A Short Sightfishing Story

[OCdockskipper]

With a full moon approaching on Monday and water temps having stabilized in the low 60's for over a week, I figured the spawn would be on this Saturday and I wasn't disappointed.  The morning started with some of the females chasing crankbaits & swimbaits and as the morning clouds broke up later, I found I could find the fat girls around & under the docks.  Not many were locked on the beds being made by their boyfriends, but they were usually nearby and I found they were willing to eat a ZMan TRD Bugz in Hot Craw pitched around or skipped under the docks.

 

Near 11:30 am, I was approaching a dock that had no boat when I saw a large female cruising towards the shore.  There was a male making a bed up shallow, so I pitched the little jig between her and the bed.  She saw it, slowed down & nosed down over the bait.  I twitched the lure, felt resistance and swept the rod to set the hook.  I hooked up, but not with the bass.  Instead, I had snagged an unseen canvas cover, probably 10 feet long and covered in dirt & zebra mussels.  As I pulled the cover off the bottom, it kicked up a bunch of silt.  I backed the boat out into deeper water, dragged the cover to the boat & unhooked the lure.  I was sure the disturbance spoiled the spot, but as I circled around, I saw the large fish now hanging out under the corner of the dock, facing the shore.  I skipped the jig under the dock in front of her twice, but as I retrieved it underneath her, she didn't move.  I grabbed a different setup with a 4" Senko, weightless & wacky rigged and again skipped it in front of her.  This time, the slow wiggling descent caught her eye and she moved forward & immediately slurped in the lure.  I set the hook and after a short battle got her in the boat.  She was just under 25" long and appeared to have already dropped some of her eggs, weighing in at a svelte 7lbs & 14 oz.  Not a PB, but a pretty fish with a great story.  Oh yeah, she was blind in one eye, hence why she probably wasn't too concerned with the disturbance and why she may have not seen the lure underneath her.

 

The rest of the day was not bad either, I ended up catching a total of 59 bass.  Most were females who had not yet committed to a bed and were just hanging out until their date night today or tomorrow.

 

 

[TnRiver46]

Good gracious. Congrats!

[Dwight Hottle]

Sweet!

[A-Jay]

Nicely Tanker ~

Congrats

A-Jay

[J._Bricker]

Beautiful fish @OCdockskipper, enjoyed the write up!

[samwise2u]

Good job!

[JustJames]

Nice ?, I’m glad you got the big girl, on the other hand I’m struggling right here in the lake. The bass have been on bed since last week. A lot of young kid enjoy sight fishing and I only caught a small one of keitech 4.8.

[BassNJake]

I guess you had a tarp-on

 

Also nice fish!!

[OCdockskipper]

4 hours ago, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

Nice ?, I’m glad you got the big girl, on the other hand I’m struggling right here in the lake. The bass have been on bed since last week. A lot of young kid enjoy sight fishing and I only caught a small one of keitech 4.8.

I don't necessarily enjoy sight fishing, so I have been following the advice of guys like Brandon Cobb and making short pitches ahead of the boat to likely spots as I move down the shoreline.  I can't see if there is a bed there until I get closer.  What I have found is when I get bit, there is a bed nearby.  Basically it allows you to target the larger females.

 

I'd recommend a slower moving bait like a jig or plastic worm.  They'll eat but don't always chase.

[Sam]

Fantastic!

 

Congrats on catching the big lady.

 

And thanks for sharing and telling your story.