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Looking forward to 2018
As we prepare for a fresh start in 2018, it’s time to take stock of what we learned over the past 12 months and how it might make our new year more fun and fulfilling.
I’m talking fishing. During the past few days, as the temperature plummeted to single digits, I’ve been warming up for 2018 with a mental jog through the past season. Reflection on the good days of fishing – the bad ones, too – provides inspiration.
My three favorite lakes are Pymatuning, Shenango and Mosquito. In 2017, they also were my three most productive.
For too many years, I didn’t include Pymatuning on my list of lakes to fish. I had grown accustomed to firing up the Mercury and sprinting in search of new productive water.
Sprinting isn’t an option at Pymatuning thanks to the 20-mhp limit, so I took the advice of friends and poked around the numerous launch ramps. Exploring Pymatuning on the electric motor underscored the value of tending to details and covering water thoroughly.
When your 8-hour fishing day is limited to how much lake you can explore at 2 mph, you tend to make the most out of every stump, rock and sprig of vegetation you encounter.
Pymatuning is on my list again for 2018, as is Mosquito Creek Reservoir. The reservoir north of Warren delivered one of my fishiest days last season, but also one of my more dismal outings.
Sometimes, regardless of preparation, things don’t work out. I learned one day in April my best spots and precision presentations do not necessarily add up to a bass bonanza.
But Mosquito is a fish factory. The food chain is healthy and supports big populations of bass and walleyes. A hot September day proved that fact beyond a shadow of a doubt as the location where I was fishing also attracted a dozen other anglers.
All of us scored on the largemouths. I caught more than 20. Based on the action I observed, it appeared everybody around me was catching them, too. In the past, I might have decided to seek less-congested locales, but that day’s experience proved the worth of focusing on the water in front of me and not what the other fishermen were doing.
Catching them in a crowd can be rewarding, but so are the days when I’m the only angler in sight. Shenango Reservoir is a place where I know that as the days get shorter and the water gets cooler, I can count on having the good spots pretty much to myself.
Un-crowded water is a great learning lab. I’ve learned at Shenango that on days when fishing pressure is nil, I can put a bait in a fishy place and expect to get bit.
Shenango is a place to test the effects of weather. Strong wind made fishing difficult during one of my visits. But by deploying the Power-Poles on the BassCat’s transom, I was able to hunker down and make repeated pitches to the willows harboring big bass.
Knowing the lure is in the right spot instills confidence.
Confidence is the most important attribute to take into 2018. It is more powerful than any lure and more likely to drive angling success than any sonar, GPS or rod and reel.
The Ohio River is where confidence can put smallmouth bass in the boat when others are fishing with a negative mindset. I’ve seen it happen a hundred times over the years, including a couple of days in 2017.
As we count down to the new beginnings promised by 2018, I am ready to get the party started. I will build on the momentum, focus on details and forge ahead with confidence.
Happy New Year!