My first day out.

[zippyFX]

Hi All,

Much to the chagrin of my wife fishing season has started for me! Up at 4:45 and on station on the edge of the Rideau river for first light @ 5:38 this morning. My target was Crappie and Perch. I had my two ultralight setups, one rigged with a float for worms today and My new 6'6" setup for cranks. Both spooled with 6# flurocarbon (the float was vanish and the other was Segaur Abrasix).

It started off slow as I was investigating how the structure had changed since November, most of the weeds are gone now, and the current is still pretty fast. The wind side locations were getting hit by high winds which seemed to be too rough for fish give the how shallow it is. I fished the slack water that was relatively insulated from the affects of the wind. Turns out there was remnants of last years weed bed between 6 to 8 ft down.

The worms were bust as a cold snap froze them since I bought them last week (and stored them in the garage). Still alive but not healthy. So I turned to a set of ultra light lures I had bought over the winter, my expectations were low but they ended up working out.

I worked my Rapala Ultra Crank (size 3) not expecting much. I had not used hard baits since September (when I switched to live bait for the fall) so it took a while to get back into the swing (or cast) of things. Sure enough one one of my first casts it got hit. I thought it was weeds but my first fish of 2013 was my lifelist Crappie.



About 9 inches (Not nearly as comparable to Giuga's monster )

I really enjoy using an ultralight and using the small lures were interesting to learn. I like being able to feel every movement of the fish. It was also helpful in feeling the structure. One thing I did not like was how the UL lures were through completely out of kilter with the slightest grass, weed, or debris.

I spent about an hour and half at my first location and caught a total of 2 Crappie and 5 Smallmouth Bass (that's a good day for me). All on the lure mentioned above, I tried 3-4 other other UL lures to no avail. The depth and action (it has a really sweet wiggle to it) seem to hit the mark. The bass were hitting the lure hard. Some had swallowed it, I am glad I picked up hemostat (on recommendation of some of my readings) my needle nose pliers would not have cut it. After a couple of months of fishing with single hooks and live bait getting out all those small sharp trebles was a bit of a challenge for me. The biggest Bass was about 14 inches and probably about a pound.

I felt guilty about the incidental OOS Bass so I moved on, to a couple of other locations I was interested in scouting out (mainly for suckers and Crappie). No luck though, but the scouting was useful. The weather up here is not as good as in TO, I had to fight a snow squall with hail for about 20 minutes this morning. I'll try for perch again because I think it's cold enough but I think I really need good live live bait (worms or pinhead minnows.

I was in a good mood this morning. I caught fish and I learnt a lot.

I'm really looking forward to the fishing season.

[OldTimer]

Great report - you had a much better first day than many anglers this year.

I look forward to your reports later this year from this river.

Yes - I've found that the trebles on ultralight lures can result in difficult removal...... or worse if the fish woofs the lure.

Replacement of the trebles with a single barbless hook will alleviate a lot of this, plus you'll pick up less debris/weeds/snags. This does reduce hook set % - but just a wee bit.

Another option (and one that I do on my #0 and #1 Mepps) is to snip off the third (welded on) hook at the stem of the treble. This small trick saves me many lost lures when fishing snaggy rocky rivers.

Cheers,

OldTimer

[Giuga10]

Nice report! I never thought Crappies would hit a crank. Pretty aggressive feeders for a Panfish.

[Eli]

Sweet report! I thoroughly enjoy using ultralight hardbaits and spinners. They catch just about everything and the thin rod ensures you will enjoy the fight.

[zippyFX]

Thanks guys! OT, I may pick up an extra lure and experiment with different hooks.

I had an hour today with my youngest while my wife and eldest were busy and he wanted to go fishing. He's only good for about 30 minutes at this age but we had enough action to keep him entertained. I was teaching him how to lip the fish but this one was bit to big for him to lip so he just held it like a football.



All fish CPRed successfully

[MuskieBait]

Nice black crappie! Congrats on the lifer!

[TOFishingNoob]

(04-21-2013 09:50 PM)zippyFX Wrote:  Thanks guys! OT, I may pick up an extra lure and experiment with different hooks.

I had an hour today with my youngest while my wife and eldest were busy and he wanted to go fishing. He's only good for about 30 minutes at this age but we had enough action to keep him entertained. I was teaching him how to lip the fish but this one was bit to big for him to lip so he just held it like a football.



All fish CPRed successfully

Nice photo, that's a desktop image.