Fishy Start to Spring

Spring officially got underway last week, and I'm delighted to have gotten to start the season with four days of fishing (and catching!) I spent the first three days of the season on Arkansas' Lake Ouachita, fishing mostly a bass and a bit for crappie to take photos for work. I then strayed farther west, to a small lake in the Oklahoma portion of the Ouachita National Forest, to do a bit of bass fishing from my kayak for videos.

It was definitely a spring bite on Ouachita. The largemouths were shallow and in a pre-spawn mode, and spinnerbaits produced the best action. We mostly caught males, so the bigger females were most likely staged nearby. We also got some good spotted bass atop rocky points and sunken islands that were close to deeper water by dragging Carolina rigs and by swimming a Flash Mob Jr..

The best crappie action occurred in less than 3 feet and around buckbrush. We caught them by suspending curly tail grubs a couple of feet beneath Thill floats, casting close to the buckbrush and twitching rod tip just enough to rock the float and make the jig dance. They were hitting the jigs hard, more like what I'd expect from a bass, ripping the float out of sight in an instant. Big fun!

I only managed a few bass at the little lake, which was pretty busy on the first Friday of spring and with beautiful weather leading into the weekend. However, two of three were way up the lake's most significant creek arm, on a very shallow flat, and hit a Rebel Bluegill, which is a shallow crankbait that looks like you would expect it to based on the name.

Spring Springing

Flowers pictured on a fishing blog mean exactly what you might guess: I haven't been fishing enough. The blooms that are getting ever more plentiful and varied in my yard also remind me that spring is coming on quickly and that fish of various kinds should be moving shallower and feeding readily.

I do plan to fish more soon. Nathaniel, Asher and I are headed for higher hills later this week to chase some North Carolina trout in Delayed Harvest waters. The DH streams, which are open only to catch-and-release fishing with single-hook artificial lures this time of year, always get a fresh stocking the first week of March, so there should be plenty of trout to try to fool. We'll likely hit a few different streams while we're in the area.

We also plan to do a little bit of stream fishing in the riverine upper ends of mountain lakes, just to see if anything is running the rivers. We probably won't spend a huge amount of time doing that, but maybe we can find a f couple of walleyes or white bass up the rivers. Of course, if some fish do cooperate, we might just stick around to more.

I'll let you know what we find!

Spring Springing Quickly

Spring is officially about a week away, but I'm glad to say that signs of the changing season are plentiful. A month ago today I was fishing atop the Indiana ice and getting ready to travel to Michigan, just in time to welcome a big lake-effect snow. My family raced the biggest southern storm of the winter home from that trip and soon had our coldest temperatures of this year. The snow that fell has only been gone a couple of weeks, but forecast is full of 60s, and I can count half a dozen kinds of flowers blooming in my yard.

It's not just here either. Posts I'm seeing on Instagram, facebook and Twitter scream spring. Big bass freshly caught, flowers blooming, people playing in short sleeves, families getting out... Even way to the north, where friends are still ice-fishing, the pictures suggest late ice, strangely moderate conditions and change trying to happen.

My upcoming trips, although all to different places, are definitely springish by design, and on my most recent trout outing with Asher, we shed coats in the afternoon.

I'm not saying the cold has fled us for the year. Some of our most winterish weather often comes very late some years. The trend is toward spring, though, and that's good news, as far as I'm concerned.

Thursday Tips: Get Sneaky

Watch Nathaniel "put the sneak" on a beaver pond backwater bass. For more videos, please visit our YouTube channel.

As spring progresses and fish of various kinds move shallow, stealth becomes important in many waterways. If the water where you fish is even somewhat clear, it doesn't take much to spook the fish. Stealth doesn't call for fancy refined skills or specialized equipment; just an awareness of the fact that if you make the fish aware of you they are far less likely to stay in place and to take your offerings.

Consider likely fish positions as you approach a piece of cover or structure and plan your attack. Don't make your first cast to the outer edge of a great piece of cover, where fish will see it from a far and get a good look. Identify the very best spot and cast just past it so that the first time the fish sees your offering it's right there in the fish's dining room. When possible, stay back from the spot you are trying to work, and for really clear water dress in drab colors, avoid abrupt movements and consider lighter line or a fluorocarbon leader.

Of course, being sneaky doesn't necessarily mean using finesse. A buzzbait, a big flashy spinnerbait or a hard-kicking shallow crankbait might be the best bait to draw reaction strikes. Simply avoiding extra boat banking or holding the boat downcurrent so the fish face away from you can make a huge difference in your success rate. The key is to consider your position and movements and how your lure should cross a flat or come down a bank for the best chances of the fish seeing it within the ambush zone before it otherwise detects your presence. Do that, and you will catch more fish.

Tantalizing More than Trout

Not long ago I pulled a few choice lures from my trout boxes to shoot photos for a story sidebar. I should have returned them to their place right away because they've been sitting atop my filing cabinet, tantalizing me, ever since. Each time I walk past them, my mind heads for a creek, where at least one of the lures gets nabbed by wild brookie or brown trout.

I'm confident that if I took this little selection to one of several creeks not far from home, good things would happen. However, story deadlines, other commitments and plentiful early-season rain have kept me out of trout waters. And so the baits continue to await their turn and I continue to daydream.

The good news is that I'll be in the North Carolina mountains chasing trout and maybe some walleyes or smallmouths at this time next week. That helps quite a bit, but I wonder if my patience will last that long. I might have to hit a local creek between now and then. Or maybe -- just maybe -- I'll compromise and take this little foursome to the pond, which is closer than the creeks and handier for a quick outing, to see if the bream are starting to act like spring has sprung.

Spring Trying to Spring

 

Waning writing productivity on Friday afternoon and a forecast for Saturday rain convinced Nathaniel and me that we needed to make a lap or two around the beaver pond to see if the fish were acting springish. Recent days have been chilly for the latter part of March in Georgia, and the radar even showed a few flurries near us yesterday morning. Still, some days have been quite warm, nights have been less cold overall, and flowers around the yard suggest that spring is trying to happen. 

 



Our test was admittedly quick. We had a little more than an hour of fishing time. Still, we found evidence that spring fishing might be trying to awaken. Despite it having been cloudy and only in the low 50s while were were out there, the fish bit fairly well and seemed to be in ambush mode. We caught five fish -- three on weightless plastics and two with a square-billed crankbait -- and missed a handful of others.

The next few days are supposed to remain damp and cool, but after that we're forecast to climb into high 60s and stay there for several days. My best guess is that we are right on the edge of the fish getting substantially more aggressive, and that soon Nathaniel will be creeping around the ponds' edge looking for fish he can target by sight.