Falls Lake, 3/30/19

Debbie and I met with friends Mark & Felecia up on Falls Lake this evening, at the Hwy 50 launch. It was very windy, partly cloudy, and a little cool. Water temps were around 63 degrees, and MUDDY. There was a Major League Fishing tournament underway, and lots of boats on the lake. 

It was the first time out with the bass boat this year, so we didn't care so much about fishing as just running the boat and checking it over. Good thing, 'cause we got skunked. Debbie hit a bass up in one of the coves and got him part way to the boat, and that was a close as it got. Talking to one of the pros, he said the bite was tough that day. 

Here's a little video that Felecia shot of us running down the lake....

Moccasin Creek, 3/29/19

Debbie and I rode out to Moccasin creek a bit this evening, after finishing up some yard work. The creek has stabilized and is at what looks to be about the normal level, the water was only lightly muddy, and the flow was slow. Outside temps were in the mid-70's, sunny, and most of the area we were in was shady. 

Debbie caught a couple of Black Crappie, and a Warmouth. First Warmouth outta there at that location in a long time. She caught all of those on a Beetle Spin with a Smokey Shad grub.

I was throwing a Zoom Super Fluke in albino, rigged weightless and weedless. I hit a small bass and played with him, and he threw the bait about 15' out. I also got a nice blowup on the far side of the creek from where I was casting, and after a little play time with him, I failed to get a good hook set. Was all fun, nevertheless!

Here's a couple of pics of Debbie's Black Crappie...

 

Airfield, 3/27/19

Debbie and I got out to fish a little at sunrise. It was about 30 degrees F when the sun came up, we had frost on our shoes. Debbie had a couple of bumps, I caught this on a Strike King spinner bait at a slow retrieve speed. Nothing to write home about, but it was a catch, at least :-) The light in the upper left is one of those head-mounted LED lights...

Airfield, 3/25/19

Debbie and I ran back out to the airfield today, before the rain came in. The bite was tough, but we managed a few catches. I picked up a bass that weighted 2lb 3os, the largest from this pond, this year. Debbie was using her micro rig with a beetle spin. I was using 5" Yum Dingers in watermelon and pearl, rigged weightless and weedless, working the bottom slowly. Here's a few pics...

Airfield, 3/24/19

Debbie and I ran out to the private pond we call "the Airfield" just before dark, this Sunday evening. As usual, we had a great time and caught a few before nightfall. Debbie caught her first fish on soft plastics, she was using 5" Yum Dinger's in Watermelon & Pearl, rigged weightless and weedless. Slow movements on the bottom yielded several catches. 

New (to us) Fish Finder...

I've been helping a buddy on a couple of boats recently...rewiring, making electrical repairs, and sorting through a bunch of electrical issues. Our bass boat came with a mid-90's vintage Lowrance X25A fishfinder at the console, and a X22A at the front/trolling motor. The X22A was bad, so my buddy hooked me up with a Garmin Echo 501C color fishfinder. I installed it up front, where the bad X22A was. It had a transom mounted dual beam sensor, and I was able to adapt it to the trolling motor mount up front. Can't wait to try it out! Here's a few pics...

This color screen is gonna be so much easier to see in the sunlight!

I adapted the swivel mount from the 501 to the original mount for the X22A 

A dual beam transom mount adapted to the front trolling motor. Might be a problem for running into things,  but time will tell.

Here's the X25A at the console. Since I don't fish from that location, it should be find for showing me depth information. 

Charging Batteries...

