Got a chance to kayak fish a local community lake on two afternoons this past week. Monday was in partly sunny, in the upper 40's with very little wind. Wednesday was cloudy, in the upper 30's and 10 MPH winds. Both days I was armed with a 7' Daiwa Presso UL rod with a Shimano Stradic CI4+ reel, 6# braid and a 4# flouro leader. The lure of choice, a 1/32 oz Berkeley Atomic Tube. In other words my go to setup.
The man-made lake had been drawn down for winter dock and dam maintenance, which would help with getting the little jig down to the deeper spots where I suspected the fish were sitting. Also the water was crystal clear which would help visually finding those deeper spots. On Monday I did a lot of paddling around looking when I was lucky to see a school of yellow perch. Dropped my anchor and soon brought a few to hand. After that I kept working water of similar depths. Cast, let the tube sink to the bottom, pop or slowly lift, reel in a bit and let it drop again. That seemed to be the ticket. Ended up with 25 perch and two hard fighting pickerel. Thought I'd lose the first pickerel when it shot under a submerged wooden pallet. Luckily he came out when I let the line go slack. All-in-all a great day.
Things were much less comfortable Wednesday with the cold and wind. The kayak anchor was invaluable. I fished deeper areas hoping to find either more perch or, if lucky, a bass. First hit felt different than a perch and proved to be crappie. Ended up with 4 of them, plus 14 perch. The highlight of the day was a slow but heavy feeling take. You know, where you wonder if you just snagged or caught something good but then I sensed movement. I had the drag set light, to minimize the chance of a break off, and I just lifted the rod to apply pressure and get that little size 8, crimped barb, jig hook in as deep as possible. The fish made many drag peeling runs, always heading for the bottom. After I felt it was at least a little tired I worked on getting it to the surface and could see it was a largemouth. Due to the cold it never did a tail walk but certainly did pop it's upper bod out and do a massive head shake. Brought it to the kayak and netted it. The hook was dead center in the meat of the upper lip. Did not have either a tape or scale but it was clear that this bass was a personal best. Previous PB was 4.5, if memory serves me right, and this guy was a good bit fatter.
That day was cold and my fingers ached but oh so worth it.