Launched the tube at the outside corner of the north boat dike just after 8:30. Glass and 30 degrees at launch. Water temp 43.
Took about 15 minutes to reach First Spring. Went across the shallow rock shelf and found deeper water…6-8 feet inside. But, water temps were only 41.5…cooler than the main lake. There WAS some steam coming up next to shore, where the spring actually comes out of the ground (see pic). But, when I took the tube in that direction it shallowed up to less than a foot deep before I got to the warmer inflow. And, the inflow was not enough to warm the water in the deep hole. That hole used to be very warm in the winter and full of fish. Not today. Nothing but carp.
Worked out deeper, marking a few scattered fish from 6’ to 10’ deep. Dragged a minnow while continuing to prospect with plastics. Had a couple of bumps on plastics…small fish.
**Kicked over to the second spring. Again, shallow outside but deepening to about 6 feet in the middle. Also again, no fish. Water temp got up to over 45 degrees near the shoreline inlet of the spring, but once out in water deep enough to hold fish, it didn’t hold fish. Nothing on sonar and no hits on any lures or baits. **
Worked back out into deeper water again and saw more fish in deeper water. But, as before, they had their little mouths closed and their middle fins raised up on the sonar display.
I made it as far as the L, without getting one solid hit. I finally felt a little tug and reeled in a small skinny white bass…about 6 inches long. No pics. He fell apart on the bait cutting table…but to no good purpose. No hits on white bass meat either.
**Just after noon, I started working my way back to the First Spring…hoping something might have moved in for the afternoon shift. The water temp had warmed to 45 in the calm sunny weather. Found the spot and worked small stuff all through the hole. Got a couple of dink twiddles…probably bluegills or small white bass. But, the only solid strike was from a buglemouth bass. Got several again, including a handsome mirror carp (see pic) that hit and fought like a big hen walleye. Disappointment. **
At least I got to keep my carp “release” techniques finely honed…along with my knife. Made several “terminal releases” (see pic).
When I got back in, there were several bank tanglers soaking small jigs under bobbers in the ramp area. They were catching some nice bluegills, a few crappies and white bass…and one of them claimed to have caught a few walleye in there during the past week. Said he almost got divorced for being late to Thanksgiving dinner when he got involved with a brief run of walleye. Looks like a good place to take kids for some casual panfish action. They come in there pretty good every year before iceup and many are caught there through the ice too.
Talked to the two guys that had been out in a boat, but had joined the others on the bank. They were out where I was for a good part of the morning. They seemed pretty sharp but said that nobody they knew had been catching much down there for the past week…walleyes that is. I mentioned that I had heard there were some in the second spring the other day and they strongly doubted it. They fish it every day and had seen nothing.
Maybe I-Paul caught them all. It rhymes.