Today was our first nice, warm day of the year (mid 70's) and my son was off from school so I took part of the afternoon off to fish for about 45 minutes. We biked to one of our nearby lagoons on a defunct golf course. We fished an area that used to be a golf green that was elevated about 5 feet above the water. Water clarity is usually pretty good here, but today visibility was poor - maybe 6 inches at best.

 

I tossed a spinner bait and got a strike just a few feet from when I had to lift the line out of the water to clear the railroad ties to the elevated green. In other words, no time to set the hook properly. As I lifted the bass out of the water the poor guy shook himself free and I heard a thud as his head hit the wooden structure. But he bounced into the water and took off back into the depths. Too bad, as he was a decent size - probably 2-3 pounds.

 

A few minutes later another strike and this time I landed it. It may have even been the same fish. I didn't weight it, but it was definitely between 2 and 3 pounds. The interesting thing was that he looked murky gray on his (male bass) belly instead of white. And the rest of his coloring was more black than green. It wasn't the traditional largemouth coloring we get here. Maybe it was because it's early in the season or maybe because it's been cloudy all winter and the lagoon was so murky he hasn't seen much light. Anyway, his coloring was odd enough that I took notice. But at this point the no-seeums were swarming and we released him and headed home.

 

It was a slow, almost no fish winter for the few times we went over the past few months so it was nice to land something decent. Hopefully next weekend the weather is nice and we can spend the day fishing somewhere.

Glad you were able to go. It always feels good to catch one, esp. If you haven't been in awhile.

Good read.  That first tug of the line after the ice is gone is a magical elixir and is a good remedy for the seasonal affective disorder brought on by the gloomy days of winter.