Spring Lake 6-19, 6-22

Hit Spring Lake again with the ultra-lites on Sunday, then again on Wednesday. Fished mini-crawlers about 2.5' - 3' under a small bobber, weightless. Fished a bunch of different areas on the East side of the lake on Sunday, with my boy Monte and our friend Dermot. Dermot rented a yak and just paddled, but Monte and I landed 15-20 little green sunfish, with a couple of redears thrown in. Still looking for the monsters, though, and the biggest on Sunday was a skinny 6"er. Still a lot of fun on the UL's, and on Wednesday they averaged ~6" and the biggest one was close to 8".

Fished the same set-ups on Wednesday at the same little cove. Was with my friend Bob this time and we each got about 20 - 30, and as the afternoon wore on the fish got a little bigger - with the 8"er being one of the last fish caught.

We fished for about 1.5 hours on Sunday and just under 3 hours on Wednesday. All fish were released. Nobody targetted bass either day.

Here's a pic of Bob with the average size fish on Wednesday.

ahh, that brings back memories. I use to ride my bike there and fish for those when I was a kid.

Were any of those sunfish on beds yet?

Not sure. I honestly don't know much about freshwater fishing, and the visibility was just a little over 1.5'.

I do know that two or three were pregnant females, and that most of the bigger ones were caught in the same general vicinity - if that helps.

When the bluegills are spawning, you'll see their beds in the shallow water... they look like round, exposed areas of sand a few feet in diameter.  

I'm not sure what time of year they spawn around here... back home in WI they typically spawn in early to mid June.

That's when it's really fun to catch (and release) them on a fly rod with small poppers or bugs casted over the spawning beds... that's when you can get into the bigguns...

Erik

They don't want to eat when they're spawning, but a popper will annoy them and they'll bite it to chase it away.  That's the only way I could catch them on one fishing trip.