The Importance of Groceries
Fish are not so unlike you. They want a decent place to live, they like to be safe and comfortable, reproducing is rather high on the list and so on. But of utmost importance is........groceries. The sooner you apply this to your strategy the sooner you start puttin more fish in the boat with regularity.
Many has been the time, when wondering why I wasn't gettin a bite, that I mutter these words........."they can't make a livin here". Then I pause, look around, and think "where are the groceries" :question...... the food is the key.
The biomass in a lake or river can be quite diverse and the fishes focus can change accordingly. For example, there will be a period of time in mid to late spring where walleye can be found in mud bottomed semi barren bays. Certainly not traditional walleye haunts. They are there gorging on emergent insects as they kick there way to the surface to molt and fly. Mayflies come to mind.
Early in the spring the fish are typically shallow. The warmer water does stimulate the females eggs but it also harbors the insect life which draws the forage species........the minnows and smaller fish. Pay special attention to downed wood in the spring. It is a sun magnet and consequently warms the surrounding water. The branches offer security and food for the little fish. They like places they can make a living to. Emergent weeds is another place that offers security for insects and small fish and thus draw the predators that we seek.
A bit later crayfish become an extremely important food source and that should factor into your thinking. Check any smallmouth or walleyes stomach in canoe country from spring to fall and there is a good chance that there is a crawdad in their tummy. Pike less so but part of the reason for that may be their poor eyesight after dark. Crawdads typically come out in force after dark and become easy pickins for fish. SOOoooo, your thinkings should be thus. Not "where are the smallmouth" but "where are the crawdads". Find the crawdads and you will find the fish if you poke around for a while.
The light is on for some who are new to this type of thinking. That's good. Now you might be asking, "Well, just where are the dads?" This is what's fun about fishing IMO. You get to think. Apply the same question to the crawdads that you used on the fish. Where can the crawdads make a living? Now we are getting somewhere. You can generally rule out steep cliff facings and the smooth sloping rock facings that ease out into the lake. Wow, that certainly narrows the choices. Gravelly rock fields with the occasional boulder thrown in and a scattered weedpatch or two will support the biomass that the fish you seek feed upon. Find and focus on this type of area and you should do well. Think Groceries!
Sometimes you have to think outside the box. They are eating
something and if you figure it out you might hit the jackpot. Does the lake have ciscos? If it does the fish will likely focus on them. They are an oil rich schooling type of fish. Often these fish will be found in open water and walleyes and lake trout often make use of them. I have been trying to research their life cycle but with limited success. The more you know about the prey the more you can take advantage of that knowledge.
When all else fails try fishing the windward banks. It is theorized that the wind pushes the insects and minnows and they collect on the windward bank. Whatever the reason it seems to hold true, at least in the warmer months especially if the wind has been blowing in one direction for several hours or even days.
Fish are usually opportunistic and even though they may be keying on crawdads or baby perch they may very well eat your rapala. Sometimes though, fish can be very selective, even programed it seems. So it may behoove you to change sizes and colors and even types of lures until you hit.
Well maybe I have given some "food for thought"
.
MT
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