4-22-2012 Sun

4-22-2012 Sun 11:30 AM – 8:00 PM
Weather: (4:13 PM) N 7, overcast, 52˚, 30.16 steady
Water: 7.86 rising, 34.8 kcfs, 53 ˚
Location: Mississippi R. North of home a few pools
Caught: Pike (60) 15 – 38”, LMB (4) 10 - 15 “(Scott and myself each caught 21 fish and Jake caught 18, with Scott having the big fish of the day).
Partners: myself, Jake and Scott

Comments

It was my second year of pike fishing north of home with Jake and Scott. Today we were pretty competitive and Jake even got a little pouty. I was recording every fish caught, not for competitive purposes but just for the sake of knowing how the fishing is from year to year. The weather was quite nice, although from time to time it did feel pretty cool. I had worn my long underwear and had a heavy coat along and I was thankful I had the forethought to dress warmly. We caught fish pretty much everywhere we tried, with the common thread being vegetation of some sorts close by. Most all fish were caught in less than three feet of water. One definite observation was the size of the fish. We had a lot of fish at around the twenty inch mark, with not many in the mid to upper twenties and only two over thirty inches. Last year the sizes of the fish were much bigger on average. I do not think the fish were overly aggressive on account of we all missed plenty of nippers. Scott stuck with a spinner bait all day. Jake started with a spinner bait and then he switched to a swim bait until all the tails got bitten off. He also threw a rattle trap a few times with no results. I have to say Jake got smarter this year, at least he swallowed his pride and used a leader. I mixed things up quite a bit today, I was tempted but I never did throw a spinner bait. The bait I used that saw the most playing time was a swim bait. I also threw a Gliding Rap with a couple of fish falling to it. I even tried a Senko at the end, but the pike did not even look at it. I also tried a Rapala Sub Walk with it accounting for one follow. Jake and Scott each had some equipment failure, with Jake braking his reel and Scott snapping his St Croix rod. Scott was still using his piece of **** reel from last year; the one that caused him to miss fish on account of the stripped out gears. It was grinding so bad it could easily be heard on every cast!

Observations:

The vast majority of the fish were rather small. Lily pads are starting to rupture the surface of the water. There were a large amount of pelicans in the upper end of the lake, which I have not seen here before.