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I hit St Mary's Lake today. My expectations were modest due to the bass spawn being in full swing, but I much better than expected.
I launched around 1030am, I didn't make it up early enough to leave before rush hour, so I waited until after to head out. My plan for the day was to hit flooded banks to see if non-spawning bass and pickerel were shallow feeding. I headed right across from the launch and worked the coves between the the two fingers for a few hours to little effect. I caught a few very small pickerel on a fluke and had a bunch more hit it, but I could hook them up. The tiny ones t-bone a fluke and miss the hook I think.
In addition to the fluke, I fish a jig w/swimbait trailer, a t-rigged worm, a Senko, a neko-rigged Trickworm, and a Ned rig. Other then a single bass taking a grab at the fluke, I caught nothing other then the tiny picks. I decided to abandon the plan and head to my comfort zone, the rip-rap. On the way I caught a few more small picks casting the Ned to the bank as I drifted past, but no bass.
Once I made it to the riprap, the day turned around.
I started catching small bass right away about 5-10' off the bank by casting parallel to it and hopping the worms along the bottom. They either hit it on the fall or after a hop or three, so I gave up on working it back to the boat. I ended up with about 6 bass, evenly split among the junebug and motoroil worms. I started getting a lot of sharp hits on the worm that I could not connect with and assuming they were more tiny picks, I switched up to the Ned and to my surprise it turned out I had found a school of crappie.
I had only caught a handful of crappie before and never ones this big. I managed about 5 of them before they stopped biting. I decided to give the jig a go and see if I could find a larger bass and it worked;
It hit the jig as I was swimming it pretty quickly so I don't think it was on a bed, I had a few more on but didn't manage to land them.
I have not fished St Marys in my yak very often but I plan to give it more time in the future. It's a bit of a drive but I think it will be a good windy day spot as the steep banks seem to really block the wind. The lake is just full of pickerel, I did not manage any big enough to take a picture of, but the bigger ones are in there too.
Some random notes;
I launched around 1030am, I didn't make it up early enough to leave before rush hour, so I waited until after to head out. My plan for the day was to hit flooded banks to see if non-spawning bass and pickerel were shallow feeding. I headed right across from the launch and worked the coves between the the two fingers for a few hours to little effect. I caught a few very small pickerel on a fluke and had a bunch more hit it, but I could hook them up. The tiny ones t-bone a fluke and miss the hook I think.
In addition to the fluke, I fish a jig w/swimbait trailer, a t-rigged worm, a Senko, a neko-rigged Trickworm, and a Ned rig. Other then a single bass taking a grab at the fluke, I caught nothing other then the tiny picks. I decided to abandon the plan and head to my comfort zone, the rip-rap. On the way I caught a few more small picks casting the Ned to the bank as I drifted past, but no bass.
Once I made it to the riprap, the day turned around.
I started catching small bass right away about 5-10' off the bank by casting parallel to it and hopping the worms along the bottom. They either hit it on the fall or after a hop or three, so I gave up on working it back to the boat. I ended up with about 6 bass, evenly split among the junebug and motoroil worms. I started getting a lot of sharp hits on the worm that I could not connect with and assuming they were more tiny picks, I switched up to the Ned and to my surprise it turned out I had found a school of crappie.
I had only caught a handful of crappie before and never ones this big. I managed about 5 of them before they stopped biting. I decided to give the jig a go and see if I could find a larger bass and it worked;
It hit the jig as I was swimming it pretty quickly so I don't think it was on a bed, I had a few more on but didn't manage to land them.
I have not fished St Marys in my yak very often but I plan to give it more time in the future. It's a bit of a drive but I think it will be a good windy day spot as the steep banks seem to really block the wind. The lake is just full of pickerel, I did not manage any big enough to take a picture of, but the bigger ones are in there too.
Some random notes;
- A fixed anchor cleat is beyond annoying, I need to install a trolley this week. I am going to turtle or ruin my back fishing twisted around all day.
- I need to rig up a keeper for my paddle. the taco holder isn't tight enough and my paddle popped out a few times
- I need to get a PFD with a flat back asap, my current one hits my seat and kills my back if I don't make a conscious effort to sit upright.
- I have been making an effort to ignore 90% of my bass tackle and work on the classics, a jig and a t-rig floating worm. Very pleasing to see them working so well.
- I am ready to admit that I want a 5th rod holder. I can make 4 work but I want a 5th spot so I can keep a Senko/fluke on deck at all times. The Ned takes up a slot as well so that will give me 3 spots to work with depending on where I fishing on a given day, but I am always going to want a Ned and a snagless weightless plastic no matter where I am.
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