The original shot at a fishing report actually began the previous day on Good Friday, March 30. I had the day off, my boys, Jayce and Zac, wanted to go fishing and the weather was tolerable. Zac’s GoPro clip below shows an incident about 30 minutes after our arrival that put a damper on the outing and sent us packing as we hadn’t packed a change of footwear. Hadn’t really anticipated anyone taking a bit of a dip. You think I would know better by now.

 

So, on the heels of that abbreviated outing featuring about a dozen casts between me and my boy, Jayce, with no bites I was a little desperate to claim a March bass. Earlier this year, with Mother Nature’s assistance I had somehow been able to fool a handful of bonus February bass. Therefore, I wasn’t about to let March slip by no matter how surly Mother Nature had gotten in the meantime. Here’s how it went down.

3:10pm Mission accomplished with a March bass (more on the lure choice later this week)

Stats
Date: March 31, 2018
Location: Little John Conservation Club (2 lakes)
Time: 2:10pm-5:20pm
Weather: Partly cloudy to overcast/windy to very windy
Air Temp: 51-43F
Totals: 3 bass
Lures:
Rapala Shad Rap (blue) – 1 bass
Strike King Red Eye Shad (sexy shad) – 1 bass
Rapala Fat Rap (crawdad) – 1 bass
Top Bass: none 12” or better
Top 5 Weight: not applicable

Notes and Nonsense

Conditions – As if it wasn’t cold enough at barely 50 degrees, a cold front was scheduled to move in mid-afternoon right in the heart of my fishing time. Go figure but you get what you get and I was on a quest. Actually, a few quests (more on the others later this week). Anyhow, when the front came roaring in just over an hour into my trip, the already windy day got rather outrageous. Radio reports placed gusts at 35-40 mph and I would say that was right on the money.

3:33pm As close as I’d get to a “keeper” at 11.5″ on Shad Rap

Approach – Two bass on my first stop before the winds kicked into full gear came off a couple reliable spots but many more let me down. As such I elected to move to lake number two and fish some stretches of bank that were just getting pounded by wind and wave. Kind of interesting while rowing around in an eight foot johnboat. With the windchill dipping to a reported 36F I skipped using the anchor as half my fingers were already numb and resorted instead to letting the wind simply push me into the bank. I worked over several areas running some lures parallel to the fairly sharp drops and points but only scored one short bass while running a Red Eye Shad off the edge of a shallow hump. Not long after the catch I finally gave up, content with my March catches although they left a bit to be desired in terms of quality.

5:10pm Third and last bass but darn happy to get it in some ugly conditions

Extras – Had a couple projects included on this fishing trip for a little something extra. One is a standard from last year’s outings while the other is something different. One lets me stray into my fondness for tunes on the radio and the other takes me on a tangent into what I still consider to be America’s favorite pastime, baseball. Right, I know that this blog is billed as “outdoor” but bear with me as it’s all part of the fun. Stay tuned…

Talk to you later. Troy