12/28, Rocky Fork Lake

For the first time in nearly a month I was able to get Amanda out of the house and onto the water. In her defense the weather has been pretty crappy nearly every weekend for the past month. If the temperatures weren't below freezing, it was raining and windy. Saturday the weather was foretasted to be calm and warm, with air temperatures reaching the mid 50's by mid afternoon and winds under 15mph. The unusually nice weather was enough to get her on the water. We loaded the kayaks and gear up and hit the road. My plan was to work the same spots I had hit the week before. If I wanted company on my wintery weekend outings I needed to make sure she caught fish, or else I ran the risk of fishing solo for the next 2 months.

We got on the water and paddled a few hundred yards from the boat ramp and began working a steep ledge on the main creek channel of the lake.....nothing. We then paddled over to the dam and began working some deep structure. I got a few nibbles on a rod that I had placed in my rod holder, which was suspending an ice jig tipped with a crappie nibble a foot off of bottom. An hour passes and we still hadn't caught a single fish. I told Amanda that we were going to make a long paddle to a spot where, "I know the fish will be." We make the 15 minute paddle and begin working a fallen tree, 25 minutes later I catch the first fish of the evening....a 9.5" crappie. Fifteen minutes after that I catch another crappie, this one was significantly smaller. We continue to work the tree for another half an hour before we decide to head over to the marina and work the metal structures that anchor the docks into place. We round the corner leading into the marina and are met with 15 mph winds. We paddle over to the marina and tuck in behind the docks. We work each metal structure for 15 minutes and then move on to the next one. After covering nearly half of the marina we decide to seek shelter from the brutal wind. We head back over to the dam, which is well sheltered by steep rock walls. Along the way to the dam I mark a few fish off of a small old fallen tree, I stopped paddling and started working the school of fish. In the mean time Amanda had slipped over to the base of the tree and was working her Bass Assassin Tiny Shad along the fallen tree. Less than thirty seconds later I hear the sound of drag slipping on a spinning reel. I look over to see her ultralight nearly doubled over. "Well about time." After a few more slips of drag I tell her, "I bet you have a bass." After a short 45-60 second battle she pulled the little bass into the kayak. Now it wasn't big; but it was her first fish in nearly a month, her first fish of a long 6 hour trip, and quite possibly her last fish of 2013. As she was about to release the bass I said, "Hold it up and I'll take a pic", which lead into the old, "I look awful? I don't have any  make-up on. Should I take off my hat? Does this shirt look bad?" routine.

 We then switched from targeting crappie on deep structure to targeting bass in the shallows. We worked the banks for another hour and half but we failed to find another bass. I did however, find two more crappie and a bluegill.  We had finally found a pattern, the fish had moved shallow and were taking up a little heat from the abnormally warm December day. The sun began to set over the trees and the temperatures soon began to drop, we had stumbled onto the pattern a little too late. We soon called it quits for the evening and made the paddle pack to the car.