Glen Hunter and I hit the waters of East Grand Lake for some early season smallmouth action. Despite the early spring that we have experienced the water temperatures were still at a seasonally normal temperature of 61 degrees. It was still a little nippy , at fifty one degrees, when we slid the boat off of the trailer to cross the lake. Not bad on shore but when we kicked the Stratos up on plane it was on the cool side. It was enough to just stay up on the pad as opposed to a bone chilling high speed run.
Our first stop was on a main lake point where I have encountered prespawn fish staging in prior years. I went to work with a Husky Jerk on my new Crucial 6’ 3” rod and Stradic 2500 reel spooled up with Seige green line in 8lb test . I still prefer mono for a jerk bait. Old habits die hard with some of us. I had seen a post earliar in the year from Big Jim in which he had mentioned this rod for jerkbaits so I ordered it and it does have just the right action for this technique. The goal was to try and cover some water for active fish while Glen wacky rigged a blackblue flake Flutter Worm. The slow presentation was the key and I was getting spanked from the back of the boat. After Glen had me down four to none I switched and also started catching fish. I think if the sun had peaked out from behind the clouds for a while the Husky Jerk might have been more effective. It is typically one of my favourite spring baits. I usually throw the black back silver side HJ 12 or 14 because they resemble the smelts that are found in so many of our lakes.
As the day went on we encountered fish on beds as well as fish that were just cruising along the shoreline breaks. Very few of them appeared to have spawned yet and I think a couple of more sunny days should bring them in.
We caught most of our fish on the Flutter worm and a few on a number three silver Blue Fox in-line spinner. I used a 6’ 6” Compre medium action rod and a 2500 Stadic with 8 lb. mono for the Blue Fox and a 6’ 6” Crucial MH with a 2000 Stradic spooled with 20 lb Power Pro for the Flutter Worm. I use so much monofilament for my fishing that the first hook set of the day with the braid was a bit of a shock. No stretch really means no stretch.
We had a great day on the water even if the sun didn’t shine. Glen is one of those guys who just loves to fish and usually lets me give him a tuning from the front of the boat. Something about the camera must have got him going because most of the fish catching was happening behind me today. Easy to see why he used to run the biggest Guide Service, for bass fishermen, in the State of Florida.
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