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Fishing 2016

JimG.

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More smallmouth goodness today. Didn't have high hopes today very clear, sunny and windy. But wind abated soon after we arrived and we found a sunny shoreline late in the afternoon that produced really good action for about 2 hours. Caught 6 like this, a few nice largemouths and a lot of smaller fish:

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Tin

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Just a little bit of wind can make them stupid. Got to love it.

Anytime it is windy in the post spawn period I love the Rogue or McStick bite. I think the smallies bite the jerkbait better post spawn than pre (of course they are a bit lighter though).
 

JimG.

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Just a little bit of wind can make them stupid. Got to love it.

Anytime it is windy in the post spawn period I love the Rogue or McStick bite. I think the smallies bite the jerkbait better post spawn than pre (of course they are a bit lighter though).

Wind can be good especially when blowing into favored coves; this time of year the bass can corral baitfish (in our area sawbellies) in those coves and you can see big balls of them even right along shore. Size 2 spinners and spinnerbaits work great. We do well with crayfish imitations also. Plastic worms always perform well but better after the weedbeds fill in.

And a lot of times the wind dies around sunset and that window of fishing can be ridiculous.

Agree the fish are aggressive post spawn; you have to be ready to hook any fish that bites at the worm right away or they swallow a lot of hooks.
 
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JimG.

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Bass, bass, bass. They were really biting today. Went to a different reservoir. Fat Smallmouths:
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Fat Largemouths too:
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And I think this is my biggest smallmouth so far this season:
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As awful as this past ski season was is as excellent as the fishing has been so far this fishing season. Hope it continues.
 

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dlague

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Well my wife finished all our casting and entomology classes for fly fishing. Our first trip is the 26th to fish Colorado's trout mecca in the Platte River and later Arkansas River.
 

JimG.

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I'm partial to the Frying Pan river near Aspen; great rainbow trout fishery.

I also enjoyed fishing the Gunnison where you can visit the rim of the Black Canyon.
 

JimG.

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No pics from yesterday. Mostly small fish biggest only about 16".

Lost something that felt big, fought it for 3 minutes or so before losing it near the boat. Never saw the fish. It did not fight like a bass. The way it struggled for and stayed near the bottom I suspect it was a walleye. There is a good population of them in this res.

Walleye from 2 years ago:

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That's why it's called fishing and not catching. Beautiful day on the lake.
 

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JimG.

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Another fine late afternoon yesterday. Wind was howling from the west when I started out, went right to the CT side of the lake where this wind direction blows directly into a large cove that is deep in spots and shallow in others. Saw boiling schools of baitfish and once I found sheltered spots near shore where I could cast the plastic worm and control the boat I started catching fish. Smallmouths only today. Most fish in the 6"-12" range, caught this nice 3.5-4 lbs. fish casting the worm to a sandy underwater point from a protected cove:
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Kept catching small fish along this shoreline, then rowed back out of the cove and went straight to a small island on the other side of the lake for sunset casting. I caught this fine and very well fed 4.5 lbs smallmouth my first cast on arrival; nice fat belly!
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It does not get much better than this:
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JimG.

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Fishing has been good since early May. Heading out again this afternoon, moving to a more southern (30 miles) res today.

We need rain badly, I see a lot of burned out lawns up in Dutchess/Putnam and the reservoir water levels are already dropping.
 

bigbog

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Fishing has been good since early May.....We need rain badly, I see a lot of burned out lawns up in Dutchess/Putnam and the reservoir water levels are already dropping.

Likewise up in Maine. We're getting a shower or two about every 7-10 days...not enough, way below average so far...a number of small brooks that I've always had fun at until August are 90% dry already. Think I'll have to visit my spring-fed streams in the remote sticks.
 
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JimG.

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More good bass fishing on Friday afternoon. I landed nothing big, my buddy Steve landed a nice largemouth. We caught and hooked a lot of fish.

I hooked both a big largemouth and smallmouth and lost both of them. Frustrating because both broke off. Regular users of lighter test monofilament know that when it starts to kink that it's old and needs replacing. I noticed it on Wednesday but forgot to strip my reel and put new line on. Paid the price Friday.

Sucks. Reel now freshly spooled with more 10 lbs. test. Still a great day the bass fishing really has been awesome. July is my go to month so things are looking good.
 

JimG.

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Well my wife finished all our casting and entomology classes for fly fishing. Our first trip is the 26th to fish Colorado's trout mecca in the Platte River and later Arkansas River.

Hope the fishing is good today.
 

JimG.

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I'm a little superstitious about fishing if you haven't noticed (always wear Cornell or RIT shirt or whatever my current lucky charm is like my sweated out and poorly fitting brook trout cap) and so are my fishing buddies.

Conditions looked good yesterday with a west wind putting many of my best fishing spots into play. I rowed out to my favorite eastern cove and almost as soon as I got there the wind shifted very quickly to a strong east wind. Now if you talk to me or any of my buddies you will be told that the east wind at this res is "bad"; never catch fish with an east wind.

I pondered this for a minute and realized I have felt this way for 35 years because I never have good fishing luck with an east wind. Not sure why really. And I'm here anyway, so I rowed over to the southern shore of this cove and let the east wind push me back out along the railroad tracks on that shoreline. This area is deep, 10-15' near shore with plenty of good structure 15' or so offshore. I have thought many times that this area should be good.

In a short distance I had landed 4 decent largemouths all about 2-2.5 lbs. Pretty good action! Properly inspired, I thought about other spots in the western part of the lake that are similar. I fished the deep water sides of 2 islands in this area and proceeded to catch one smallmouth after another! Here are two:

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These fish were very aggressive and all of them fought well, even the small fish. Many headshaking leaps followed by deep runs taking out line. Great day!

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An excellent example of how attitude can be affected by superstition. Fishing is in large part a confidence game. If you think you won't catch fish you won't. Lesson learned.
 

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