Fishing June 24 2008

With the ongoing rain storms coming through you never know how much time you are going to have to get to a fishing spot before the next lightning bolts start flying. Since there was a lull happening I decided that I might as well take a hike to my panfish pond and see if the fish are still frequenting the shallows or not. Upon arriving at my destination I was taking a moment and tying on T.H.E. Jig since I lost my last one on a carp or something like that, I was mesmerized as I looked into the shoreline waters. Normally I will see a small school of minnows swimming along the shoreline but today was different. As I gazed into the waters, there were thousands of minnows continually swimming past my spot and they just kept coming and coming and I have never seen anything like this before. Then things started to happen to my surprise as all around the area the waters were bubbling and exploding and there were fish everywhere chasing these minnows. This whole bay area was loaded with these minnows and the ones that were swimming near the shoreline were the only safe ones. I stood there and watch as you could see where there were others out in deeper water and the fish were schooling them and chasing these minnows while gorging themselves on the feast in front of them. The fishing action that I encountered after this was basically nonstop as the panfish were scattered everywhere and in a very hungry mood today. There were a few smaller sunfish caught but most were the colorful bull sunfish. I am noticing though that their colors are starting to fade and this means that the spawn is starting to wind down here and things are going to be changing soon. The bait of choice for this adventure was an all yellow T.H.E. Jig fished a foot under a float. More fish were caught out in the open water versus relating to the wood and overhangs of the last trip. Watching anywhere that the fish were chasing these minnows you could cast to that spot and get a bite on almost every occasion. Mostly sunfish were caught but a bass and also a decent crappie came to the hook as well. I don’t think that in all of my years have I seen such a feeding frenzy going on and it was something that I found myself a number of times just standing there watching. These are rare occurrences and if I were to go back there tomorrow none of this may appear ever again. Pending on the weather conditions tomorrow will dictate if I will be chasing panfish or if I feel that the bass are going to be cooperating that may be what I will do.

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