When things go right..

[Van_Cleaver]

I know we've all had days when it seems everything is going wrong but in these trying times I'd like to invite anyone that bothers to read this to share a positive story. I'll begin:

Tonight we ate a little early at my request and yes I had fishing on my mind. Made the 7 min. drive to my local lake and was quickly in the water in water shoes and nylon shorts; a little before eight. I tried a different spot than usual but used the rig I already had on; a foam popper with a bead head ant dropped 20" or so off the bend.

The lake was flat calm but the gills were still taking the popper almost right away. The bite was steady but got better and better as the light went down. That said the ant was catching even when I could barely see the popper. Most time when I fish on top there always seem to be a lot of risers some distance off, but tonight that is right where I was. In a little over an hour I landed at least 15 gills, two small bass and two small crappie, and of course missed a bunch; never changed flies or was forced to re-rig; always a bonus!

0n the way out I stopped to talk to the only anglers that were fairly close to me, commenting they were hard core since it was pretty dark. They had caught a couple fish but the gentleman told me his young daughter didn't want to leave as she had caught a bass. I commended him for that and said I wished more kids were like that in this day an age. Drove home feeling satisfied on more than one level.

 

[Baron]

Van, for a change I was trying to be polite and let some other sage members reply to your nice reflection below. I fully understand your point. Not to mention that if you wouldn't have shown up in the first place you'd have nothing.
25 years ago I took the family on a camping canoe trip. My 12 yr old son found a huge orange repel. Bright orange and 6 + inches. I told him to forget it its way too big for the Delaware and I further said that the person that brought it in the first place must've been a beginner and made a huge mistake.
Against my wishes and pleading he put it on his line and promptly caught a 12" smallmouth. We've caught about that forever and now, as a top notch Chevron engineer he reflects on that trip often and now I shared it with you.
Best!
;-D

Van_Cleaver wrote:
I know we've all had days when it seems everything is going wrong but in these trying times I'd like to invite anyone that bothers to read this to share a positive story. I'll begin:

Tonight we ate a little early at my request and yes I had fishing on my mind. Made the 7 min. drive to my local lake and was quickly in the water in water shoes and nylon shorts; a little before eight. I tried a different spot than usual but used the rig I already had on; a foam popper with a bead head ant dropped 20" or so off the bend.

The lake was flat calm but the gills were still taking the popper almost right away. The bite was steady but got better and better as the light went down. That said the ant was catching even when I could barely see the popper. Most time when I fish on top there always seem to be a lot of risers some distance off, but tonight that is right where I was. In a little over an hour I landed at least 15 gills, two small bass and two small crappie, and of course missed a bunch; never changed flies or was forced to re-rig; always a bonus!

0n the way out I stopped to talk to the only anglers that were fairly close to me, commenting they were hard core since it was pretty dark. They had caught a couple fish but the gentleman told me his young daughter didn't want to leave as she had caught a bass. I commended him for that and said I wished more kids were like that in this day an age. Drove home feeling satisfied on more than one level.

 

[Mike]

Van,
There is a fairly new biologist’s report on the PFBC web site for Chambers Lake. It mainly deals with the largemouth bass population and the survey was one of my last LMB surveys as a PFBC AFM. I forget if the report specifies that the electrofishing was daylight electrofishing. We normally do night electrofishing because we are more likely to find the bass closer to shore, but I found that rainy days are a reasonable substitute if there is not time in the schedule to include night work. Likewise, turbid water in daylight is just as good as night work. Rainy days are good even when the water is clear, as it was in the Chambers case, but I am not certain that those days are quite equal to night work in terms of producing the same abundance of fish in the electrofishing catch. Those days do produce very good catches, however. Something to keep in mind for hook and line fishing as well.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Thanks Mike, I am primarily interested in the pan fish; though I only harvest spring and fall. Tonight I went back and pretty much had a repeat performance though I landed even more fish. I catch bass pretty often (though I rarely target them)and the no. of young bass in this lake is pretty impressive this year. Sometimes they are a nuisance when fly fishing. Believe me I enjoy rainy and cloudy days when I can get them!

 

[Baron]

Van, my wife fam is from Sadsburyville. You sound like a Bluegill machine.

Best!

 

[henrydavid]

Harvest any?

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Hey HD, long time...I left out I do take them in the winter as you know. I never keep pan fish when the water gets warm, though probably six were eight" or better. Unfortunately ice fishing is prohibited. Baron, I live about ten min. from Sadsburyville. I've been fishing for gills for over 60 years, and despite not having a boat I'm slowly learning the local lake one mucky step at a time. Some nights it appears I know what I'm doing; others not so much.

 

[henrydavid]

I kept a few earlier this spring, had a blast getting them on poppers. I'm in full swing with smallie fishing on the Susky NB right now.

 

[Baron]

Yuck!
That would freak me out. But someone has to do it and I'm glad you're willing. I love eating Gills, perch, crappy and carefully filleted Pickerel. Couldn't agree with you more about temp. Pretty gross handling some of these 100 degree fishes that I've caught in full sun in 10" of pond water.