It's Opening Day!

I finally got on the water at 9:00, it was gray, a damp, dank 42 degrees,
but calm. I decided this year I'd try other lures and techniques, rather
than my usual pearl Zoom Fluke and firetiger Secret Weapon spinnerbait. So,
figuring to use some of the lures that I got from Joe, I hit the stained
waters of Lake Mohawksin.

I figured with the cold overnight temperatures that the smallies would have
moved out of the shallows, so I started fishing rocky points with deeper
water. After taking a beating by Randy in Kentucky while he fished a wacky
rigged senko type bait behind me, I started out pitching one of those. The
watermelon color didn't draw a bite. Neither did pumpkinseed, white,
junebug or some of the laminate colors.

I switched to a tube, still nothing. I worked deep wood, rocks, steep
dropping shorelines and some laydowns. Nothing! I ran down to the
papermill, and fished the water intake where I've done well in the past. I
pitched senkos, tubes, creatures, trick worms, still nothing! Finally,
working down the shoreline, I pitched into a laydown and managed one small
dink on a watermelon senko, texas rigged.

By now, the weather had turned. The clouds blew out and bright sunshine and
wind arrived. Thinking the fish might now tuck into the shaded areas, I
started skipping tubes and senkos underneath overhanging trees in the shade.
Still nothing, only now, the wind was howling and it made boat control
interesting, especially with a hand controlled trolling motor on the loaner
Cat. I started throwing (what else?), a firetiger Secret Weapon (tandem
blades, chrome and gold). Slipping the motor into the wind, I started
"chunkin' and windin'", and had a nice sized smallie swirl at the bait.
Thinking quicker than I usually do, I dropped that rod and grabbed the senko
rod and pitched back to the fish. NOTHING!!!

Well, I knew there was a good smallie there, and I was darned if I was going
to let it go, so I brought out another rod, and tied on a 5/0 EWG hook and
put on (what else?), a pearl Zoom Super Fluke. By this time, I was blown
250 yards down the shore, so I trolled on back. On the first cast with the
fluke, I got pounded, but missed! I straightened out the lure and pitched
back in. That cast was rewarded with a solid thump, and the first keeper
smallie of the day. I posted a picture on APBF if you'd like to see it. It
was a nice, fat fish, pre-spawn and almost 20 inches, and according to the
digital scale, 3.92 pounds.

I ended up catching 14 smallies, the shortest was 14 1/2 inches, and the one
pictured was the largest. The bulk of the fish were in the 16 - 18 inch
range and I had a ball!

All of the fish were caught on the fluke and the SW spinnerbait. I tried, I
really did want to use other lures, but hey, I wanted to catch fish!

All in all, not a bad day at all, but I just couldn't bring myself to go
chase walleyes.......
--
Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com
G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods
http://www.herefishyfishy.com