06-24-2019, 09:22 PM
[#0000ff]If'n I was to believe the weather forecrashers, Monday would be the least breezy day this week. So I headed for the south marina. Met WH2 and Wiperslayer at the ramp, launching their boat as I was launching my tube.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Air temp 55, water temp 67 at launch, warming to almost 70 at noon. Very high tide...and pretty good clarity. Just a trickle coming in at the baffles.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Silly me. Once again I deluded myself into thinking I might get a walleye or wiper. So I did not bring my LHBE minnows. Just lots of plastics and cranks...and of course some fligs. Brought crawlers, perch meat and Gulp Minnows to sweeten the lures.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Fished my way out the channel without any love. Started getting inquiries about 50 yards north of the channel entrance. I had been dragging a fire tiger flig with crawler on one rod and throwing a shad pattern swim bait on the other. The flig rod went bendo and TA-DAAA. The first silly kitty of the day.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]As I continued to work along the dike...in water from 10' to 15'...I continued to get regularly molested. In addition to the pestiferous (but fun) catfish, I also got some smallie smacks. Nothing big. 8"-12". But they sure did like a white Gulp Minnow fished on a propellered jig head (pistol Pat). Even caught a few cantankerous cats on it too.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I kept changing up flig colors to try to find something the cats would not chomp. They hit everything I tried...with any kind of bait or combo. Had a tough time even trying to fish plastics. I would put out a freshly baited flig, put the rod in the holder, make a cast with the plastics and BENDO on the flig rod. Some problems are better to have than others.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Most of the cats that came to net were very fat pregnant mamas. However, I did catch one very dark male almost as soon as my Gulp Minnow splashed down next to the rocks on one cast. I only kept a few females for the table and they all had well developed eggs. The warmup this week should see them wrapping up their spawn soon.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The parking lot was well attended with boat trailers today. Quite a few craft on the water. But the ones I could see seemed to be moving around more than they would if they were on fish. Curt and Ira paid me an on-the-water visit about mid-morning. At that time they said they had not done much yet. And a couple of boaters who came in when I did just before noon also moaned about poor luck. Guess the fickle weather messed up the fickle fish.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]When I got back to the ramp I noticed hordes of newly hatched fry swimming in the warm shallows. Couldn' t tell the species. Figured they were either shad or carp. Mighta been walleyes. Didn't have my microscope so all I could do was take a picture.
[/#0000ff]
[signature]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Air temp 55, water temp 67 at launch, warming to almost 70 at noon. Very high tide...and pretty good clarity. Just a trickle coming in at the baffles.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Silly me. Once again I deluded myself into thinking I might get a walleye or wiper. So I did not bring my LHBE minnows. Just lots of plastics and cranks...and of course some fligs. Brought crawlers, perch meat and Gulp Minnows to sweeten the lures.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Fished my way out the channel without any love. Started getting inquiries about 50 yards north of the channel entrance. I had been dragging a fire tiger flig with crawler on one rod and throwing a shad pattern swim bait on the other. The flig rod went bendo and TA-DAAA. The first silly kitty of the day.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]As I continued to work along the dike...in water from 10' to 15'...I continued to get regularly molested. In addition to the pestiferous (but fun) catfish, I also got some smallie smacks. Nothing big. 8"-12". But they sure did like a white Gulp Minnow fished on a propellered jig head (pistol Pat). Even caught a few cantankerous cats on it too.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I kept changing up flig colors to try to find something the cats would not chomp. They hit everything I tried...with any kind of bait or combo. Had a tough time even trying to fish plastics. I would put out a freshly baited flig, put the rod in the holder, make a cast with the plastics and BENDO on the flig rod. Some problems are better to have than others.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Most of the cats that came to net were very fat pregnant mamas. However, I did catch one very dark male almost as soon as my Gulp Minnow splashed down next to the rocks on one cast. I only kept a few females for the table and they all had well developed eggs. The warmup this week should see them wrapping up their spawn soon.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The parking lot was well attended with boat trailers today. Quite a few craft on the water. But the ones I could see seemed to be moving around more than they would if they were on fish. Curt and Ira paid me an on-the-water visit about mid-morning. At that time they said they had not done much yet. And a couple of boaters who came in when I did just before noon also moaned about poor luck. Guess the fickle weather messed up the fickle fish.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]When I got back to the ramp I noticed hordes of newly hatched fry swimming in the warm shallows. Couldn' t tell the species. Figured they were either shad or carp. Mighta been walleyes. Didn't have my microscope so all I could do was take a picture.
[/#0000ff]
[signature]