wasilvers
Well-known member
This weekend I took my daughter fishing at a small fundraiser tournament for a kids camp in WI. We took off Thursday morning and stopped for an awesome breakfast before we hit the water.
This was my first time really fishing in 2011, the weather had hit high 80’s on Tuesday and high 70’s on Wednesday. By the time we got there on Thursday to pre-fish, it was about 70 degrees and cloudy, with a few passing showers. The first fish of the trip went to my daughter. In fact, she was the only one to catch a bass pre-fishing, I told her it was because I gave her all the good lures to try.
While looking for bass, we came across some crappie working in a bay. We took a few hours out of searching for some fun fishing. We put little spinners on and could have limited on crappie if we were keeping them. It was a fun break from the monotony of casting. While dragging a crappie spinner thru the mix, she hooked up with a real fighter – her first northern!
We located some bass for the next day, then the weather turned. That night the temps dropped to the low/mid 50’s it rained, and the wind blew. All the places we found first were not producing. I thought the fish would seek warmer water and went to slightly deeper cover. Instead I should have gone shallow and tight to cover. I tried a jig with blue trailer and was getting bit, but couldn’t seem to set the hook (light line, light equipment – that’s another post..) We ended with no legal bass, but did watch some guys pull momma bass from about 6 inches of water. I had tried shallow, but not shallow enough! Turns out at weigh-in, only 9 teams had caught a keeper bass, and only 2 or 3 caught a limit. The next day we knew it was going to be our day, it was PANFISH day and we had caught plenty of them over the last 2 days. We went to the shop and got some minnows..
Then we hit the water. But again, nature was against us! The weather dropped another 10 degrees, 42 was the high while we fished, the wind blew 20-25, and it rained, and rained, and rained. At one point I had the troller on 4 speed (of 5) and couldn’t make headway with the wind. We tried shallow, we tried wood cover, we tried brush piles and caught zilch. I had seen some crappie in 12-16 fow on the finder at the mouth of a bay we were going to fish, so we drift that in the wind. We had 5 hours to catch a limit and only caught 20. Which was enough for 9th place, a limit would have got us 3rd! My daughter was a trooper, she lost her hat to the wind (recovered) and was cold the entire morning – but she still wanted to stay out till the end and even managed a smile at weigh-in…
I think all the early mornings and cold weather exhausted her, cause she did this for 4 of the 5 hour drive back home!
Next week I get to take my other daughter to the tinboats tournamnet in Madison - Fishing gives me time on the water with my family - kind of like a 'captive audience'. We get to talk about all sorts of things and most importantly, spend time together
This was my first time really fishing in 2011, the weather had hit high 80’s on Tuesday and high 70’s on Wednesday. By the time we got there on Thursday to pre-fish, it was about 70 degrees and cloudy, with a few passing showers. The first fish of the trip went to my daughter. In fact, she was the only one to catch a bass pre-fishing, I told her it was because I gave her all the good lures to try.
While looking for bass, we came across some crappie working in a bay. We took a few hours out of searching for some fun fishing. We put little spinners on and could have limited on crappie if we were keeping them. It was a fun break from the monotony of casting. While dragging a crappie spinner thru the mix, she hooked up with a real fighter – her first northern!
We located some bass for the next day, then the weather turned. That night the temps dropped to the low/mid 50’s it rained, and the wind blew. All the places we found first were not producing. I thought the fish would seek warmer water and went to slightly deeper cover. Instead I should have gone shallow and tight to cover. I tried a jig with blue trailer and was getting bit, but couldn’t seem to set the hook (light line, light equipment – that’s another post..) We ended with no legal bass, but did watch some guys pull momma bass from about 6 inches of water. I had tried shallow, but not shallow enough! Turns out at weigh-in, only 9 teams had caught a keeper bass, and only 2 or 3 caught a limit. The next day we knew it was going to be our day, it was PANFISH day and we had caught plenty of them over the last 2 days. We went to the shop and got some minnows..
Then we hit the water. But again, nature was against us! The weather dropped another 10 degrees, 42 was the high while we fished, the wind blew 20-25, and it rained, and rained, and rained. At one point I had the troller on 4 speed (of 5) and couldn’t make headway with the wind. We tried shallow, we tried wood cover, we tried brush piles and caught zilch. I had seen some crappie in 12-16 fow on the finder at the mouth of a bay we were going to fish, so we drift that in the wind. We had 5 hours to catch a limit and only caught 20. Which was enough for 9th place, a limit would have got us 3rd! My daughter was a trooper, she lost her hat to the wind (recovered) and was cold the entire morning – but she still wanted to stay out till the end and even managed a smile at weigh-in…
I think all the early mornings and cold weather exhausted her, cause she did this for 4 of the 5 hour drive back home!
Next week I get to take my other daughter to the tinboats tournamnet in Madison - Fishing gives me time on the water with my family - kind of like a 'captive audience'. We get to talk about all sorts of things and most importantly, spend time together
