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Again launched from Callville about noon. Surface temp 56.5
Calm and overcast. Motored upstream of Hamblin Bay. Still fishing with same set ups as Friday. Same general structure.
But today was not Friday. I was reminded of Mark Zona singing: "looking for love in all the wrong places" on ESPN.
That's what happened to me. American Bass had a tournament and maybe 16 rigs in the parking lot. Half the field came out of the Narrows to get back to the weigh in.
Caught a very small smallmouth on dropshot and finished the day where I should have begun; 40° sloping chunk rock bank with some brush and sun exposure. Surface temps near sunny rock about 57°
I saw one medium sized smallie in a holding pattern in 15 ft of water and got bit on jig but missed another one.
Still on main lake points.
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Good report! The bite at the lake was off this weekend. We spent a full day on the water on Saturday. We fished areas that two weeks ago (and most other times) would put 25+ LMB in the boat but struggled to get 6 fish total the entire day. Speaking with a couple others at the ramp it doesn't sound like many people had much luck.
We were fishing somewhat shallow areas (10-20 ft) heavy brush, spots we have seen even in cold weather hold fish. Average surface temp was between 54-56 degrees. Had a lot of followers running some swim shad but couldn't entice them to bite. I need to upgrade some of my gear...or quit drinking while i fish...I lost about 8 -10 just for not getting a good hook set and then of course the inevitable line breaks from fishing heavy cover. Scarred my line a couple of times and didn't restring so on hard strikes (likely stripers) it was one quick pull and see ya!!
Likely heading back out this coming weekend, gonna try my luck running a jig n pig on a much slower presentation to see if some of these fish will hit.
Overall a beautiful day on the lake though, good weather and cold beer. Cant ask for much more.
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To funny Billy. I'll run the Skeeter at high speed (on GPS tracking) at night if I know the area. But refreshing alcoholic beverages don't come on the Skeeter ( can get just too f***ing dangerous out there quickly) ....but that didn't seem to matter anyway.
All the bites in my area were tentative or pecks like they are trying move it out of a nesting area except for drop shot bites where I'm using a 3" plastic.
Save my drinking for dry land
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Luckily i am the passenger on the boat and not the driver, makes for a relaxing day on a pontoon when you dont have to worry about that stuff. But yeah no drinking and boating (driving), not a good idea, especially in one that is motoring around quite fast.
After reading the posts you would think we are getting into some pre-spawn behavior. it seems early but this is similar to what we saw last couple years for off and on bites.
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Now is my favorite time of year for fishing except for fall I guess. Boat traffic is minimal (couple big cruisers out yesterday) but they are not like wakeboard rigs) and all the drunken boaters are staying home and not breaking down on the ramps. More than once I have seen dual empty 24 packs come off a rig at the dock when passengers might be 4 to 6 people. That is like massive Canadian beer loads!
Smallies start spawning around 55° according to what I've read. My feeling is we are right on the front edge of that. Testing my hypothesis towards end of the week if weather holds.
What is baffling is being unable to locate them in pre spawning staging areas...even fishing deeper down to 50 ft. Seen some stripers and carp on the graph but no bass. Carp were on the surface yesterday evening
I noticed the bass coming shallower at dusk. Maybe they are on a crawdad bite? But crawdads will burrow or go deep in winter...so I don't know. Missing a part of the puzzle. Need to catch a smallie and give him a boat ride so he regurgitates
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Supposed to get rainy and cold this weekend, so it might delay the smallie migration a bit.
Valentine's Day seems to be the magical time of year when these fish actually start staging for the spawn, so I will expect something closer to then.
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What is that boat? Triton? Ranger? What size? boat that is.
I recognize one location from your picture.
Thought about going there and opted for another spot.
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The bottom pic is my Champion 204 dcx white w/ black stripe with 200 Evinrude (Currently for sale on Craigslist) and the top pic is my new(er) Champion 203 w/225opti. Its white with a green stripe. I love Champions [cool]
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Awesome fish! Someday I will figure out winter bass fishing. Not this year. lol
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Nice fish. I went out today to screw around for a couple hours at Hemminway. Fished the Islands from 10:30a til noon without a bite. Fished a half a senko on a jighead (killer presentation, by the way) and a jerkbait in the 56 degree water. No go.
If you aren't trying to bass fish though, I saw quite a few catfish roaming the shallows, so that bite should be hot right now. Plus, the carp are holding on the reefs with some bushes on them. Big numbers, too. They are staging for the early spring spawn.
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Nice rig. I think it is hard to sell a boat locally cause of the economy. I recently took the 2007 Skeeter ZX 225 Yamaha to Bass Pro for a marine appraisal. They offered me $4500 on a trade in. NADA on that boat is about 22K. That's OK; I needed an appraisal for some business. I am not selling..
Did you post on some of the national lists?
Back in 2004, when I was looking... it was Champion, Bass Cat or Skeeter. Ended up with a 16' Skeeter cause my 1991 Toyota 4 banger would have had trouble towing a Champion. Generally a little heavier than a Skeeter. The newer V6 Toyota does fine with the 2007 Skeeter.
I found the Skeeter handles about as well as a Champion; has nothing sticking out to catch line on.
John, I'd forgotten about that snipped senko on a shaky head...can be killer. I've had little luck fishing around those islands. If the kitties are up shallow then the bass got to be coming shallow also.
Finished trading early this morning. I day trade the stock market. And I was about to go out this afternoon when the wind came up. That wouldn't keep me off normally but I am a little more conservative in winter about going out in higher NW winds in the lower basin.
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I went out twice last week to test my boat and fished for a couple hours each time and pulled these two 4+lbers, one on each trip. At last weeks qualifier there was a 7.5 lber brought in along with several 4lbers. I can't wait for the spawn though.[fishin]