How Many Fish Can Come Out Of One Spot?

Last Saturday I invited a friend to join me in fishing a weekly open at Indian Lake. Taking off at the 7:30 blast off we were fishing within little more than five minutes. It was less than five more minutes and I put a keeper in the boat, in less than 15 more minutes we had our limit, but we didn't stop there. In the 1st hour we boated better than 20 fish, with 1 or 2 lost along the way, all out of a spot not twice the size of my boat. One of which my partner lost was 2+, jokingly I immediately told him that cost us the win, little did I know how accurate that would be. We moved around over the next several hours only catching a few fish, one of which was a Saugeye (dinner). With it only being a six hour tournament we found ourselves back to our starting point the last hour. Wouldn't you know it they were still stacked up. In total we took over 30 fish off that one little spot. Come weigh in time I watched the weights and thought we would be close, but short of cashing a check, so we opted not to weigh in and take them back to the spot. Just for fun I got out the digital scale and weigh bag before releasing the fish, 11lbs 4ozs. My partner was instantly upset knowing the winning weight was only 10.7lbs. It took me a minute to calm him and explain we still needed to weigh the empty bag, 1lbs 5ozs. We made the right call not to weigh in after all, but the one he lost still cost us the win. Time and time again people claim that the front of the boat has the advantage, especially in my boat. I find that hard to swallow when we made 15+ passes over the same spot catching fish each pass, only he caught three fish all day including the funning around we did after the tournament. This is not to brag or to say he can't fish, just sometimes it all comes together and sometimes it doesn't. Some of you may be thinking this is just a fish story, that there is no where around here that you can catch that many bass out of that small of a spot. I told him before we went there that I did the same thing in that same spot this time last year, later in the day he said "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it."


Going to St Clair over the Holiday weekend, let you know how we do.

Lake Erie Fishing

The past two weekends I made the trip up to Lake Erie. Over Easter weekend I fished four days with varied results. Friday it was blowing NE 30 mph and with the cold temps I was off the water within a couple hours of not catching. Saturday the focus was catching some crappie and I had to switch to bass in West Harbor just to make the day worth while. Sunday after trying for walleye for a couple hours I opted to slide over to the Portage River for crappie. Finally after two and a half tough days of fishing I started catching. The portage produced 50-60 nice crappie to bring home. They would not bite on my normal tactics, following a tip from a friend I had to use a Bass Assassin skirted grub in in an odd color combo. The lure had a pink & purple body with chartreuse tail. For those of you who are wondering how I was able to keep so many, Lake Erie is not listed with the 30 fish restrictions as the rest of Ohio waters. This Saturday a friend called to see if I wanted to go back up to Erie to see if we could get on the big smallies near Ruggles. After just an hour or so it was very clear that the muddy water was not going to pan out. So we loaded back up on the trailer and slid over to West Harbor for large mouths. I was being a little stubborn and insisted I would catch some fish on a lipless crankbait like the week prior, of course that did not work. So I picked up the one of my old standby baits, a green pumpkin Brush Hog, and put on a clinic from the back of the boat. Within six hours of fishing we had seven fish over 3 lbs and several more that were close. Not bad fishing for a backup plan. If you have never thought to fish anything other than the main lake up at Erie you are missing out on perhaps the best fishing in the state. I have many days up there in excess of 100 large mouth. If you are looking for an adventure that is not too far away and has some of the best fishing in the country don't overlook the inland waters around Lake Erie.

A Little Success

Today was the Trophy at Indian Lake. I struggled to get the bites, only five bites all day, two of which I put in the boat. Fortunately one of those in the boat was 4.82lbs. Total weight was 6.43lbs. The big one was enough for 2nd Big Bass with a nice $264 earning, it came on a Lucky Craft 0.5 crank bait in the lily pads. The winning weight of just over 13lbs, came from a good friend of mine from college. This is two years in a row the the Tenwalde boys, Jeremey & Travis, of Ft Jennings have won this tournament. Congrats guys. Might have to make a trip to Erie this weekend for some Walleye & Crappie, if the weather permits. See ya on the water. 

1st Tournament of the Year

Saturday was the Ice Breaker at Indian Lake. This was a team event, which I opted to fish solo. I was boat #86 of the 128 boat field of anglers. Take of was a little slow, still breaking in the rebuild on the motor. About 8:00 I was fishing my 1st spot, here I was able to put two keepers in the boat within ten minutes. I was ready, the fish were on the same pattern as Friday...WRONG!!!  I did not boat another keeper until 1:30. I did have several short strikes and a short fish during the long gap between fish, like that counts for much. Come weigh-in time my three weighed in at 4.5lbs, far behind the 15.68lbs it took to win. I just looked up the full results list on the Fishers of Men site and I ended up 40th out of 128. Not what I had hoped for, but respectful considering I fished solo. Only one other angler who fished solo finished higher. Now my thoughts are focused on Sunday's tournament, again at Indian. Practice went OK yesterday, a good number of fish but nothing over 2lbs. See what happens, it's still better than going to work.  

Boating Problems

Saturday after working around the house for a while I thought I'd get the boat out for a couple hours chasing crappie on Lake Loramie. I launched and idled out for a few minutes and decided to blow the carbon out of the motor. I knew with the cool water that I needed to let the motor warm up before running hard, so ran at 3500 rpm's for five minutes or so and then I put the hammer down. About 2 minutes later I noticed a slight power loss. I immediately shut it down but that was too late. I heard a clanking noise as I set down and knew I just blew it up. I had the powerhead off that night to see that #2 cylinder pulled a ring and chewed up the piston. So what happened, just as I hit the throttle the thermostat opened and cooled the cylinder with the 40 degree water causing the sleeve to shrink suddenly - My Fault. Fortunately I just happen to have a great marina close by, so I have to give Don at Phlipot's a big thanks, he has me back up and running in just 4 days. Morale of the story...in the spring when you think you you have the motor warmed up wait another 10 minutes. By the way 1st tournament of the year is this weekend, let you know how it goes!

Saugeye Lesson

The Old Man is learning.  Friday morning in just two hours he put on a clinic, bringing home six saugeye weighing in at just over 21lbs.  Now that's an awesome catch!  How did he do it?  He listened to me by fishing slow!!!  He said there were five other fisherman close by and nobody else was catching, they were all casting and cranking straight in.  Now of course just one day later I go out and had six 15" fish in an hour and a half, not the big fish like Dad, just nice eaters. Today's bite was a little different though.  I was still fishing slow, but I had to jig a bit more and the fish all hit on the stop.

March Fishing Trip

Being such a nice sunny day today who can resist a little time outdoors. I made two short trips down to the creek to make some casts for one of the best tasting fish that swims, Saugeye. First trip was just over 2 hours and yielded 3 fish: 2 around 14 inches and 1 nice 4 pounder. 2nd trip I had another 14 incher on about the 5th cast. 1/16 ounce jigs with white tails seems to be working even in the muddy water. Color and size is not the key though, you have to fish slow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Most folks up and down the bank, cast and reel.  I work the jig with the rod & reel down just to take up the slack. Get out there and give it a try.