Finding the groove

The tooner and I hit a spot of water where the action has been consistently off and on this year. One day you have the fish jumping in the boat and the next day you can’t find a single fin slapper. Load the gear, launch the boat and right away I get bites from small fish on the 4” weightless grub setup. This is something I throw in the morning when a buzzbait may seem too obnoxious. Casting distance is limited but a good choice in the lightweight department. After a few dinks I manage to pull a nearly respectable fish from under a large section of moss.

Before leaving this area I switch to a larger plastic bait. I work the moss area again and then search fast for a while before moving. The electronics are giving me varying depth and a water temperature of 63 degrees. Wind is fairly consistent at 15mph and the air temp was climbing. Only small bass under 12-inches were gathering in the shallows. The larger bass were not nesting or even cruising in shallow water. The electronics were not picking fish off the bottom either. After an hour with no fish of size from the edges I switch to the spinnerbait and started going into search cast mode. This picked up a few chunkers. Nothing in the shameless bragging department but enough action to keep me casting with sexy skirted spinnerbait.

Search casting with the naked spinnerbait (no trailer) allowed me to cover water more quickly. This pattern was the most affective of the day but I would still drop down a creature presentation or a fantastic plastic setup if the fish finder came up with “pocket terrain” on the bottom. When fish are elusive and not in an aggressive bite pattern, this is usually money. However on this day I did not get so much as a nibble from the deep drop.

Somewhere along the line I see some wood structure and start throwing the small jig setup. My goal here is to see what kind of mood the panfish are in. It may be a little early for bluegill or sunfish to be staging but a few crappie were still around to make the attempt worthwhile. This is not a slab by any means but my first crappie of the year.

By now my blog’s small handful of regular viewers are probably getting tired of me complaining about my lack of success and absence of shameless bragging this season. In previous years it seemed like I could pitch anything near water and come up with a big fish. This year however I am struggling to just to be average. Hopefully I am finding the groove and getting back into fish catching mode.

My name is Matt and I’m a fishaholic.