[PECo]

I arrived home from Toronto last night at 9 PM. I had too much coffee during the drive home and was unable to get to sleep until after 5 AM this morning. When I woke up after 9 AM, I just had to go fishing. Only 10 minutes of fishing from the shore over the past two weeks was just not enough for me. Despite the blustery winds, I threw my little kayak in the back of the Yukon and ran over to Spring Pond. It was overcast and drizzled from time to time, but the wind was strong and constant. It blew steadily from the NE the whole time I was on the water. The air temperature stayed in the low 60s. I ended up fishing from 10 AM to 4 PM today.

I brought only one rod and reel, and my little wacky-rig tackle bag of hooks and worms. Because of the wind, I decided to stick with Senkos the whole day. I launched at the culvert on the W shore of the S cove. It took about an hour, but I landed my first fish in over two weeks:



It was only a little largemouth bass, but, yes, I was thrilled to land it. I ended up catching 5 largemouth bass, all on wacky-rigged 5 inch Senkos:

14 inches, 1 lb 4 oz pumpkin/red flake
15 inches, 1 lb 6 oz purple/emerald flake
16 inches, 1 lb 12 oz pumpkin/red flake
15 inches, 1 lb 5 oz purple/emerald flake
15 inches, 1 lb 3 oz pumpkin/red flake

The 16 inch lunker hit the Senko on the surface about three feet from the kayak as I was retrieving it out of some weeds. It startled the heck out of me and I thought I didn't hook it, because it didn't pull on the line after it dove back down. It had a damaged, cloudy right eye, although you can't really see it in this photo:



I caught all of the fish in spots where I normally don't get any action. I got the first two off the SW shore of the S island. I got the lunker off the SW shore of the N island. I caught the fourth one in the middle of the NE corner of the pond, about 75 yards from the N shore and 40 yards from the E shore. The last fish I snag hooked underneath one of its gill slits just N of the culvert. I was using a weighted wacky hook that Phish had shown me a while back. The wind had gotten stronger throughout the day and I was fishing faster as I headed back in, so the weight helped get the worm down to the bottom quickly. I must have twitched the worm just after the fish turned away from it. However, the fish was released unharmed.

It felt terrific being on the water and fishing again after more than two weeks of traveling. I did fish from the Canadian shore of the Niagara River on the Lake Erie side of the falls for about 10 minutes while we were waiting for our jetboat ride up the Niagara River Gorge to the Niagara Whirlpool. I hooked a decent fish and saw that it was a 2-1/2 to 3 pound largemouth bass when I got it to the surface, but it spit the hook. It was probably for the best, because I didn't even look into getting a Canadian fishing license and my daughter spotted a sign that said "No Fishing". I told her to yell if she saw anyone in a red uniform on a horse.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[DirtyDawg10]

Hey Phil, glad to see you're back out on the water and catching fish. How was the water level there after the rain?

[PECo]

The water level in Spring Pond is lower than I've seen it all year. All of the water hyacinths are no longer in the water and are now on the shore. Luckily, the pond is not choked with weeds. I regretted not bringing any spinner baits, crank baits or soft creature baits with me after the lunker hit the worm on the surface. I actually got splashed!
_________________
Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[DirtyDawg10]

Yeah...I was there last week and the water was down 2 or more feet from average. I was hoping all the rain we got would help a bit but I guess it will take a while to get back up to average levels.

[Fishface]

Nice job Phil