This could have been a traditional wintertime crappie-fishing column, detailing how the Schmidtlein family of Topeka caught and released scads of crappie at Pomona and Melvern lakes, or how Terry Bivins of Lebo caught an astronomical number of them at Cedar Valley Lake.
Or it could have been a tale about the trials and tribulations of Elden Bailey and Mike Suitt, both talented crappie fishermen from Lawrence, attempting to decipher the whereabouts of Perry Lake's crappie.
Instead
On the same December day that Bailey and Suitt found the water temperature at Perry Lake to be 47 degrees and the crappie fishing exasperating, Bob Laskey of Lawrence and I ventured to Lone Star Lake to wield and twitch some Smithwick Rogues, hoping to catch some largemouth bass and a wiper or two.
Talk about striking paydirt.
Never in the annals of angling in Northeast Kansas was there a more splendid December for catching bass.
False hints of spring seemed to permeate the air, causing quinces and some other flora to bloom. Even fishermen and their quarry seemed to be in another season.
On this mostly cloudy day, area thermometers hovered in the mid-50s. The wind was nearly nil, and the lake was often flat and reflective as a mirror.
Myriads of geese and ducks kited overhead. Images of their Vs reflected off the lake's surface, and their choruses echoed across the water and ricocheted off the low-slung hills.
Lone Star's 46-degree water looked as clear as gin, carrying the image of an Ozarks impoundment rather than the turbid aura of most Kansas waterways in December.
All in all, it was a spell to savor.
The cold clear water was ideal for enticing largemouth bass and wipers to take a swipe at a delicately twitched suspended Rogue affixed to 10-pound line.
To twitch a Rogue properly, an angler makes a long cast, then the lure is pulled under the surface about three feet by making several quick revolutions of the reel handle. The lure remains motionless, ranging from a second to as much as 20 seconds, depending on the water temperature and the disposition of the bass.
Thereupon the rod tip, pointed down, is gently twitched twice. After that, the slack line is slowly reeled in, and the lure is kept in a motionless state for a precise interval.
The double twitch and long pause sequence is repeated until the lure is within several feet of the rod tip.
For the first hour of this outing, Laskey and I probed main-lake lairs without a strike. Then as we reached a boulder-strewn area inside a cove, a six-pound, six-ounce largemouth engulfed a clown-colored Rogue at the end of a three-second pause.
After that engagement, we had the appropriate retrieve and coverts pinpointed and, before our day ended, we caught and released 12 bass, one wiper and 23 crappie. We also lost several big fish.
This December catch wasn't a fluke.
Two days later, Clyde Holscher of Topeka and I twitched a Rogue at Lake Shawnee and hooked 15 bass and one walleye.
And the next day Kevin Davis of Royce City, Texas; Cameron Roth of Lawrence; and David Kurtz of Lawrence worked a Rogue at Lone Star and tangled with 20 bass, a dozen crappie and three handsome wipers, weighing up to 12 pounds.
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