First Trip Of 2011
I finally had some time on Sunday to make it out, and some decently cooperative weather, so I grabbed the Jon boat and headed down to Plymouth.
By the time I got there, the wind was howling. I ended up picking a small pond where I knew I could get out of the worst of it, and dropped the boat and all the accessories in. The water was down around 3 feet from last year, and the ramp cove had maybe two feet of water. It was nicely out of the wind, and the temp was reading 58. I saw fish cruising around as soon as I got there.
I launched and fished the nearby area with a 1-minus crankbait, and almost immediately hooked up with a small dink for the first fish of the year. Next cast, a better fish. For two more casts I hooked up, for a total of four in a row. I managed a couple more before the area went dead. Nothing huge, just keeper size fish which is a bit below average for the pond. I did see a few real nice fish cruising, but none were willing to play.
After fishing the rest of the cove with no results, I braved the wind for a short while. I had to spend so much time wrestling with the boat that I hardly got to do any fishing at all. So I popped into another sheltered cove that is noticeably deeper than the first one. Water temp was around 52.
I fished a deep jerkbait for a bit with no takers before switching to a jig. The next fish came off a laydown in 4-5 feet of water. The line took off like a rocket, and by the time I set the hook it was 15-20 feet from the tree. Nothing fancy, but another decent keeper.
At this point it was almost time to head out, but I had one more stop to make at a pair of sunken boulders in 5-7 feet of water. I fished a Lucky Craft Pointer around the area, and felt it bump one of the rocks. Immediately after, I felt another thump and set the hook. After a decent fight, I managed to land a nice 2 1/2 lb smallie with a huge gut! It's the first smallie I've seen or caught in there, and the locals I've asked have denied their existence. Glad they were wrong =)
Back at the ramp I made a few more casts with a senko in that first cove, and managed to round out the day with another solid keeper chunk. All in all, it was a fantastic first day on the water!