Drove down to Emiquon Friday. Only my second trip there this year and my first time going this late in the year. 5 hrs. of driving (round trip) for 4 hours of fishing, but the day was just too nice not to get out somewhere. Wind wasn't bad, out of the south, pretty much overcast all day and temps had warmed up to the lower to middle 40's by the time I could get on the water. I thought I had read or been told the no fishing till noon rule during the waterfowl season was only on the days they allowed hunting, but I was wrong. You can't launch a boat till noon on any day during the open waterfowl season. Kind of sucks you can't fish till after noon during waterfowl season, even on the days they aren't waterfowl hunting and I am an avid water fowl hunter myself. Oh well, I didn't set the house on fire but I did manage to catch 4 bass. 3 cookie cutters at 15 ½" and one just under 17". 3 of the fish came off wood right on the edges of the ditches in around 6 ft - 8 ft of water. Water was still very low but I had no problems launching my small john boat ( trailer wheels did go off the ramp , though, to get the bunks in the water). The bigger bass came on a blue black skirted jig with a dark blue Waveworm craw for a trailer. Two of the other bass came on a white skirted jig with a 4" white Senko trailer, and the other bass came on a white Chatterbait, the only fish not in visible wood. One thing that is always nice is seeing / watching all the waterfowl at Emiquon and this trip was no exception. Ducks of all kinds were everywhere and constantly buzzing me and there was a ton of snow geese. I have no idea how many, I can't begin to estimate the numbers when there are that many. 50,000? A 100,000? More? They would cover a huge area of the lake and fill the sky when a group of them got up to leave or move on the lake and huge flocks of several hundred to a thousand birds were coming and going all afternoon. You could hear them squawking from the boat ramp over a mile away and when I was fishing near them and a large group got up, the noise was almost deafening. The pictures don't really show the real mass of geas rthat were there. Was pretty cool.
Pics of the fish
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Some pics of the snow geese. This wasn't all of them. There were probably as many still on the water as were in the air. Every ½ hour / 45 minutes or so, maybe ½ of the flock would jump off the water in a huge ruckus, circle around a couple of times and most would settle back on the water. Some would break off and leave the lake while others were constantly returning from the fields. Hard to get a good picture with the phone. How many do you think? I have since huge flocks like this in Missouri and Arkansas driving to and from to and from Texas in January but this is the first time I have been on the water and so close. The Nature Conservancy has done an awesome job with this wetland restoration project and made a great fisher to boot.
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Pics of the fish
Some pics of the snow geese. This wasn't all of them. There were probably as many still on the water as were in the air. Every ½ hour / 45 minutes or so, maybe ½ of the flock would jump off the water in a huge ruckus, circle around a couple of times and most would settle back on the water. Some would break off and leave the lake while others were constantly returning from the fields. Hard to get a good picture with the phone. How many do you think? I have since huge flocks like this in Missouri and Arkansas driving to and from to and from Texas in January but this is the first time I have been on the water and so close. The Nature Conservancy has done an awesome job with this wetland restoration project and made a great fisher to boot.
