Feels like forever since I've been on the water in the yak. Went out in a power boat a couple days after the big rains stopped and saw some interesting stuff floating down the bay (fun stuff like tree trunks that had just enough boyancy to hang under the surface). Anyway, its been a while.
Launched at Jonas Green park for the first time, hitting the water around 3:15. Got to the launch and discovered that I had forgotten all my tackle. Doh. But I persevered. I had my rods, and through the miracle of laziness I had two perch catching rigs still tied on two of them. My arsenal consisted of one chartreuse Shad Dart with yellow curly tail on one rod that I had used for crappie on Rocky Gorge, and a 1/2 oz diamond jig tipped with a curly tail and curly tail teaser on the other.
So off I went. I hit the piers just upriver from the launch, casting and jigging around the pilings with the shad dart. I got a hit right off the bat, but did not connect. Turned out to be a small blue, judging by the near-surgical bite mark in my poor curly tail. With my hopes now as tattered as my poor soft plastic, I rethreaded the ravaged bait, and persevered.
Eventually I found some hungry, and surprisingly burley, perch. I let the first couple go, because you never know what kind of fishing day you are going to have, and kept on jigging around the pilings. I started playing for keeps when I started catching consistently. With some fat fish on the stringer I moved out in front of the piers and started working the diamond jig. The perch were all over it, hitting the 2" powerbait teaser over the jig with white grub about 2:1. Had a real stud on the jig come off boatsite, would have been the biggest fish of the day, at 12+ inches. Even got a double header. Surprisingly few small fish, too.
Anyway, cleaned up with about 9 fat fish on the stringer, releasing twice that to swim another day. Not a bad day. Nothing like incidental preparedness through inherent laziness.
-John
Launched at Jonas Green park for the first time, hitting the water around 3:15. Got to the launch and discovered that I had forgotten all my tackle. Doh. But I persevered. I had my rods, and through the miracle of laziness I had two perch catching rigs still tied on two of them. My arsenal consisted of one chartreuse Shad Dart with yellow curly tail on one rod that I had used for crappie on Rocky Gorge, and a 1/2 oz diamond jig tipped with a curly tail and curly tail teaser on the other.
So off I went. I hit the piers just upriver from the launch, casting and jigging around the pilings with the shad dart. I got a hit right off the bat, but did not connect. Turned out to be a small blue, judging by the near-surgical bite mark in my poor curly tail. With my hopes now as tattered as my poor soft plastic, I rethreaded the ravaged bait, and persevered.
Eventually I found some hungry, and surprisingly burley, perch. I let the first couple go, because you never know what kind of fishing day you are going to have, and kept on jigging around the pilings. I started playing for keeps when I started catching consistently. With some fat fish on the stringer I moved out in front of the piers and started working the diamond jig. The perch were all over it, hitting the 2" powerbait teaser over the jig with white grub about 2:1. Had a real stud on the jig come off boatsite, would have been the biggest fish of the day, at 12+ inches. Even got a double header. Surprisingly few small fish, too.
Anyway, cleaned up with about 9 fat fish on the stringer, releasing twice that to swim another day. Not a bad day. Nothing like incidental preparedness through inherent laziness.
-John
Comment