4/29/2007:  I was on Paw Paw Lake this afternoon from 12:00-4:30 pm with my wife.  I started in the channels throwing a blade, and jigs but I couldn't get a bite.  The water temperature was only 54 degrees in the channel and there was no signs of life.  I fished the lily pad field with a white spinnerbait next.  I was reeling it slow so I would hit the base of the pads when my rod loaded.  I landed my first keeper of the day.  It was only a little 2 pound chunk.  I wanted to fish the main lake for pre-spawners but Kelly really wanted to stay in a cove.  The rest of the day we motored around various coves and I looked for spawners.  In one cove I found 13 beds that were occupied by huge males that had just moved up. The water temp in this cove was 64 degrees.  I tried every trick I knew but they just wouldn't bite.  I was hitting them in the nose with jigs and they wouldn't move.  I've never seen bass on beds that were as tough to catch as these were.  We ended the day with one keeper and a sunburn.

4/28/2007:  Opening day for "catching and releasing" bass is here!!!  I can finally put all of the new knowledge and equipment I've gained over the off-season to good use.  My father and I arrived at Magician Lake just after sunrise in search of pre-spawn smallies, largeheads, and a couple walleye.  It was a beautiful morning that was going to turn into a wonderful day. 

The water temperature was a brisk 53 degrees when we launched my Stratos.  The game plan was to probe inside weed edges in 10-25 ft of water with blade baits.   After a short run we made our first casts and it was on!  My old man started the fish parade with a nice 17 inch walleye that instantly went in the wells.  I joined in shortly after with a stout 2.5 lb largie.  The fish were hitting the blade on the ground, not when it was moving.  I used my trolling motor to slowly move the boat to a point that dropped of from 15 ft to 25 ft.  I made a cast to the tip of the point and caught another keeper eye'.  My dad was going bonkers because he loves to eat walleye.  He basically changed our game plan and told me to keep looking for walleye.  We ended up fishing for walleye for the first couple hours.  We did pretty well and ended up catching six walleye between 16-20 in.

All right, finally I talked him into targeting bass so we motored to a pre-spawn area.  I made a cast towards a break, with a blade, and popped it off a weed.  A nice 3 lber ate it giving us 5.5 lbs for the day.  My dad made a cast with a tube to the inside weed line.  He set the hook on a big, black smallmouth bass.  It came to the surface and swirled.  I noticed another bass following it so I threw a jerkbait behind the smallie my dad was fighting.  I jerked it once and the bass devoured it. We had a double and were both fighting big bass.  I landed mine first, it was a 3 lb largemouth.  My dad was still fighting his like it was worth a million bucks. He finally landed a beautiful 4 lb smallmouth bass.  Just like that we had 4 bass that weighed 12 pounds. 

We caught a few more keepers throughout the day and ended up with a total weight of 14.3 pounds.  Although the highlight of the day was catching a limit of walleye for my dad to take home and eat.