Lake of the Pines Fish 'n' Dive 3/18 and 3/19

Hit the lake Sunday afternoon to see if the bass had started staging for the spawn. Sure enough, a 13"er on the first cast with the incredible size 9 Risto Rap ( I keep tellin' you Joel, there's no need to get all finesse with the size 5). But of course, whenever I get nailed on the first cast, I know it's going to be hard fishin' the rest of the day. Anyway, 2 1/2 hours later, I've had another short bite on a spinnerbait, and 4 more takes on senkos. I just can't stick another fish, until I finally manage to get one just a little bit longer than the 5" senko. In the process of not actually boating fish, I'd gone from a 7" senko down to the 5". I was fishing them Texas rigged. I'll go wacky next time.

After work today, I hit the lake with the freediving gear, with the idea that I'd get to try out the speargun on a foam fish before hitting the ocean. Visibility was utter crap though, Instead of the normal 10' or so, it was down to 3-5'. After salvaging the foam fishy from 15' of water with 5' of viz, I thought I'd be better off putting it in shallow water, just so I wouldn't lose it. Wrong. I spent 15 minutes looking for the darn thing after dropping it, then going and getting the gun. Here is a 15" long, lime green foam fish, in about 7' of water,   and I can't find it for the life of me. It doesn't help that there's a bunch of lime green algae growing on the bottom, and that the foam target has nestled itself in the weeds. So I eventually find the darn thing and give up on target practice for the night. Tomorrow I'll put the foam target on a marker buoy, and put it back in the deeper clearer water.   

But the funny thing, is that while futzing around looking for the fish and practicing loading the gun while floating in the water, I get attacked. Twice. Freekin' Largemouth bass getting all pre-spawn aggro. It's a good thing I had the snorkel in my mouth the first time, or the lakeside residents would have really heard me swear when the first one tagged me.  I just kind of jumped the second time around, but it's still spooky.  I plan on fishing that spot tomorrow. Get me some revenge


Sorry for no pix. The wife took the CF card adapter with her on a business trip.

Scott

...I get attacked. Twice. Freekin' Largemouth bass getting all pre-spawn aggro.

Is that the freshwater equivalent of a shark?! 

Big J

Sure thing, except for there isn't any threat of exsanguination, nor loss of limbs, organs, etc...


Scott