Fishless Fishing Beats Not Fishing

 

I failed to get out prior to last weekend’s winter storm, so with another storm forecast for this weekend, I didn’t want that to happen again. I had some lure photos I wanted to shoot for work and had reached a late-afternoon stopping point with office stuff, so I headed for a close-to-home river access.

You can probably guess by the title that I didn’t catch anything, and I only fished for a little more than an hour. Had I let the afternoon slip away without even trying, though, I’d have felt liken I’d missed an opportunity, and in truth I really enjoyed the river outing.

Don’t get me wrong. I always want to catch fish, and that’s the objective when I go. I focused on the areas where I thought they were the most likely to be and tried a few good winter presentations. Failing to catch fish doesn’t ruin a trip for me, though, and I knew when I left home that going fishless was a definite possibility.

Last weekend’s storm brought a lot of sleet and freezing rain and overnight lows in the low teens. Water temperatures undoubtedly dropped more dramatically than Georgia fish are accustomed to experiencing.

I also chose an area where shoal bass and spotted bass are the main sport fish species. Trout waters might have offered better prospects, given conditions, since trout are cold-water fish by nature.

That wasn’t my choice, though, so I won’t ever know. I’m just glad I chose to go fishing.