Had a very nice day on my fishing trip to the lake yesterday. Pretty day, Sunny, with a light breeze. I hooked up my first pole with a nice fat night walker, a bobber suspended about 4 feet above the hook, walked out on to the dock and cast to my left about 18 feet out.

As I turned to set up my 2nd pole, bobber on pole # 1 disappeared. Nice way to start the day. It only took me a few seconds to reel in a nice size Bluegill. I took the hook out of his lip and he was back in the water to be caught again another day. (I “catch & release” all the fish I catch.) Then I rigged my 2nd pole with a new type artificial worm from Berkley called GULP, A 3 inch green color worm for some bottom fishing. I cast from the right side of the dock, horizontally to the shore line about 30 feet down and about 8 feet out. I let the worm sink slowly to the bottom. Then I started a very slow retrieve, after about 7 feet , I felt a slight tug on the line. I set the hook and started to reel in something that felt like a nice size fish. As it got closer to the side of the dock i could see that it was a Pickerel, not one of my favorite fish to catch.

As my daughter was heading down to take a picture of my biggest catch of the day, the pickerel decided that he did not want to have his picture taken, so with 2 jumps and a twist, he was off the hook and on his merry way. Which was not too bad because I hate to take pickerel off the hook, as they have very nasty, sharp teeth.

The fishing continued to be good until a light, cold rain started to fall, so I called it a day. All in all, I ended up catching another pickerel, 3 small mouth bass, 2 sunfish and 4 more bluegills. No trophy fish, but a fun day.

I was having such good luck fishing from shore, I never did get my canoe in the water; maybe this week when I go up.

Bass season officially starts on Saturday, June 16 in Pennsylvania. And there are 2 FISH-FOR-FREE-DAYS this year, Saturday May 26 and Sunday June 23. No fishing license is needed to fish on either of these days, which makes it a great way to introduce someone to the world of fishing.