Rusty Spoons

This past week, warming water temperatures signaled the beginning of the open-water fishing season. I took a trip to Muscoot Reservoir to catch bluegill; initially, I was concerned that I had come too early in the season and that the fish would be lethargic from the fleeting winter, but thankfully the bluegill were hungry and willing to bite. I targeted these fish in a small cove off the main lake. I used a bobber with a small jighead suspended a foot off the bottom over a shallow weed-line in about four feet of water. On the jighead, I was using two or three waxworms, which I threaded on the hook. On this day, the fish were associating very closely with the weeds, so it was very important that I was able to cast at least 40 feet from shore where the weed-line started. To do this, I used a weighted bobber, which was easy to cast and cut through the mild crosswind. Note the vertical stripes on this bluegill, which indicates that it spends a lot of time in and around weeds Imm