Fishing Time: 7:30am – 3:30pm
Temperature: 30°F - 47°F
Wind: 9mph S – 15mph SSW
Pressure: 30.14in – 29.89in
Surface Water Temperature: 39°F
Bottom Water Temperature: 42°F
This third session was truly a difficult one. Last Thursday, I felt that I am getting sick because my body temperature was just rising. That evening, the thermometer registered 98 degrees so I took some NyQuil and hit the bed in fairly early hours. The next morning, when I woke up, I felt not bad so I have decided to go to work. I figured, it is Friday, last day so I will be able to make it. By noon, my fever came back with vengeance, knocking me out that afternoon with temperature well over 100 degrees. It is amazing how difficult it is to function with such a high fever; what you see and what you hear, is like it is thru a cloud and you keep asking yourself, are they real?
My wife says that every time I am sick, I act like a 5 year old. Apparently, I whine, I get upset, everything hurts me, I don't want to eat, drink and I don't listen either. So, to put this once for all in bed, "Yes, my love, I am a pain in the ass when I'm sick, and I do behave as a 5 year old. Thank you for understanding." OK, let's move on. Saturday the temperature went down significantly but my throat was hurting a lot when swallowing. Time to see the doctor. It was diagnosed, that I have a strap throat and antibiotics for next 10 days were prescribed. Sick, or not sick, the next day was fishing time.
Usual morning prior to every Winter League session, woke up at 3:30am, coffee, mix the packbait, two hour drive up north and here I was, on antibiotics, awaiting the draw. As I said in my previous "Session 2 of 8" summery, this time we only draw one number. One number, identifying by how many pegs we will move. Number one got pulled and I moved from peg number 6 to peg number 7. Peg number 7 is a very promising peg which historically produced a nice number of quality fish.
For this sessions, I have decided to do and use exactly what I have done and used two weeks before. At that time, I was on peg 6 and I was catching a lot of fish, that is why, I have decided not to change anything. I know peg number 7 fairly well so rig placement was not an issue, but finding fish became very, very challenging.
Nicely flavored packbait went into the water and the waiting game begun. I was waiting from 7:30am to 3:30pm and the alarm beep never came. In the mean time, I have probably tried everything I had at my disposal; different flavors, different baits, pop-ups, bottoms, corns, plastics, and even zig-rigs. Nothing, absolutely nothing worked. There are times, when fishing this canal, that there are no bites but at least from time to time you see the rod tip bend, indicating passing by fish, touching the line. This time it was nothing and only strong wind moved those rods tips once in a while. There was no fish in the swim.
At the end of the day, I was left with more questions than answers. What could have caused this? Was it the air temperature jump from 27°F previous day to 47°F that Sunday? Was it the water temperature? Was it the strong SSW wind? Was it the air pressure? Did the fish simply not feed? Did the fish moved to the other end of the canal? Did the fish moved to a deeper water in Lake Michigan? Was my technique appropriate? Was I suppose to do something differently? Maybe I should have try something else? Question after question after question. Every time I thought I have an answer, couple new more questions came up.
It drives me crazy, not knowing the answers to my questions. To analyze things, to brake all the solids into the smallest components, it is a valuable thing but at time, it can just drive you nuts. I guess there are times in life, that I have to accept things for what they are, don't try to analyze them, don't try to understand them, just accept them and move on. It is fishing. At times you can predict where the fish will be. At times you can predict if it is going to be a good fishing day or not. But there will be a time, that in spite all the educated guesses, all the knowledge, all the experience, you will not be able to predict what will happen once you get to the bank.
What will happen three weeks from now on session four of Polonia Carp Team Winter League 2015-2016? I don't know. Maybe it will be a good day, maybe it will be another bust. Regardless, I will be ready and I will be there.
Surface Water Temperature: 39°F
Bottom Water Temperature: 42°F
This third session was truly a difficult one. Last Thursday, I felt that I am getting sick because my body temperature was just rising. That evening, the thermometer registered 98 degrees so I took some NyQuil and hit the bed in fairly early hours. The next morning, when I woke up, I felt not bad so I have decided to go to work. I figured, it is Friday, last day so I will be able to make it. By noon, my fever came back with vengeance, knocking me out that afternoon with temperature well over 100 degrees. It is amazing how difficult it is to function with such a high fever; what you see and what you hear, is like it is thru a cloud and you keep asking yourself, are they real?
My wife says that every time I am sick, I act like a 5 year old. Apparently, I whine, I get upset, everything hurts me, I don't want to eat, drink and I don't listen either. So, to put this once for all in bed, "Yes, my love, I am a pain in the ass when I'm sick, and I do behave as a 5 year old. Thank you for understanding." OK, let's move on. Saturday the temperature went down significantly but my throat was hurting a lot when swallowing. Time to see the doctor. It was diagnosed, that I have a strap throat and antibiotics for next 10 days were prescribed. Sick, or not sick, the next day was fishing time.
Usual morning prior to every Winter League session, woke up at 3:30am, coffee, mix the packbait, two hour drive up north and here I was, on antibiotics, awaiting the draw. As I said in my previous "Session 2 of 8" summery, this time we only draw one number. One number, identifying by how many pegs we will move. Number one got pulled and I moved from peg number 6 to peg number 7. Peg number 7 is a very promising peg which historically produced a nice number of quality fish.
For this sessions, I have decided to do and use exactly what I have done and used two weeks before. At that time, I was on peg 6 and I was catching a lot of fish, that is why, I have decided not to change anything. I know peg number 7 fairly well so rig placement was not an issue, but finding fish became very, very challenging.
Nicely flavored packbait went into the water and the waiting game begun. I was waiting from 7:30am to 3:30pm and the alarm beep never came. In the mean time, I have probably tried everything I had at my disposal; different flavors, different baits, pop-ups, bottoms, corns, plastics, and even zig-rigs. Nothing, absolutely nothing worked. There are times, when fishing this canal, that there are no bites but at least from time to time you see the rod tip bend, indicating passing by fish, touching the line. This time it was nothing and only strong wind moved those rods tips once in a while. There was no fish in the swim.
At the end of the day, I was left with more questions than answers. What could have caused this? Was it the air temperature jump from 27°F previous day to 47°F that Sunday? Was it the water temperature? Was it the strong SSW wind? Was it the air pressure? Did the fish simply not feed? Did the fish moved to the other end of the canal? Did the fish moved to a deeper water in Lake Michigan? Was my technique appropriate? Was I suppose to do something differently? Maybe I should have try something else? Question after question after question. Every time I thought I have an answer, couple new more questions came up.
It drives me crazy, not knowing the answers to my questions. To analyze things, to brake all the solids into the smallest components, it is a valuable thing but at time, it can just drive you nuts. I guess there are times in life, that I have to accept things for what they are, don't try to analyze them, don't try to understand them, just accept them and move on. It is fishing. At times you can predict where the fish will be. At times you can predict if it is going to be a good fishing day or not. But there will be a time, that in spite all the educated guesses, all the knowledge, all the experience, you will not be able to predict what will happen once you get to the bank.
What will happen three weeks from now on session four of Polonia Carp Team Winter League 2015-2016? I don't know. Maybe it will be a good day, maybe it will be another bust. Regardless, I will be ready and I will be there.
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