Two More Fascinating Days on Colorado Pond; Almost a Skunking, and Pure Carnage!!

[Paul Roberts]

March 20th, 2008

Brilliant sun and high temps (65F) forecast awesome heating day. I was gonna KILL EM!!! But Mother Nature threw me a curve; No confusion just another fascinating day.

 

When I arrived I stopped to chat with a fly-fisher. He mentioned that it was supposed to get windy. It was absolutely calm as we spoke and I replied that I hoped it would hold off for a while. We said goodbye, and I turned around and walked right straight into a very stiff wind! I started running! I hit one favorite spot screened from the wind and tallied a 13, then ran to a second, where I rose a big mama I know very well. By then the water had only just begun to heat up and she was tentative (and educated). I also reacted tentatively and was rewarded with a large flash beneath the water as she let go of my lure. AWWWWHH! ...Good morning Mama. Go back to whatever you were doing. Rats!!!

 

By then there were whitecaps across the water, and I watched as water temps eroded all the way around the pond as cold water was rolled up from the depths. Heating never happened. And I fished hard, in a very uncomfortable wind, just to see if I could pull something together. I couldn't. I finally abandoned the pond and headed to another I thought might be protected it wasn't, the water roiled and cold. I failed there too, and I was chilled enough not to beat myself up trying to eek out a couple bites.

 

March 25th 2008

Warm spell following good cold front. Monday was to hit mid 60's but a strong wind came in that made me decide to hold off a day. Tuesday was calm, and promised 65 and sun, which was realized. I was almost trembling in anticipation.

 

I started early, to watch the pond heat up. And it did, but slowly. I measured 49F at 10AM the air was chilly. I spent the time fishing and observing. No bluegills were seen in the immediate shallows yet. I  didn't turn a fish from 10AM til I broke for lunch at 1pm. And I even began to let a few doubts creep in. Could I be wrong? Could something else be happening? But I quashed em.

 

After lunch, at 2PM, I started my rounds again. I got 52F at the upwind corner, and 56.5F at the downwind a half hour later, and spotted little fish (1½ ) along the cattail roots and shoreline flotsam. I do not know what they were! Wish I'd had a net. They were predacious and even chased my lure moving in quick starts and stops like bass or sunfish. They must be late summer born sunfish likely greens.

 

I talked with one of three anglers who'd been there all morning. He'd caught 2 little ones, he said, and was headed home.

 

From there the day began to heat rapidly and the temps of the downwind side reached 60F at 5PM, then fell back to 56F by 7PM. Bluegills had lined the bank, and soon after, the heavy boils and thick wakes of large surface (and bluegill) oriented bass appeared. It became pure carnage as big females rolled in to pick off those concentrated gills!

 

My tally was 11; The 6 largest in order of capture:

20 even. Jerkbait. On 8lb line I had to backreel again and again. I had no idea how big she was going to turn out to be. I had my scale but forgot to use it! She would have been shy of 5lbs. Healthy but not a barrel. Look at the long tail on her. Man, did she use it!

Gorgeous 17¾ Jerkbait.

Gorgeous 19 Jerkbait.

Thin 19. I switched to a swimbait, as the bass were onto my jerkbait. This one chased to the shore and I ran out of water! So I killed it in 8inches depth, and she sucked it off bottom. She had several old hook bruises, and was very thin. I would have liked to kill her and check stomach to see if she was impacted with a plastic bait. But I didn't have the heart.

Gorgeous 19½. Swimbait. She took a ways out (in amongst a pod of gills) and was a handful to subdue (12lb line).

18½. In-line Spinner. Last fish of the evening. A very strong fighter lots of back-reeling on 8lb line.

The Jerkbait. This one I made from a Bagley's Topgun, by belly weighting. It's a much shallower running plug then most others, which allowed me to fish it over the dead weeds and algae less hook cleaning, more attraction and triggering time. A less stable plug, it took me some practice to get er to twitch and flash just right. As you can see, color is low on my list of priorities.

 

Took about three hours to catch these fish. They were not pushovers. Seems bigger bass rarely are, especially if they've seen lots of lures as they do in this public water. You know, if I didn't keep a journal, these days would be remembered as me catching bass hand over fist, losing the real effort put in.

[iceintheveins]

Some great bass Paul. Why don't you try some flukes and senkos? They seem to catch lethargic bass or pressured bass better than anything else?

About when do you start getting them on topwater? I've caught them on poppers and buzzbaits during the first week of April before, but those years it was a faster warm up. Water usually is around 54 by the time they start hitting top.

[Paul Roberts]

Ice,

Yes, this is a slower warm-up year. I was doing this last year by the first week of March.

I didn't use a soft jerk because they fish a bit slower and the water was quite roiled from recent winds. They don't work as well as something flashier and noisier then.

Senko's sink too fast. These early fish are surface oriented. But, I also have a bias. In general, I rarely fish Senko's. I already know they work and they are expensive and tear easily. I do use other types of stick worms, but later in the year.

Topwaters are a possibility anytime the bass are willing. Temps of 55+ help, but isn't the whole story. I tried twitching a floating Rapala the other day, but they didn't go for it. Water was a bit too roiled from recent wind I think. That's usually deadly, and the first topwater I GoTo in the spring.

We get consistent spring midge emergences on my ponds and the bluegills really go for them: I've seen them rising as early as early March and as late as November -water as low as 50F. And the bass follow. Again, I tend to go with the Rapala, but I expect other things would work.

What do you like in topwaters?

[jrhennecke]

I like a buzz bait or swimmn image.  Those are nice fish!

[iceintheveins]

Your right on the money Paul. Flukes and Senkos aren't all that great of baits when the water is heavily stained. Now later in the year or if the water is clearer, they are my go to baits.

I also notice that shallow cranks and jerks seem to catch early bass better than plastics. They do come up in those warmer upper layers, and a stop and go, suspending hard bait can be the best choice.

As for topwaters, the floating rapala is the first one I use as well. It really does better than a lot of the others early on. When it warms up, no topwater lure produces bass for me like the Rapala Skitterpop, in my mind the best popper ever made. However, when the bass are aggressive, a Cavitron Buzzbait is even deadlier. I've done well on most all topwaters though.