5-11-11

5-11-2011 Wed
6:30 AM- 10:00 AM

Weather: Calm, clear, 68˚, 29.70MB, rising

H2O: 9.78’, rising, 89.5 KCFS, clear, 56 ˚

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7 (West stumps and area around Cole’s Corner).

Caught: Eight pike and seven largemouth bass

Partners: None

Comments
I did not have to be to work today till 11, so I took advantage of the late starting time with a little quality morning fishing. It sure was nice being the only person at the landing.
My game plan was to try a few spots for walleyes and if that did not pan out I would opt for the old stand byes of bass and pike! My first two spots for the eyes failed so it would be mostly spinner bait fishing for the other two previously mentioned species. I pretty much knew it was too early in the spring for the walleyes to be in the back waters, but you just never know.
I was able to hook into some pike and bass, but I covered a lot of water and made lots of casts. All fish except one bass came on my favorite Terminator Spinner bait set-up. The largest pike was twenty-eight inches and the largest bass was a decent eighteen inch fatty.
I caught some fish today in the back water areas, so it is leading me to believe they are starting to vacate their early spring haunts. I had a suspicion of this the last couple times out, and today catching them in the slough areas confirmed my thoughts.

Observations
Today I noticed the flowering crabs are starting to blossom and some lilacs are at their earliest stages of bloom. Also, our red bud tree in the back yard has started to bloom.
This morning I saw an otter out on the lake. This is the first otter I have seen on the river. I knew they were around because their tracks are everywhere in the winter, but they just must be very shy of being seen by people.