STRANGE YEAR, STRANGE WEATHER … GOOD BASSIN
By Mike Yurk
Sponsored by Warner’s Dock, New Richmond, Wisconsin
Editor’s Note: Mikes Yurk’s column is sponsored by Warner’s Dock in New Richmond, Wisconsin. Warner’s Dock is the premier marine dealer in northwestern Wisconsin. They have a complete supply of new and used boats, motors, and trailers as well as other marine supplies plus a complete maintenance staff for all your boating needs. They can be contacted through their website at www.warnersdock.com or by telephone at 1-888-222-3625.
This year’s fishing season has defied the norm. You always expect some strange weather in the spring and especially on the opener. But this year is different from anything we have seen in years. This has been a very strange fishing season with more than our share of strange weather from the very beginning.
In northwestern Wisconsin, where I live, we still had ice on the lakes a few days before the fishing season opened on the first Saturday in May. On the 1st day of May we had a blizzard. Three days later, when I started the fishing season on a St. Croix County lake, there was still snow on the ground and the first dock I fished had a couple inches of snow piled on it.
We did catch fish that day. My fishing buddy Doug Hurd of Eagan, Minn., and I caught nine bass. They measured from fourteen to seventeen inches. At least we could get out on the lake. Many lakes in northern Wisconsin still had ice covering the water where no one got out fishing.
From there the weather stayed foul. At least it didn’t snow again but stormy weather continued to batter us regularly. A week later Doug and I were back on the same lake. We planned to fish for most of the afternoon and early evening.
We only got a couple of hours on the water. At one point a lady come out on her dock to warn us that severe storms with hail were on the way. Ugly, bruised clouds started to swirl overhead and when we heard the loud rumble of thunder and saw lightening flickering in the sky we quit. But in the couple of hours we fished we caught and released another ten bass that ranged from a foot to seventeen inches.
Even in the worse weather bass were still hitting, as the writer, Mike Yurk shows.
The weather stayed nasty for days and I don’t think we ever saw sun for a complete day. In addition to constant rain we were tormented with continuously strong winds.
Two weeks later my brother-in-law, Tim Wegener of Random Lake, Wisconsin visited me for a long weekend. We fished a number of lakes in Polk and St. Croix Counties. The winds were strong enough to generate white caps even on small lakes. We found ourselves getting blown off a number of lakes but we did catch fish. On the last day we caught thirteen bass on one lake as dark, rain laden clouds swept over us. We moved to another lake and as soon as we launched the boat it began to rain. For the next couple of hours we fished in rain gear and picked up another nine bass.
Early June did not prove to be any better. Three storms in less than a week left blown over trees and houses without power. In Hudson, Wisconsin, where I live, we lost power off and on for several days.
The end of June seemed to get no better than the first of May except we didn’t get any snow. A buddy of mine, Bruce Gervais of Lakeland, Minn. and I fished a lake near my home in Hudson. We spent the entire day getting in and out of rain gear. We counted seven rain squalls that came through during the day we were fishing.
It would be sunny and warm for a awhile and then we could feel the wind pick up, the temperatures drop and black clouds would come overhead, dumping another round of rain on us. But throughout this day of wildly inconsistent weather we caught fish. By the end of the day we caught and released nearly fifty bass.
There has been a silver lining to our otherwise dark clouds. With all the rain we have been getting many of our lakes are higher than we have seen in several years, which is good. The drought we have been plagued with for the last few years is now considered officially over.
Suddenly, summer came. The rain and wind left and we started to see the sun for an entire day. Temperatures popped into the high 80s. On one of those days my wife and I fished a lake in Polk County and caught and released seventy six bass. It was a beautiful day with light winds, blue skies and temperatures that almost reached 90.
Summer may finally be here and bass fishing will just get better, says the writer Mike Yurk, shown with another nice catch.
All this strange, inconsistent, ever changing radical weather patterns never is good news to fishermen. Usually this means you can forget any type of good fishing. But that has not been the case. From the first day of the season with snow on the ground through all the winds, rains and storms to our sudden burst of summer, the bass fishing has been good and steadily getting better.
I am not sure I understand completely why this is. As we all know, storms will usually shut down fishing for a time but I haven’t seen that this season, regardless of what kind of weather we have been getting.
Perhaps it might be because we have consistently had bad weather the bass have adapted to it. Fish have to eat regardless of the weather so if strange weather is what has been normal they have adjusted with it and have been actively aggressive.
Throughout this time I have been catching a lot of bass and my bait of choice has been plastic worms. I think with the rains and storms dumping a lot of food into the waters, plastic worms seems to match the food the fish are finding. Also perhaps the slower presentation of plastics is more appealing to bass that have been battered by strange weather during a strange season.
There are any number of types of plastic worms and different ways to rig them. What has been working for me is using sinking worms, fished wacky style by inserting the hook in the middle of the worm.
Normally I tell people that color doesn’t matter all that much in baits. However, I have noticed this year that bass have been a bit more finicky than normal, perhaps an anomaly because of the weather. For the most part I have found that green, watermelon, mustard and pumpkinseed colors seem to work better than the darker colors like black and blue. Perhaps that might change as the season goes on but for right now those natural colors seem to work best.
Also because of the colder weather I have not seen the normal weed growth I usually find by this time of the year. The weather people on television have been telling us that we are about a month behind and we are seeing that on the lakes around us. I am sure that will change too. For right now, I have been finding most of my fish in shallow water from four to six feet in depth.
Regardless of the strange weather during a strange season so far, bass are hitting. Is summer finally here? We sure hope so. The bass are active and aggressive so get out on the water. Just make sure to bring along your rain gear and also sun screen. In 2013, we never know what the weather will be like.