The weather was beautiful with temperatures in the high 60's with light wind. Even though I have not been catching many big fish lately I had to go. It is not like I have to make a lots of plans. Just go to the dock and drive the boat to crappie rock with the trolling motor. Only small fish there so I decided to check out the bait fish. The shad were everywhere from the mouth of Blackburns Creek to Cranfield Island. They were in anywhere from 50-80 feet of water and a lot of them were 20 feet down. I spooned for a while in them and caught only a couple of white bass. I tried grub fishing on my favorite bank and caught one fish. it was Saturday and the weather was good and there were a lot chuggers out there. Quite a lot of trollers with an assortment of down-riggers, planer boards and umbrellas. There were a few fish caught but there are so many shad. If you drag live bait across the shad long enough you are likely to catch some fish. Not for me. It will not be long until the spawning instincts take over and the fish move to the bank and jerk baits will be the lure of choice. I will let you know. The night bite did not work out last fall. Maybe it will this spring when they get the lake level straightened out. It is 563.46 now and the surface temperature is 48.5 and the water is still a light brown. Not much of a chance of shad kill this year. I say to myself to take a few days off but cannot help myself. The lake calls me.
