I've been meaning to take a bass-fishing partner out fishing in the winter for some time now, and we were finally able to get our schedules to match this weekend. We didn't get on the water early like we would for a bass bite, but that was just fine by us considering we were boating in the middle of February! After a non-chalant boat ride up lake, spent mainly scouting for spring-time bass opportunities in the ultra-clear, uber-calm lower end of Lake Chelan, we finally dropped our baits at about 9:30 a.m. It wasn't long before we found biters in 200 - 225 feet of water. As is his custom, my partner began to put on a clinic of drop-shotting. Being the "gracious host" that I am, I continued to "miss" bites and "long release" a multitude of fish, so as to bolster my partner's esteem. After a few hours of steady bites, lost fish, and landed fish, everything went quiet at about 1:30 p.m. We had 8 in the box, I lost 9 on the way up, and my partner lost several. Considering our minimal efforts, the payback was pretty good. We got outdoors and got some fresh air, scouted some bass haunts for spring, had great laughs, and caught some fish to boot. Considering where I was 3 years ago today, just going fishing today rates a 10. But I gave it a 4 since we didn't catch "lots of fish!" Time to tweak my method a little more and see if I can convert a few more of those hook-ups.

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