|
Date: May 11, 2019 Body of Water: Lake St. Clair (LSC) Boat: Numenon With: Alone Target: Smallmouth Bass Time: 10 AM - 3:30 PM Conditions: Cloudy; 50 - 55 degrees F; NNE wind at about 10 mph; water was very stained with about 2 feet of visibility and was 53-54 degrees F. The week had featured wind, rain and more cool temperatures. I expected the water temperature to have remained about the same, and I had a couple of logical starting points. I knew water clarity and boat control might pose challenges, but I felt equipped to try to handle them. Temperatures had inched up just a degree or so; and the stained water seemed to be more uniformly degraded than the patchiness I'd previously encountered. In my starting spot off The 400 Club in 10 feet of water, I had about 2 feet of visibility; enough to garner some bites, perhaps. After a half-hour drift through previously productive waypoints from about 12 feet into 9 feet or so without a sign of life (I casted a rattle-bait and a crank-bait while dragging a tube, too), I relocated to the last trip's productive stretch, just south of Memorial Park. Here the water conditions were very similar to those encountered further north. I did quickly score the first fish of the season on a casted crank-bait (a 15-inch white bass that intercepted my brown perch KVD 1.5 Flat in about 10.5 fow), but otherwise I rattled, cranked and jerked this area with no success. Given the northerly wind, I didn't really want to go much further south if I didn't have to. I decided to resort to the trolling tactics of the last trip in order to see if the fish were still responsive to slow-trolled cranks. I ran to the north end of this stretch, and just as I was setting up my three-rod spread, a boat in about 11.5 fow hooked up. It appeared to be a sizable bass; big enough for me to hedge my trolling path to the deeper side of my waypoints from the previous trip. Before I even reached that stretch of waypoints, I'd caught a couple of brown bass, including a fine, 4.25-pounder. The fish were still there, including some of the right ones! The bite was never fast and furious, but there was a steady pick of bites. It took an hour and a half to record Bass No. 5, and my initial "limit" was on the order of 14.5 pounds in total weight. But the next couple of hours offered several opportunities to upgrade; two additional bass just over four pounds came aboard, as well as several more between 3 and 3.25 pounds. By 3:30 PM, I'd landed 16 bass with the largest five totaling 18.5 pounds, conservatively. I'd also caught two nice "eater" walleye and a fine, 28-inch channel cat. I'd farmed out a few heavy fish, too, along the way. All of this in an area where I'd been unable to get a bass bite on my casted lures. Once again a trolling speed of about 1.5 mph with the electric motor triggered a lot of bites. Depths from 10.5 to 11.5 fow were most productive. The lures were literally just a short cast behind the boat. If a lure went too long without getting hit, I'd let out five or ten more feet of line, and sometimes this would trigger a strike. But the short cast method must have placed the lures close to the bottom anyway, because quite often a lure would get fouled soon after any "lengthening" attempt on my part. Last week's star, the shad-colored Arashi Flat 7, was pretty quiet. The brown perch KVD 1.5 Flat crank caught all of the sizable bass, as well as most of the smaller ones, too. A sexy shad KVD 1.5 Flat caught the interesting bonus fish, and a blue parrot Arashi generated a few bites. What do I have to say about this? I'd rather catch them casting, but I've enjoyed these simple trolling efforts. My next trip will feature a guide; I hope to see how he deals with these water conditions. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Steve LachanceRI --> NH --> MI-->MA-->ME Archives
June 2024
Categories
All
|
Proudly powered by Weebly