Saturday, March 21, 2009
Here we are, the third Saturday in March, and the fishing season has begun.
The waders are stalking the gravel and sand flats and points for walleyes at Mosquito Creek Reservoir. Boaters are vertical jigging the U.S. 224 causeway across Berlin Reservoir for walleyes and crappies. And the bass anglers have begun to poke and prod the flooded brush at just about all of the lakes around Youngstown.
’Tis the season. Finally!
Just two weeks ago, the last of the ice fishermen abandoned their sport, as the frozen waters thawed on Mosquito’s north end. Winter, which by March 1 still seemed to have a lion’s grip on its brutal intentions, looks to be heading toward a lamb conclusion.
I’ll take it.
It’s good to see boats on trailers heading to the ramps. It’s good to see anglers visiting bait shops to buy buckets of minnows and cartons of nightcrawlers. It’s good to see people fishing.
This is my favorite time of the year.
Something special swells over an angler on the way to the lake for the season’s first fishing trip. Months of opportunity stretch out in front of you, like the miles on an interstate highway at the start of a vacation.
I’ve already walked the rocks at Mosquito and tossed jigs for walleyes and crappies. It was a good ice-breaker, but I consider my season inaugural yet to come. It will be at Mosquito — any day now.
The fun begins when the boat slides off the trailer bunks and you whiff that first puff of two-cycle outboard smoke. Things really click into gear when you motor out, switch off the engine and make that first cast.
I’ve already got a starting point in mind. I’ve been mulling it over in my mind for months. It will be a place where the sun has warmed the shallow water to a temperature approaching 50 degrees. It will be laced with willows and other brush and punctuated by a few rocks.
I’ve already got the lures tied to the rods I’ll be using. One will have a brush-busting jig, and another will have a white and chartreuse spinnerbait. I’ll also have rods rigged with a hard-body jerkbait and a lipless rattling crankbait.
My intentions will be to hook a few largemouth bass. But I wouldn’t be surprised to smack a northern pike or a big, fat walleye. All three species are known to swim in the vicinity of my season’s first fishing hole.
Whatever strikes will be much appreciated, especially after the arctic winter we just endured. But even if the fish don’t cooperate, it will be good nevertheless to get to the water and begin an earnest pursuit of the fish I love to catch.
If you fish Mosquito, you probably will see me out there. Maybe today. Perhaps tomorrow. Certainly in the upcoming weekends.
I won’t be hard to spot. I’ll be the guy with the big smile, pleased as punch to be finally fishing again.
jack@innismaggiore.com