I arose at 5:00 a.m. with my wife. It's her normal time to get up and ready for work. I had prepared my gear, clothing, jacket, food, and drinks last evening. So, all I needed to do was shower, shave, dress, and hook the boat up.
I was on the road and towing my rig by 6:15 a.m. I headed to my local greasy spoon to eat a nice quiet breakfast, read the local newspaper, and drink some hot coffee.
The air temperature was 33 degrees on my truck thermometer when I arrived at the restaurant. Last Tuesday, it was 21 degrees at the same time. We've had a nice and welcomed warm up period over the past week. It's been a slow warm up, too. That has allowed the snow and ice to melt on a slow and even pace. The river is on a slight rise with all the water entering.
After eggs, fruit, and crispy bacon, I was back in my truck and heading to the river. It was now 37 degrees and the sun was rising over the horizon. It was just a beautiful morning. However, I knew the winds would start to kick in with the warming of the sun... and it did!
There was only one other truck and trailer in the parking lot when I arrived at the ramp. I prepped my boat and gear and launched my rig. As I was launching the G3, I saw another jet rig had arrived and was waiting for me to finish up. It was Tracker and Bob Hodgins (sp?). I had met Tracker at the ESOS a few weeks ago and Bob was an old friend of my good buddy, Mike Burton. In fact, he and Mike have known each other for 40+ years! They had fished together in the defunct Conestoga Bass Club. That was a long, long time ago.
Bob runs an 18' Sea Ark with an older four stroke 115/80 Yamaha. A very nice fishing machine.
I stuck around the ramp for a few minutes because Bob was having a hard time starting the motor on it's maiden 2010 outing. Tracker told me that it was okay for me to leave and I high tailed it across the river to my first fishing hole. A few minutes later, I caught sight of Tracker and Bob heading up river. Good!
I started my day out by fishing a hair jig. I stuck with it for about 30 minutes and finally went back to my trusty 2.5" tube with a 1/8th oz. jig head. Within seconds, I hit my first 15" bass.
A few minutes later, I hooked up with another nice 15" smallie.
(Please excuse the quality of my pics today. I'm learning the self-timer mode and flash on this new camera!)
I assumed that both of these slender fish were bucks. Neither seemed to have any evidence of eggs like my 18" did last Tuesday.
Before I left my first hole, I had five smallmouth bass ranging from 13.5" to 15" in length.
I ran north and fished two more areas with three more bass coming to hand.
At the last spot, I got off the trolling motor to pick out a 1/2 oz. silver bladed spinnerbait. I took the time to also tie it on my line before returning to the trolling motor. When I stepped up on the deck and hit the power pedal, out ran about six smallies. They were like shot out of a cannon and scattering north in all different directions... Simply Amazing!
I ended the day with ten bass with nothing too big. Tracker and Bob told me they had two beautiful hawgs today. The one smallie went around 4 lbs! Great job, Bob!
We were all throwing similar lures - jigs, tubes, jerkbaits, and spinnerbaits. The tube was the big winner for me today. I did give each of the other lures ample time to catch fish, but they weren't successful.
It was a bluebird sky with quite a bit of wind. The weather report was calling for up to 15 mph winds. However, as we all know, the wind blowing through the river valley often picks up a few mph's!
The air temp when I arrived was around 38 degrees and it rose to 63 degrees when I returned to the ramp at 2:45 p.m. Our nice warming trend wil continue into tomorrow... Yes! I plan on being up north with Josh "smallieman" Kreider in the morning. I can't wait.
The water temps ran from 43 degrees to 49 degrees in the warm water influence.
Hope to have an even better report with more pics for you tomorrow.
Until later,
Dad
