the sky by 4:00pm, casting long shadows, and the air was as clear and clean as it gets around here.  The sky was nearly cloudless and deep, dark blue, and I was so thankful for the opportunity to be outdoors in the middle of winter, holding my fishing pole at the water’s edge.  Fish or no fish–it didn’t matter to me one bit.

On the way home I snacked on an apple–part of my diet regimen, which is another whole story–but something about the beautiful afternoon, the sun hanging low in the sky, the crisp sweet fruit, and the respite from the cold weather just filled me with intense gratitude.  It was a good year of fishing–I caught nearly 100 fish in 2008–and I’m so thankful to be alive and well and able to enjoy the outdoors.  God has been gracious and good to me, and I’m so thankful for it, so I took a moment this afternoon in the warm sunshine to tell Him so.

Come Thursday, I will partake in what has become an annual ritual for me–I will log onto the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks Web site and purchase my 2009 fishing license.  I always look forward to it, because it means that a new season of fishing is just a few months away.

I hope you’ve had a great year, and I wish you the very best for 2009.

I’m getting the fever…

Not me... (photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/akras/)

It’s starting again, already–I’m missing fishing during these cold winter months, and I’m already thinking about getting out on the lake again as soon as possible.  Where I live, in northeast Kansas, it’s been really cold lately–the wind chill has been down around zero now and then this past week, but I keep looking over at my tackle bag in the corner of my study, and looking forward to the day I take it back out again for the first time in the spring.

This is the time of year that I should probably be cleaning my reels, cleaning out my tackle bag, throwing out the old line, and getting my gear all ship-shape for spring fishing.  But it’s been too busy for that, unfortunately, and I suspect that unless something changes, I’ll probably take my gear out sometime in early March and wish I had taken time during the winter to clean and grease the reels, replace the line, and clean up my tackle bag.

Even though it’s cold here, the lakes aren’t frozen over completely, and the cold weather comes and goes–it doesn’t settle in for a hard freeze all winter like they have up north, so I doubt I’ll be trying my hand at ice-fishing any time soon.  But come January 1, I will be doing what has become an annual New Year’s Day tradition for me–purchasing my fishing license online.  And as soon as I get a Saturday morning when the sun’s shining and the temperature is somewhere above 30 degrees, I’ll be wetting a line, for sure.

If you’re fishing where you live (whether it’s through the ice or on a warm southern lake somewhere), I’d sure love to hear your stories this winter!