Quick Report

[Mr. Pike1]

Well, I decided to take the day off and hit the little lake just down the road for some Largemouth action. The action was steady and as usual I tried a few new things and learned a few things.

Overall I would guess I caught 20-25 largemouth bass. The largest went 19.5" followed by an 18.5" in the same area. I got 5-6 more in in the 14-17" inch class and the remaining were under 14" but a blast to catch.

Some observations on the water. The carp were going crazy in a few area were 5-10 at a time would come to the surface and splash like crazy. They were big fish and if I had corn or something I would have tried to hook into one of these pigs.

Anyway the water was somewhat clear and with the polorized glasses I could see a few of the bigger bass swimming aroudn by the shoreline. I was tossing plastics and watched them inhale the bait. I missed of couple of these pigs as the spit the hook back at me but great fight.

As usual Mr. Senko lead the charge and produced the bigger fish. I did try some new baits the Mr. Twister weedless tiber doodle being one. It produced a 15" bass and had a few follows. I was using gold with a green/gold speckle body. You can toss these into any structure area and are snag free. The negative is the hook is barried in the plastic and can lead to misses. I rate it C- but it has its place. I also again tossed the x-rap in perch color. I had great success with this on the smallies and rate it an A for small mouth and a B for the Largemouth (today anyway)

Then I decided I have got to mix it up and decided to go small for panfish or bass and tied on a Mepps aguila size 0 with the silver blade. This was the best choice of the day. The sunfish would come up out of the weeds and spank the bait like a bass on a topwater. I easily caught 50 sunfish and missed many more, it was a blast. I also caught many bass but they were for the most part 15" or smaller on this presentation. All except for one that was a pig I never saw. I tossed to the shady side of a big boat that was docked and got smashed but lost it. I was using 3lb test line and a ultralight St. criox pole so the 14-15ers rivaled the 18-19ers on the bigger rigs.

I have never had a lot of success on crank baits for large mouth but always toss a few just in case. Today no hits on the cranks. I also again did not have much success on the spinner bait. Granted I only tossed the crank and spinner bait for 15-20 minutes.

I do recommend if you have not ever tried them to add some of the small number 0 or number 1 mepps to the box for some fun. You can keep them easily above the tops of the weeds and let them fall in the pockets. When on the tops of the weeds you will see the sunfish or bass hit it. I found many struck on the fall as well. One other thing I did off and on with this [presentation is add either a 1" white or yellow exude twister tail for effect and add a little scent trail or one I put a little piece of plastic I used from ice fishing.

Anyway that is the report if anyone has any different presentations or baits they are having great success with please post as I always like to try something new each trip out.

[Matt Johnson]

I thought you said it was a "quick report?" Just kidding... I had to, because usually it's me on the other end ...

Sounds like a day of options. Good report!

[sicheneder]

where you fishing shallow?

[sicheneder]

i have had problems lately because i want them to be out deeper. sunday i had a blast right before i got a lake in st.cloud. i caught about 12 little ones on horny toads in 30 minutes in the pads, but spent most of the day looking on the flats and deeper. saw one male still guarding a bed.

[Mr. Pike1]

Yes, I was fishing shallow weed edges and docks.