Wednesday Night, my friend Mike and I headed to Lake Arthur hoping to catch a couple bass, but we really wanted to get into the stripers. With a string of warm air temperatures I expected the stripers to be very active. I didn’t realize how warm the water had become though. On the main lake I was in the low 60’s! Up in the bays I was sitting in water that was in the mid 60 degree range!
Once I realized how warm the water had become I had to try one of my favorite spots for prespawn largemouth. The spot is very shallow (less than 2 feet deep), and it is either hit or miss. We pushed up into the area and on my first cast I caught a 14″ largemouth. Because it was windy out I decide to go around the outside of the spot and drift through it. I was casting with the trolling motor on high speed and wack. My line zip to the side and I caught a 28″ Northern Pike. What happened next really surprised me because I had just caught the Pike. On consectutive casts I caught a 4 and 3 3/4 lb largemouth! We stayed in that area for a while catching bass and getting our lures chased by Muskie! I have never seen such a mix of fish in a small area.
If this wasn’t enough at 7:30 I decided to see if we could catch a striper to finish off our night. We pull up to a roadbed that over the year has yeilded a great deal of stripers for me. About 15 casts into it I hooked up. Not with a striper, but with a 20″ walleye! Because it was out of season I released the fish and went back to fishing. Mike ended up catching 1 small striper in the spot. Before we quit for the night we trolled a short stretch of the roadbed. Mike then caught a 22″ walleye. Once again our mouths were watering, but we released the fish. We couldn’t have asked for a better finish to a great evening on the water.
