Warming

[Swamp Girl]

I fished three hours this afternoon. It was windy and gray and I had my best luck working a Keitech with an Owner underspin about 80' from the wind-pounded shore. It was tough when I hooked a bass because the wind would push me into the shoreline and I'd have to boat it before striking rock. So, I couldn't measure or weigh anything because I just didn't have the time before grinding into rocks and trees.

 

I fished the pond where I bought property. It's a pond I've fished for two years and I'm pretty sure the bass are growing bigger. I had a wisdom tooth yanked this morning, so between that and the wind and bringing my canoe out of the woods, for I'm going to fish a different pond this Thursday, I'm wiped. Still, prior to today, my best catch was three bass and today, I caught 11 with three fatter, longer ones. I also caught my first bass strolling. Sadly, I caught nothing my last 1.5 hours. 

 

 

[Pat Brown]

She's back!  😎😎😎🎣🎣🎣

[AlabamaSpothunter]

FIRE ME UP, the whopper plopper queen has come out of hibernation.......I'd hate to be a Bass in Maine until next winter 😎

 

Such a beautiful lake, and really love hearing you caught your first strolling a minnow.   

 

 

[FishTax]

I've missed seeing those beautiful Maine bass. Glad you're back! 

 

I think we had record heat today in NC, high 80s. Crazy. 2 weeks ago it was snowing in the mountains 2 hours from here! I wonder if the bass are as confused as I am in the spring? Probably not because they don't need as much Benadryl 🤣

[Swamp Girl]

32 minutes ago, FishTax said:

I've missed seeing those beautiful Maine bass. Glad you're back! 

 

I think we had record heat today in NC, high 80s. Crazy. 2 weeks ago it was snowing in the mountains 2 hours from here! I wonder if the bass are as confused as I am in the spring? Probably not because they don't need as much Benadryl 🤣

 

High 80s? Man, oh, man, that's hot. We won't see that until July and maybe not even then. 

 

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Such a beautiful lake, and really love hearing you caught your first strolling a minnow.   

 

I love the lake too, Alex. I kind of feel like it's mine because I rarely see another boat on it, just twice in two years. I do think the bass are getting bigger. The third fish from the bottom has some weight and length. 

 

I sure thought of you when fishing that strolling minnow. I hooked another bass on it, but it pulled free. 

[Team9nine]

The post I needed to read today  Nice going!

And I see it looks like you're using the best type net for protecting the fish, too  (to tie in with another thread).

[TnRiver46]

Nice fish! The wind shows up in the pics 

[Swamp Girl]

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nice fish! The wind shows up in the pics 

 

It was whitecapping at times.

[IcatchDinks]

HECK YEAH! Super stoked to see you posting big ole beauties again. .

[Jmilburn76]

Some great catches there!

[Swamp Girl]

I'm sure the rest of you fish soft plastic swimbaits/Keitechs/Strike King Rage Swimmers. I set the hook one time and I couldn't describe why. I just felt something was ever-so-slightly different. Sure enough, a bass was there. I think they sometimes inhale it and just swim along with it at the pace of my retrieve.

[gim]

2 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I just felt something was ever-so-slightly different. Sure enough, a bass was there. I think they sometimes inhale it and just swim along with it at the pace of my retrieve.

 

Definitely.  I experience this with other plastic presentations too.  I'm guessing the colder water temps are still playing a role.  They generally don't smack it like they might when its summer time.

 

Hooksets are free.  Anything that feels different could be a fish.  I've caught fish when I thought I was hung up on weeds before many times.

[Swamp Girl]

Thanks for confirming, @gimruis. I'm pretty good at description; It's my profession, but if you asked me to describe why I set the hook, I couldn't do it because there was no tug nor twitch.

 

The best I could do in a court of law would be this: "It just didn't feel quite the same."

[Pat Brown]

I would say 90% of my lipless eats are what you are describing!

[casts_by_fly]

1 minute ago, ol'crickety said:

Thanks for confirming, @gimruis. I'm pretty good at description; I's my profession, but if you asked me to describe why I set the hook, I couldn't do it because there was no tug nor twitch.

 

The best I could do in a court of law would be this: "It just didn't feel quite the same."

