We had been experiencing several days of abnormally warm weather for April with highs in the upper 70s and low 80s. I had a feeling that this was going to get the bass going, so I took off for a few hours to one of my favorite bass ponds.
When I arrived there was a fisherman fishing a shallow bay from shore. While I was getting my gear set up, he came over to chat. He told me that he could see good sized fish cruising the shallows in massive numbers, but he couldn't get them to bite. I didn't want to crowd him, so I ended up fishing elsewhere, but I certainly took note of this.
I was excited to see that the water was around 60 degrees as I shoved out from shore. I had made a few casts with a lipless crank when I noticed a jerkbait had come unhooked from it's keeper on one of the rods next to me. It gently swayed to and fro and I planned on securing when I finished the current cast. Suddenly it swung wide and plopped down right on my back. I tried to pull if free, but it had managed to hook my shirt and the suspenders on my waders numerous times. One of my gloves soon followed. I cut the line and maneuvered to the shallows to remove the thing. I realized there was only one way to resolve this mess. I undid my suspenders and was removing my shirt, when I heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. I could just picture what that would look like. Some big, harry, guy standing in the water, topless, but decked out in a dorky hat and a sun scarf around his neck. Luckily they stopped to fish with the other guy and were spared the spectacle.
Anyway, I caught a small fish on a Megabass Vision 110 just around the bend along a dropoff.
A couple of casts later I hooked into something big. Unfortunately it pulled free after a short tussle. I got no more action in the area, and I didn't want to intrude on the other fishermen's area, so I kicked across the bay to a nice, steep, point. I stuck with the 110 and hooked a good fish almost immediately. She hit on the pause and knocked a good foot of slack into the line. I couldn't believe how strong these fish were. I eventually netted the fish and was pleased at how healthy she was.
I taped her at 18". This morning was starting out great. A minute later, I was into another fish on the jerkbait.
Another rod bending chunk was soon landed. I caught another smaller fish, and then decided to try a little Shimano Scorpion lipless crank in a ghost bluegill color. That did the trick.
Things quieted down after that. I had one violent take on a Skinny Carrot tossed to some wood, but somehow I swung and missed. I kept working the point, when I had a visitor.
He sat and watched me for about ten minutes. Disgusted that I couldn't catch a fish for him, he flew off in a huff and dive bombed a mallard for what seemed like the pure joy of it.
I didn't catch anything for some time. I switched to a 5" soft jerkbait, and eventually caught a smaller male bass from some shoreline vegetation. I missed a couple more and decided to move to a steep shoreline across from me. I quickly caught a smaller bass on the 110. I also had a hard thunk on a Chatterbait fished parallel to some brush. I swapped out my soft jerkbait for a smaller 3.75" jerkbait that I started making over the winter and hadn't had a chance to fish. Whelp, it worked.
I pulled a few more from the submerged brush, though nothing too large. I went back to fishing the 110 and hooked a couple more good fish before needing to head to work.
The two larger ones went 18". The 2nd one took the lure headfirst and had the entire four inch lure in it's mouth. Luckily the hooks missed it's gills. Right before I had to leave, I managed to nab this rotund little teenage bride.
I ended up with 15 bass in the three hours I had to fish. I was really impressed with the quality of the fish, and with how hard they fought. Most of the fish clobbered the jerkbait sideways and had a hook on either side of the mouth.
Total for trip: 15 largemouth bass
Total for year: 248 fish
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