Kayak FFS, Bass Fish and Trash Fish

[Koz]

I ran the gamut this weekend fishing off my back yard, as a co-angler in a tournament, then out on my kayak.

 

On Friday evening I was setting up my gear for the Saturday tournament and experimenting with different jig head / swimbait / minnow combos with various rod & reel combos. As a co-angler, I don't want to pack the kitchen sink and I was trying to limit myself to 3 rods and 4 trays plus a few bags of plastics. 

 

I really, really, really like the Reaction Innovations Big Dipper and Little Dipper baits and was seeing if I could find a jig head suitable for both sizes to reduce time spent cutting and tying baits while in the tournament. As luck would have it, I landed a nice 4 1/4 pound LMB. And did I mention that the tournament was on my home lake?

 

Off to the tournament the next day and draw a boater with over $100k in career winnings, so I'm hoping he puts us on the fish. But it was brutal out there. The winning boater bag was only 14 pounds and the winning co angler back was only 12 pounds. I had only one keeper on the day for 2.5 lbs, a few that were too small, and a 15 pound catfish. My boater caught 4 for 7 pounds and two big catfish. We fished the same 3 spots all day and on any other day I'd bet those spots would be productive, but the bass weren't biting. 

 

I went home and because I can't get enough punishment, fished along my seawall and caught a few two pounders. Too little, too late.

 

So early this morning I was fishing off my backyard again and skipped a Big Dipper under some trees along the shore and caught a few small bass gorging on the shad spawn. Later that morning I skipped under those trees again and pulled out a 15 pound catfish. My son and I ran some errands, I fished off my seawall and I swear I caught that same catfish once again.

 

About 4pm I headed out on my kayak and instead of loading up with everything I packed three rods and four trays instead of bringing 7-9 rods and a crate with 600lbs of tackle (sarcasm on the tackle). I run two graphs on my kayak. The Garmin provides FFS, DI, SI, and Sonar and I used a Helix 7 for mapping. I also have Smartstrike on the Helix.

 

My plan was to fish close to home in the creek channel where I live instead of contending with boat and jet ski traffic. Targets were sea walls and docks, but the wind was a constant 12-14mph with gusts 20+ so I ended up casting around docks instead of setting up and picking them apart. I caught one small one, then headed to an underwater point highlighted by Smartstrike.

 

I'm finally starting to get better with FFS. I don't care what anyone says, it's not as easy as some believe. It would be wonderful if I could set up, toggle on spot lock, then pick apart targets and catch bass all day long. But the reality is that spot lock on a 12 foot kayak getting blown around by swirling winds and current can be a giant pain. So I get the current moving me, spot lock trying to put me into the wind, and then having to keep turning the FFS transducer mount to where on the point I want to look for fish. It doesn't matter if I first position myself with the nose into the wind because the current is trying to move me and the wind is changing direction. I was in 7 feet of water and wishing I had Power Poles.

 

I scoped around the point and targets lit up my FFS display. One of the things about targets is determining their relative size as the size of the target return can be large or small depending upon how far out you're scanning. Lately I have kept my scanning at a constant 60 feet. This way when I see a target I can immediately slow down to a crawl or spot lock so I don't get too close to the target and potentially spook the fish or run past it.

 

I find one of the bigger targets about 45 feet out and cast my trusty Reaction Innovations White Trash Big Dipper out there and it gets hammered right away. I set the hook but then it runs right at me and breaches not once, but twice and that second time it goes past me. It was pure luck that it didn't spit the bait at that point. I didn't have my scale, but it was bigger than the 4 1/4 I caught the other day so I put it at just over 5 pounds even though she was spawned out.

 

I made my way out to the major point at the end of the creek channel but didn't hook up so I swung back around and immediately saw a big target, casted my big dipper, and it hit hard. Catfish. Ugh. This one was was over 10 pounds. I head back towards the underwater point, making blinds casts along the way and BAM - another 12-15 pound catfish on a Big Dipper.

