First Trip of Spring
By Garry McMichael

Tuesday was a beautiful sunny day, with temperatures poking into the upper fifties. What a great day it was to start the spring season; what a great day it would have been to be out on a river. But life doesn’t work that way. Like the other ninety percent of anglers in the world I was at work only wishing I could be on the river. I would have to wait until the weekend.

Friday night a cold front moved through the region causing thunderstorms and dropping temperatures below freezing. I awoke Saturday to cold breezy conditions with ice in my kayak and on my car. Worst yet, the sky was crystal clear. A BLUE BIRD DAY! I hate blue bird days. I never have any luck fishing when a cold front blows through like this. But Mike Shelby had a new kayak and was anxious to get it wet. Two weeks earlier we attempted to break in his newest fishing toy, but his wife and children became sick our plans had to be pushed back

Mike and I felt no urgency to start early and selected a short three-mile section of the upper Bourbeuse that’s normally only suitable for wade fishing. After a few photos of Mike in his new kayak (Old Town Loon) we slipped through a series of riffles coming to a north facing, undercut bluff overlooking one of my favorite summer time "honey holes." I’ve caught and released numerous smallies and largemouth up to seventeen inches below this bluff, but never this early in the season. I started throwing a chartreuse twin spin parallel to the bluff allowing it to sink to the bottom before slowly reeling it back in. I knew I was fishing too fast for this early in the season, but the weekend before I caught a 13 inch largemouth using the same technique on another river. Mike was throwing a white Super Fluke allowing it to sink before slowly twitching it back. I mentioned we were both working our lures too fast and should try to slow down. Mike agreed but commented it’s hard to fish slowly when you haven’t fished since last October.

I switched to a 4" white grub on a jig which I let fall to the bottom, sit for a few seconds before slowly raising it a couple of feet and letting it fall back. As I slowly worked the grub back to the kayak with this "do nothing" technique, I’d grow impatient and again find myself working the lure too fast. On my fourth retrieve I felt a little weight on the line. I thought I’d snagged a small limb and was pulling it to the surface. But the limb gave a weak jerk, which I returned with an equally weak jerk. Fortunately it was enough, and after a very brief tug of war I pulled in a 14-inch largemouth.

A little further along the "do nothing" technique caught another 11 inch largemouth and a few minutes later, in faster flowing current, I caught my first smallie of the season with the same method. It was 12.5 incher, and I got Mike to take our photo before releasing it.

Mike didn’t waste any time switching to a heavier lure to get down on the bottom and practice the "do nothing" technique. It wasn’t long before he had caught and released a couple of largemouths. The color of the grub didn’t seem to mater. White, cream, silver, chartreuse, deep tomato red, and rootbeer all caught fish. Only once did I feel a strike – a weak one at that.

We spent the next three hours slowly floating, sometimes fighting the gusty wind, and catching a few bass with our "do nothing" technique on the first trip of spring.

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