Sunday afternoon was very windy, so we wanted to find a place that was sheltered because we wanted to go in our kayaks. Our first kayak outing of the year. We found a place in mid-afternoon, I'll call it Mystery River, and started looking for some fish. There was still a bit of wind but not enough to ruin the fishing.
Here's what we found in Mystery River, lots of nice bass and pike habitat:
and this is what we found lurking in that habitat:
Lots of panfish, some nice size ones too
a few snotrockets, and Bowzog's biggest largies this year:
Bowzog used an assortment of spinnerbaits, the lucky one being a white bleeding tip Northamfishing spinnerbait on a medium action rod. I was using an ultralight rod and was contented with catching panfish with a green jighead tipped with a chartreuse/white micro-tube. I did catch a largemouth on that ensemble, what a fight! I'd like to mention that the reel on my ultralight is the "defective" Genz reel from those ice combos. They're not defective in the summer, because the problem is with the lube not being able to stand the cold.
Monday was motorboat day, so we headed to Clayton Lake. Another windy day so it was hard to stay in one spot. First fish on was a 17" walleye by yours truly on the same setup as the day before, the chartreuse micro tube. Then Bowzog tied into a scrappy crappie on a jighead tipped with a dead minnow.
We caught lots of small perch, a rockie, bluegill, but we wanted some largies! Headed for a sheltered spot by an island, weed-city! Pitched some frogs into the weeds, mine a Scumfrog Trophy series and Bowzog a Bobby's Perfect Frog. We hadn't used these this year yet, so we got startled a few times when the largies took our frog. We missed those. Finally, I get one to the boat, this nice scrapper:
then, when we're about to leave, as the sun was setting, Bowzog gets this shiny specimen:
We had a great weekend, got a bit of sun, lots of wind and lots of DEER FLIES!!! My legs are still itchin'!!
..
I bet those pads hold some big buckets 