 

Yep, that's the 'non-feeling' of a hit.  With a vibrating bait sometimes the vibration just stops, but there's no weight.  Almost like you got a piece of grass on it.  With gentle baits like what you were throwing you have to be really tuned in to notice it a lot of the time.  But hooksets are free so when it doubt...  My usual when its something like that is to rip the bait out of the 'grass' which is kinda a half hearted hookset.  Then if it really was grass, you're clear and still fishing.  if its a fish, sharp hooks will keep you in the game.

 

Well done on a great early season day out.  When the water is below 50 which I'm sure yours still is, any fish is a bonus fish, especially in that wind.

[Swamp Girl]

Wow, Pat, wow! Given bass can exhale a lure as quickly as they inhale a lure, I think your ability to intuit when you've a bass aboard might be one of the top reasons you're such a successful fisherman. I have long observed that less gifted anglers than you miss hits. I've hosted such fisherfolk in my boat. They'll have a bass aboard their line and won't have a clue, even though I can see it in their line and rod. 

[gim]

5 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

With a vibrating bait sometimes the vibration just stops, but there's no weight.  Almost like you got a piece of grass on it. 

 

5 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

My usual when its something like that is to rip the bait out of the 'grass' which is kinda a half hearted hookset.

 

I throw a lot of vibrating lures like spinner baits and chatter baits so yes, whenever there's a pause in vibration, I yank up.  I am quite often using these around grass or weeds anyways, so sometimes its that, but sometimes its a fish that has grabbed it and swam towards you.  I've had sizable muskies just kind of grab lures before too and it feels more like a "thud" rather than the tell tale "tap tap" of a more usual strike.

 

When I used to walleye fish more, we would lindy rig with leeches.  We dragged a weight on the bottom with an 8 foot snell behind it tipped with a leech.  I can remember such subtle bites doing it that you almost had to use your imagination that a fish picked up the leech.  It was extremely light.  We used high end graphite rods, 6 pound line, and always utilized the 90 degree right angle from rod tip to line for maximum sensitivity.

[casts_by_fly]

2 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I've had sizable muskies just kind of grab lures before too and it feels more like a "thud" rather than the tell tale "tap tap" of a more usual strike.

 

Followed by the almost inevitable whiff as the bare line comes sailing back through the air at you...

[gim]

[Swamp Girl]

The most challenging hit for me to detect is wacky worm on the fall. I've had a few hit where I felt absolutely nothing. My line simply started to move laterally. It's a strike I'd miss on a windy day where the canoe and water were also moving. 

[Bankc]

55 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Thanks for confirming, @gimruis. I'm pretty good at description; It's my profession, but if you asked me to describe why I set the hook, I couldn't do it because there was no tug nor twitch.

 

The best I could do in a court of law would be this: "It just didn't feel quite the same."

The best description I've heard, and I don't know who said it first, was something along the lines of "I only know what a bite doesn't feel like, so I assume everything else is a bite".  

 

And I'm envious of all of you spring fishers.  This is the time of year I fish the least.  The wind gusts typically stays up around 30mph from March to June around here, unless a cold front just passed through.  There will be a couple of nice days each spring, but you've got to get lucky with one falling on a weekend or have a very understanding boss (like in the fairy tales from my childhood).  

[gim]

2 minutes ago, Bankc said:

And I'm envious of all of you spring fishers.  This is the time of year I fish the least.

 

Ha!  You aren't envious of me.  I can't bass fish until May 11.

[MN Fisher]

5 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

Ha!  You aren't envious of me.  I can't bass fish until May 11.

25 days until we can go target those pre-spawn bass.

[Swamp Girl]

4 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

25 days until we can go target those pre-spawn bass.

 

Are you allowed to fish for other species? I used to fish Lake Pepin on the Mississippi and it's thick with fish. The backwaters of the Mississippi are great for bluegills too. 

[MN Fisher]

2 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Are you allowed to fish for other species? I used to fish Lake Pepin on the Mississippi and it's thick with fish. The backwaters of the Mississippi are great for bluegills too. 

Panfish, catfish, bullheads

Bass, Walleye, Pike and Muskie are closed for inland waters...the river is a different story, but given my time constraints, I don't have the ability to fish it.