Our Bass Boat has two batteries...one for the engine and electronics, and one for the trolling motor up front. Some bass boats have as many as 4, but ours is not that sophisticated :-) The engine battery is automatically charged when the engine runs, but the trolling battery is not. Outboard engines don't have much of an alternator / charging circuit, so most people charge the trolling batteries each night. I'm working on a circuit to allow for charging the trolling battery from the engine when running, but that is not ready, yet. I also have a solar charger that I'm setting up for the trolling battery, and will blog info on it, when it's completed. Dad gave me a cool battery manager for the engine battery for Christmas, made by Battery Tender. I also have a Schumacher automobile battery charger with analyzer that came with our Jon boat, so I use it on the series 27 deep cycle battery we use for the trolling motor. This isn't as elegant as those multi-output charging stations some have installed in their bass boats, but it works and the price is right :-) 

Barrett's Farm Ponds, 3/22/19

Happy Anniversary to us!! Today is Debbie and my 33rd wedding anniversary. I asked her what she wanted to do, and she said "go fishing". When i asked where, she said "Barrett's". We love that place! We loaded up and headed that way.

It was a little chilly, but the biggest deal was the wind. Weather reports said 20-30 mph winds, and I feel it was doing every bit of that. The ponds were white-capping! One thing about Barrett's, his fish LOVE crickets. We picked up some crickets on the way, Debbie used her B&M 10' carbon rod, and I used a micro setup with the cricket rigged weightless. Hook them from behind the head, under the band behind their head, along the tail, and up through the rear edge of their wings. They will live a long time and are kicking and such the whole time. Let the cricket settle to the bottom, and WHAM! Bluegill and small bass can't resist. Barrett's pond #1 is the place for crickets, never seen anything like it. It's like they were trained for them. Whatever, Duane Barrett (the owner), told me about this last year and it is for real. I never use crickets, but it's the magic bait at that location for some reason. We were working soft plastics, beetle spins, etc, nothing...crickets were the deal.

After a while, we moved down to pond #2. We fished the perimeter, and the large mouth bass were all downwind, something we have noticed many many times at ponds. The wind pushes the small bait fish downwind, and that's where the bass are, more often than not. Sure enough, that's where they were this trip as well. On a calm day, you'll find them hunting up in the head of the pond, but if it's windy, follow the wind. We had a blast, and caught a bunch of bass down there. We didn't bother to photograph the youngsters, but those guys were like race cars and running like crazy when they would hit the bait. In this pond, we had the best luck on small spinner baits... a #0 gold Beetle Spin frame, 1/32oz red eye white crappie jig head, and the Strike King Smokey Shad grub. I noticed small frogs around the edge, s it won't be long before it'll be time to change the grub to the Strike King Friskey Frog. Stay with what they're used to eating.

We stopped at other spots on the way home, but not a single hit. Barrett's Ponds were the place to be today, and here's a few pics...

Airfield, 3/18/19

Debbie and I went out for about 45 minutes this evening, before a class I had to go to, tonight. I was on one side of the pond, she the other. I wasn't getting so much as a tap, and I could see her catching fish, holding them up for me to see, and tossing them back in. By the time I worked my way around to where she was, she had already caught 3 bass and a big bluegill :-) . These are pics I took, once I got around to where she was. She's gonna have to start taking her phone for photos! As usual, she was fishing with a beetle spin and Smokey Shad grub. 

 

Airfield, 3/15/19

Debbie and I ran back out to the Airfield just before the rain set in, to see what the bite was like. Things had totally changed...the bluegill were biting, but almost no bass were interested. I tried topwater (Ribit frog & Devil's Hoard), flukes, and different soft plastic worms. I found they were somewhat interested in a watermelon 5" Yum Dinger with a chartreuse tip, slowly working the bottom. Rigged weightless with a 3/O Skeet Reese wide gap hook. Here's a few pics...

Airfield, 3/15/19

Debbie and I wanted to try a little sunrise fishing at the Airfield, since we've had so much luck there. Since there is no structure, we've found mid-day and bright daylight times to be non-productive. The best fishing, so far, has always been late evening and overcast days. We got up and were at the pond when it got light enough to see, and had a great time. By 9am, even though it was lightly overcast, the bite pretty much stopped. Oh, and I got my first topwater of 2019 this morning, on a Devil's Horse! Here's a few pics...