[PECo]

Last Sunday, I lost one of my setups (i.e., a rod and reel) overboard at Winchester Lake, so NWDarkcloud (aka Bob) and I headed back to look for it, today. As we backed Bob's boat, the Way More Better, onto the ramp, we met wfparys (aka Walter), who was coming off of the water with his NuCanoe. Hey, Walter! Walter doesn't post much, but he's going to post a report about his morning on Winchester Lake today, right Walter? When Bob and I launched at 10:10 am, we saw immediately that the water was a lot clearer than it was last Sunday; we could see down about four feet. Although it felt like we were in a misty, drizzly cloud, it wasn't foggy. The sky was overcast, the air was cool and there was a very slight south breeze. We motored up to the area in the stump field where I lost my setup:



We tried to locate it with the side imaging fish finder, but quickly realized that the resolution was probably insufficient to see it. It didn't help that the trolling motor interfered with the the side imaging scan whenever it was on:



Apparently, the Way More Better needs a cleaner source of power for the finder, one that's separate from the power source for the trolling motor. After we had wandered around the stump field for quite a while, we realized that I really had no idea where I lost my setup. For some reason, Bob thought that "between the east, west, north and south shores" wasn't precise enough for us to find it. At that point, we switched from setup recovery to just plain fishing. We threw just about everything we had into the water; swimbaits, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, jigs with craw trailers, Texas rigged worms and Blade Dancer jigs with worms. We got nothing. It wasn't until 12:20 pm that I finally boated the first fish with a wacky rigged green pumpkin/red flake five inch Senko near the grass flats at the south end of the stump field:



It was just a short largemouth bass, but Whoo Hoo! And less than 10 minutes later, I boated another one close to the shore:



The little dink picked up my wacky Senko and swam directly into a laydown. When I boated it, I thought that it was a "fish stick" :



I boated two more short largemouth bass before I finally got a keeper at 1:00 pm:




After that, I boated seven more short largemouth bass as we wandered around the lake, one with a Perch Rapala Jointed Shad Rap JSR05 and six with a wacky Senko:






At close to 4:30 pm, I finally boated a decent fish with a wacky Senko:



The three pound, 14 ounce largemouth bass turned out to be the lunker. But 20 minutes later, the wacky Senko also got a two pound, nine ounce largemouth bass:



Afterwards, I got another short:



Those stumps and wacky rigged Senkos are like two halves of Velcro. Bob and I each lost a bunch of wacky rigs, but one got me a decent, though beat up, chain pickerel:



Finally, the wacky Senko got me a couple of more short largemouth bass:



We got off of the water at 7:10 pm, just before the sun set behind the trees on the west shore of the lake. Although we failed to recover my lost setup, I had a great day out of the water in conditions that were close to perfect.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[hila2006]

Nice job guys, gotta get up there with the yaks soon.

[x182dan]

wacky rig in the stumps you guys must have lost a few, lol. Good job perfect conditions indeed!
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Never Stop Learning

[NWDarkcloud]

We had gone to Winchester to retreve his lost set-up I even brought my gear for a dive to recover it . Previously Peco had generously given me the use of 1 of his fish finders to use in my boat alone with some cleaner Bar keepers freind to remove old lake stains from the hull changeing its name from (The Dirty Old whore) to (The Way More Better) .

Soon after we hit the water I quickly discovered that knowing about where he dropped the set-up ment somewhere in this 1/3 of the lake 8-12 ft of water easy to understand seeing he was on a drift with a hard blow wind and was more concerned with hitting a submerged stump and flipping than getting a set of landmarks . But we gave it a shot anyway and after several pass we decided it was better just to fish.

Phil had a awsome day I fished with him side by side took 2 hits all day and that was only after he tied and rigged a worm on my line that I never touched there where only 2 differances in the way we fished....

1) He was useing senkos was useing dingers (same color) and flake and size
2) I had spilled gas on my hands while hooking up motor and could still smell it faintly even when we hit the ramp at take out time

Thats why I had him tie the set-up on for me at around 6;00 and never touched the line and 2 cast I had hooked into a decent fish that pulled loose.
or maybe next time I sould sacrifice a rod set-up to the lake gods like he did

Great day glorious weather just flat out 1 of the best days this summer
Thanks for the day out Phil.......
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I Love to fish......Not a big fan of sitting in the boat alone ....the Conversation and the company make it perfect

[DirtyDawg10]

Nice job out there guys!

[PECo]

[x182dan]

[PECo]

[JJay]

Good Job guys! so there is STILL a free SHIMANO rod and reel out there!

[PECo]

[jjbassfishn]

We were heading there Sunday, But I think we'll head somewhere else! Peco hooked all the fish in Windy Chester by the looks of it!

Nice report fella's!
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PB LMB 9.3LBS Winchester Lake
PB SMB 5.8LBS Colebrook Res.
PB Pike 3.85LBS Winchester Lake

Can't catch em sittin on the sofa!

[Michael]

Awesome job Phil!

Think that pickerel might have gotten away from a heron or cormorant? Doesn't look like any scratches or teeth marks from a pike or bigger pickerel.

[pikePERSUADER1]

your not the only people to make a sacrifice, last year someones tip ups were in the ice with a big hole next to them, all of the flags were up, LOL! Someone fell thru, got out, and left all the gear!

[PECo]

[DirtyDawg10]