Living in SE Ohio, cold weather is expected when winter arrives. Typically, this doesn't mean hard water until after the New Year, but this year it has arrived early. I had the afternoon to myself on Saturday and had a severe case of cabin fever, but was very disappointed when I saw the local ponds all had a hard top. No matter what the weather is doing, if there's open water, I can usually coax a bluegill to hand to give me a fix, but that wasn't happening on Saturday. My next closest option is my local Ohio River tributary. Roughly March-November the fishing can be pretty decent for a mixed bag of warmwater species, but the water has really been cooling off lately. My hopes were not all that high.
I dredged small Clouser deep minnows in chartreuse/white and yellow/olive for about 90 minutes in the deepest water I could find with no takes. No crappie, no sauger, no bass, nothing but icy guides and cold finger tips. I caught no fish, but it wasn't Bob Clouser's fault.
Defeated, I came home to the warmth of the house and got the feeling back in my extremities. I beat the frigid weather the best way I knew how: dreaming of warmer weather and fish busting topwater bugs. I sat down at the bench and cranked out some warm weather weapons for the spring. Until then, I'll hope for a few warming trends to open the ponds back up and provide some action.
Jeff, I am afraid that is what we have to look forward too for awhile now that cold and snow has set in..........
ReplyDeleteGreat looking patterns by the way!