First day on the water

Yesterday marked my first day fishing on open water for the 2013 fishing season.  If you're from the south you may find this ridiculous, but this year has been the coldest spring that I can remember and the ice has just recently left the river.  Ice reports from the northern part of the state are still showing numbers in excess of 20 inches.  Yikes.  (This year's statewide opener may not happen as planned.) 

I launched from Clinton Street on Pool 8 of the Mississippi River.  My goals for the day were to make sure that my motor had made it through the winter unscathed and to try and find some walleye for dinner.  With water temps around 36 degrees, I felt walleye were probably my best bet at success for the day.  Not so much.  I spent the first 3 hours of the day fighting 20mph winds only to land a few small walleyes.  I didn't catch any saugers which was surprising to me.

 I then decided to venture into some popular spring largemouth areas to throw a few baits around.  I have to be honest.  I didn't expect to get a bite.  I've never caught largemouths in water that cold, except through the ice.  My plan was to slowly drag a beaver around and hope that one would pick it up.  It didn't take long until a got what sure felt like a bite.  I set the hook only to come up with some grass on my rig.  Even though, I'd convinced myself that I'd been tricked by the grass, I threw back into the same spot.  As I S-L-O-W-L-Y dragged my lure back to the boat, I felt the telltale thunk on the end of my line.  This was definitely a fish.  I set the hook and brought a beautifully colored 3.5 pound largemouth to the boat.  Success!!!  Normally I wouldn't have gotten excited over a single fish, but this was the first largemouth of the year and I did it in ice water. (Actually saw some gulls perched on ice flows.)  I threw back to that same spot multiple times and was able to land two more nice fish.  The rest of the area didn't produce any bites.  Oh well, it was still a good day.  A day that I needed after such a long winter.

Lesson Learned:

No water is too cold to catch a bass.  They will bite.  Suck it up and figure it out.