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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing Article Summaries |
Multiple Species Make a Fun Day!
By Mike Guarino The Belgrade Lakes Region has a lot going for it: beautiful lakes and mountains, clean waters, some pretty nice people and a lot of different fish to catch. For some anglers, it's the variety of species available that draws them to the area. One fun way to enjoy a day on the lake is to see how many different kinds of fish you can hook. Last week a couple of friends managed to catch just about everything you can think of. On this particular day, we decided not to troll for trout, although the trout and salmon have been biting pretty well lately. It was a conscious decision that we made right off the bat. The object of the day was to cruise rock piles for smallmouth, weed bed edges for pike and pickerel, and sunken timber for largemouth bass. Well, as anyone who fishes Belgrade knows, it didn't take long to get a couple of smallies in the boat. The bass fell for a black and purple sparkle Senko fished Texas Style, so 15 minutes into the trip we were on our way to the weed beds. The northern pike bite slowed down to a snails pace for a while when our region was hit with that horrible heat wave back on June 9, but the weather has stabilized and the fishing has picked back up. It took a number of casts with a variety of spoons and spinners, but eventually a nice 9-pound pike came to the boat, followed quickly by a slippery pickerel. Mission Accomplished — now for the largemouth. We slid the boat into a cove where a large fallen white oak tree lay across the water and in the morning this shady spot is killer for big bass. We switched to a watermelon-colored, straight-worm-rigged Texas style with a small pegged bullet weight. The first largemouth was tucked up under the tree against the shoreline. It took a perfect cast to get the bait in there, but the reward was worth the effort and a nice 31/2-pounder came to hand. The second largemouth was out toward the end of the tree in about 7 feet of water. Boat position was crucial because we stitched to a diving crank bait. Rather than throw the diver into the tree and retrieve directly back out toward the boat, we positioned so we could drag the bait across the deeper section of the submerged tree limbs, covering more water with less chance for a hang up. The trouble with fishing fallen trees is that you work so hard to get in there nice and quiet, but if you get hung up you'll spook the whole spot. So take your time and position your boat correctly for the type of bait you are using. Now we had a dilemma, we've caught our four target species consisting of smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, northern pike, and pickerel. What should be target next? Well, out came the ultra light rods rigged with 4-pound fluorocarbon line, some small roadrunner jigs and small white grubs for a trailer. We headed into crappie country, searching again for sunken timber on the shady side of the lake. You'll find crappie just about everywhere in the Belgrades until you are trying to catch one! Then they seem to vanish. We got lucky and found an active school in the timber and put a couple nice slabs in the boat. A short boat ride to a ledge leading to deep water produced two white perch with humps on their back The moral of this day and this story is that variety is the spice of life. Catching a variety of fish added to the enjoyment of the day and there's a certain intrinsic feeling that comes with actually catching the species you are trying to target. It's a lot like catching trout on a fly you tied by hand. The trout doesn't always have to be a "wall hanger" to have value to the angler, and you get same type of feeling trying different methods for different species. Next week we'll be talking about trout and salmon. The bite is on — good luck! Mike Guarino can be contacted at | ||
