spring training.of sorts..

The best way to catch fish in winter or super early spring is to stick with the tried and true. Go to those places you know hold fish and just fish the heck out of them till you catch some. Keep throwing that curly tail or rouge below a lowhead and eventually your going to catch some saugs. Keep making that 2 hour drive to that warm water discharge and your going to catch some stripey fish. I know that's been the routine for years now and it works.
Well this year I've done the least of that safe tried and true fishing that I've done in years. 8 out of the last 10 trips have been to a spot I've never fished before. Something like 15 out of the last 20. And I've not caught a lot of fish. Some trips I've not even cast. I've gotten skunked already this year more than I have the last two or three entire years combined. But what I have done is go see and look at a lot of places I've been meaning to for a long time. Places that kind of nag at you, that you've seen on google or heard a rumor of but never find the time when the fish are biting to check out.  I've found some real dogs, places that were not worth the time or trouble that it took to get there.
But I've also found four or five places that I'm pretty sure are going to be excellent. And Iv'e  found one place that I think has a good chance to be one of the best two or three places I've found in thirty years of kicking around in rivers. You climb down this steep bank covered in hundreds of tons of broken concrete rubble. When you look down in the water you see hundreds of tons of more rubble underwater and heavy current sweeps over the entire thing creating hundreds of hidey holes for smallmouth. And for rockbass and shovelheads to for that matter. In one spot there is such a strong current break that a little whirlpool stands in one spot looking like a full sink you just pulled the drain out of. And best of all it's a pain in the neck to get to with no good access. My kind of place, a place where a smallmouth can live and grow to be a trophy.
And even though I've caught very little, I can't remember the last time I was this optimistic. Or just plain excited about the coming year. Or enjoyed winter time fishing more. Driving home tonight from another fishless trip to some place I think is going to be good come springtime I was listening to Marty on the radio. He was talking about Roger Clemens facing the Reds one spring. He couldn't get anyone out and ended up giving up five runs in one inning. And I think won the Cy Young later that same year. Hopefully that's the kind of year that follows my little "spring training"....