First Day on the Lake This Year

Spring is in the air. It seemed as though winter would never let go but the last two weekends here in central Alabama have turned out to be absolutely beautiful. The temperature finally broke the 60 degree mark which usually happens here the first or second week of February instead of March.

The longer spring days and warmer temperature usually make for very busy weekends. Between some pre-season scouting for the upcoming turkey season and assistant coaching duties for my son's baseball team, I managed to find time to clean my boat and prepare my fishing equipment for a little on the water fun. After re-spooling my reels with new line and making sure all my boat batteries were charged, it was off to the lake to make sure my outboard would still crank. Because of the high ethanol levels in today's gasoline, you have to take all the proper steps to prevent serious damage to your outboard before you put it in storage. Even if you are going to let your boat sit for only 2 or 3 weeks between use, it is still important to treat your fuel with Sta-bil or some form of fuel stabilizer and let your outboard run for about 5 minutes to allow the fuel treatment to circulate through the entire fuel system. I usually try to go one step further and add ethanol treatment every time I fill up. Even with all of the precautions, I still catch myself crossing my fingers when I go to start my engine after it has been sitting for any period of time.

Well I guess the storage treatment paid off because my Yamaha fired up on the first try. I backed my boat off the trailer and checked the water surface temperature in Beeswax Creek where I had decided to launch. The water temp was 50.7 degrees F, perfect for a pre-spawn crankbait bite. After a short run up the main river to make sure all was well with my boat and outboard, I returned to Beeswax Creek and began throwing a crawfish colored SR-7 Shad Rap that I had pre-rigged on one of my cranking rods. I fished this bait on several secondary points and around isolated clumps of coontail grass. When it was time to load my boat back on the trailer I had managed to put a couple of Coosa River spots in the livewell that weighed in the 3 to 3.5 pound range and had caught and released one egg laden largemouth that was pushing 6 pounds, not bad for the first day on the water this year. See you on the water or in the woods or maybe both.