Jacky, as in Jackass, is one of the many nicknames so gracefully and lovingly given to me by my wife. I take it all in stride. I've been called much worse and I'll gladly take any nickname which allows me to escape some of the home duties and go fishing on a regular basis. So, this one is dedicated to Lauren.
The weather was beautiful today, very unusual for January. Also, I couldn't wait to get out and use some of the new gear I received for christmas (again, thanks Lauren!). Unfortunately, none of my usual fishin buds could make it. I struggled with where to go, and settled on one of favorite rivers.
Apparently I made the right choice on where to fish. I put in on this small piedmont flow around noon and water temp was a chilly 46 F. Air temp was in the 60s with partly cloudy conditions. I wasn't expecting much considering the water temp. I decided to troll a rattletrap and just paddle for a while.
I started out trolling one 1/4 oz cordell spot Black/Green/White color. Within ~20 minutes, I thought I was snagged on the bottom as my reel was zinging. I grabbed the rod, and it pulled back. I soon realized it was a monster chain pickerel (a.k.a. Jack or Jackfish), by far my personal best. I didn't have any of my "stuff" out to land this fish and fumbled around to get my grips and pliers out. I finally got it to the boat and hoisted this beast in for measurements. 4.25 lbs and 26.25" long, just barely meeting the "Trophy Fish" minimum in the fishing regs. What a way to start off the new year, and this was just the beginning!
I continued trolling, now with two cordell spots (one 1/4 oz and one 1/2 oz) and landed a few small largemouth on the larger lure. I parked in a few spots and threw the rattletrap and landed a couple more bass, 4 in total, biggest pictured below. Lost one a little bigger at the boat.
On my way back to the launch I trolled one of the cordell spots and a rapala rattletrap in baby bass color. I landed one nice crappie, which made its way into the cooler. I ran into a few other kayak anglers crappie fishing and they were on a hot hole. They encouraged me to anchor up and cast jigs. I ablidged and proceeded to land several nice crappie on a chartruese / pink head curly tail jig. The guys handed me a few more crappie they were catching and I filled my little cooler with 8 10-12" crappie. I thanked them for the fish and advice, and continued on my way.
About half-way back to the launch, the trolled rapala got nailed and it was another big pickerel. This one was ~3 lbs and 22.25". Check the belly on this one.
I threw the jig here and there looking for a few more crappie, but that was it. I wrapped it up around 5 pm and headed home. Great day and I hope a sign of things to come in 2012.
