Fishing 2026

[JimG]

4/17/26-East Branch Reservoir

Weather was 75 and sunny so I decided to start my fishing season in a rowboat. Steady north wind 8-10mph with gusts to 20. I mixed casting with trolling using several different Rapalas and hooked nothing. Found some shoreline out of the wind and in the sun so switched to a 5" senko hoping they would bite at the worm. Skunked. At 5pm I rowed to the little island and tied on one of my old reliable lures, the #2 silver vibrax. I let the wind push me onto the shore of the island and casted into the wind. And that was the scenario the fish liked. I hooked 2 10-12" smallmouths both of which put up a great fight. After casting for another 5 minutes I hooked and boated a much bigger smallmouth that was about 16".



And that was my fishing action for the day. Trolled back across the res to the spillway and then casted the vibrax along the shore back to the boat spot and hooked nothing. The little island produces again as it often does. One of my all time best fishing spots.

 

[JimG]

4/23-Rye Lake

First day out with Steve this season. Rye Lake is a big place, impossible to cover completely in a 4-5 hour session. Plus, it's spring and the fish bite pretty randomly right now. Hard to figure out what the fish are biting at and where. Best to just pick a route and go.

After my good luck with it a week ago, I resolved to fish the silver #2 vibrax. And I had a great day! 5 good sized smallmouth bass and a surprise lake trout. I seem to catch one of these nice trout every 5 years or so, I certainly don't deliberately fish for them. Maybe I should, this one put up a mighty fight.




Steve had a good day catching bass as well.



Off to a good start to the season.

 

[JimG]

4/27-Bog Brook

Got out on Bog Brook with my son James. Weather much like my other two days out this year, but the fish were not cooperative. I casted and trolled Rapalas and spinners, James flipped plastic worms. We never even saw a bass, nor did we catch any small fish. But James kept casting and he was able to hook a very nice pikerel that was at least 20" long. Got it to the boat where it made one last shake and got off the hook. It was that kind of day out there.

 

[JimG]

5/8-Rye Lake

Weird day weather wise. Mostly cloudy, cloudy, cloudy and rain, partly sunny, clear blue skies and sunny. We got it all. Windy and cool/cold too. Not great conditions for catching fish. We did OK. I fished the #2 Vibrax or the worm and got hits on both. Steve and I each caught 2 decent smallmouths each, one on each lure for me. Nothing really big but all were 16" or so, about 2lbs. each. I was happy to pick up my first bass this year on the worm. Now things will start picking up as spawning season gets underway.

 

[zaragoodwin]

4/23-Rye Lake

First day out with Steve this season. Rye Lake is a big place, impossible to cover completely in a 4-5 hour session. Plus, it's spring and the fish bite pretty randomly right now. Hard to figure out what the fish are biting at and where. Best to just pick a route and go.

After my good luck with it a week ago, I resolved to fish the silver #2 vibrax. And I had a great day! 5 good sized smallmouth bass and a surprise lake trout. I seem to catch one of these nice trout every 5 years or so, I certainly don't deliberately fish for them. Maybe I should, this one put up a mighty fight.

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Steve had a good day catching bass as well.

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Off to a good start to the season.

Solid catch for a 5-hour session, especially with that trout. Rye Lake can be pretty stubborn in the spring.

 

[JimG]

5/22-Rye Lake

Even after the warmth a few days in the past 10 days the water was still pretty cold at the boat spot. And it was partly cloudy and cool to start and the clouds were moving in. And the east wind was blowing around 10mph. We were confident that the bass would be biting today.

On his first cast of the day with a small Rapala countdown, Steve hooked and boated the biggest bass we have seen this season, a very nice largemouth:



Nice first fish! I was casting a 5" black/blue flake senko and was very confident it would produce, but I tied a countdown on to my second rod. Just in case.
And next thing Steve has another nice fish on, a good sized smallmouth:



I know the worm is going to work, and I'm thinking I should stick to the worm, but I'm tempted to copy Steve. I'm glad I didn't. We fished another half hour or so and then I hooked into a nice largemouth and, soon after that, a nice smallmouth:




In the end we boated a total of 14 bass, 7 each. The fish were more bunched up in the spots we usually expect to catch them; in a few areas, we caught 2 or 3 fish at a time. And those first 2 fish Steve caught on the rapala were the only fish not fooled by the worm. He switched over to a black 5" senko after I caught that first nice smallmouth. The next 6-7 weeks are prime bassing time!

 

[JimG]

5/29-East Branch Reservoir

Got out solo today at the East Branch. Conditions seemed ideal to catch a bunch of fish. But I spent the first 2 1/2 hours getting skunked. I had a 5" senko on one rod and the #2 silver vibrax on my other rod. Not even a small perch or sunny. So, at 4:30 I trolled over to the little island. The little island is legendary for producing fish when other spots don't. I fished around the island once and hooked nothing. Incredulous, I stubbornly took another lap around.

That dedication to the legend of the little island finally paid off with a nice largemouth:




This fish was unusually belligerent and had clearly been in a fight with other fish as something had taken a bite out of its tail. Anyway, I was glad to get a good-sized bass in the boat. The 5" senko had paid off so I took another lap around the island. And I was rewarded with another good-sized bass on the worm, this time a smallmouth:




By 6:30 I was trolling back to the boat spot. The 5-10 mph wind that had been blowing had stopped and the reservoir was dead calm. Still a little too early in the season for surface lures to work since I saw no fish rising at all. Good day of fishing, the res made me work for the fish today.