The day started out to be warm with cloudy skies and a slight breeze coming in from the west.  I decided to try for some crappie and bass using the tube jig as shown on the cats mouth.  It seems that it was the only lure that the fish would respond to.  I caught 5 small crappie and a small  bass and the two cats shown.  I was only out for about an hour when suddenly the wind came up and I could hear lightening in the west and moving toward me!  I immediately got going back to where I keep my boat.  Just as I landed and turned my boat over the rain started.  I made it just in time. 

I only have a short distance to my house, about two minutes and I’m in my garage, when the wind and rain really began to come down hard.  The news weather report that evening said,” The winds were at 75 MPH and the rain was torrential.  We also had a tornado sited in a nearby small town.”

So, I just missed that storm by minutes. 

Well, that was my last outing for this season as the weather has been cold and windy since. 

Starting now, I’ll be cleaning all my rods and reels and straightening out my tackle boxes and putting things back where they belong. 

So, until then I wish you all a very happy holiday season and a happy new year.

Tight lines  Jim

  Ivan has finally recovered enough to go fishing again, but with caution.  The day started out very nicely with a slight breeze and a partly cloudy sky, what more could you ask for.  Ivan is recovering from two very serious surgeries on his hip and shoulder.  We had to ensure that he could get into and out of the boat without putting too much strain on his hip;  the solution:  sit down on the dock and slide  into the boat, and it worked just fine. 

We started out with the usual tactics, a stick  worm, a creature bait, a spinner, and a plug.  The plug worked for me, a Rapala DT 4 in silver and chartreuse and my old faithful Excalibur medium runner in white and red.  Nothing else seemed to work except those two plugs and they weren’t doing that great.  Ivan tried his plugs to no avail so, he switched to the fly rod with a small yellow popper.  He started to catch some bluegill with it and that surprised me.  I would have expected the bluegill to be deeper, but they were near shore and Ivan managed to catch five and missed a few more.

I kept up with the plugs and managed to catch five bass.  I had tried several different retrieves,  stop/go, slow near the top, fast/pause, and fast without the pause; the latter was the ticket.  That also surprised me.

Then the wind changed directions causing whitecaps on the water and coming from the Northeast.  Boat control was nearly impossible.  So, we decided to make it back to the dock. 

I was glad that Ivan had the chance to go out before the very cold and wet days set in  and they have almost immediately after our outing.   We did have an enjoyable fishing day as always.

I’ve tried the pond a few times the last two weeks and haven’t done very well.  Two days brought me only two small crappie, while another day brought me twenty crappie, but only one bass.  On another day I caught a few small crappie and two nice cats.   Three days ago I caught only one  crappie.  Where are the bass that are supposed to be fattening up before winter?!!!  I’ve tried every proven pond lure and shallow running plugs, but that one bass was it.

You probably noticed that I’m using pictures from a previous outing.  Well, its because I had forgotten to bring my camera.  Ivan tried to take one from his cell phone but it didn’t turn out well .  The bass shown are typical River Bend bass.  We were on the water for about four hours on this trip and again, it’s always fun to be on the water especially with a good friend.

Tight lines

Jim