3 species at St. Mary's Lake, 3/20

[ictalurus]

I opted to hit St. Mary's Lake today to shake off the skunks and frustrations of my past few trips. I fished from noon to 4pm. Water temperature ranged from 57* to 60* depending on where I was and how shallow the water was. The plan was to pick up a fish or two in my usual spots, then explore and try some new places and a new technique.

I trolled the baby bass colored Deep Little N that Joe gave me everywhere I went, but nothing hit it this time. Jigging my Cicada at the usual haunts didn't work, either, and I was striking out along the shoreline with a 3" chartreuse grub. I had caught a bunch of little bass at the pond at Calvert Cliffs park on a 1/8oz fire tiger Vibric Rooster Tail while trying to catch the recently stocked trout two weeks ago, so I tied that on in hopes of at least catching a little bass to get the skunk off.

The Rooster Tail was the ticket:


I still can't smile on command.

That bass was the biggest I caught all day, but I caught over 15 others that were smaller. Here's another shot of a "bigger" one that I caught later in the day:



What really made my day was catching a few bluegill, which I haven't caught in years:




I caught about 8-10 bluegills total, which was a lot of fun. It reminded me of fishing with my father when I was a kid and catching a bunch of sunfish.

I also caught two pickerel, which was the icing on the cake for today. They were a little bigger than "hammer handles" but not by much. Maybe "hatchet handles":



I tried a few other crankbaits and also tried for some crappie using a slip bobber, which I haven't done before. Neither were productive.

In all, it was a lot of fun even though none of the fish were big. It was kind of like being a kid again, which was kind of a theme today. Another bonus for today was seeing several father-daughter fishing trips where everyone was having a good time. One set was clobbering the same sized bass I had been catching right at the boat ramp using nightcrawlers. She was having a hard time waiting for the bobber to dive but got the hang of it. Seeing the bobber go under was another nice reflection from when I was kid.

[surfdog]

nice Bill now you can take the stripe off your back. when you want to come up and catch one a little bigger let me know

[moc]

Good job Bill. I am glad you made it out. I made it out also and I caught fish. A big difference form my last outing.

[ictalurus]

Sam--After seeing your report from Friday, I spent a lot of time thinking about hitting SPSP. Unfortunately, it didn't work out time-wise, but I definitely want to make it up there. How long are they usually in the area?

Martin--Like you, I definitely had to catch something, so doing that was satisfying. Finally picking up some pickerel was a nice bonus.

[ronaultmtd]

I had a similar experience at Gilbert Run lake in Charles, County with the white roostertails- the fish didn't want any other lures- when I lost the roostertail on a sunken log that was the end of my day- you can bet I have a half dozen in my tackle box now. The Mepps spinners that look a lot like the roostertail were not as effective as the roostertail, so I don't know if the spinner is different or the feathers are different but something is different.