At Long Last- Ice Off!

Man, it has been a lllloooonnngggg winter. There was still ice on my favorite local lake last weekend.

This weekend was nice weather, but I spent almost all of it in the yard, gardening. Today's forecast was for 80 degrees! Since I had worked so hard this weekend, I gave myself the afternoon off. 

I was able to wear shorts and sandals, but there was still a couple of small patches of snow! 



I searched my usual "Perch Flats" but the little buggers were missing from action? Maybe they're all clustered up for spawn action? I forgot to charge up my FF battery so I was blind and didn't bother combing the lake looking for them.

First hit came when I was casting a panfish jig in to the current from an inlet. Often it's a good place to find big holdovers picking food off the conveyor. Felt like a good fish and was shocked to see this 11 3/4 LMB. Later I missed a larger one that darted out from under a dock. 



Since the bass were making their presence felt I decided to try a floating perch colored Rapala on my second spinning rod. I never saw any more action from the bass, but I had a couple of holdover rainbows pop it. The first was 16" and the second was 14"+.





Tried another area that's usually good for perch, but again they were a no show. So I finished the day by using the flyrod with a sinktip line and a little leechy fly. The only attention that attracted was from a handful of little (8-10") stockers that weren't worth photographing. Oh well, it wasn't a bad day for my first liquid water experience of the year (for that lake).

That's a dang nice way to start the season!  Thanks for the report.

That's a dang nice way to start the season!  Thanks for the report.

X2! A great way to start the season!!

Z

shorts and sandals feel sooo good after a long winter.

And nice fish

Nice work PS. nice to have some some soft water to fish in finally..