[PECo]

You know the secret to catching big fish, right? You have to fish where the big fish are. Unfortunately, fishing where the big fish are and catching them were two different things today.

I checked out Winchester Lake for the first time from 8:45 AM to 3:15 PM in my kayak. It was a little windier than I thought had been forecast and very sunny. The wind was blowing from the north. I didn't realize that I had forgotten to bring my sunglasses until I was out on the water. And if there's a lake where you need to be able to see into the water, it's Winchester Lake.

When guys tell you that there are stumps everywhere, they're not kidding. The first time you ride up on top of one that you didn't see, you start paying more attention to paddling than fishing. And if you paddle close to the shore, you have to look out for a few rocks, too. Without sunglasses and with a good amount of chop on the water, I was more than just a little worried about dumping. I kept my PFD zipped and buckled until I reached the northern end of the lake and got out of the worst of the wind. I stopped to fish a couple of spots on the way up, but definitely did more paddling than fishing.

Winchester Lake has more largemouth bass-type structure and cover than any lake or pond I've seen. You know that I fall in love with every new place I paddle, but I really want a house on this lake. I saw a total of three houses on the 246 acre lake. Well, I saw two of the houses, each of which is absolutely gorgeous, but I saw the dock for and met the guy who has lived for over 20 years in the third house. He was measuring the water clarity for the DEP. He told me that Winchester Lake has the clearest water in the state, even clearer than West Hill Pond!

I ended up catching seven largemouth bass, but they were all small. Here's everything that I caught:

10 inches
11 inches
15 inches, 1 lb 6 oz
12 inches
10 inches
10 inches
10 inches

The first six were caught on wacky-rigged five-inch pumpklin/red flake Senkos. The 15-incher was caught in the pads on the north end of the lake. I threw my Senko at a cloud of fry and the bass hit it almost immediately. It must have been guarding the fry. The seventh was caught on a Rapala that I was trolling on my way back to the boat launch ramp.

I spent a lot of time trying other lures today. I threw a black and blue jig with a white swirly-tail grub on the hook for a while, until I realized just how many places there are to get hung up on the bottom. There are stumps, logs, whole trees, large roots and boulders everywhere. I also threw a soft plastic Zoom frog on a swimming jig head over pads and weeds. That was fun, even though I didn't land anything. I did get a few hits on it. One was a largemouth bass that I failed to hook. It didn't look very big, maybe 16 inches. Another was an 18 inch chain pickerel that was lurking in the grass. I tried a white and gold spinner through some submerged trees and felt a few tugs on it. I didn't see the fish, but I'd bet they were yellow perch nipping at the skirt.

I'll be back again to explore the coves on the western side of the lake. During the day. I don't know how you managed in the dark, Pete, but you got some cojones for sure.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!