Notta

Notta dam thing going on. You?

Sun today, rain tomorrow

The sun was shining most of the day today, we're going to pay. Rain is on the way. Something like three of the next six days. Nice! Nothing going on at the river but some little ones tapping the bait. A couple fishermen were anchored and fishing below the ripples at Oakland Mills. Terry gave it a try from the dam and didn't have any luck.

Snow

We got about an inch of snow this morning. The high reached the forties so the snow is gone but it slammed the brakes on the fishing. Nobody was on the river or the dam this afternoon. It might warm up someday. I'm sticking to my theory that for every day that we get even the slightest bit of sunshine we will pay dearly. One day with even the slightest bit of sunshine will surely be followed by many days of clouds, rain, thunderstorms and even snow.

Still cold and slow

I was going to run down to the river after work today but changed my mind after getting a fishing report from Chub. He fished for about three hours today with no luck. The only thing he caught was a bad case of frostbite. I wisely decided to take the night off. There will surely be a warmer day with a few more fish biting.

Still cold, still windy

I was the only one on the dam this morning and now I know why. It was cold, windy and not one fish hit the beach. I got lots of bites but wasn't able to hook'em. It almost had to be fiddlers that were pecking away at the nightcrawlers.

I recently switched from 20# to 30# test on by smaller bait casters in an effort to save more swivels and sinkers from snags and found that they don't cast as well with heavier line. I knew the heavier line effected the casting of spinning reels but didn't realize it would have such an effect on bait casters. Additionally, I found that after casting 20# test line consistently for four or five years, the switch to heavier line had a dramatic effect on my casting accuracy. It was almost impossible to deliver a bait precisely where I wanted it. Almost felt like a rooky.

Spring, but cold

The Skunk came up nicely but the air temp dropped considerably. Enough to keep everybody in the house. Not much going on. Air temps are suppose to be in the upper 50's by next weekend. Last week I replace the line on a couple reels. I used a spool of line that I had in the shed even though I knew I didn't like that brand. Long story short I changed the line again tonight. The line I didn't like had way to much stretch, too much for me anyway. Word is starting to spread of another large flathead at Oakland Mills. I guess a big one was hooked sometime yesterday but they didn't get it landed. Imight brave the winter like air temps in the morning. Maybe!

Rising water/cooler temps

Although the air temps are twenty and thirty degrees below we had about a week ago, the water has been rising (about a foot) for about two days and the fish are biting. As usual they are going after the nightcrawlers and it only took a few minutes for them to start hitting the bait each time. Although I had constant action on two rods I only landed two small channel cats. Another fisherman who had been there for about seven hours had eight(?) in the basket. Five channel cats and three flatheads. All small, but catfish none the less. There had to be some big ones out there but the little ones were all over the bait and the big guys didn't have a chance to find it. The down side tonight was that I was under dressed so I was cold and the sun went down. I was still getting bites when I left at dark but it was time to go.