2009’s First Largemouth

I simply couldn’t take it any longer. I needed to go fishing. The weather’s been all over the place lately and today was no exception. Last week it snowed, today it was 66 degrees. Welcome to North Carolina.

I took a quick trip to our pond, not really expecting to catch anything, but I wanted to get on the water after a three-week absence. While it was mild for January, it was terribly windy and heavily overcast as a cold front was working on chasing the unseasonably warm weather out of here. The water temp was a chilly 42 and the fish would be deep and lethargic so the fly rod stayed home and I baitcasted a Texas rigged 5” Senko worm, watermelon w/black flake, to the deepest spots I could reach. I also dithered about in some of the protected shallow coves, spin casting my go-to Original Rapala, but fishing the top two feet of water just wasn’t going to work this early in the year. It’s a habit, though.

After a couple of non-productive hours it began to spit a little rain so I moved to the road dam where the bottom drops off pretty sharply and the wind was somewhat blocked. There, I had my lone strike for the day, hooked and landed a nice 14” inch largemouth, my first, hopefully of many, of the year. He fought like a cold fish and, if fish can show expression, had a dopey, stunned look on his face as if saying "What the heck are you doing fishing in January?". Probably just my imagination.

Shortly after, the rain began in earnest and I headed for the house, glad that I had made the trip. Sorry, I didn't have a camera with me. I'll do better next time.