Good evening friends... January 18th and over 40 degrees and tomorrow is going to be mid 40's... Caught up on a few tasks that needed attention and then it was time to launch. I decided to fish the back yard lake today for a few hours and with the proper clothing, it felt pretty good out there. I basically fished small bays that were about 8' in depth. I threw the lure named after me... the jerk bait -- from Rapala, in perch color. Production was minimal with just two large mouth coming my way but one was right at 20" and pretty chunky. What I found to be remarkable were the number of birds flying and moving around and singing. You would have thought there was an audition of some kind going on as the volume was overwhelming. There was very little wind and just moving along with the trolling motor at low speed and listening to this symphony was incredible. Another remarkable thing was the clarity of the water. This lake goes through periods where the water can get pretty murky but today, I was consistently seeing the bottom with clarity in 12' of water. It was fun to see old stumps and underwater structure but it was also depressing to see the amount of trash -- unreal... One thing I am going back for is what appears to be a complete bimini top, frame and all, laying on the bottom in about 12' of water. I don't know the width but it just might be adaptable to my 16' Lund fishing boat or maybe not. I will at least get it out of the lake. With tomorrow being in the mid 40's, it might be a good day to hit the mouth of the Ditch for who knows what... Coho? Browns? Lakers? Whitefish? Burbot?... I would encourage you to get out and enjoy this beautiful creation...