Happiness is a sore thumb.

[SmartWeed]

If you fish for bass and lip your fish, you know what I mean. This morning my thumb is still sore from yesterday's activity on Lake Lowell. Thirty one bass were landed between 1-5 PM. The weather was great after morning showers, the fish were real active, and I never saw another fisherman until returning to the ramp. Most fish were in the 12-14" range, but I did have 3 17" fish and some other 15-16" ones. My fish were all in 6" to 3' of water, but I'm sure there were lots of fish caught in other types of cover.

I stopped fishing for a minute to take a picture of the last 17" fish.

[signature]

[FishingRookie]

Looks like you had a great day! I can't wait for the weather to turn a bit here in south east Idaho so I can go chase some largemouth on my fly rod
[signature]

[gstott]

I saw that title and immediately got excited. Sounds like an amazing afternoon. I think I'll go look for some bass of my own today.
[signature]

[cpierce]

Wow, that is a great day! Good looking fish! It is also good news for us over here in SE Idaho. A couple of weeks and we should be following right behind you. Especially as they are expecting record high temps this weekend. ..... Maybe a quick runoff also!


It doesn't take much to get me excited a little rise in temperature, and I am ready to go! [cool]
[signature]

[windriver]

One more week and I should be able to get out fishing more often. Your defineately making me ready for Spring.

Windriver
[signature]

[Bassnbob]

Thanks Smartweed. I'm headed over today to try my luck with the bass boat. I'm just hoping it runs after it's long winter nap.

If you see a Skeeter, silver and black with purple pin striping, stop and say hi!!
[signature]

[forgiven]

WOW! Nice days fishing!
[signature]

[SmartWeed]

Well Bob, you weren't the only one out today. I fished from 1-4, constantly hearing voices of other fishermen along the willows. I didn't see them until I quit and pulled out to the lake body. Then I found 9 boats between me and Akies boat ramp (Access #1). I'm sure they were all catching fish.

I had another good day with 36 fish in 3 hours. There were several good ones with the one below the best. I'd like to say it was 18", but it was only 17.75". As you can see that is a nice fat fish. My best bait was again the boot tailed grub that I mold.

I didn't read Bob's post until now, so I don't know if you were one of the boats I saw or not. My silver G3 jet boat stands out in all those glass bass boats.


[signature]

[Bassnbob]

We were out there between Noon and 3. The good news the boat fired right up and ran like a champ. The bad news we never caught a fish. We stayed at the Caldwell dam area over in the trees and fished in 5 to 3 foot of water. We tried getting in shallower and got into 2 foot of water but still nothing and I got tired of fighting branches and trees. We tried Sweet Beavers and Horney Toads in watermelon red.

I'm not surprised we didn't catch anything, I usually start nailing them when the smartweed starts to grow. It was a great day just to be out on the water. Catching fish is just a bonus as far as I'm concerned.
[signature]

[elkmagnet]

You have that lake figured out.
[signature]

[SmartWeed]

[quote elkmagnet] You have that lake figured out.[/quote]
After 54 years of living on and fishing Lake Lowell, I'm getting there. Right now I'm just on a roll. Tonight I waded after the boaters thinned out and between 6:20 and 8:20 I caught 18, and my biggest of the year. I had an 18.5", an 18", and 2 17s. The 18's were very fat and heavy. I didn't have a strike for 40 minutes and then the sun went behind the trees and the fish turned on. It was a great evening.
[signature]

[davehayes]

Smartweed: Very nice seeing you today and appreciate the advice. I tied on that little white rubber thingy you gave me, fished it without weight in the shallow openings and caught three fish, one 16", in an hour. With the storm brewing I paddled like mad for the landing. Do you suppose the afternoon cloud cover had anything to do with my success? Thanks...Dave
[signature]

[SmartWeed]

Dave, it was nice seeing you and talking about a lot of common interests. You got a bigger fish than anything I caught. My best was 15". You should have stayed around for a while. I had 9 when the clouds and thunder rolled in. It was 4:00. I found lots of carp rolling in the real shallow water, so I moved out into water 2-3' deep, and then hit a small clearing that was loaded. Fudge, the Boykin Spaniel, reported that I had to quit by 5:00 if we were going to be home for his dinner time. At 5:00 my counter showed 29 fish. I think the clouds made the difference, and it never rained a drop.
[signature]