Lake Arthur fishing report again!

I got back up to my favorite lake Saturday. It was a pretty nice day, windy but not as windy as the previous Saturday when I had to stop from time to time just to hold my hat on my head. I got a bit of a late start but that's ok when you know where to find the fish. It was warm too for mid-morning. I wondered what would happen to the mayonnaise on my ham and cheese sandwiches while I fished. As it turned out, warm mayo wasn't such a crime. Warm drinking water on the other hand, not so much fun (Note to self: put ice in cooler with food).

I faced a bit of construction traffic on 279N, but I knew they'd be there. Hey, on a Saturday going fishing and having the right music playing, I could've dealt with almost any traffic. :)

I arrived at the lake in good spirits, and set out with the hopes of finding a nice school of Crappie somewhere. Stop 1: Bear Run boat launch area. This area can really deliver at the right time of year. Unfortunately, this wasn't the time.



I always expect something to jump out of this tangle of tree roots and get me!

After 30 minutes I took off for area number 2: Secret Bay. I have a love/hate relationship with the road to Secret Bay. It's really long and dusty, parking is almost non-existent when I get there, but I see lots of different animals, plants and birds when I drive it. Secret Bay paid off but not with keeper sized fish. After an hour of this (and good company in the form of another fisherman wading out with me) I decided to go where I had every confidence that I'd find not only fish, but keepers.

Those of you who know me might be wondering right now why I was so intent on getting fish to keep, knowing that I almost always fish catch and release. To explain...early in the season I like to get a limit or two of panfish so that I can have fish in the freezer through the season whenever I want some, then I can fish the rest of the season mostly catch and release style. I have a freezer devoid of fish right now so I need to get some in there. Anyway, I got to spot number 3: that certain place.

There I had to deal with quite a bit of wind, quite a few people, but was able to finally get into the fish. It wasn't easy and they made me work for every bite, but the Case Worm did it's job and I ended the trip with exactly the same take I had last week. A handful of Bluegills, 2 Yellow Perch and 1 Crappie! Strange that I would get the same combination two trips in a row, but I ain't complainin'.

The oddity of the bunch was this Blonde Bluegill. I'm calling it that because it was a shade of gold when I caught it and I've never seen such a thing before. It even retained that color after death.



See you on the water!