I fished solo today for about five hours. The good news is that the open water season continues! The water is up, and is only about 2' below summer levels. The hydrograph I sometimes check in with confirms this, and predicts a continued rise of nearly another foot through next week!

The water in Chatcolet is murky and cold, around 38-39 degrees coming out of the St. Joe. Anywhere it is spilling directly into the main lake, the same is true. But there is a distinct line between the cold river water and the main lake water, which is clear and between 4 and 5 degrees warmer.

The fishing was good on the main lake. Pike were absolutely inhaling my swimbait today. Every time I set the hook, I caught the fish. This virtually never happens for me to have a 100% success rate on strikes! The only fish I know I missed was caught on the subsequent cast. Remarkable! Three fish were hooked deep, but all were healthy after a short period of livewell observation and spared themselves from a trip to the deep freeze, swimming away with a burst of speed.

The weeds I fished were almost never visible by eye, but show up on sonar at 2-4 feet above the bottom in 10' or so of water. Like I said in another post, my favorite weedbeds never reached the surface this year. The cabbage has nice green leaves still, and the pike seemed to be holding just above it. I did no good on casts that I contacted weeds, so I actually fished faster than I planned to in 42-43 degree water, but that seemed to be best. Basically I'm just pumping the rod about 1-2' then reeling up the slack fast as the lure dives, averaging 5-6' running depth over the weeds.

So the tally for the day was 8 pike, a good day for me, with the fish all caught between 11:30 and 3:30. The fish included these: 32" 8 lb 14 oz; 31" 7 lb 15 oz (pictured); 30" 8 lb 7 oz; 25.5", 25", 24", 23", 20" (according to my Fishin' Buddy app for Android which is a pretty good program if you can stand to take the time to record each fish as it is caught). The fish are healthy and the big girls look like blimps. I hope to hit it again this week.

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