Friday, May 14, 2010

Any fishing is better than no fishing at all

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to fish with an old friend who had moved to Wisconsin not too long ago. Ken has fished everywhere, and he and I have spent some time together in Canada fishing a number of years ago. We decided to hit Balsam Lake in western Wisconsin and see what would happen.



The largemouth were all about this size. Note the 4 layers of clothes as I tried to keep warm.

Now, neither of us had ever been to this piece of water before in our lives. So we did it the old-fashioned way - got a map and asked people. We ended up catching about 15 small largemouth bass and a half dozen small pike. The bass wanted a 1/4 oz. chartreuse spinnerbait and were definitely relating to wood. In addition to the spinnerbait, fish were caught on a 1/8 oz. jig with a 3" grub, and a Suspending Rogue. Pike were scattered. Water temp was 53 - 54 - still pretty cold. The day was pretty miserable - cold, windy, occasional drizzle.



Cold, nasty day ahead


BUT - we caught fish, spent part of the day outside, and, as we said frequently, caught our favorite fish - the one's that wanted to bite. We also saw 2 separate pairs of loons, and 2 eagles. the loons were pretty spooky, so the picture had to be taken on zoom, and is kind of shaky.



Loons


Any fishing is better than no fishing!!

4 comments:

Mark Kautz said...

How true, how true. Can't wait to get back on the water. Maybe Summer will get here on of these days.

Mark

Bill said...

The title of the post says it all. There's a reason we go out in those conditions, because we love being out there. Way to make the most of a not so great weather day.

Basspastor said...

Balsaam can be a tough lake, at least that has proven to be the case for me, so you did good.

One time while pre-fishing Balsaam I happened upon the mother load as they were relating to some moss in a depression on a flat. Numerous 3 to 5lb fish; I could see them didn't catch them. They had moved on by tournament day.

William @ AnglerWise said...

Bad weather conditions don't necessarily mean bad fishing. I have done great in some of the worst weather. I have also done very poorly on the most beautiful of days. So, when it comes to fishing, I try not to worry about the weather so much. Great post and pictures.