Fish Finders: Hitting the Waters Hard
It's been a long dreadful winter -with an anticipation to go out and fish out of my kayak. I'm trying to make some modifications to make my time on the water more efficient.
Lately, I have been working to get my fish finder installed, so that I can fish areas that have a higher percentage of catching fish. The fish finder I use is the Piranha max DI for kayaks or small boats. I don't think there is anything better.
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I began rigging everything up the night before my March 15th adventure. One set up that I am very confident in -is my 7'1" Medium Heavy Mojo Bass rod by St. Croix, paired with the Lew's Speed Spool. At the end of my line on this reel, I have a 1/2 oz. football head jig.
My other set ups are; a 7' Medium Abu Garcia Veritas, with a black max reel, and a St. Croix 6'6" medium-power spinning rod, with the Pflueger president reel.
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For my Veritas set up I usually throw plugs and swimbaits, since it has a forgiving rod tip to fight fish with ease. My go to plugs are the Rapala x-rap and shadow rap.
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I have a lot of confidence in these baits and like their action. The St. Croix spinning rod I use for drop shot, tubes, wacky worm, and shakey head worms. When I'm dropshotting; I use the Strike King dreamshot, half shell, and a variety of Roboworm soft plastics.
With the weather being very different than this time last year, my approach was completely opposite. Last year I started fishing shallow and working my way to deeper water, because I knew that the fish were in pre-spawn mode, and feeding to get ready.
The water temperature was 39 degrees Fahrenheit, when I went out on the 15th and 24th of March. When the water is this cold, I like to fish deep diving crankbaits, lipless crankbaits, suspending jerk baits, drop shot, and heavy jigs. -Both days it was overcast and a there was a little bit of rain.
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If you are planning to go out, you will need to rely on your fish finder to find structure around 25-30 ft. On clear sunny days, fish may move up to 15-20 ft. Once there are a few sunny warm days, the fish will start to move to the shallows to spawn. Smallmouth tend to spawn when the water temperature reaches the mid 50's.
If you desire to catch some bass, I would recommend, for the time being, heading south or west and finding lakes that have warmer water temperatures.
Bass fishing is very slow right now, but if you're determined and spend enough time on the water--you should hook into one. Unfortunately, the only fish I saw during my fishing trip was a pumpkinseed sunfish.
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I will be hitting the waters hard these next few weeks and will let you know if I have any luck. Just remember, even the days you don't catch fish you can still learn from the conditions. If you haven't seen our new bass selection, come in and check it out -we have a lot of new and exciting products!