I Have Bass Thumb!

[River Rat316]

Just thought I would share

My fishing opportunities have been sorely limited this year, I get out maybe once every 2 weeks for an hour here or a couple hours max, I have only fished once longer than 2 hours and while it was a good day it wasn't nothing special. So while my wife is up north with her family and the kids, and my store is shut down. I am taking a little time to get out. I hit the lake about 5 tonight at my first spot I pulled 4or 5 dink largies and 3 pike, I moved around the point and started fishing a small bay that is rimmed with pads, about 2/3 of the way around the bay I noticed about a 100 yard section of pads that are clean in front, no duck weed or curly leaf clogging them up. Out side of these pads it is sporadic weed growth on a 7' flat and the fish were roaming the flat and just inside the pads, I pulled around 60 from that one area in about 2.5 hrs, none of them were pigs but there was a couple solid 4's and a handful of 3's mixed in, the rest were on the smaller side. The really fun part was that every fish came on a swim jig tonight, and they were absolutely crushing it, no ***** footing around just all out hammering that jig. For a trailer I started with a 4" berkley hollow belly, ran through 2 packs of those in a hurry, and then remembered that I had some other swim bait type trailers that I make in my bag and went through those 2 packs also. I then moved outside of the bay and continued down the shoreline, The lone dock on this side of the lake drew my attention because the area was covered in duckweed that was dying off but the dock owner had cleared it out and there was nice green coontail growing in its spot, first cast by the dock and the jig barely hit the water and a solid 4 just whacked it, the next 10 casts resulted in fish that were a bit smaller than the first but not by much, then the owner of the dock came out of the house and I thought she was gonna start yelling at me, but she had her video camera in her hand and said she taped the last 5 fish from her house to prove to her husband there was fish in their lake! I was laughing so hard I almost fell out of the boat. we chatted for a bit and I moved on, by this time its getting dark and I was thinking of leaving but a section of pads a ways down the shoreline peaked my interest, they looked clean and just like the first section I pulled all the fish from earlier, my first cast resulted in a fish pushing 5, the only problem was it destroyed my last trailer, so I took another trailer I already discarded and rigged it upside down and coaxed another couple decent fish out of it.

This was by far my best fishing trip for the green fish in a couple years, I think I have caught more by numbers in past trips from last year but I absolutely love throwing swim jigs, and to have them hammer a swim jig like that all night long is just something that I dream about on those cold winter nights!

[Dwight Hottle]

Well I could ask what brand of jig you were swimming but I think I already know the answer. Sounds like you had a great outing with some real quality fish thrown in.

[Chris at Tech]

Do you use your standard swim jigs when you have the hollow bodies as a trailer? Or are you using something with a beefier hook?

[A-Jay]

Congrats on an excellent outing -

Swim jigs, Really - I never would have guessed.

A-Jay

[Vinny Chase]

I talked to Chris a little bit today as he gloated about his outing (I would have too) and it got me thinking that I should throw a swimjig/hollow belly combo. A little back story, I have had a terrible last few months, nothing over 4.5 lbs. I went out and on my first cast, THUNK! THUNK!, a nice 3 lbr followed by four in a row the same size. I couldn't believe the swimbait lasted as long as it did, but I realized after that last fish that I was out!! The only swimbaits I had with me were the 6" shadlicious hollow bellies. I hooked one up thinking if I catch anything it will be a muskie/pike...After a few casts around the side of a point I get a bite that nearly rips the pole out of my mind. I finally get this hog close enough to lip it and it was a giant 5.5 lb bass; my biggest since early spring.

It's weird to say it because I have taught Chris all he knows about fishing, but I owe this one to him

[ICU812]

you guys are killing it with the swim jigs! Way to go!!

[Vinny Chase]

Just caught this lady on the same setup! It is definitely getting the attention of the bigger bass.