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| Photo by: Rob Choi |
Some days you hit it…
The weekly temps were in the 60’s and with longer days I was
looking forward to getting back on the water.
With a big front predicted to hit the area I was pretty sure Saturday
could be epic. I wasn’t the only one
with that idea, my Werner and Kokatat team mate Rob Choi contacted me on Friday
wondering if I wanted to join him for some bass fishing. Rob is an awesome fisherman and it is always
a good time when you are out on the water with him. We made plans to meet on Saturday morning.
Saturday came and it brought rain and wind but, it also brought
warm temperatures in the 60’s. I met Rob
and we made our way to the lake. Shortly
after I launched I was taking a few test cast with a square-bill crankbait when
I hooked up with my first fish. I landed
the small 15” bass and told Rob, “It’s going to be a good day”. Within 15 minutes I had four bass in the yak,
three hit a jig near some structure. All
of these fish were in less than five feet of water, but for some reason that didn’t
register with me. I proceeded to hit all
of my deep spots with no luck and the day slowed down. I went back to the shallow pattern looking
for some action and caught a nice bass on a jig. I switched back to my square bill, and picked
up another small bass. Rob also caught a
few bass on his jig. We kept picking
away at a few fish here and there, but the action wasn’t hot.
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| Kokatat kept Rob and I dry all day. Photo by: Rob Choi |
Rob decided to duck up into a small cove, and I
stayed in the main lake picking at a few bass that were moving up on to
flats. A few minutes after Rob left he
sent me a picture of a nice 19” bass. I
paddled over to check out what was going on when he told me he caught six bass
in six casts. While he was telling me
about the action, I watched him set the hook in number seven. I quickly pitched my square-bill into the
fray and it was instantly nailed. Rob
pitched back in and also hooked up. My
bass was a good 20” fish and Rob’s fish was another nice largemouth. We took a few pics and tried a few more
casts, but the blitz was over so we moved further into the cove. A cast later, BAM hooked up again. They hit everything we threw; square-bills,
swimbaits, jerkbaits, and soft plastics.
After about half an hour the bite stopped and we moved on, but now we
were on a pattern; shallow water. We hit
every shallow flat and picked bass off each.
One spot in particular looked really good; it was a small channel that
cut into a flat. It was 7 feet deep and
the perfect place for bass to stage. The
first cast produced a decent bass, then another, then another. Rob was also hooking up. We had stumbled up onto another school of
hungry fish. One after the other we
caught bass. Most of the fish were
between 14” and 16” and were a ton of fun on my crankbait. The bite was slowing down, when my crankbait
was nailed by a good fish. A tail walking
bucketmouth broke the surface of the water.
This fish was much nicer than the others in the school. I landed the fish and measured out to 21.”
This seemed like the perfect time to call it a day.
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| 21" Pre-Spawn PIG Photo by: Rob Choi |
The Pre-spawn can be hit or miss, but when you do hit it's awesome.
Some days you don’t…
The following day I was greeted with tough post-front
conditions. My Dad joined me with hopes
of repeating my success from the day before.
A stiff west wind made the fishing tough. We saw plenty of bass, but getting them to
bite was tough. I picked up a few on
jerkbaits, crankbaits, and jigs.
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I went
back up into the small creek that produced so many fish the day before. I saw plenty of fish, but they were incredibly
skittish, and not hungry. While I was
playing with a small bass attempting to convince him that the jig I was using
was a crawfish, I saw my arch nemesis, the bowfin. Ever since I saw my first one several years
ago I’ve wanted to catch one. I have
lost bowfin in every way imaginable, from pulled hooks, to broken lines. I pitched my jig on 6lbs test line in front
of the prehistoric beast just like I have so many times before. The fish ate my jig and the fight was
on. Bowfin don’t fight like other fish,
they do a death role like a crocodile and jump like a bass. After a sweet fight I landed this awesome fish. It measured out to 25.5”and had some sweet
colors. Most people consider bowfin to
be a junk fish, but I disagree. They
fight hard and will test your skill, unfortunately some anglers kill bowfin
thinking that they are snakeheads. There
are plenty of identification guides on line to help you tell the difference. I released the fish and went back to bass
fishing.
We kept picking at a few more
bass on crankbaits and jigs. We never found a consistent pattern, but the
fish we did catch had moved back to deeper water near structure. The wind
continued to make fishing difficult so we called it a day.
Spring’s changing conditions offer great fishing opportunities,
but you need to adjust to the changes.
Just because something worked on one day is no guarantee that is will
work the next day
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