Outdoor Journal: Early spring fishing fast approaching

Outdoor Journal: Early spring fishing fast approaching



By JIM CASADA
For the Herald-Journal

Published: Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 6:41 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 6:45 p.m.
Never mind interruptions from blowing snow, heavy rains, bud-nipping cold snaps, and the like, rest assured that the warm days and gentle breezes of spring lie not far distant. Indeed, we’ve already had a sampling or two. With their coming optimism and anticipation characterize the angler’s world. This is especially true in South Carolina, where the biggest problem for many fishermen is to decide just what they want to do. Here’s a sampling of some of spring’s angling splendor.

The months of April and May are treasured times for those who love the natural beauty and special allure of trout. Many families or groups of angling friends have long-established opening-day rituals. Indeed, when I was a boy growing up in the Smokies of neighboring North Carolina, anticipation of opening day filled one’s dreams from the time the first hint of spring was at hand (that was before the great comeback of the wild turkey, so I didn’t have competing draws on my sporting soul).
You can fish on jam-packed streams where anglers vie to catch their limit of recently stocked trout, and sometimes it almost seems like you need to carry your own rock in order to have a place to stand. Fortunately, there are several inviting alternatives available. One of the best is to take to the backpacking trail somewhere in the South Carolina Upcountry and make your way to trout water accessible only by shank’s mare. Or, for those who enjoy wild trout in the wildest setting found anywhere in this part of the world, make a jaunt across the state line into North Carolina and visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

No matter where your trout travels take you in weeks to come, don’t overlook the glories of a mountain spring. The beauty of blooming service trees adorning the mountainsides, the flowering of trilliums, jack-in-the-pulpits, violets, blood root, and other plants of the forest understory, along with redbuds, dogwoods, and buckeyes, makes even a fishless day something special.
If a trip to the mountains involves too much distance or focuses on species which you find less appealing, there is plenty of angling action to be found much closer to home. Bass are already in their early spawning mode in farm ponds and lakes in this area, and each warm day moves us one step further along from the pre-spawn to full spawn situation in larger reservoirs.

It is a magical time for the bass fisherman and probably the best time of year to take a real lunker. It won’t be long until some topwater action is available, and already bass are staging in shallow areas.

Much the same situation prevails when it comes to crappie. The spring spawning period is, for many anglers, the only time they focus on crappie, although in truth the knowledgeable fisherman can take them through the year. At this season though, find slabs around a brushpile, dock, or some other kind of shallow water structure, and it is possible to limit out in amazingly short order.

Various techniques work quite well for spring crappie. These included standard jigging, stop-and-go jerking in shallow water with a minnow beneath a bobber, countdown-and-retrieve approaches if the fish are a bit deeper, or simply drifting with a spider-rig (several set poles extending in different directions from a boat).
Nor should the joys of spring bream be overlooked. During the course of the next two months bluegills, shellcrackers, and other panfish will move onto their shallow water beds, and as they do so the possibility of about as rapid-fire action as one could want presents itself. Even before they go on the beds though, bream are quite cooperative. They can be caught on worms, crickets, tiny artificial lures such as beetlespins, or flies such as beadhead nymphs. On light tackle, bream are a great deal of fun. They are also the ideal way to introduce youngsters to angling, a duty every fisherman needs to keep firmly in mind.

Whether you are wading a brawling trout stream or dunking worms from the bank of a small farm pond, there’s something about fishing which soothes the soul and satisfy the mind. That’s doubly true in the spring, when earth’s reawakening surrounds the angler with beauty and fills his heart with wonder. The only thing which matches it, in my view, is a morning in the turkey woods. So many wonderful choices lie before us in the weeks to come.

http://www.goupstate.com/article/200.../1088/SPORTS05