Five 2+ pounders in less than 3 hours

Today was the hottest April 7th in Massachusetts history. 91 degrees at 2 pm must have done something to accelerate the pre-spawn gorging. This following the rainiest March in history* leading to mosquitoes hatching weeks early. My best guess is that mosquitoes aren't the only animals shifting into gear ahead of their normal routine. How else do you explain 5, 2+ pounders (10 fish total) in less than 3 hours?

Seeing this fluke day coming up in the forecast, Acky and I made some arrangements and were in the Game Changer and on the pond by 4. By 7pm we left the pond with the following catches and in this order: 3 lbs 5 oz (me), 3 lbs 3 oz (Acky), 2 lbs 11 oz (me), 2 lbs 7 oz (me), 3 lbs 7 oz (Acky). In between were a few pickerel and a couple perch. Pretty much non-stop action and all on 5" green senkos cast right against shore. To put this in perspective, I only documented 2+ pounders last year and I probably logged 11. That's from everyone I fished with on the NH lake and on local ponds - 20+ trips easy. My largest fish last year was 3 lbs 15 oz. Two weeks ago I saw my father pull in a 5 lb 14 ouncer and today it was a bass parade. And this is all from 1 small local pond and all caught with senks.

Of course I know this was just 'one of those days' and I realize that using the same damn pattern isn't exactly the road to respectable bass mastery but you can't knock the numbers. I'll be quick to switch to alternatives when old faithful isn't working but if it ain't broke... The trolling motor and putting the worms within 2 foot of shore made a big difference too. Until today I had been fishing in an anchored canoe and mostly helping to keep Mia from tangling or hooking herself. We were able to cover more ground, we retrieved bad casts right away, placed our bait right on spots, and crawled the worm back to life for the first few feet and then quick retrieved.

I'm also starting to believe we've tapped into an under-fished gold mine with this local spot.

This weekend - up to the big lake in NH. It will be colder (50s forecast) and we'll be out on bigger water. Will the streak continue? Will it pay to switch to the football head jig to bounce around the rocky bottom? Have NH bass moved into the flats as quickly? The good news is, possible failure this weekend will be easily forgotten among the dozens of other slow fishing days that have previously been the norm for me. Those all too common slow days are usually passed with stories that start with "it was record-breaking hot and me and Acky cut out of work early to get a little fishing in..."

*That's a lot of "in history" weather. If Acky's republican friends hadn't told me otherwise, I'd think there was something to this global warming thing.