Lessons and Observations From a Spring of Something Different
I finally made the switch. It’s not that I didn’t want to go bass fishing it’s just that I was having fun dialing in something new. Success is always a little bit sweeter when it is an experiment vs going out and doing something known. I’ve spent enough time bass fishing right after the ice goes out that I know what to do go do on my local lakes anyway. I’m no where close to dialed in on the trolling deal but we did catch fish every trip out and had some really good trips too. I’ll share a few of my observations and also some stories from this spring.
The strangest thing that happened out there was about ¾ of a mile south of the Grand Haven Pier head. We had picked a couple browns up out deeper and went in close to make a turn and go back out. We got on top of the sand bar and a 3 color leadcore went off, that fish got about half way in and a red thin fin went off in about 6 feet of water. Doubles are always fun! We landed the brown on the spoon but the fish on the 3 color didn’t look quite right. It wasn’t a trout mouth coming up for sure but I was hoping it was a walleye off in the distance. Nope, NOT.A.WALLEYE. Largemouth bass? I don’t know what it was doing out there sitting on the sand in 6 feet of water. Far away from anyplace I would assume it would be spending winter. Also surprising that it bit a thin fin in 40 degree water. Regardless of what was going on there, I don’t think it will ever happen again. I tried to duplicate it with no success on either the bass or the browns.
An observation about that 3 color I just mentioned is that it caught them no matter how deep or shallow we were. A 3 color is a leadcore line that gets a spoon “around 15 feet deep”. It got lots of bites just banging on the sand in less than 10 feet of water. Not surprising since it was common to find gobies in the stomachs of browns, especially in Muskegon.
Speaking of eating, these coldwater browns and cohos are phenomenal on the table. I’ve been cooking the smaller ones very simply and the whole family has been enjoying them. The girls like them simply prepared with butter and garlic salt. Amanda and I have been making a “chili lime style” version with a few simple ingredients. Olive oil, lime juice, lime zest, salt, and a bunch of chili powder. We are going to get really adventurous with some coho and make poke bowls with it. It has been frozen to the proper temps for enough time to kill any parasites in the meat. One of the most important things I feel that I’ve been doing with the fish is removing all the brown meat, skin, and bones. While the bones doesn’t really affect anything it makes it much easier for the girls. I think maybe I’ll do a write up on how I like to prep them for recipes. It removes a lot of the contaminants and also improves the taste in my opinion.
Back to the trolling spending time trolling has taught me how to read “water” better. This doesn’t really apply to inland fisheries but in the Great Lakes water masses get moved by wind and currents. Water color and temperature are the big ones. Finding the “right” water and predicting where it might be on a given day is a big deal with trolling/fishing for trout and salmon. It is what they are relating to in this area more than anything.
“Trollers” drive me nuts at times. The most common thing I see is I’m trolling in a direction and a boat drives around me and then starts setting lines 150 yards in front. Also going the same direction I’m going and then cutting across. No ones got any space in that situation and I didn’t get here first to fish behind you. I’m not a fan of that stuff, especially when there are less than 5 boats out on the lake out of that port. I also experienced another guy cut one boat off and then pinch me into the beach to ask “how many do you have”? Don’t be that guy! The last thing is intent, keep your boat pointed in the direction of intended travel if other boats are around. It is hard for everyone to get spacing if the bow of your boat is turning willy nilly all the time.
Lastly to wrap up what worked well for us. A 3 color with a stinger or super slim spoon almost always put a few fish in the boat. No surprise here but a red thin fun also almost always took at least one bite. The last secret weapon was a jointed rapala from my Grandpa’s tackle box. It got bit on every trip it went out. We did get fish on other baits too but those were the most consistent. I’ll be looking forward to switching up the spread some for next spring. Maybe I’ll get all the bass rods with bass reels on them out of it and go to all trolling tackle but maybe not. Either way I’m looking forward to that spring King bite that is coming next!