Bass Opener - 2013 P. 1

What a long winter.  Prior to this past weekend, the last time I wet a line in open water was Thanksgiving Day of last year - and that is way too long for this guy to go.  Definitely my fault, but, it was for good reason.  However, school is now out and bass fishing season is in, opening week has come to an end and here is my report:

052513

I dropped the boat in on Friday when we got to the lake and cruised around a little bit to check things out and noticed right away that the water temp was 55-56 degrees, which would put most fish in a prespawn mode. 

My Dad and I went out on Saturday morning and I decided to fish some flooded timber on the way out to the main lake as the canal and flats area where my boat is moored would should be one of the areas they will be spawning.  I worked the area over with a 1/2oz Northstar Custom Baits Flip n Swim Black series jig and felt a thump but was too late on the hookset and too far past that spot to try another pitch so I told Dad where to throw, no bite. 

We went into the river briefly and I was thinking about heading up the Snake and into some of the backwaters but decided not to with as swift as the current was and a logjam in the middle of the bridge.  We spent most of Saturday eliminating water.  Dad got one crappie and I got skunked.

052613

I went out solo and noticed that the water temp had risen a couple of degrees.  I fished the same flooded timber as I had the day before with the same results - if nothing else, it helped knock the rust off my pitching technique.  I decided to skip the rest of the water that Dad and I fished on Saturday and ventured downstream and into some backwaters and probed the area with the same Flip n Swim jig I had tied Saturday and a Northstar Custom Baits spinnerbait in New Gill color.



I fished my way down the flooded side of the slough and didn’t get anything.  No bites, no taps, no bumps or thumps.  At this point, I was getting fairly discouraged. I started working my way down the opposite shoreline with the spinnerbait and a quarter of the way down the line my bait darted violently to the side and then went quiet again.  Then it hit like a ton a bricks and my line started moving back and forth quickly.  It was a pike, but, at least it was a fish.  There was life in this water after all!  I started lifting him in the boat and the hook came out.  Easy release, no pike smell on my hands, and no human smell on the pike.  It was a win-win.

I had a couple more hits going down the bank but no hook ups.  I decided to idle into another backwater.  This one had a lot more wood so I decided to fish the side with the current, figuring that any bass would be hanging out in the timber and grass patches waiting for an easy meal.  I had several hits in this area on the spinnerbait, some bass and some pike but they almost always came off.  I had no stingers or anything that would make a useful trailer hook along, so I tied on a regular Flip n Swim in New Gill with a single grub for a trailer.  I had a few missed hits on that and then, finally, a solid hook up.  He was sitting right at the base of a fallen tree.  Not huge, but, it's a start.

This is getting pretty long so I'm going to wrap this first post for up now.  I'll detail the rest of the week in my next post.