Yesterday, today and tomorrow

[Garry2Rs]

Yesterday the weather was cool, low 40's overnight and only 61 degrees at noon. I managed to get down to a tee shirt for a couple of hours in a sheltered area during the heat of the day. Not to bad for the last week of December...

Buck and I wanted to take the new boat cover off and put it back on again to see how it worked. If we were going to do that, we might as well put the boat in the water for a couple of hours...Right?!?!...GRIN. I needed gas and air for one tire so it was nearly 2pm by the time we headed out. I haven't been to the Colorado River for a while so that's where we headed.

The boat cover came off easily, but going back on, that first time, it took awhile to get everything right. The twist locks make it simple enough, it was just a matter of closing the Velcro slits at the trolling motor so that it looked neat that slowed me down. The cover is very tight, so I wound up taking the bow off again, closing the Velcro at the trolling motor flap, then tugging the bow back into place. I'm sure that I will get faster as time goes on. The best thing is that on the highway nothing slaps or flaps, it's as tight as a drum!

There was no one else in the boat parking lot when we reached the river. There was a family was having a picnic on one of the tables close to the car parking lot and a Father and Son were still fishing from the jetty but the boat ramp was ours alone.

Before Xmas it was overcast but we had heavy winds on Xmas Day that moved the low front out and blew in a high...Since the 26th we have had beautiful bright days with clear skies and gently breezes...lousy fishing conditions...HAHAHA.

I have wanted to explore a canal that runs in the opposite direction from where we usually go, toward open water, for sometime. Since I didn't have anyone else to please yesterday, I decided to check it out. Buck and I motored up the canal for about half a mile before running into a buoy with a sign that said the area beyond was closed as a bird sanctuary until Feb.15th. We turned around and fished our way back toward the boat launch.

I started with a curlytail swimbait, then tried a baby Bass crankbait. That was followed by a Rattle -Trap type lipless crank and finally a Lucky Craft 2.5, the same chartreuse one that recently caught my biggest ever Bass. The Lucky Craft was lucky again...

This is the spot that gave us our only fish of the day.

 

The fish was just off the over hanging canes between the two highlighted spots near the middle of the picture.

He was only 14 inches long, but he was quite game...GRIN.

 

 

I ran into another Bass Club member and we shot the breeze for a few minutes. He said that on the 24th he had a very good day, but as I told you the wind on the 25th had moved the low out and on that day he was struggling too. He had caught two fish on a purple jig & pig for five hours of fishing. He took off to fish another small backwater lake, a mile or so away. I had one fish for two hours fishing and figured I was ahead of the game Buck and I were thinking about dinner, and wondering what challenges we might face putting the cover on for the first time, so we turned for home.

Today Buck and I were out again for a couple of hours. But it was a bust.

I only have one day left on my old licence, so tomorrow we will be back at it again.

Garry2r's

[SlowPoke]

Nice report Garry, your pictures always bring up the ambiant temperature. Glad to see you're happy with the new cover - if it goes on easy, it's too loose!

-Brian

[Smokey]

Thanks for the report Garry. Keep them coming.

[Greencoachdog]

Nice report and pics!!!

One fish is 100% better than no fish... just ask MTP.

[PatrickGG]

Nice report and your making me jealous with the warm weather and tee-shirt talk thanks for the report.

[Joey]

Nice report and pics Garry. Looks warmer there than it was here on the ice today

 

Joey

[Garry2Rs]

This would be the tomorrow part of my post...

It was 48F in the morning and I needed a jacket, but the day had warmed-up to 68F by lunch time when this picture was taken.

The water was 50F derees.

You can see it was another Bluebird Day, and fishing was slow again. This little guy was behind a sunken tree, he hit a white spinnerbait about two feet from shore. The black specks on the water behind me are small ducks called Cootes or "Mud Hens". They're very noisy and always fighting with each other.

This is a backwater of the Colorado River, called Martinez Lake. We were about a mile from where the other pictures were taken.

Garry2rs

[misfish]

Garry,question for ya.

I noticed in most of yer posts,your fish are on crank baits.

Down there,is that the bait of choice?

Does no one use soft baits like craws and tubes or sinkos? Or are YOU so use to throwing hard baits,you just cant throw the soft stuff. LOL

 

Thanks for the posts bud , HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND BUCK.

Edited December 31, 2007 by misfish

[Garry2Rs]

Hi Brian;

During the warm months people here fish Jig and Pig, Jig and tube, and Carolina rigs and jigs with Senkos, "Creator" baits and lizards. There is no deep water here, so the fish burrow into the roots and overhang of canes, palms and trees along the waters edge. Warm weather mornings and evenings and/or on overcast days, Buzzbaits are popular and Spinnerbaits are always a good choice for active fish.

At this time of year the water should be as cold as it's going to get, around 46 - 48 degrees. The Bass leave heavy cover and follow the Shad that are schooling up and moving into the backwaters, like Martinez Lake. According to all the club guys, this is crankbait season and one of the best times to hook a heavy fish...so I'm throwing crankbaits!

The only problem is that this year the hot weather lasted into November and things seem to be a little bit off because of it. The fishing has been tough. The guys tell me that as soon as the water temps. stabilize things will get back to normal. There have been some days, when the bite has turned on. These seem to be times when there has been low pressure moving in.

Later this week the air temps are going back up into the 70's, but there are three days of "Mostly Cloudy " skies predicted. I will be out on the water everyday, if possible.

Garry2rs