A Look back at March

March is going out like a lion. Its thirty four degrees and the precipitation can only be discribed as slush falling form the sky. I had planned on trout fishing today. I thought better of it knowing that even the trout will not be happy witht the sudden drop in water temperature. They will be in no mood to chase lures. So I write...

Without question I have fished more this March than I ever have. I have turned into a year round fisherman and fish almost every day. A couple years ago, March would be the month I would start fishing, picking the nice days along with everyone else. This year I fished whether rain or cold. It didn't matter, if I had time I was out in it. I caught fish on fifteen different days. Along with the usual March skunkings, I probably got out over twenty times. I can say that this was my best March ever, but I can also say I've had some of my best days ever regardless of the month in the last thirty days.

Carp-

March is inconsistant for fishing. Fish do not like sudden drops in temperature or cold winter storms ( like today). However if you can get out during a period of consecutive days of steady weather, fishing will be good. Well... this month we had the mother of all warm streaks. For about a weeek the daytime highs were over 65, including a few days in the eighties. Because of this, I had my best day ever in terms of numbers. On March 24, I caught 12 carp. Also this month I caught my largest carp ever being twenty three pounds on March 17. For the month I caught 29 carp. This is the far cry from the eighty five my friend Dave caught but, not bad for someone that also trout fishes and works full time.

Trout-



Because of the warm weather and mild winter stocking trucks got out early. I caught my first trout on March 9. This is 22 days earlier than my first last year ( exactly one year ago today).  I caught 40 trout this month.  I had five days where I caught five or more. My best day was my first. I caught nine on March 9. Also I caught more browns in one day six ( March 28), than I had in my life.  I also caught what I term a quality trout ( any trout over 16 inches). I caught a 16 inch rainbow at Hoxie on my fly rod.

Pickerel- I only fished once for anything other than trout or carp. I went bass/ pickerel fishing for about two hours. I caught 10 pickerel. It was a lot of fun.

The reason I had so much success was two fold. First the weather was incredible. Yet I caught most fish on the more typical March days. I caught the twenty three pounder when it was in the fifties, the same is true of my eighteen pounder, my 12 carp day and nine trout day. I did good during the eighty degree weather but just as well when it was fifty five.

More importantly than the weather, I fished a lot. I have no chance of catching anything sitting at home watching tv. I was out almost every day. I can't stand being home when I could be landing a big one, and this month I landed some big ones. This was a March to remember!