First Open Water Trip

With reports of some lakes ice free as early as 4/5/2019, I decided to check for myself.

The lake I decided to fish was open with the main lake temperature at about 46.5 degrees. We checked the go to spot right away nothing in the shallower water.

We tried a few more spots on the north side of the lake and still came up empty handed.

We decided to head back to the first spot and see if it had warmed up anymore by 1pm. To our surprise it was 50.5 degrees!

We made a few casts and it was lights out. I was using Northland Firefly and a Gulp. The fish were going crazy with one after another.

Easily 150ish fish were caught and most were crappies 10-11 inches so no pigs yet with all of them being males including the bluegills.

Obviously, no fish on beds yet as the ice just came off. We kept some for a meal this time.

Sometimes it pays to check your spots more than once, especially in the spring when the water can warm up as much as 5-10 degrees on those sunny days.