JULY bass fishing report (whats working now)

[RK]

Hiya -

Was up in Walker this past weekend and bass fished on Leech Sunday morning. Was pretty slow. Managed a handful of fish, but nothing like it's capable of up there. Fish came out of VERY thick rushes and cane on Northland Jungle Jigs with Power Chunk trailers and Power Craws rigged on Northand Jungle Lock jigs flipped into stands of cane in behind the rushes. Most of the fish we did catch were between 3 and 5 lbs. Caught some smaller fish on the outside edges on texas rigged worms, but bigger fish were backed way into the cane. The stuff's above eye level when you're standing in the boat, so to get into the pockets you sort of have to bomb the baits up high over the tops and hope it finds the water on the way down. Flipping sticks and 50# braid - it's total combat fishing. Pretty fun actually. Straightened out a few jig hooks trying to get fish out of there.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[EBass]

It's amazing they can be back there. Is the lake level down up there to? I would assume so.

[OLY]

Made it out to a east metro lake today from 10-2 caught six bass and a small musky. Started deep and couldnt buy a bite on a jig or cranks moved up shallow and threw a wacky rigged senko around some docks and coon tail clumps and ended up with six fish. The biggest was 20.5 inches and weighed 5lbs 5oz. I will post the pics later.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

OLY, red lund? You didnt happen to catch a tiger? heh, Im not stalking you or anything but I may have been on the same lake as you today. If so it would be interesting because all the fish that came into my boat were from 10'+.

I hit the water today and decided to skip the shallows and go deep from the get go. I fished points, weedlines and sharp breaks with cranks, T-rigs, and drop shots. Cranks and T-rigs worked well in the AM and dropshots worked better later in the day. Lots of fish were hanging around deep rock areas. Ended with 15 bass landed, too many thrown hooks/bite offs and several bonus 'skies.

[OLY]

Yep, that was me. I have only fished that lake a couple of times but every time I do I get some real nice bass there. I am more of a deep water fisherman but I couldnt find any today, I guess I just need to spend some more time out there. Here is the pic I took of the big one. I used the timer on my camera so its not the best.

[RK]

EBass -

You know, it's down a little, but not as much as I expected. They've had a lot more rain up there than we have down in the Metro. From there west it's not nearly as dry. My cabin's near Pelican Rapids, and we have more water there than we know what to do with...

Yeah, is amazing how shallow they can get on that lake. I've caught 5 pounders out of 8-9 inches of water up there...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[TurnUpTheFishing]

OLY, definatley a nice thick fish. Did you get your fish off shallow docks or docks with access to deep water, if you dont mind me asking? I didnt fish many docks only the deep water ones. Most the fish I caught deep were 14-16" biggest landed was probably 17-18" and lost one a little bigger. You can shoot me an E-mail if you want or you dont have to say if you dont want.

[OLY]

That fish was real shallow, 2ft max. The docks I caught them around are real shallow and I wasnt even gonna bother fishing them, but my first cast it was up under a pontoon so I fished back and forth from the weed edge in 4-5ft to the docks wich only had about 2.5ft at the ends of them.

[EBass]

Cool RK - I love those pencil reeds, but up there it's rice I think. I've never been to leech except at a dock in Walker when I was a kid.

[RK]

Hey EBass -

Get up around Federal Dam/Waboose, or in Boy Bay, and you pretty much have it all. Rushes, cane, pads, rice... If you like fishing in the slop, it's a hoot, but man do you have to really go in after them sometimes. When they're back in the cane, you can't even see the water you're fishing because the cane's 3 feet over your head.... It's wild.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[st.crioxfishin]

I was out this afternoon with a buddy on a south metro lake. We caught around 15-20 fish between the two of us. We caught a majority of our fish in 8-12 FOW on a drop shot and jig worm. No real big size to speak of, but still a fun afternoon. Hard bottom/rocks next to the weedline or just plain rocks produced the most.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Dropshot?... Bob doesnt dropshot~

[st.crioxfishin]

Haha @ Deitz, you can bet I'll be drop shotting tomorrow also. I'm liking the weather conditions coming. We've had really stable weather this whole week and it looks like some storms tomorrow, hopefully that helps the bite. Got a new lowrance the other day too, so those deep fish better watch out

[Maximum12]

Out on a small north metro lake yesterday during the day (12-5PM). Caught about 20 bass, nothing monstrous, but several 15" plus fish. They were a little more willing to chase today, caught a few on chatterbaits, most of them came on plastics in 6-12' of water, especially around one particular type of weed growth (no idea what it's called!). Fish were concentrated - we pulled almost all the fish off of two spots on the lake with little luck anyplace else.

[BassAkwards]

nice fish deitz. when dropshotting, do you normally anchor up or keep moving with the trolling motor?

