Brett and I fished all day at Newton. It was right at 0° when we arrived. To cut to the chase, it wasn't a good catching day. I guess the storm the day before put them down. We each caught 2 (I think Brett may have caught one or two more when I wasn't looking). It was one of those days: Brett caught a 13" lmb right off the bat. Then it was nothing for hours. We could sometimes detect a few fish come up off the bottom and give our presentations a look, but that's all. Around mid-morning some guy came marching right over to us. I thought that might be a bit cheeky until he said something and I realized that it was SkunkedAgain. He invited me to come over to his"hotel" to see how the old pros do it. He has a big towable tent that flips up on the side. Inside there is quite a bit of room and a nice long bench to sit on. He had a lot of electronic contraptions spread out in front of him. I thought the underwater camera was cool but couldn't see anything on the screen. Then suddenly a big tiger musky came up and bumped the transducer (screen). He came and went several times and even came nose to nose with Jeff's jig+perch meat. We thought he was going to bite several times but he didn't and finally swam away.
Anyway, in the afternoon we traveld up the lake to where Fritz caught his big bass the other day. This was much better as we quickly saw a lot more activity on our flashers. I caught a little perch (whew, no skunk) and a while later I caught another fish. At first I thought it was another perch but then noticed it didn't have any vertical stripes. I was puzzled for a minute then realized it was a small bass. It only had a vestigial horizontal stripe. Wow, I met my goal. Here's my problem: my goal was to catch a bass. Any bass. And that's what I caught. Next time I'll set the bar a little higher.
We tried a number of different things. I particularly wanted to try some hardware. Both of my fish were caught on a flutter spoon with a mealworm on one hook. I was hoping to catch big bass so was surprised that those little fish took it.
We didn't hear about many people who caught a bunch except one. Dan, a long-time lurker on BFT, reported catching 22 perch before noon. He was right out in the middle. We found the fish between 16 and 18 feet down.
Anyway, in the afternoon we traveld up the lake to where Fritz caught his big bass the other day. This was much better as we quickly saw a lot more activity on our flashers. I caught a little perch (whew, no skunk) and a while later I caught another fish. At first I thought it was another perch but then noticed it didn't have any vertical stripes. I was puzzled for a minute then realized it was a small bass. It only had a vestigial horizontal stripe. Wow, I met my goal. Here's my problem: my goal was to catch a bass. Any bass. And that's what I caught. Next time I'll set the bar a little higher.
We tried a number of different things. I particularly wanted to try some hardware. Both of my fish were caught on a flutter spoon with a mealworm on one hook. I was hoping to catch big bass so was surprised that those little fish took it.
We didn't hear about many people who caught a bunch except one. Dan, a long-time lurker on BFT, reported catching 22 perch before noon. He was right out in the middle. We found the fish between 16 and 18 feet down.
The older I get the more I would rather be considered a good man than a good fisherman.
