LaSalle Lake March 27, 2009

http://www.catchphotorelease.com/03272009.htm

I got to the lake just after sun up and it was cold and windy. There was a lot of fog blowing over the water from the warm side of the lake. Once you left the ramp area, visibility went down and you had slow way down.

A boat ahead in the fog.

Once I approached the spot where we did good last week, I saw there were three boats on it so I moved down the bank a ways and started to fish. It took about 20 minutes before I caught the first fish. It wasn't the biggest fish in the lake, but it was a fish. As I moved down the bank I noticed a large bird in the same tree where we had seen another large bird the week before. This time it was a Bald Eagle and I was able to get a couple photos despite the fact it was a quarter mile away.

Bald Eagle

There was a lot of wildlife around the lake today including nesting geese, turkey vultures, redwing blackbirds, and seagulls. There were plenty of large carp spawining in the rocks on the warm side of he lake and a few of them came all the way out of the water whle chasing each other over the rip rap.

Turkey Vulture

Nesting Goose

I spent most of the day throwing crank baits and I probably chose a larger bait than I should have because I ran across a former fishing partner who was using a smaller lure and he had a couple real nice fish in his livewell that he released after I took a couple pictures for him.

I tried a couple more spots with similar results and then ran to a spot where boat control would be a little easier in the wind. I deceided to throw a plastic worm and managed to land a decent catfish on it. He could have swallowed the bass I caught a couple casts later.

I worked my way around to the wind blown bank and the average size of the fish went up a little, but after looking at my watch I realized I had better head for the ramp after the next fish. It took about three minutes and another 15 inch Largemouth was in the boat.

The water temperature was 63 at the ramp and in the mid 80s in the discharge canal. I didn't spend any time in the discharge canal because the wind wasn't making it easy to fish in there the way I wanted to.

The wind was so strong out of the north that even after I hooked the boat to the trailer, the tail would blow off to the side making it impossible to pull the boat out of the water without having the boat rest on the fender. Lucky for me another boater was kind enough to hold the boat steady for me while I pulled forward up the ramp.