It's Bass Time! (photos included)

[hanson]

WHITE BASS that is!

Not wanting to let an absolutely gorgeous weekend slip through our fingers, Darren (Dtro) and myself snuck up the Minnesota River this weekend with hopes of finding some fish, specifically white bass or channel cats. We were armed with spinning rods, catfish rods, jigs, plastics, and cutbait. You name it, we were prepared to fish for it. Ummm... almost prepared, we forgot to bring nightcrawlers with. Doh! To be honest, we were not sure what to expect and were willing to adjust to conditions and adjust to fishing for fish that would bite.

We hit a couple spots that looked like they'd hold fish and marked a lot of fish on the depthfinder. Those marks could be bait schools, they could be fish, but we couldn't confirm one way or the other on our first few spots.

We continued on narrowing our search to areas of slack water immediately adjacent to current. We slowed down our technique a little vertical jigging plastics right on these current breaks when bam! Fish on! She was not a big one but our confidence level clicked up a notch with one fish in the boat.

Here's the man Dtro with White Bass #1 for the day!

Shortly after Darren's fish, I connected as well on a small White Bass on a very large ringworm.

We pulled 5 or 6 small White Bass out of this spot and decided to move on. We kept looking for tight current seams with slack, slack water near the shore. You really can't fish the main channel right now with the current so its imperative to find calm water.

Our next spot produced a vicious strike and hookup for myself that bulldogged under the boat when the hook popped out. We'll have no idea what that fish was but it felt good and pulled hard. If I was to guess, I'm going to say it was a big cat (10+ pounds) by the way it pulled. Oh man... the heart was pumping hard after that.

I kept casting back to the same area when I got hit again after a few minutes. This time, it was a White Bass though, one VERY LARGE White Bass! Its been awhile since I've been excited like this but this whitey was huge, and what a fun fight!

Here she is... 3 Pound White Bass! My personal best.

The tape doesn't lie either, that fish is darn near 18" long.

Shortly after getting photos of that piggie bass, Dtro went and put on a plastics for roughfish clinic as he caught these 2 Buffalo back to back on paddletails.

But the White Bass marathon was just warming up. We made a short move and was it a good decision. Our next spot was full of whites that were more than willing to bite. Over the next few hours, we C&R'd another 20 or so White Bass in all sizes. We did pull another 3-4 fish in that 17", 2 1/2lb range.

Here's me with another brute!

And here's Dtro with a beauty as well!

Once we started to put the pattern together, it was almost too easy. Current seams, slack water adjacent to main river current, and eddies all produced a few fish. We pitched jigs and plastics and hopped them back to the boat and caught fish. Vertical jigging under the boat produced fish.

My favorite technique was vertical jigging the "flathead lair". The flathead lair was a pile of wood floating on the water that I dropped my plastic next to and got smacked right away by a whitey. I told Darren I would keep pulling fish out of that spot and I got 2 more back to back after that one.

Wow! What a day on the water! I had to remind myself that we had 2-3 inches of snow on the ground 5 days ago and now I've got a sunburn to prove that summer is here.

If you're going to go... bring your mud tires. Yikes!

[Mike Steckelberg]

nice looking fish...i didn't make it out this weekend but am going out today since i have the day off

[Shack]

Boy, I almost pasted this thread up. I have been going over it all day. I read "bass" and I fooled me. Just now I see Hanson started it and had to take a look. Nice fish guy's. Makes me pumped for this Saterday's trip down to pool 2. My friends and I discussed heading up the Minnesota a bit. I am sure now we will. We are going for cats, but will bring gear for stripers. Thanks again for the moto!

SHACKBASH

[hanson]

Well... ya gotta realize something is up when there is a bass topic posted in the cat forum.

[Shack]

That was the thing that got me as well. The second was your name.