WINTER FISHING REVIVES THE SOUL

Fisher of Men Frank Morrison with a bull bluegill from a 100-fish day outing in January.

This has been, without a doubt, the most amazing winter of freshwater fishing I have ever experienced in the Mason Dixon area...in my lifetime! Plus, I have received countless reports, from anglers far and near, that this mild winter has catches of all species almost in the stratosphere! Both air and water temperatures have fluctuated wildly over the past month, but regardless of the "ups and downs", the fishing for bass, pickerel, bluegills, crappies, yellow perch, blue cats and many other species has been phenomenal. Here are a few choice pics of our panfish trips so far...

Late evening recently produced a bunch of big girls!

Officer Shifflett with a pair of "eater-sized" slabs.

Record warm temps in the 70's made panfish active and spunky!

Many of our fish came on hairjigs with or without bait.

On one trip, we had many doubles of crappies this size.

This "bull-dozer" male bluegill went just shy of 11 inches, quite a fish for February!

On one jaw-dropping trip, Maryland DNR Officer Andrew Shifflett and I caught and released 300 fish during a 4-hour beatdown where bass, crappies and bluegills just wore us out as fish just took any jig or lure we could throw at them. It was an epic day at a central Maryland pond as we kept just a handful of crappies apiece. We should have been locked up for the joy we experienced that day! Revival of the soul!

Plus...bass fishing has been quite good. Here are a few recent shots from small public lakes above and below the Mason Dixon Line...

Mid winter bass on a Rat-L-Trap.

Andrew with a nice one that took a small swim bait.

This lean 18-incher could use a few meals.

Better body dynamics here.

First fish on February 27 pushed three pounds...cool!

Not a giant, but fun! and we caught them all day long like this along with the panfish!

Yes, it has been a "crazy good" winter of fishing...and...it's not even March yet! Of course, we could have a big snow and some late winter cold snaps that turn the fish off. But in the past three weeks, I have taken local water temperatures anywhere from 42 degrees to as high as 58 degrees F. Today, I fished a lake that had dropped back down to 48. Last weeks weather features three days of 70 plus temps, then a cold front with marble-sized hail, air temps down to 25 and then back up to 70 for this Wednesday a comin'...whew! What a roller coaster!

With weather so sporadic, and fishing better than it ususally is during even the spring and summer time frames, it makes me wonder about the seasons not only of fishing, but of our own seasons of life. Me...I'm old, approaching 65, and tend to hang out with young bucks, like Andrew, in his twenties. Chronologically, we are very far apart, but very much on the same playing field when it comes to enjoying fishing and what God has created for us all to enjoy. My new and good friend in the Lord, Frank Morrison, shared an amazing day on the water with me, catching and releasing over 100 bluegills, and we hit it off immediately with stories shared about how God has changed our lives and what He has meant to us in times  that were both good and bad. Yes, the brotherhood of anglers runs deep, and stretches far.

In much the same way, God's love runs deep, and stretches far, and is very, very wide. But the coolest thing about God's love, and His son dying on a cross so we can all spend an eternity with Him, is the simple fact that we do not have to "earn" this love. We can't anyway, because we become children of God by His unfathomable grace...undeserved favor...it is a gift that comes with accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Too many people have bought into the wrong teaching that you have to work to earn God's acceptance, when in the book of Isiah it points out that "your good deeds will be as filthy rags". Wow..tough medicine! And although God does not need the likes of me, or you, to make Him complete, He loved us so much that He had His one and only Son die on a cross so we could, upon acceptance of that free gift, become "children of God". My friends, that is a great "season of life" to be in, no matter what your age.

'The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul" Psalm 19:7