[Deitz Dittrich]

BA- I seldome anchor...but more try to hold my position with the t-motor. Its also going to depend a bit of the structure I am fishing. If the area is ultra small, then at times its alright to throw an anchor.. However, with a dropshot, you fish quite near the boat. I dont think the anchor is doing you an favors down there(IE spook the fish) so, I would rather just try and hold with the t-mot.

[EBass]

One day I'll make it to Leech, but not in the lil boat I have.

So on a S metro lake on Tuesday I got my arse handed to me. I caught one 8" bass and my buddy was skunked.

Then last night started around 5 same lake and nothing until 8ish then wham bam thank you bass. I caught 7 and biggest going around 17" or so. Didn't measure it as it wasn't huge but that was my first and biggest. From there smaller and smaller they went. All shallow under 4 feet in the pads or just outside them on a baby 1 minus. My buddy was catching some on a creature bait to in the pads or edge of pads. It was a nice way to end the night - I was starting to get scared of a repeat though. No bites for 3 hours is frusterating. And I tried fishing DEEP TOO - just draggin a heavy T-rigged worm. Sunnies liked it

[Mr. Pike1]

Will there be an August forum?

In any event I got out to a small East metro body of water on Thursday night. A bit more windy then I like but still very fishable.

I had my usual assortment of my top 10 go to rigs.

I started deep as I have been reading alot of post on the deep water bite. Tossed some jig and pig, cranks, and jigs with plastics. No real action to speak of. The cry of the docks and the shade quickly called to me. I had success on top waters for smallies and decided to pound the shade and pockets over shallow weeds with prop type top waters. Started with a few agressive 15 inchers, This was followed by twin 18" ers. Moved to the docks for some senko and tube action. Got a few 16 ers on senkos by docks and boats. I then got two pigs to close out the night. The first one on a tube and one on a senko. In the water I thought for sure the first one was a 22" fish. It turned out to be a hair over 19 but my gosh was that fish fat and thick and when I lipped it, it bite down so hard my thumb it actually drew blood. The other was 19 as well but it pailed in comparsion in size to the other 19.

In any event the total for the evening was 12 fish in just under 3 hours and some quality size as well so it was a blast.

Quick non fish related story. I always respect docks and boats if I fish the area and if I see people out never intrude. So I am tossing at this dock and I see a guy making a sprint out of no where to the dock. I real in and begin to slowy move on. He cry's out hey buddy. I respond by yes. He gives me a quick history on working on his boat for 15 years and would appreciate me fishing other structure. I was enjoying the evening and not in the mood for a verbal disertation on public water. However, if I were in a discussion state of mind I would have advised him that he might want to remove his boat and dock from said public water way and move it on to the land he actually pays taxes on and respectfully ask that he shut his piehole. I simply responded nicely, thanked him for his feedback, and moved on. He thanked me in turn and waved so all was well.

I plan on a few hours in the morning at the same lake.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Yikes.. I got back seated today... My wife went out with me this morning.. we landed 20 bass, all on the drop shot. 8 over 4 lbs... with the biggest being caught by her... 4lbs 10oz, her largest of her life. Was a fat piggie! She also outdid me in numbers caught.. I was using my typical secret tube, she was using a craw colored sweet bever imitation... Might have to pick up a few more bags of them.

[SledNeck]

Quote:

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Quick non fish related story. I always respect docks and boats if I fish the area and if I see people out never intrude. So I am tossing at this dock and I see a guy making a sprint out of no where to the dock. I real in and begin to slowy move on. He cry's out hey buddy. I respond by yes. He gives me a quick history on working on his boat for 15 years and would appreciate me fishing other structure. I was enjoying the evening and not in the mood for a verbal disertation on public water. However, if I were in a discussion state of mind I would have advised him that he might want to remove his boat and dock from said public water way and move it on to the land he actually pays taxes on and respectfully ask that he shut his piehole. I simply responded nicely, thanked him for his feedback, and moved on. He thanked me in turn and waved so all was well.

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Do you ever have any problems on Vermilion?

I have had only one problem. I was fishing a dock and some guy is screaming at us from his deck. I kept hearing the word a-holes. Then he starts lighting off m-80s and stuff...Whats up with that? He looked like a crazy redneck too.

[Mr. Pike1]

Sled, the only issue I ran into in my years on Vermillion was there was one guy up on the hill and I heard him say sick em to his dogs so they of course ran out to the dock barking like crazy. It was like 6:30 in the morning so it really did nothing other then to give an early morning wake up call to all the other cabins on that shore. Other then that no issue. Again I am usually out early or at dusk and never approach a dock if people are at there property.

[SledNeck]

I was out infront of this dock, but a bit out of casting range and the house was set back about 30 yards from the water.