I Felt Like the Fish Were Thumbing Their Nose at Me Today

If not that, they certainly were showing their butt. I spooked a big something along the shoreline down in Albright's this morning, and fish periodically were breaking the surface during my three hours in West Neck, too. I suppose I should have broken out a topwater, but I stubbornly kept throwing jerkbaits and crankbaits--I just couldn't believe the fish would hit a topwater this time of year. As a result, I had tallied my first skunk of the new year at day's end. If a fish touched any of my baits, I never felt it.

Because West Neck was muddy, I ran south to Albright's first thing this morning. During a conversation I had with Jared before launching this morning, I learned the water in the front end of Albright's had been clear yesterday morning, and he had caught some fish there. After two hours of fruitlessly fishing the front end, I pulled up the trolling motor and ran back to West Neck and attacked those areas where I've been catching fish for several weeks now, even though they all were extremely muddy. Once again, all I did was stir the water.

I found water temps in the mid-50s first thing this morning, so I was more than a little hopeful I would find at least a few, but it simply wasn't in the cards. Where I go from here depends on the weather. With the predictions I'm hearing for the rest of this week, I can assure you I won't be launching my boat again in that timeframe.

There was an email in my inbox last evening from Ron. Seems he and a buddy had made a trip to Tecumseh yesterday afternoon.

They fished from 3:30 to 5:30 and ended up in the middle of a crappie battle. His buddy managed to catch a 1-9, and Ron logged a 1-7 (see right). They each caught three nice ones. all over 12 inches, but the big ones were just over 14 inches.

Besides those crappie, Ron also logged four chain pickerel, with the biggest a 23-incher, along with a small bass that measured 11 inches and a very welcome bowfin (see left) that measured 21 inches (but which he didn't weigh). Exclaimed Ron, "That bowfin gave me a great fight!"

The XTS Silver Minnow was the ticket to all his success yesterday, except for one of the crappie, which he caught on a beetlespin. He couldn't find any takers for the Shadow Rap.

This just in: Ron fished Dam Neck Annex today with a friend. "Surprisingly, I didn't get any chain pickerel," he noted, "and my crappie catch wasn't very good, either." As he explained, he only caught two crappie (a 10-incher and a 12-incher), compared to his friend's six nice ones (pictured at right).

He won the grand consolation prize, though, with five bass, led by the 3-lb. 6-ouncer (19 inches long) (pictured below) that, as Ron said, "took a little drag."  The others included a 2-10, 2-4, 14-ouncer, and a 10-incher.

Ron indicated he actually was glad he didn't have to deal with any chain pickerel, "but I would have liked a bowfin," he added.

All the bass and some of the crappie were hitting the XTS Minnow. The crappie also were hitting live minnows.

"So far, so good for the New Year," Ron remarked, but he also took note of the fact our weather is going south.