Finally got out to do some fishing for the first time in 2 months. I'd say this is about the longest spell I've gone without fishing in over 15 years.
Starting this winter, I'm planning to modify my blogging style a bit. Posts will lean more towards the technical aspects and results of the given outings, instead of the "play by play" style I've been using.
For this outing, my plan was to hit s small lake filled with mainly largemouth bass, along with some perch and smallmouth bass as well, hoping to start off my winter by harvesting a bag limit of smaller largemouth bass. With a lot of trekking to do, and anticipating having to drill many holes to find fish, I opted to use my 6 inch manual Fin Bore auger due to it's ultra light weight making it a breeze to hand drill all day. With the help of my flasher, I planned to stick to jigging 1 lure all day, a small Yo Zuri Rattlenvibe tipped with a live mealworm.
Conditions:
Outer temp above freezing at 2C. Wind 5 KM/H. Cloudy. 7-8 inches of ice, 1 inch snow cover.
Stats:
Fished 54 holes in 6 hours. Tough bite starting at mid morning major until afternoon minor. During that time, I landed 5 largemouth bass, 1 smallmouth bass, and 3 perch. All caught between 29 and 32 feet of depth, suspended 3 feet or so from bottom.
At my 48th hole , during the afternoon minor, with about 90 minutes remaining to the outing, I hit the motherload. 4 of 6 next holes produced additional 14 largemouth bass, 1 smallmouth bass, and 2 more perch. Shallowest bite of the day, these were all caught between 24 and 28 feet of depth, schooling and very aggressive, chasing lure 8-10 feet up from bottom.
Total for the day ended at 19 largemouth bass, 2 smallmouth bass, and 5 perch. With that amount of manual drilling, I didn't need to wear my coat at all, stayed warm just wearing sweater and bibs.
Harvested my 6 largemouth bass limit, release the rest as well as the smallmouth bass. Perch mostly riddled with white worms and black spots, kept only 1 perch.
Two days later, I headed back for more bass fishing on same lake. Started off fishing my old holes for the first 90 minutes or so, as they were still open due to warm weather. Managed another bag limit of largemouth bass within the first 45 minutes or so, but they were a bit deeper this time, mainly in the 30 to 35 foot range. Still biting suspended.
I then drilled about 40 holes over the next 3.5 hours, most of them in spots I normally don't get to due to heavy snow cover. Deepest spot on the lake I found was 61 feet, and to my surprise, I pulled a couple perch out of that depth. Deepest perch I've ever caught.
Caught a pretty deep smallmouth bass as well, at 40 feet.
Final tally for the day was 12 largemouth bass, 3 smallmouth bass, and 9 perch. All on same rattlenvibe rattle bait lure tipped with mealworm.
Harvested a few more fish for my freezer as well.
Found this cool frozen crayfish on my way out.
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