Bass Opener - 2013 P. 2

To start my third day out, I skipped the lake completely and headed back to the backwater areas I had fished previously.  The water was getting closer to that 60 degree mark so I was sure I'd see some fish starting to move in shortly.  I ended up catching only pike in my first stop working the area with the same spinnerbait as previous.

I revisited the area where I had caught the fish pictured in my last post and missed a few hits on a NSCB Flip n Swim Black series in the laydowns going in.  I switched back to the spinnerbait and that ended up getting bit off by a pike.  At that point I decided to down size my baits a little bit, swapping the Black series for a regular Flip n Swim jig and tying on a Basstek 1/2oz Flippin Jig on the other and had little luck with either bait.

I made a move downstream and into another backwater, though this one had a lot of current running through it.  The entire area was flooded so it made getting around a little interesting, I found a little pocket of slack water with some isolated flooded trees and started pitching.  I only had one bite in the area on the Flip n Swim:

He weighed at 3lbs 5oz and is my first (and only) qualifying fish for BP's Minnesocold derby.  I stayed working this little backwater area until the text messages regarding breakfast became a little more assertive.

I did revisit this spot later in the week and caught only pike. 

Over all, I had a lot of trouble figuring this system out, never really putting together a consistent pattern, and I think a lot of it had to do with the flooding in the river.  Everything looked fishy and I got caught up in that mentality that "there should be a fish in that bush" or "next to that tree" or.....  Couple that with the unfamiliarity of fishing a pre-spawn phase and this guy got lost, even when I got out into deeper water working some of the points leading up to some flats - the action was subdued.

Hopefully my next trip out will prove more productive as the fish will be in a phase I'm a bit more experienced with - and I've got some new toys to help catch them too.

I'll talk about those in my next post.