First fish for 2013 and a new personal accomplishment!!

[smalljaw]

Well it happened at 2:40pm January 12th 2013, me an my buddy got out as he wanted to run his boat at least one more time so he would only have to partially winterize it since we would probably get out by mid february again. well we launched just about 1:00pm because we had a dense fog that hung around all morning, the air temp was 44 degrees and when we launched I looked at the depth finder only to see 39 degrees, we are doomed as the lake we were on only had largemouth, no smallies here. We had rain the night before so the water wasn't too clear and it didn't really matter as it was a bit to cold for a jerkbait, especially for largemouth and I never did get one under 41 degrees so I figured it would be a nice day just to get some air and then it changed. An hour and a half and not as much as a sniff so we decide to leave the weeds and fish these small bluff banks, just rock that goes down into 12 feet of water with the only cover being a deadfall that you cann down about 3 feet when the murkiness of the water hides it. Well we get to this spot and my buddy has on a berkley power worm and he probes the bottom fishing slowly as he has a 3/16oz weight to get his worm to the bottom, me, well I have a 3/32oz hair jig I tied a few weeks before, it is white bucktail with a white and chartreuse rabbit strip trailer on the back. I didn't expect to get bit since he had that power worm in the same spot as I was now fishing but it didn't matter, I was having fun and going through the motions when all of a sudden I felt a distinct "tap tap", and so I wasted no time as I gave a quick hookset and instantly I knew it was a fish and I get her aside the boat, lip her and glance at the dash mounted fish finder and see the water temp going from 38.8 degrees to 39.0 degrees and I was happy. Well it didn't end there, it was only a 14" fish but still a keeper so with renewed energy I made a short cast back to the same spot and after letting the jig sit for a full minute I gave it just a small hop and again I got bit and again I set the hook and again another 14" fish, it is now beginning to get colder as it gets more cloudy and looks as if rain is coming so we gave a quick run up and down the lake and then put the boat on the trailer and headed home. While we only got those two fish it was a big accomplishment for me as I never caught a largemouth under 41 degrees water temp, I've got smallies in water that was just barely above freezing but never a green fish so that was big. The other thing was that particular hair jig was a pattern I made for smallies, it was supposed to imitate small fallfish or chubs but it worked pretty good considering we fished for an hour and a half and didn't get a bite and fishing that jig for only 20 minutes got 2 fish. Well I just had to tell you guys, I already got my fish for the new year, now lets hope it gets even better!!!

[Mountainman]

congrats on the cold LM! One of the things I find very satisfying is to catch fish on something youve made.

[SilverFox]

Congrats

[trackertxw175]

nice to go with zero expectations and get a fish. thanks for the report

[Guest]

great to read a report from you again Dan....... and a very good detailed one to boot...... sure glad you were able to get out and wet a line and also get a

[thumper]

[fisherman1488]

Thanks for the report and congrats on the Sub 40 degree lm.

[bigbass]

thanks for report and congrats on your fish