20160330 - Cold Water Outing 46 degs Less than 6 FOW

20160330… with the great weather forecasted for today we decided we’d better take advantage before the next polar vortex shows up for the weekend… snow again forecasted … gotta love Michigan! The reservoirs were still in no condition to fish because of the muddy coloring! So a small protected natural lake was our choice for the day.
 
Lake conditions…
Once at the launch we were greeted with some very similar conditions of the 22nd when we did so well with the numbers and quality of fish. Weather was degrading slowly since mid morning and the wind was starting to kick up.
We noticed there were two sets of fisherman out on the water. As we were rigging the boat for launch I shouted out to the fisherman less than 75ft from the dock and asked how were they doing? Their reply was “don’t even bother launching we’ve been out for a couple hours and haven’t gotten a bite”. They informed us they were using live waxies and worms. Earl responded “we did great with small jigs last week before the snow storm” laughingly they said they would be keeping an eye out watching how well we do.
The water looked slightly clay tinted still... like last week. We would be dealing with some wind and chop on the water on our hot spots. Always a tough scenario when using lite lines and tiny jigs.
Water surface temp was in the mid forties.
 
Fishing Strategies:
The fishing strategy today was a continuation of last week’s successful pattern of UL spinning rigs… tiny set-ups with tiny jigs. Our targets were B’Gill, B.Crappie and any preds that get in the way. The way I look at it stick with what’s working. My choice of setup-s were five in number. (3) jigging set-ups from 4-6’ to 5-6’ UL spinning with 2 to 8# Super Lines. With GLISS weighing in at 8#lbs.
 
Success!!:
Earl and I connected with LMB s in our initial casts!! As we continued our controlled drift along the shore pitching the untipped Jigs shallow and parallel to shore the bite shifted to B.Crappies and we anchored, CPR’ed till the bite faded. The other boat asked to pull alongside to see what we were using as technique. As they pulled up I looked to see how they were rigged. They had medium spinning rigs which looked like 10 to 12# mono, fixed bobber with worms and waxies loaded on the hooks. One rig was setup with a wacky worm. I offered them some Power minnows… they declined and said they had something similar to use in their tackle and shoved off. We continued drifting the shoreline. The fisherman thanked us again for the tips and then eventually retreated with an apparent skunking. Been there and done that! Everyone has!
As the wind continued to increase the bite slowly faded away…the wind chill finally got to us and we retreated to the windward side of the lake. The water temps were a couple degs warmer and we settled in to fish the calm waters. I caught my BFOTD at just over 12” casting a tiny pink curly tail on a 1/64 oz jig head… them a few more fishing alongside some laydowns. Earl caught on quickly shortly thereafter tying on the same jig. He then hooks up with a 14” class B.Crappie… his personal best!
Rain started heading in our direction and we called it just in time.
 
Popular set-up of the day:
My favorite tool for the day was the 5-6’ Diawa Spinmatic, Mitchell 308 attached an loaded with the new yellow GLISS line! 8LB test with less than 2LB test mono Dia. Maintained contact with the jig even in the wind and casted like a dream. I pulled a small N.Pike that buried itself in the weeds during the fight. The fish came up off the bottom with a pile of grass and muck. Awesome stuff!