It's Time

It's time. Tournament season is right around the corner. I will be fishing my first event of the season next weekend on Chautauqua Lake in Western New York. I can't tell you how excited I am for this event. I have never fished Chautauqua before but I have been doing a great deal of research to make up for my lack of fishing this spring.

I'm sure most of you have noticed that I haven't been updating my blog. This is in large part due to the fact that I haven't been fishing as I have started in a new position at my work. In addition, I have attended a few weddings as I am now at that stage in my life where it seems like I have another wedding every single weekend (not my wedding though, I still have plenty of fishing to do before that day comes!). I really hope my girlfriend doesn't read this.

I digress. I did make it up to Champlain a few times and boy did we rock them. My friend Tom and I hit the northern end early this spring and caught just under 80 smallies. Our best five between us went 25lbs. Every fish was a giant and it was truly a remarkable day of fishing. I was expecting a hot jerkbait bite with the water temperatures just above 40 but instead they were choking down the tube jig.

A week later I fished the southern end with my father but it was a sub par day by our standards. Water temperatures were in the high 50's at the time and there was a major alewife kill taking place. We did manage to boat over 40 bass and landed some good ones too.

My favorite part about this trip was coming home and reading the forums and seeing people complaining about the fishing in Ticonderoga. It is amazing how many people attributed their poor fishing success to all of the dead alewives floating on the surface. Use situations like this to your advantage. That is my advice.

I do also have to give a shout to Chris Rockwell who I fished on the New York Federation Team last year. He is painting his own hardbaits now and let me sample a few (see the pictures above).

My only other trip so far this spring was this past weekend on Saratoga Lake. I don't care what people say about that lake. I know it isn't what it used to be but man is that a fun place to fish. There are so many bass and you can catch them any way you want to. The water temperature was around 70 degrees in most areas and the fish are by and large post spawn.

We started the day off flipping clear deep weeds and caught them like that. We also caught a few drop-shotting including our biggest which was over 4 lbs. I caught a few dragging a football head. My brother dominated the shallows with a shaky head. We caught some on tubes, stick worms, crankbaits, and top water. To finish out the day we went extremely shallow (less than one foot of water) and flipped tubes and chigger craws into shoreline cover and caught them like that too. We were off the lake by 11 AM when the crowds started to roll in.

Now it's time to focus. I have my eye set on winning the NY BASS Federation Angler of the Year Title. The last time I fished the Federation I came in second place by 3 points and fished with a broken boat in two out of the three events. Hopefully I can get off to a good start next weekend.

First Champlain Trip of 2013

Well, my first Champlain trip of the year wasn't all I was hoping it would be. This is the latest in the last three years that I've gotten my first trip to Ticonderoga trip in over the last three seasons. The air temperatures were below freezing when I arrived, and the water temperatures weren't much higher.

I usually begin my Champlain season by finding isolated areas of warm clear water but the areas that normally host these features were cold and muddy. The areas where I normally find cooler water murkier water were surprisingly clearer than I expected and no surprise that is where we got the majority of our bites (which were much less than I have come to expect on Champlain).

Even though it was an off day for us, it brings to mind an interesting point. I was watching an interview with Aaron Martens from a while back when he was asked whether or not pros should be allowed to practice before a tournament. Aaron Martens responded sternly in favor of practice. Often, people who are unfamiliar with tournament fishing ask me how do I "practice" fishing?

This trip would have been a great example of what I do when I practice for a tournament and why practice is important. If I had been thrown into a tournament situation, I would have failed miserably because I only have knowledge of what the lake has done in the past. I wasted much of my day exploring trying to find new areas that had better fish catching conditions. If it were a tournament, someone may have luckily found a better area just by chance. Those practice days really allow the better fisherman to piece the puzzle together, even on lakes they are already familiar with.

On another note I have pulled my deposit back from B.A.S.S. and my dream of qualifying for the Elite Series will have to wait another season. I was getting too anxious waiting and I want to throw my hat in the ring for some other tournaments before it is too late. It has been a very disappointing week for me because of this and I hope I can make some noise in some other events.

Thanks for reading.

Long Winter, Late Start to Spring

It's been over a month since I've posted a blog entry so I figured I'd get back into the swing of things, especially now that we are seeing some nicer weather. My lack of posting hasn't been from a lack of fishing, but rather from the lack of a computer. Mine crashed back in December. I don't plan on purchasing a new one until after the Northern Opens which I still hope to fish (currently on the waiting list).

Where do I begin with the fishing? I took my first "trip" of the year at the end of March. I fished the Hudson with my buddy and it was frigid. The water temperatures were in the 30's and finding good clean bass inhabitable water was a rarity. The trip did produce a nice walleye and a decent northern though.

