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Calling for early spring
If you can believe the rodent, we’re in for more winter than we deserve.
Punxsutawney Phil may be a delightful groundhog, but I’m taking issue with his weather forecasting. I’m calling for an early spring and a fast start to the 2017 walleyes, bass, crappies and other popular species here in Northeast Ohio.
Facts are, I’m getting reports now about people catching walleyes and bass. It’s January, people, and this isn’t supposed to be happening. Boaters aren’t supposed to be dredging walleyes from Lake Erie, and pond fishers aren’t supposed to be casting for largemouths.
Most winters find anglers huddled around the fireplace at home, with the hardy handful who enjoy ice fishing out there boring holes through the frozen lids on our lakes.
So in my mind’s eye, the season already has begun. I am gearing up for a mid-March launch myself, with hopes that by then we’ll have bass in the bushes at my favorite ice-out waters at Mosquito and Pymatuning.
I love those first few opportunities to get the BassCat wet each year. I put the boat in storage in November, and it seems as though it’s been a year since I pulled up the last launch ramp of the season.
So now, in the weather station in my brain, I’m counting on a early spring – regardless of Phil’s prediction. Plus, I have it on good authority that he’s really a puppet parroting whatever the Gobblers Knob revelers think is going to make headlines.
By mid-March, our lakes are warming and the marshes around them are soaking up solar energy. Little hints of green show in shoots sprouting in the dark soil and glow through the budding branches overhead.
March feels and smells fresh, sure signs that the bass are moving up from winter haunts to check out the spring smorgasbords in the peripheral waters at our region’s lakes.
Even though I’m still weeks from having to make a decision, I can almost guarantee right now that Mosquito will get the nod as my first destination.
It’s shallow expanses warm a bit more quickly than the riverine waters of Berlin, Shenango, West Branch and Milton. Likewise, Pymatuning warms nicely in the spring thanks to its vast shallow flats.
Both Mosquito and Pymatuning are chock full of bass, crappies and walleyes. And both lakes have plenty of areas where anglers can cast from their boat and catch any of those three species depending on which direction they throw.
Bass and crappies move to the woody cover like willows and fallen trees. Walleyes venture into the skinny water, but tend to be more interested in the newly sprouting greenery and the sandbars.
I’ve enjoyed numerous fishing trips at both reservoirs when I’ve caught lots of bass along with a nice mix of crappies and walleyes.
All of this is good, since with the months of rest we anglers must endure, we’re ready to explode with anticipation on those first trips of the season.
Mosquito and Pymatuning rarely disappoint.
So whatever you think about Punxsutawney’s favorite furry son, I’m banking on ending winter in the foreseeable future and getting ready for the spring fishing.
My gear is ready and the boat is shipshape. A splash of gas and a double check that the plug is in the transom, and I’ll be out there.