04-27-2015, 04:32 PM
Just a quick report from last weekend. I launched my pontoon from Pelican Bay at the crack of 9:30 or so and rowed north a bit. The water was still pretty cloudy from all of the wind and I have no idea of the temperature (no electronics) but it was too cold to dangle my feet in for very long. As usual, I offered a shrimp and worm combo on one rod and casted a variety of Gulp Minnow/jig head/Tube Dude jig head/tube jig combinations on my light rod. After receiving no love on either for a couple hours, the wind came up (from the wrong direction as usual) so I rowed into the wind for a little more than an hour back to the marina. I dragged a 1/16th ounce jig head with a white/charteuse Gulp Minnow and did pick up one lonely white bass during the journey. The fifty yards of rowing I lost while I landed him took a little of the fun out of it. I rowed past the marina to the south and anchored near the last house that direction and of course about the time I finished rowing, the wind calmed back down. I did start to get a few inquiries on my bait setup but they were few, far between and a bit tentative. I fished my way back toward the marina and the surprise of the trip came when I thought I snagged my jig (again) and started jerking on it to get it loose. My light rod has 4 lb. test and I was using a black 1/16th ounce jig head with a dark Gulp Minnow and when it just stopped and bent in half I figured I'd caught the bottom. On about my third jerk, the bottom started shaking it's head and moving at a leisurely pace away from me (I once saw a friend try and shake off a steelhead this same way and never let him forget it...I'm glad he wasn't there). I managed to turn the fish on my woefully inadequate rod and got him about half way back to the 'toon before my quality hook set/sets came back to haunt me and my jig came flying toward my head. I caught a glimpse of him at the surface before he left and believe it was a decent size cat (for the purposes of this story we'll say he was a sure thing for biggest cat of the year). All in all, a nice day alone with my thoughts without too many fish bothering me all day. I did see a couple guys on the rocks at the marina land what appeared to be (I was a little way off), a pretty big pike and yes they killed it and took it with them hopefully they did the whole DNR report thing if that's still going on. I made it home just as the rain started and was glad I resisted the urge to get on the cat contest thread to talk trash before my first trip of the year. Bring on the warmer weather/water.
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