Simcoe Bass Opener Live Blog: Day 2
Despite the boat being in the water, it was a tough end to day one: I lost two decent fish. It was easier landing fish on my own in the canoe, but I can't complain - I still landed the biggest fish I hooked yesterday, so I'll stay positive. This brings me to day two, which, so far, has started off slowly. I began fishing around 7 am throwing the Live Target crankbait I used yesterday. No luck this time, though I did manage to catch a small one on a drop shot with a wacky rigged senko. I also missed a good sized fish off of a dock. Vertical structure seems to be the key this weekend.
I took a bit of a break to regroup and read KVD's 6-season bass guide. It inspired me to cast a topwater to try and trigger some reaction strikes. No giants, but at least I had some excitement around 10 am when this little guy absolutely ate my black Arbogast Jitterbug:
Time for lunch now. I'll be back with more updates later in the day.
Afternoon/Evening update:
I fished before and after the thunderstorm with little luck. Prior to the bad weather, I continued to use the Jitterbug. After the storm, I went back to the Live Target (and back to fishing from a canoe), but realized that after the rain the water was relatively stained, for Simcoe at least, so I wanted to slow down my presentation and use a darker coloured lure - once again, the Jitterbug. I saw a decent sized one swimming around in the shallows but no bites at all.
Perhaps I should've also used a larger bait given the water conditions, but early in the season when prey are small I don't tend to go crazy with lure size. Tomorrow morning, I'll try a slower presentation: the crankbaits just aren't catching them any more. I'll start with a jerk bait so that I can experiment with faster and slower retrieves to see if one is more effective than the other, and I'll pay attention to what works. I'll stick to a drop shot rig on my spinning gear, and might try some deeper water spots if the docks I've been fishing are no longer holding fish. I'm trying to figure out how to adjust without overreacting - I did something right yesterday after all.
Two more days of fishing, so no reason to get discouraged. Let's end on a positive note: the sunset tonight was absolutely spectacular.
I took a bit of a break to regroup and read KVD's 6-season bass guide. It inspired me to cast a topwater to try and trigger some reaction strikes. No giants, but at least I had some excitement around 10 am when this little guy absolutely ate my black Arbogast Jitterbug:
Afternoon/Evening update:
I fished before and after the thunderstorm with little luck. Prior to the bad weather, I continued to use the Jitterbug. After the storm, I went back to the Live Target (and back to fishing from a canoe), but realized that after the rain the water was relatively stained, for Simcoe at least, so I wanted to slow down my presentation and use a darker coloured lure - once again, the Jitterbug. I saw a decent sized one swimming around in the shallows but no bites at all.
Perhaps I should've also used a larger bait given the water conditions, but early in the season when prey are small I don't tend to go crazy with lure size. Tomorrow morning, I'll try a slower presentation: the crankbaits just aren't catching them any more. I'll start with a jerk bait so that I can experiment with faster and slower retrieves to see if one is more effective than the other, and I'll pay attention to what works. I'll stick to a drop shot rig on my spinning gear, and might try some deeper water spots if the docks I've been fishing are no longer holding fish. I'm trying to figure out how to adjust without overreacting - I did something right yesterday after all.
Two more days of fishing, so no reason to get discouraged. Let's end on a positive note: the sunset tonight was absolutely spectacular.
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