From cold to warm

[Al Agnew]

Having gotten vaccinated, last week I finally got to fish with somebody besides myself or Mary.  Tuesday was the first day of fishing...warm day, but right after the snow melted so I kinda figured the river might be high and cold.  But my buddy said it would be good.  He was right.  We didn't have a thermometer, so I don't know how cold the water was, but although the fish were still in their wintering pools, they were eager to take crankbaits, and I also fished a swimbait all day with good results.  We didn't count the fish we caught, but it had to be more than 80, and the vast majority of them were over 13 inches.  We had a good number of 16-17 inchers, at least a half dozen that were around 18 inches, and my biggest, a 19 incher.  

So when another buddy asked me to go with him on Friday, I jumped at the offer.  Different stretch of the same river.  It had been rather cool, and Friday was cloudy and very cool; in fact, it sleeted on us pretty good.  And the fishing sucked.  What few fish we caught were in wintering pools and in deeper water.  I doubt that we caught a dozen all day.  I hooked one that felt big, but lost it, and on the very next cast to the same spot caught a 17 inch largemouth on the swimbait.  Other than that, we caught a couple 14-15 inch smallmouth and everything else was small. Water temp was about 44 degrees. 

So that brings us to today.  I fished by myself, fished some of the same wintering pools we'd caught so many from last week.  Most of the fish had moved out.  Water temp was 46 degrees, climbed to nearly 50 degrees by late afternoon.  I caught a few in each wintering pool I fished, but it was more like they were summer residents.  Crankbait and swimbait worked for them, but the fishing was slow.  Later in the day I fished some transitional water, pools that are still somewhat slow but not wintering pools.  Picked up a fish now and then.  Finally fished an area around a tributary, and found a few fish there as well, including the biggest of the day, a 17.5 inch smallmouth...those fish were apparently getting ready to ascend the trib.  It's interesting that when these fish decide to move out, they move out seemingly all at once.

Mary and I plan to go out tomorrow again, fishing a different section yet.  We'll see what happens.

 

[FishnDave]

Nice fishes, Al!  Good luck today! 👍

[snagged in outlet 3]

Any pictures?

[DADAKOTA]

Sounds like fun

[Al Agnew]

11 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Any pictures?

I got a couple pictures of the 19 incher, but they aren't worth showing.  Didn't take any pictures of the fish I caught yesterday or today; I don't bother with taking a picture usually unless they are 19 inches or better.  Which shows you that I didn't catch any big ones today, either.  Caught a couple dozen, all of them between 13 and 15 inches except for one that was 16.5.  First fish I caught, a 16 inch largemouth, was on a spinnerbait, everything else on crankbaits.  Caught fish in a variety of different types of water, but scattered.

[snagged in outlet 3]

12 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

I got a couple pictures of the 19 incher, but they aren't worth showing.  Didn't take any pictures of the fish I caught yesterday or today; I don't bother with taking a picture usually unless they are 19 inches or better.  Which shows you that I didn't catch any big ones today, either.  Caught a couple dozen, all of them between 13 and 15 inches except for one that was 16.5.  First fish I caught, a 16 inch largemouth, was on a spinnerbait, everything else on crankbaits.  Caught fish in a variety of different types of water, but scattered.

Sounds like an awesome few days!  Funny when you get the ruler out they fall just short of 19-20".  Still really nice ones though.