Reflecting on fishing season

While I never say never when it comes to fishing, the calendar says it's time to set most of my rods aside and put the boat under cover for a little winter nap.
Sure, I'll continue to fish -- weather permitting -- for whatever will bite, but the odds are long after Thanksgiving that my favorite fishing will be impossible until spring. I'm a bass addict, and they aren't especially cooperative during Northeast Ohio winters.
The past seven months were good ones. I was fortunate to have sampled the action at 12 bass lakes and rivers. All yielded fish, some more than others, but even the relatively stingy lakes were not altogether disappointing, considering I learned a bit as I fished.
The ice had barely melted the day I visited Akron's Portage Lakes. I caught only one bass, a 4-pounder. Had I fished smarter, I'd have picked up on the fact that the bass get up on the weed flats in April and will hit hard-body baits that just tick the grass.
In six trips to Mosquito, I caught limits of bass, but many were 1-pounders. That was the name of the game for Mosquito anglers, whose lament was, "Where are the big bass?" By early fall, however, better fish started to show. Lesson learned: If you want to catch 3-pounders at Mosquito, you need to pick through the 13-inchers.
Nimisila, an electric-motor lake near Akron, is known for bass thanks to abundant weeds and midlake humps. In 2005, I caught bass averaging nearly 3 pounds by raking a lipless crank over the grass, but the number and size slipped during my one visit this year. I should have changed tactics, but fell victim to the old bugaboo of relying on nostalgia.
West Branch
My first '06 trip to West Branch was during Memorial Day weekend. I'd worried about a tough day, but the bite surprised me. The bass were up in the flooded willows, where I yanked out a limit of keepers by flipping Texas-rigged tubes, plus a 4-pound walleye that apparently liked the largemouth lifestyle.
Lake Milton can be a tough place in July for weekend anglers. We can pull bass from the docks on Wednesdays, but Saturday and Sunday boat traffic makes that tactic problematic. So I slipped away from the mayhem and worked the quiet waters. Two hogs spit my bait early. They crushed my frog, the explosions so startling that I made a rookie mistake and jerked too soon. But I did manage to boat a 4-pound largemouth and 2-pound smallie as the day progressed. A couple of monster muskies also rolled up on the frog.
I always look forward to fishing Presque Isle Bay and nearby Lake Erie. My June trip there was a blast, as I wrestled up 4-pound smallies from main lake rock piles in 20 feet of water. Erie remains the best place around these parts for big smallmouth bass.
Two of my three Evans Lake trips were big-bass slugfests. The off day was a story of frustration during the Youngstown/Mahoning Valley United Way Bass Classic. I failed to recognize the fish were not where I wanted them to be -- another case of trying to repeat the past without enough consideration of the present.
Pine Lake was a day of bruiser brawling. The early bite was on topwaters. As the sun poked through the mist, we switched to pitching soft plastics and worked up a sweat pulling protesting bucketmouths from shallow wood. The lesson at Pine? Don't hesitate to go the next time the opportunity arises.
On the Ohio
My question as I drove to the Ohio River in September was which of its personalities would show up, the tough-as-nails version or the highly productive waterway we enjoyed a few years ago. The answer was neither. One day resulted in a 4-pound smallie and 2-pound largemouth; the next day produced a pair of largemouths, one topping 3 pounds. What I learned this year gives me hope that 2007 will be a decent year on the Ohio.
Talk about split personalities. Conneaut Lake near Meadville, Pa., is the craziest place in the summer when everybody in the homes around the lake decides to take a boat ride at the same time. My August visit produced a limit of keeper largemouths and smallies, many of them caught under docks while my boat rocked on the wakes. In September, the crowds were gone. I enjoyed the peace and hauled another limit from the docks.
Shenango is another lake that teases me with success stories. It gets hit pretty hard each year, but the 15-inch size limit reduces the harvest to give the largemouths and smallmouths time to mature. My August trip was full of opportunities to do exceptionally well, but sloppy execution cost me a 4-pound largemouth and a 3-pound smallie.
Bass fishing is done for 2006, but here's hoping the momentum carries over into another good year in '07.
jwwollitz@aol.com