But not this year!
For the previous 4 years, during the last week of March or first week of April I have managed to catch at least 1 giant bass. I thought that streak was for sure going to end this year. Newborn. Working 100+ hours per week. Mom in the ICU. And frankly, just tired.
Well I got out today to a newish to me lake, I had fished for the first time last fall and had a lot of fun with wipers and a few decent bass. It has a ton of vegetation and rather clear so I suspected it held good fish. Plus, I’d never heard of it until last fall, which makes me think it’s not pressured too terribly.
I made my way there this morning and knew it was supposed to be a little cool but then warm up quickly. The forecast had said 33 degrees at 7A the previous day. When I got to the ramp the thermometer on my truck said 23!
Given the clarity of the water, I wanted to throw big swimbaits, in part to dial in my Humminbird Mega Live. About an hour and a half passed and I’d seen a few fish turn toward the swimbait on the Mega Live but nothing seemingly too interested. I ended up on this big grass flat in about 10-12’ of water and really I was just cruising it looking for the edge when I saw what I thought was a school of crappie or Shad on the Live about 100’ from the boat. I tossed my glide bait out toward it just to see if I could pick it out of the crowd. As I swam it by one of the markings followed along. I was intrigued as I didn’t think a crappie and certainly not a Shad would follow the glide. I tossed it out a again and watched some big markings come up from the grass, heart beginning to speed up I was just waiting for the weight, the glide made it back to the boat untouched but I watched fish follow it on the live all the way back. I tossed it out again let it sink down to the level of the fish and on the first half turn of the reel I felt the tick and weight to reel in a big mamahachi. I was able to reproduce this over and over again. WHAT A DAY!
My new PB 5 fish bag of 33.27 lbs with an 8.35 lb kicker!
But I caught way more than just 5 fish. Had at least 3-4 additional 20 lb bags.