Interesting week on the water

[RK]

Hiya -

Just got back from a week of fishing, and thought I'd share a couple observations...

I fished several different lakes in NW and N Central MN, and fish were all over the map in terms of prespawn, spawn and post-spawn, so it was kind of an interesting week to see what was similar and what varied from lake to lake and day to day. Weather was all over the place too, and the only constant was a SE wind for most of the week...which is my least favorite wind direction frankly.

- On a couple different lakes where fish were shallow in the rushes, the bass/bluegill connection was a huge deal. If there were gills, there were bass. Also a definite connection between bluegill nesting colonies and bigger bass.

- Between weather and clear water, I could NOT get fish to chase a spinnerbait at all last week. Swim jigs, however, were tremendous. I could fish through a patch of rushes with a spinnerbait, catch nothing, then go back with a swim jig and catch fish. Some days though, even a swim jig would get follows or short hits, and I had to pitch soft plastics.

- Was reminded of how important color can be in clear water last week. I'd been doing well on a darker bluegill pattern swim jig one morning, but when the clouds burned off and the sun came out, I started getting short hits, and the fish I did catch were lip hooked. Switched to the exact same model and size jig, but in a lighter color with some clear/silver flake and light gray in the skirt, and fish started woofing it again. I think it blended in better in the surface glare, and made them hunt it down more. Reminded me that a.) color can really matter in clear water and b.) how fish are hitting a bait can really tell you a lot.

- Even though it's somewhat early, I had some tremendous fishing on deep weed edges. Weather kind of pushed fish out of the shallows and they pulled back to deep cabbage beds. What's interesting is that last year's cabbage held the most fish - it was a lot taller than new growth, and it was very soft so it was tough to fish through - you hung up on it and instead of snapping off, you'd get the whole plant. But you could cover a flat with a deep diving crank and find it quickly. Caught a lot of fish on deep diving cranks and jigs. Good reminder that not all weeds 'die off' in fall, and remaining stands can be fish magnets, and they occur in somewhat predictable places. Some of the beds I found we loaded with fish.

- Got a great lesson/reminder in triggering fish and what the strike can tell you to go along with the deep weed bite above. I was doing pretty well one afternoon on deep cranks when the wind switched and picked up quite a bit. Bite on cranks died, and the few fish I was still catching were hooked outside the mouth or on the back hook only . So I switched to a jigworm, which is usually a pretty good slow bite bait. Fished through a big cabbage bed that had been holding fish, and caught 3. All three bites were mushy, soft cold front hits - like your jig just dropped into a bowl of oatmeal. I knew there were fish there I wasn't catching, so I switched to a heavy (5/8 oz) jig and pig. Fished back through the bed, popping the jig aggressively off the bottom and through the cabbage, and caught 12. Repeated the process on two other big cabbage beds before dark - fish through it with a jigworm, catch a couple on very soft hits, then have fish smoke a jig and pig fished very aggressively. Most of them took the jig down to their throat. The faster fall triggered fish that would not hit a slow falling jigworm. Really good lesson for me that triggering fish can be a lot better than finessing them sometimes, even when they're off a little bit.

- Had a bass try to eat another bass. Reeling in a real small bass (6-7") I'd hooked while catching some bluegills for dinner, and a 6-pounder came roaring out of the rushes and chased the little bass around for a few seconds, and actually swiped at him twice. Have had pike hit other pike and obviously smallies follow hooked fish all the time, but a largemouth trying to eat another largemouth was a new one - and there was no question he was trying to eat it.

- Dogfish are a lot more fun to catch than people give them credit for. Caught a couple dandies this week pitching in the rushes.

- For some reason, I caught bucketloads of 17" fish this past week. On one lake it was like they'd been poured out of a bullet mold. I bet if I caught 25 fish in a morning, 18 of them were from 16 to 18 inches. It was a blast, but it was weird too. Not many little guys and only a bigger fish here and there. Biggest LMB for the week was 20.5", biggest smallie was 19. Got dumped by a giant smallie though. Biggest one I've seen in quite a while. Still hurts - heh.

Anyhow - random brain dump after a week on the water, but the color thing, and the experience with jigworms and jig/pig will definitely stick with me...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Juan Grande]

Insightful information as usual RK, thanks for posting.

[Nick Kuhn]

I was out catching nothing but small bass on small cranks over the weed flat that extends out from my dock. Plenty of action, but no size to speak of. So I switched to my clackin minnow to see if I could get any size to hit. About my 3rd cast I hook into something that finally feels pretty solid. Turned into a 24" walleye. It's the first time in the past 10 years I have caught a gamefish that was not a bass off that flat. That was my odd experience this weekend.

And RK is correct, dogfish are pretty fun to catch. Against medium tackle an upper 20" dogfish puts up a pretty good fight.

[Cecil]

And they will come back to hit a lure if you miss them the first time. Just ask Deitz...

[JP Z]

hehe, oh the things we can learn from Deitz.......

[TonkaBass]

I found out that post spawn smallies are super picky eaters. Btw RK, your lake is still very good, won a tournament there on Sunday.

[RK]

Tonka -

Was wondering if anyone I knew was fishing it. Lotsa guys pre fishing the weekend before. That lake was good last week. Drop me a note (kimm dot rob at gmail) Love to hear the story.

Yeah, nothing does post spawn quite like smallmouths. Sometimes they get so skittish lifting your drop shot sinker off the bottom freaks 'em out.

Good job on the derby

RK