This past week I’ve gone out for only a couple of hours in the evenings, 6-8 P.M.  The best I could do was catch a few small bass and a couple of really nice cahnnel cats.  The fish are reacting mainly to the small Yum crawdad on my flyrod, but these are small bass; the cats were about three lbs each  ( fun).  The wind has remained strong and I have missed a few bites and a few got off next to the boat due to poor hookups.  I lost two because of the line breaking at the knot, a palomar knot.  So, I’ve switched back to a double cinch knot.  That knot breaks too but not as often.  I have been retying the knot but I guess not frequently enough.  I’m using 6 0 8 lb test so maybe I should go to a heavier line.  I have also caught a few bluegill and crappie, but these fish are scattered and not reacting well to any lure.  My miracle minnow yields nothing at this point except for the aforementioned.  Well, tight lines to all you fishermen.

I thought I would go out and try to stir up some bass.  I hadn’t caught very many as yet so I put away that miracle lure, the black and silver minnow and put on a wave worm, a Yum craw, (the large one in brown), a green and black senko, a small Berkley craw, and on my fly rod the minnow, just in case.  The results were poor at first with a catch of only four small bass with a few misses.  Later in the evening, about 6:00 P.M., things got hot with tha black and red wave worm.  I cought five bass ranging from two lbs to six lbs and I misses a few other good strikes due to the high winds which impeded my sensing the bite until too late.  I did hang onto another really big bass though as he went into some tree limbs, (limbs that I put into the lake last year), and my line broke.  I had to quit at 7:00 P.M. as we were expecting a video cam call from my son, David and our grandkids.  Well that’s it for now.  Wishing you tight lines.

The wind has been blowing very hard lately and there has been some rain so, fishing has been for only a couple of hours on some days but restricted to areas where the wind allows.  Haven’t really been doing very well though as the temperature has also been up and down like a yo-yo.  I have caught a few bass using a Yum crawdad and a black and red wave worm.  Only one fish was of any size, maybe three lbs and the rest were maybe 12″ or so.  The crappie have almost completely shut down.  I was going to try a couple of hours this evening but we’ve had a very bad day with rain and even sleet!  No fishing today.  If the wind ever dies down I’ll try some of the bigger lakes nearby.  None of the lakes are REALLY NEAR BY and because of gas prices I won’t be going far.  There are only one or two options that are really within reach.  We’ll see…  Wishing you tight lines.

I went out again yesterday and did fairly well:  21 crappie and 3 bass.  Mostly all small.  Started out at 2:30 P.M. but didn’t do well until around 4:00 P.M.  That’s about the same thing that happened on my last entry.  Just a very few bites until later in the day.  Again I ended up in the same place I started to get the most bites where earlier I couldn’t buy a bite.  I haven’t caught a single female fish that I could tell…none carying eggs.  So, it must be the males settling out to find the best nesting areas.  I have found three such places which should hold most of the nests when they do start to spawn.  All of the bites were lip hooked except one and I don’t think I hurt that one either being careful not to damage the one I cahght in the gill area, no bleeding but the hook was wrapped around the gill.  I don’t keep fish unless it will, without doubt, die.  No one in my family likes to eat fish except me!  We have our grand kis over today so it’s playtime and no fishing.  See you next time.