If I was a touring professional fisherman, trying to earn my living on the BASS or FLW tours, I’d have gone bankrupt years ago. That’s because I like to catch fish my way, not necessarily the fish’s way.
When the weather is warm I love topwater fishing - so much so I often have missed out on getting a check in a tournament because I won’t stop topwater fishing. From the end of the spawn until mid- June topwater action hits its peak, but it usually takes until late September before I finally quit over-using my topwater rod and reel.
All it takes to put me over the edge and abandon intelligent fishing is to see a fish break the surface 200-yards away (What kind of fish? Who cares.) Immediately I drop the more intelligent presentation I should be using and scramble for my topwater rod.
It’ll be an hour of long casts and absolute failure before I return to my senses and resume the more intelligent way of fishing; time lost, paycheck lost…oh look, something just fed on the surface way over there!
The calendar says December, that means my winter fishing addiction will now be taking over my life, trying to control what I do on the water.
My cold-weather addiction is fishing vertically, floating 30-60 feet over ditches filled with timber, baitfish and large spotted bass. Some term it “video fishing” because guys like me will spend hours staring at their sonar units, totally oblivious to anything else around them.
We are looking for those telltale arches; moving arches are the best- that means the fish are active, and if we can find moving arches close to those beautiful balls-of-bait we are like excited four-year-olds on Christmas morning. Did you ever hear a fisherman old enough for Medicare laugh and squeal like a little girl who just was given a kitten? That’s me. I just found moving arches and balls of bait.
What I am writing is gibberish anyone reading who has never winter-pattern fished on Lake Lanier. It’s absolutely addicting. Drop-shot, jigging spoon, or shaky head, it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters when you’re an addict.
But as with all addictions, reality gets lost. I have tried and tried for the past six weeks to get bit by vertically fishing the ditches. I have caught a couple of fish, but the fish just aren’t there in the numbers they should be.
So today I got sober and fished according to the conditions. The water is nearly sixty degrees and the bait is on the bottom in 20-25 feet of water. I want to fish 60-feet deep - my addiction keeps pulling me there - but today I resisted that temptation, fished 20-25 feet deep, and had fantastic success.
The forecast calls for a warming trend; my addiction says, ”Let’s go fish timber in 60-feet of water.”; but I will be strong. I plan to catch a bunch by fishing small creek channels in 20-25 feet of water, and you need to do the same.
Maybe January will help my addiction.
