On Tuesday, I traveled north with Loki the black Lab, spending a gorgeously warm afternoon finding ways in to a few large ponds or small lakes. One of them will allow for putting the squareback on it and probably doing pretty well in March or April. It's far too weeded-in now. The other two are ice fishing possibilities, shoreline access crowded out by brush and thick aquatic vegetation, no way I found to get the squareback canoe on the water. I did access one spot where there's a break in the weeds, almost as if someone went in the water and cleared them, because it's the only spot where I found a way in. I caught one largemouth about 12 inches long on an eight-inch blue Chomper's worm rigged with an inset hook, no weight added.
Come to think of it, I could load my tippy canoe onto the dolly, wheel it that half mile on the trail I found, and then sort of squeeze it through the hundred feet of narrow trail through the thick woods. It's not nearly as heavy as the squareback. Especially considering the additional weight of marine battery and electric motor associated with it. Launch the Tippy right there at that little fishing spot. Then paddle, which would be no problem on a calm day.
It's a long way in, though. Even for a Jet Sled with ice fishing gear, but that's easier than wheeling a canoe, I think. Got to be loads of fish in that lake. It's hardly fished at all.
Just a matter of will. You find that and away you go.
I can see using little spinnerbaits and inline spinners during March while getting around in the squareback. But I wouldn't mind live-lining shiners. It's always the question of commitments to other waters. Whether or not I'd really get anyone onboard with me to fish the lake is doubtful. That time of year, we're either fishing a private lake with big bass in it, or thinking at least a little of those salmon everyone wants to catch. In April, Brian and I might be on Clinton Reservoir again. This past April, I caught 15-inch smallmouths on a Mepp's Aglia Long, size 6, when water temps hadn't quite hit 50. Of course, if I really want to badly enough, I can take my tippy canoe on the new lake early in the year and just paddle. That I can load by myself. The squareback I need help with. It's heavy.