The following week I was able to do some bass fishing as some of my favorite local holes started shedding their ice. I targeted largemouth and had a pretty decent day flipping laydowns. I was even able to get a couple on crankbaits. Water temperatures were in the mid 40's and the bite improved as the sun got higher in the sky. This is very typical this time of the year. My biggest came in at just under six pounds.

Last week I was able to get out after work for my annual one-hundred fish day on Saratoga Lake. The water temperature was 42 degrees this past Wednesday and we boated 101 bass (both small and largemouth) with the large majority of our catch coming on jerkbaits. The best part of this is that we were only on the water for 2.5 hours. That's catching them right there!

Finally, I was able to get out on Oneida yesterday. The water temperatures were frigid. Most areas I checkd the water barely touched 40 degrees. We were able to pick up a couple of bass that tipped the scales over 3 lbs but it was a relatively slow day by our standards. The highlight of my day came when I accidentally snagged a carp by the tail on a jerkbait and tried to haul him in with my bass gear. I wasn't about to lose a $15 Lucky Craft Pointer.

So this is the start to my 2013 season. It has been a very slow start for me. My days off from work haven't been ideal fishing days but what can you do? I have to work so I can pay for the Opens this summer. A commented below suggested I fish the FLW Event on Champlain this season. I would love to if I had more time off. I have my heart set on fishing the Opens and trying to qualify for the Elites. Unfortunately, I am currently on the outside looking in as I had to wait for work to approve my time off before I could register. If that falls through, I will most likely try and fish the Federation Opens.



Open Water Fishing Sounds Good

Not having a computer has severely limited my blogging. However, it hasn't hurt my fishing. Last week I was able to get out and stick my first few open water fish of the season. I was able to get out again today with my father, friend, and my brother who is home from college. We slammed them (perch, walleye, pickerel) fishing from shore with drop shots and swimbaits.

A lot has happened since the last time I've blogged including the biggest tournament of them all, the Bassmaster Classic. Final round coverage will air tonight on ESPN 2 at 10 PM Eastern. From a tournament fisherman's standpoint, it was nice to see a Classic that didn't take place smack dab in the middle of a prespawn bite.

After Day 1 I thought this Classic had epic potential. I thought that there may be a three way battle between KVD and Iaconelli. It turns out that Cliff Pace who also had a stellar day one, was able to pull away from the field on day two and finish it off on day 3.

I won't be doing any fishing for a little bit. I am heading to the Sunshine State this weekend into next week for a little vacation. When I get back, it will be game time. I will hopefully pull the boat out of storage and really put the throttle down on the open water season.

Another Weekend, more jigging

I was able to hit the ice again this Sunday with my father. We didn't let the recent storm slow us down. It was extremely cold in the morning and the bite was equally as cold in the early hours. The fish were there but extremely sluggish and not interested in biting. 

I know this due to our underwater camera. Aside from being extremely entertaining, our underwater camera is an excellent learning tool and provided another great lesson yesterday. We began our search shallow in 8 feet of water. The water temperature was just hovering around 33 degrees, nearly freezing.   

We moved to a nearby ledge which dropped to 16 feet of water and there they were. In addition to nice structure, the fish were there because the water temperature was warmer due to the physical properties regarding the density of water.

We hit crappie after crappie on jigs for a good few hours straight. I posted some pictures below. I hope to get out again next week and mix it up a bit but we'll see what the weather brings. I have been pretty fortunate with weather on my days off the past few weekends.

Super Bowl Sunday Fishing

Instead of ice fishing this morning, I wish I was preparing myself for another New York Giants Super Bowl. Getting out and doing some hard water fishing with my father and friend wasn't a bad second option.

We fished a small lake near my parents house and were strictly jigging for panfish. As much as I used to love setting up tip-ups for northerns in my early years, I have become very fond of jigging for panfish.

We struck early and often before hitting a lull mid day. We went on another good run later to finish off another great day on the water.

Winter Sucks

Been a while, I know. Winter is brutal for me with work. I have very little time off and when I do I tend to spend time with people I haven't seen in a while so I can disappear on my fishing adventures in the summer. On top of all that, my laptop of 8 years finally died. No laptop makes blogging a difficult task.

I've only been ice fishing once so far this season. I hit two of my favorite local spots and caught and released close to thirty panfish. I haven't set up a tip-up yet and I don't think I will any time soon. This warm weather put a damper on any chance I had of ice fishing this past weekend. We shall see what next weekend brings.

Other than that, I unfortunately do not have too much more to report. I have rejoined The Capital District Bassmasters and we determined our schedule last night. I am very excited to be fishing with those guys again.

As of right now, I still plan on fishing the Bassmaster Northern Opens. Because of that I will have to sacrifice some of exciting road trips I usually take in the spring and I am trying to limit my ice fishing road trips. That isn't the end of the world.

I hope everyone had a safe holiday. I also hope everyone is out there catching some fish somewhere.