Shallow Bass...

[Matt Johnson]

BDR and I found the bass in the shallows this past weekend under tree limbs hiding in the shade. The bass were also holding in boat canals and off the mouths of feeder creeks. With all the high water we're experiencing right now the bass are pushing into the flooded areas, and will sit right up in less than a foot of water. Some of these feeder creeks won't even be there once the water drops, but right now they are there and full of fish. Some fun fishing...

BDR...

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

------------------
Matt Johnson Outdoors
Metro Area Ice Fishing, Team Catch-N, and more...

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy
JR's Tackle

[Juice]

Yup, thats where ive been catchin bass for a while...1st noticed that a week ago at a bass tourney i was doing..We were pullin up bass in 6 inches of water..Texas rigged lizards were the key for us. What were you guys using? Oh yea by the way, nice bass!

[This message has been edited by Juice (edited 06-13-2004).]

[huskiesplayer15]

nice fish mj! hoping the weather holds tomorrow, going out of myr mar for the evening.
Best Fishes
Chris

[Deitz Dittrich]

Very nice looking fish bud.. Nice to see you finally commming over and fishing for some "REAL" fish. But I got to ask.. Whats up with that shirt?

[taxmancommeth]

Matt -

We also found all our Bass in less then 3 feet of water out on Rush Lake

Inside weedline with Bungee & Bungee Power worms dark purple & green worked best. Those little pigs sure were fun on ultra light tackle.

We also threw scum frogs when we saw swirls in the pads. Had 3 or 4 hits. Boated one 3+lb, tore the heck out of the frog.

The 13+ lbs 6 bass just did not do anything for us when you can't catch any Pike like everyone else.

See you in two weeks at Madison.

------------------
---------------------------------------------

GET-ER-DONE

[catchin'whopper]

Fished Chisago/So Lindstrom saturday and sunday with great success for bass. Both days my 5 best were around 15 pounds, breaking off on 3 that would had solid weight (i think kicker fish over 4 pounds), stupid mistakes. My largest was 19" and chunky, the others were all Chisago footballs.

For the most part, would catch fish all day long using Bill's Worms and Senkos on the inside weed edges. I mostly fished in South Lindstrom but was able to find shorelines on teh north side of chisago that this worked as well for.

Basically the largies were hanging out on that inside edge with the panfish going crazy in the sun-ladened shallows. THey appear to be getting ready for spawn or finished up, and the bass are waiting to pounce on them.

So the key was to slowly work the plastics on those edges. For the senko, i had luck with dark colors, another person i talked to did well with a pearl/green. The Bill's Worm, which i hate throwing but it works so stupidly well this time of year was also black/red, and i used a straight retrieve in front of those edges and over the top of milfoil pockets.

Overall, a solid weekend fishing on there, lots of decent fish and numbers too to keep you busy. For the dogfish fans, they should be really aggressive in the next week as i saw about 10 over 6 pounds hanging out. Although i am not crazy about those ugly things.

GOod Luck
-Catchin' Whopper

[Captain B.R.K]

Nice fish Matt!

I definately need to come down and fish with you guys for a lesson in Bass 101, he,he,he!
FIrst time fishing lakes with milfoil so I didn't know how to go about fishing it.
I did catch a 19" LM on Auburn Saturday morning right next to some timber. IT looked good and I knew something would come out of there, just didn't know a 4# bass would be there!!
I'll have pic's soon.

[Matt Johnson]

Exude... ...how's the tournaments treating you?

Taxman...heard you had on a big muskie this weekend? See you in two weeks!

B.R.K...just let me know the next time you are down staying with the family and we'll chase some fish!

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

------------------
Matt Johnson Outdoors
Metro Area Ice Fishing, Team Catch-N, and more...

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy
JR's Tackle

[This message has been edited by Matt Johnson (edited 06-14-2004).]

[FI Guide]

Matt you are right on the point sll the bass were under docks in the shade during the daylight hours and once evening hit they were in the flooded grass feeding on shad

[BDR]

It was fun finding those fish Sat. Where they go on sunday?? I think they found other live wells to temporarily live in

------------------
I'd rather be skunked than follow the crowd!

Brian Rogers

JR's Tackle
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait

[Lost]

No wonder I haven't been able to find them! Then again, I haven't really been to any bass lakes yet.

[Matt Johnson]

BDR...LOL...

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

------------------
Matt Johnson Outdoors
Metro Area Ice Fishing, Team Catch-N, and more...

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy
JR's Tackle

[taxmancommeth]

Matt -

Yep caught all our bass / fish on North East side of West Rush. About 9:30 spotted a muskie (was 46+ easy) and partner had it take a dark green rapala after 10 - 15 tosses... We did not have time to get tackle on 20+ lb test rod so just had to give it a shot with 10 lb...

Bite, hook set, jump (head was above boat and entire body came out of water) tossed lure... To bad did not have camera, would had been a great picture!!!

Oh well gave us a rush for a few seconds...

See you on Madison...

------------------
-------------------------

GET-ER-DONE

[Lunker]

Yup, we caught our bass shallow too. Caught our limit within about an hour fishing docks and sloppy pads/reed/pondweed patches in less than 3ft of water. Most on senkos and plastics and one on a scum frog. Did hook one bass deeper, on a weedline about 6ft deep, fish probably went at least 5 maybe even six. Unraveled the knot in my brothers line. Quite a bummer on tourney day. Was good fishing though.

[Dan Wood]

Our bass all came from about 8"-6' of water. We did a little bit of both - inside weedlines and working openings in the thicker weeds.

We did find a lot of bedded fish that ended up helping our weight quite a bit. Our 4 bigger females all came off beds in a pretty small area within maybe an hour. We also picked up males in that same area on beds. The males on the beds were pretty agressive and easy to catch, but they weren't very big (up to about 15-16"). The females on the beds were much less agressive.

[Matt Johnson]

Good one DAD-N-EYE, thats an interesting question. I've noticed that to be true with river fishing more than in lakes, tossing your presentation up current or at an angle up current seems to work the best, a more natural approach. But as far as a lake is concerned, I've had better luck throwing either at shore or parallel to the weedline. Throwing out into the deeper parts and working back in towards the shallows hasn't been as productive for me. I think your best bet would be to throw the bait towards shore slightly at an angle, that way I like you can cover a little more water, making the bait more noticable (visually, as well as other senses) to the fish. If you are 15 yards off the shoreline than you can somewhat cover a 15 by ~15 yard area by tossing your bait at a diagonal area, especailly if you are slow moving with the trolling motor as you cast the shoreline, but if your throw straight than you only cover the 15 yard area between you and the shoreline plus a few yards on either side.

I think the bass were relating to the shade due to the high sun and hot temps, but they were willing to dart out and grab an easy meal. You can fund bass generally in the shallows this time of year, meaning 6-7 feet or less, and often times it 1-3 feet. Top-water baits are working pretty good right now and the bass a lot of these areas that have been pinpointed with top-water baits are areas with less than 3 feet of water lately. Just my observation, might be different for others...

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

------------------
Matt Johnson Outdoors
Metro Area Ice Fishing, Team Catch-N, and more...

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy
JR's Tackle

[DAD-N-EYE]

I have a question. Does direction you throw the bait have a lot to do with the biting? And are the bass in the shallow on just the hot days or are they all the time?
Thanks

Tracey

[This message has been edited by DAD-N-EYE (edited 06-16-2004).]