Trait and I are experiencing weird feelings right now. March and April are usually constant traveling and fishing for us, but not this year. We’re home doing the best we can given the situation we find ourselves in right now. It’s a strange atmosphere. No matter, though, life goes on even if it’s different.
For the last few days we’ve been busy moving into our new house here in Texas. That’s kept us busy. We’ve also been spending time fishing locally. That’s a rare treat.
You know, you hear about guys fishing near their home. They’re the locals. That’s supposed to give them an advantage. In reality, though, most of us have very little experience fishing our local lakes at this time of the year. We don’t have the time to do it. But that was back then. This is 2020.
My thinking is that we (all of us) can fish locally — assuming the ramps are open and we can do so safely and responsibly — and put together information we wouldn’t otherwise be able to put together.
It’s easy and relatively inexpensive to go to the lake every day or so and see what’s happening. We can watch how the fish move from one day to the next instead of from one Saturday to the next. That kind of information will make us all better spring anglers on our local waters and will make us better anglers overall.
This will be an opportunity for us to watch the progression from prespawn into the spawn and then into the postspawn in detail. We can actually see what the bass do during and immediately after a cold front or a warm front. We don’t have to wait days, only hours.
We can also cover the lake with our SONAR and see things we didn’t know were there. It doesn’t take a lot of money to do that. Running a boat at idle and charging your trolling motor batteries is relatively cheap.
What I’m talking about is especially useful for anglers who live near big, legendary lakes and who fish tournaments.
Trait and I are doing this in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. There are a ton of lakes that we know will be the site of major tournaments in the future. The more we know about them and how the fish react to weather and seasonal changes the better position we’ll be in when those tournaments roll around.
This is all true even if you’re fishing later in the year. The more you know about where a bass has been the more likely you are to predict where it’ll be in the future. It’s about knowing where the travel lanes are, where the staging areas are and where the breaks that the fish actually use are located.
This can be viewed as an opportunity.
When I say that, though, I’m not trying to put lipstick on a pig or minimize the hardships this COVID-19 thing has caused. Being unemployed and unable to travel is a serious matter. It messes with your wallet and with your head. Fishing for a few hours isn’t going to make that go away. I know that.
But, this will end and life will get back to normal at some point in the future. What I’m talking about is simply my humble suggestion to help everyone — and everyone includes Trait and I — weather the storm.
#livesmart #fishsmart #bassmaster
