Can't beat the light winter we have been having. This allows for us "non icefisherman" to keep at the open water. For this season I've decided to try a few new sticks. The first, and most fun, is the new Okuma Dead Eye 7'10" deadstick rod. It's perfect with a 12" handle (necessary for proper handling of fish with soft rods) and has a very soft parabolic curve. The second set of rods I picked up are Daiwa DXW 7'6" medium action. They too have a nice 12" butt section with a slightly faster action than the Okuma's.
Yesterday things fell into place. Dad and I were able to get out for a few hours in the morning and afternoon...been too long!! I scouted out the launch Saturday afternoon...of course no ice to be found (gotta love it...
). We arrived at the marina at crack of 10am. What a beautiful sight for February 7th.
Dad and I launched and found the water temps to be 39 degree's..not even close to freezing!!! I moved to a spot that has yielded many browns in the past. The shore quickly drops to 12', so I run a three rod inside, one rod outside spread. My three inside rods consist of two inline boards and a long line.
The sun was starting to shine and I knew the browns would start hoppin'. Not long into this new troll the inside board pulling the trusty silver/blue ripplin redfin dropped back. I cleared the long line on the inside and dad fought our first fish of 2016.
After a short feisty battle I slid the net under a chunky silver brown.
This particular spot is about 75 yards long of cobble stone and rock with sand flats on each side. Rather than trying to troll back up, we cleared rods and motored back up to the head of the run. Set up the same three rod inside, one rod outside spread and started the troll. Almost the exact same spot the board closest to shore fired. Black Silver ripplin redfin.
Was very happy when this beautiful buck cleared the surface.
The depths we were working were 8' to 13', keeping three rods on the inside shoreline. I kept working small sections hard, knowing the green water is where the fish would be.
To this point all the action was on the inside rods. A little further west down the shore the inside inline board rod fired again...I quickly cleared the long line and dad fought his second fish of 2016. This bulldog was a little more acrobatic, giving us an aerial display. Dad managed to keep the fish pegged long enough for me to slide the net under it. Another beautiful brown.
The day was getting on, gray clouds covered the warm sun, and the once active fish shut down. We started packing up the rods and the lonely outside board started creeping...I looked up and noticed a jumping bow 50' behind the yellow bobbing inline.
I quickly took care of our final fish of the day.
We made our way back to dock and were loaded up by 4 in the afternoon. All four fish came on different variations of ripplin redfins. Here's a quick shot of the baits ran today.
Hope this winter continues to be mild and we can get out a few more times this month.
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