My big fish for the day.
We had a week of crappy weather so took the 1st week of May off from fishing. I know what your thinking and YES, we were checked for a fever. It was just a cold wet week so rather than cash in our pop cans for gas, we saved them for a nicer day. Lake Cochrane has always been good to us so it does not take much arm twisting to get me to wander up there on a regular basis.
When we got there, the water looked clear enough to drink. We refrained from doing so however as the homeowners here tend to take in the water weed control into their own hands from time to time. Clear water does change the fishing a little though. We covered a good portion of the lake without turning more than two or three bass. It was looking like it was going to be a slow day for catching fish. Note: Fishing and catching are vastly different. I am easy to please and as long as I am on the water, you will never hear me complain until it is time to go home.
We had worked from the boat ramp to the northeast corner which has always been some great fishing but today, it was simply not happening. I had started throwing a rattle trap out into the deeper water some actually before we had reached this spot on the lake but I did pick up a couple bass so I kept right on throwing this. Mainly because nothing else seemed to rile the fish much either.
As we move around the lake from there, I did start hooking into just a few fish. I just kept right on chunking that Rattle Trap and by the time we were half way down that shoreline, I had caught a good number of bass. There was nothing huge but I did have some nice fish and even a couple of pike which turned out to be the first fish I have kept for dinner in about a year and a half.
At some point along that shoreline, Dad started also throwing a Rattle Trap. We then stayed pretty busy the rest of the day catching somewhere in the range of 40 fish or so. We even threw back a few extra pike we caught. I hate putting fish in the freezer because when I am out of fish, that is my reason to go fishing some more.
I do think that Dad had the big fish of the day again though.
Lake Cochrane was once again, very good to us and I have no doubt we will spend a lot more time here this summer. Once the boat dock are all in after Memorial Day, it does change the fishing patterns and I doubt my old Rattle Trap will be near as impressive then.