 

I get to the underwater point, don't see anything, and head back towards my house, then spot lock on a secondary point when I see a bunch of targets. But this time I put on a Riot Reactor 1.5 crankbait (check out this crankbait - they have been great for me), take a few casts, and BAM - another 15+ pound catfish. But this one ate the trebles. Ugh.

 

I don't want to get it on the deck of my kayak and slime everything up, so I tire it out so I can grab it with my fish grippers. There's no way I want my hands near those trebles if that big cat starts to thrash again. Then I realize my long pliers are in the crate that I didn't bring and all I have are short pliers. It took me over 10 minutes to get that thing out.

 

I was out there for only about 90 minutes, but I had enough catfish for the night and headed home. It's amazing how aggressive the catfish have been hitting everything. I have never seen that before. My guess is that the shad spawn has them in a frenzy.

 

One good bass made it a good day, but what made it a better day was FFS is pulling me out of my comfort zone. When I fish, I prefer to pound the banks and docks. Some of that is because I fish out of a kayak and I try to stay away from boats and jet skis. But the other part is as a kayak angler and bank angler that banks and docks have been my comfort zone and now I'm moving away from that. I'm also throwing different baits and working on new techniques as I work with FFS.

 

[TnRiver46]

Good write up and good bass but…… even better catfish!!!

[pdxfisher]

That is an  amazing number of big catfish. We're you eating chicken livers before you went out

[Koz]

8 hours ago, pdxfisher said:

That is an  amazing number of big catfish. We're you eating chicken livers before you went out

It was ridiculous. On tournament day my boater caught one that was at least 30 and another about 20.

 

I fished for an hour after work yesterday and managed to avoid the catfish and land a couple of 3 pound LMB. One was an FFS catch and the other was targeting docks.

 

Now that I am figuring it out I am enjoying FFS.

[TnRiver46]

As much as I love bass fishing, a 30 lb catfish is not something I’m trying to avoid haha. I don’t even try to avoid the 6-8 lb catfish 

[Koz]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

As much as I love bass fishing, a 30 lb catfish is not something I’m trying to avoid haha. I don’t even try to avoid the 6-8 lb catfish 

They are tolerable on a normal fishing day, but on tournament day they are aggravating as heck.

[TnRiver46]

Your competition paid the catfish to run interference 😂 

[roadwarrior]

On 4/30/2024 at 6:37 AM, TnRiver46 said:

As much as I love bass fishing, a 30 lb catfish is not something I’m trying to avoid haha. I don’t even try to avoid the 6-8 lb catfish 

This line of thinking will make your pet drum jealous!

 

🥰

[Koz]

Just another FFS observation- even when you’re slow rolling a bait on a 6:x:x reel that bait is still moving fast through the water column relative to the movements of bait fish.

 

That makes me wonder if I should be throwing more glide baits, especially in the 4-5 inch range.

 

I’m also better understanding the FFS sonar cone and why many pros use a combination of 360 or perspective view along with traditional FFS.

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

I enjoyed this trip report and commend you for sharing that you used FFS. If you FFS to catch bass, that should be part of every trip report. It's silly to report the color of a lure, but not using FFS. I sure identified  with the "swirling wind and current.

[Tennessee Boy]

Great writeup.  I'm amazed that you caught so many catfish on one trip.  I've caught countless catfish while bass fishing over the last 45 years.  I can't remember ever catching more than one on a given day.

[Koz]

19 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Great writeup.  I'm amazed that you caught so many catfish on one trip.  I've caught countless catfish while bass fishing over the last 45 years.  I can't remember ever catching more than one on given day.

It has been ridiculous. I posted a story and photo in the Other Fish Series section last night about another good sized catfish I caught off my dock with a tiny Beetle Spin.

 

They have been super aggressive with hitting everything. In the past week I have caught them on soft swim baits, crankbaits, Senkos, plastic minnows, and the beetle spin.

 

It looks like they are taking over the lake. They pushed out the bass around my house.