With last weekend being my first weekend off since I posted this Fishing in the Snow Report from late January, I planned on fishing regardless of the conditions. As a thick layer of slush began coating my kayak minutes after I launched on Saturday morning, I began to reconsider.
My target was largemouth bass. I’ve never really done much fishing for largemouths in the winter, but from the sound of it, if you can find a concentration of them, the fishing can be pretty fast. (I would hear later on that the trout bite was phenomenal on Saturday in some of the stocked ponds.)
My target pond was relatively small, maybe 20 to 30 acres in size, and not very deep. Mushy weeds grew within 3 feet of the surface around almost the entire pond.
On my third cast a healthy largemouth slurped up my Senko worm and got the day off to a good start.
The action continued pretty steady from there. When bass and pickerel proved to be a challenge, I rigged up a small Trout Magnet jig under a float and bailed nice-sized bluegills and yellow perch for a couple hours. I even caught a big golden shiner that, had I brought some large hooks with me, would have made an excellent live bait. At one point, a good-sized largemouth ate the tiny 1/64-ounce jig, but burrowed into the weeds on the ultra-light gear, and the hook eventually pulled.
All in all, it was a very good day and lots of fun – but I wouldn’t complain if my next weekend off had some of that mild winter weather everyone’s been raving about.
drop shottin for those bass?
I was actually just fishing a wacky-rigged Senko, but a drop-shot probably would have been a good choice.
Talk about a mixed bag! That golden shiner has big pike/bass written all over it…
Seriously. I wish I’d had a bigger hook with me. I’m going to try to get some of those to live-line this spring.
Nice job getting out there on your yak in that weather.
You are:
A: Really, really committed or
B: You really should be committed!
Thanks Mark. It’s probably a little bit from Column A and a little bit from Column B.
Man, can we do some casting at Nantasket yet ?
Way to go Jimmy! I admire your dedication to the sport no matter what the weather or the season. I was out kayak fishing in Orleans this past January and landed a nice 18 inch, 3.5 pound largemouth on a jerk bait. I,ve been out a couple of times this winter and can’t wait to do it again. Good luck and put some scales in the yak.