My good friend, Dylan and I left WNY to go chase bass on the Finger Lakes. This is a yearly tradition for me, and one of my favorite days of fishing in the year; at least most excited going into it. This blog will have the "Fishing Report" which is something I plan on doing going forward. After everyday of fishing, I write my own fishing log to keep track of patterns. The plan is to post something very similar on my website after most outings.
Once we decided to go fishing, first thing was to check the weather, second was to check prior fishing logs, and lastly was to prep tackle for the conditions. A constant is checking the weather. I use three apps usually and then take kind of an average of what I am seeing. Those apps are: Apple Weather, WeatherBug and Windfinder.
This is my sixth year now seriously fishing. There is usually a similar flow to how I travel and fish throughout the seasons. With that flow and overall experience, I have noticed that I am dialing in patterns. All the factors have played, time on the water, facing adverse conditions, keeping a log and being mindful of the mood/behavior of the fish.
Here is the log and below that I will explain our day on the water!
Fishing Log:
4/10/23
Time Fished: 8:00am-3:15pm
Air Temp: 34*-64*
Water Temp: 42*-45*
Wind: S 6MPH- W 3MPH
Conditions: Sunny
Depth Fished: 2'-14'
Time Graphing: 1/2 and hour
Water Clarity: 3-4' of visibility
Pattern: Spring
Total Bass caught: 8
8:02am- First fish, Smallmouth; Red Eye Shad; 6'
9:22am- Smallmouth; Red Eye Shad 5'
9:28am- 4-4 Smallmouth; Jerkbait; 4'
9:38am- 4-5 Smallmouth; Jerkbait; 6'
11:24am- Largemouth; Jerkbait; 2'
11:38am- Smallmouth; Trap; 3'
11:42am- Smallmouth; Trap; 4'
11:49am- Smallmouth; Jerkbait; 3'
Technique: Jerkbait and Lipless Crank
Lures: Lunkerhunt Sushi 110s and Strike King Red Eye Shad
Color: Common Shiner and Delta Craw
Rod: 13 Fishing Fate 7'1" ML and Daiwa 7' MH
Reel: BPS Carbonlite 2.0 and BPS Pro Qualifier 7.5:1
Line: 15-pound braid -> 10-pound fluorocarbon leader and 15-pound fluorocarbon
That is the complete breakdown of my fishing logs. At times I will take notes and elaborate more on the day, especially if a unique phenomenon occurred.
Reviewing the day; we got into two good flurries of fish, we had the baits dialed in that they wanted, and we knew the right areas to be in. Once the sun reached high-noon, it was very difficult. The water went completely flat and the sun was oppressive. It was clear that the fish were getting finicky. We moved to a new area with a few creek mouthes in hopes the oxygen rich water would hold fish, that didn't pan out though. For hours we saw fish swimming right by us, we had followers but no commitment. If in that situation again, low wind, no clouds, high sun, high water visibility, try going with ultra finesse. Using small hair jigs probably could have gotten us one or two more fish. When the fish get shy and spooky, it is time to go finesse, and when they are super shallow, a 1/16-1/4oz hair jig has worked for me the rest of the year in many places.
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