Spoon fed bass

[locolocal]

So I had the opportunity on Christmas Eve day, to chase some "reservior" bass in Northern CA. Wow, what a bizarre pattern we were on!!

I met a guy (Mike) through another forum, and he was kind enough to take me out for a few hours. He had told me in an email exchange, that he had found fish in 25'-35' of water and that he was catching them by vertically jigging spoons. I had fished walleys like this before, but never bass.

We got on the water at about 8:00am and were on fish within the first 20 minutes. We were fishing just off an extremely steep bank that dropped to 40+ feet of water, 20 yards off the bank. Water temp was 49 degrees, with a clarity of about 3'.

So why the spoons you ask? Evidently, the spoons mimicked the shad that were present in the reservior. Mike used his electronics to find these baitfish, then we dropped the spoons down amongst them. The bass were absolutely gorging themselves on the shad. They were fat, healthy fish!

The technique we used was to drop the spoon to the bottom, snap it up a couple of feet and drop it back down. The bass would grab the spoon on the fall, but the extreme depth made it difficult to detect the strike. You'd only know a fish was there when you snapped it off the bottom again, and felt the weight of a fish. It was crazy!!

I'd say we caught a total of a dozen fish with the largest being about 4 lbs. The deepest fish came in 51' of water. There are some 15lb hogs in that particular reservior, but we didn't have the opportunity to raise any of those off the bottom.

It was great to be out and set on fish again. Definitely worth the hassle of lugging the gear out.

Tight lines and Happy New Year-

loco

[EBass]

WOW, cool report! Thanks for sharing. 51 feet is pretty deep for a bass, but if the shoe fits eh?

[delmuts]

local. please take note of the rule about posting some one elses web site. del

[Deitz Dittrich]

Loco-Please use the Contact us link at the bottom of the page if you have any questions or would like to post a link to another page... they have to be o.k.ed first, thats all!

[Navigator]

Loco...I've been using 1/4 oz. jigging spoons for the last 10 years on the river for smallies. Usually it's an October through November presentation in water over 15'. I work them two ways, cast them out or drop them over the side of the boat. In either case I pump them about 6" off the bottom. Also, they rocket to the bottom quickly so when I find fish in current areas the spoons come out because you can work them quickly picking off the active fish 1st. Nav

ps...I'm using chubby darters in the same manner and at the same time of the year.

[locolocal]

Nice Nav - glad you've had some success with it. Thought it was kind of a unique approach.

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