BackOnTheWater

Welcome !

Welcome ! Got any water soft enough to fish up there? haha

I gotsta get a pond like THAT for MY back yard ! NICE fish !

Strange but beautiful...caught this week on Lake Chickamauga by a friend.

Here's a pic of our first keeper of the day... How do you guys get more than one pic in a post, anyway...I've been trying to figure THAT out for a while, now.

My buddy Steve called around noon..."I'm puttin' the boat in!". Well, it took me about 30 minutes to decide that I had had enough of the office, so I bolted. We hit our first spot (one of our favorites) about 2, and did not leave there until after dark, around 7. The weather was pleasant...mid 50's, mostly sunny, and light winds. Water temp was 52. Eat your hearts out, my yankee bretheren! We boated 26 LMB, most of them slicks between 14-15", but managed 4 keepers. They were all fat and fought like fish twice their size, so it was a good time. All fish (except 2 little white bass I caught on a crankbait) were caught on spinning rigs, 8# test, 1/4 oz shakey-head w/ cotton candy and smoke finesse worms, in 4-6 FOW. The bass were chasing baitfish, and we were just letting the worms sit under the schools and wiggling the slack line. PAINFULLY slow...I'm a t-rig kind of guy so I KNOW slow fishing, but I had a hard time not moving my lure. But we were getting hit. In addition to the 26 boated, we lost 4 or 5 at or on the way to the boat, and had numerous hit-and-miss's. Attached is Steve's big fish of the day, a nice healthy 3.5 #'er. Another good day NOT at the office!

Simple...I kiss them...the males hit a lot harder, but only once...the females don't slap quite as hard, but they smack me over and over again!

Before my partner arrived, I worked the marina slough (at the Harrison Bay State Park boat ramp). Then he and I went over to a slough between Waconda Bay and the old Loret Marina. I spend most of my time in the Harrison Bay area, between the dam and the Nuke plant/ Skull Isl. area. So much water, so little time! There was almost no wind most of the day. It started kicking up around 1, but we were fairly well sheltered most of the time. Do you know the Chick, Sam? Ever get down here to fish?

I snapped a pic of this little guy (13") just 'cause he was so darn pretty.

I got out Saturday morning, hoping to get in a few hours of fishing before the rain hit. My buddy Steve and I were going to fish a dogfight 8-3, but the forecast on FRI night had the rain rolling in mid-morning, so we decided against the Tx. The SAT AM forecast looked better, like the rain might hold off until noon, so I went ahead and put the boat in at 8 AM...it was cloudy with air temps in the low 40's and water temps in the mid 50's. Air temps rose to the mid 50's as the day wore on. I fished around the bay in which I launched, waiting for Steve. He finally called about 11 and arrived at noon, so I spent 4 hours working the edges of the bay between the shore and 15 FOW. There are quite a few points and coves, all just covered up with rocks and stumps. This was just my 3rd outing learning the shakey-head technique on my new 7' M spinning outfit, so I got in a lot of practice waiting on Steve. I caught 5 LM in the 4 hours, the biggest (2-8) pictured below came on the finesse worm in 10 FOW. 2 others came on the worm, and 2 more on a CB. Steve arrived, and we went a few miles down-river to a slough where he had caught a 19-lb bag (5 biggest- one 6, two 4's, and couple of 2.5-3's) and several other nice fish the day before. They were not there on SAT, but we did manage 8 slicks working points and banks near drops in 2-15 FOW. I got 2 on the worm and 2 more on the CB. Steve's 4 came on a finesse worm rig similar to the one that I was throwing. The schooling bass have been hard to catch, for some reason, with all the normal lures, so we've been throwing the shakey-head under the schools and pulling them out. The rain held off until about 2:30, and we finally left about 3:30. Not a bad day considering the barometer was high and stable until the rain hit...about the time the bass stopped hitting. I ended up with 9 and Steve had 4 on a tough-bite kind of day.

Yes, hire a local guide, wherever you go. It just does not make sense to try to figure out a strange body of water on your own. Hire someone for the first day, at least. You'll learn about the hot patterns that you can then use on your own, if you like, for the rest of the trip. Where you go depends upon what you want to catch. For LMB Lake Fork, Tx, Clear Lake, CA, or Lake Okechobee, FL. For SMB Lake Erie, NY. Those are MY dream destinations. If you're on a tighter budget, think about Lake Guntersville, AL for LMB or Lake Wheeler, AL for SMB (and those two are consecutive in the TN River chain, so you could do both!). I can't speak to any other species you might rather go after. Just my personal $.02...

WOW! Very nice Swiss Bass! And the biggest perch I've ever seen!

I agree with Munkin. Back off. Give it a rest for about a half an hour. Creep up quietly (but keep your distance), use light line and some kind of natural looking soft plastic. Cast beyond the spot you last saw the fish, and work it slowly towards him/her. And if you catch it, reward it by letting it go. p.s. I hope I used this quote feature correctly. Here's the right answer, IMHO...

A keeper LM here is 15"...anything smaller is a "dink" or "slick"...something that gets your lure before the big ones do and a pain in the @$$!

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes, yes, and always. Did I answer them all or too many? From what I've learned: Bass generallly move along the same contours, structures, and sanctuarys. They are creatures of habit. They will find spots along these routes that meet the most comfortable depths and that's generally the same depths at which the food likes it, too. Find structure or cover at these depths and you'll find baitfish and sometimes the bass. There are times when they might not be actively feeding, but they MUST eat every 36 hours or so, depending upon water temps and activity level. Sometimes you can get reactionary strikes, but you REALLY have to tick off a sluggish bass to get one of those hits. More often than not I've found that a SLOOOOW presentation during these periods works best. With BIIIIIG lures. The problem with cold-water fish is that the strike zone is very small, as they don't want to expend any more energy than they have to since food is scarce. A big ol' high-protein crawfish is just the entree that they're looking for, and the bigger the food, the bigger the strike zone. If a bass EVER gets full after feeding in the shallows in warmer water, he will ease deeper to get out of the sun and heat, and to digest his meal. He'll use his regular paths untill he gets more comfy. You can most always find bass somewhere along his favorite routes at one time or another. That's the essence of the hunt.