I got up early for some bassin' and the weather looked perfect! I started at auburn lake where I did well last year at this time. I started working the shore cover with a fluke, there was lots of wood cover and the water was high, usually a good combo, but nothing was going at all in the shallows. I ties out on the outside weedline, nothing, over the tops of the grass on the flats, nothing. Hmmm. Time to switch lakes, I decided Steiger is usually reliable for bass. I started hitting my usual spots with no bites. As the water warmed up a bit, I started getting a few bites but no hook ups, a lot of the time they would drop the bait before i could set the hook. I saw some huge carp in the shallows and decided to try to get one. I had corn along and tried to sight fish for them. I had a few look, but they were really spooky and would disappear at the slightest movement. I tried dragging the corn along the bottom, hoping to luck into one but the bluegills kept stealing my corn. Finally my line moved sideways and I set into a good fish! I was expecting a drag singing hard run by a big ol carp, instead I was greeted to a rather lethargic fight of a about 2 pound largemouth bass. I used him to get some underwater photos, then I fished a bit more, saw a few nice carp and got another bass, and that was it. I guess the bass were on a corny pattern today!
Perfect calm morning
bassy looking cover there, but no payoff
Kids were having fun, only one small fish, one more than I got!
Launching on a new lake
This guy had this bass buried in the grass, I was able to scoop it up for him
With the weather looking pretty good, 80 degrees and little wind, I thought I would go chase some bass after Church. I went to a small lake in the west metro area that usually puts out tons of bass for me, both size and numbers. I put my tube on a cart and wheeled it down to the lake on a bike path, the only public access. I noticed how clear the water was, usually it is pea green, even in the spring. Got in and started fishing, when I saw a HUGE snapping turtle following me. I took a pic, but you can barely see it near the bottom. Mabye he thought I was the big ugly blue mamma turtle! Was going to try to get more pics but he disappeared. I fished most of my usual spots and had little more than a few half hearted bites from some dinky bass. I have heard rumors there was a pretty bad winterkill this year there, hope that is not the case, but I can't understand why there are no bass in the shallows, hmmm. Put on a power minnow and did good for crappies and small larrys for about a half hour, then decided I needed to try another lake if I wanted big fish. I also noticed the storm clouds building in the northwest. Got the car loaded up and got out of there, the weatherman was on talking hail and possible twisters in the north metro area, so I headed south and decided to try a small lake in the wouthwest metro that has all catch and release regs for bass. I got on the water just as the storms where passing just to the north. The wind had kicked up pretty good, and the temps dropped fast as the front came through. I found some fairly calm water around a point and started flinging a cabelas aquaglow hoochikoochi swimshad on a big hook with no weight. I like this plastic, you can twitch it like a jerkbait, do a swim retrieve with the tail doing the work, let it drop to the bottom, or buzz it on the top. I started getting little bass pretty good casting near shore, then I got a decent one near 16 inches, then more small fish. I worked my way out a bit, the wind was lightening up quite a bit, that is when I nailed the big 20 inch toad. She bit while I was letting it sink a bit in the deeper water. whoo hoo! Jumped 3 times, and of corse they look bigger when they jump too! Soon the wind was gone, the water was like glass and fish were moving all around. I saw some huge carp feeding on the top, but they wouldn't take the shad. Got some more nice bass, including a 18.5 incher, soon after the sun set, the fish quit biting, and the bugs started, but I had caught plenty of fish, my thumb was shot from gripping so many fish lips!
the tube all ready for action
Huge turtle near the end of my rod! Cowabunga dude!
someone out in a toon
Everything fits nicely in my little hatchback, time to hit lake 4!
the storm passes just to the north, little did I know it would spawn a killer twister!
first decent bass of the afternoon, a chunky 2 pounder
I decided to head out to Waconia Saturday afternoon becuase I was almost there anyways and did good Wednseday. I started working the docks at the marinas for some crappies with a two inch power minnow. they were biting well, but were quite small, but I was able to sort out enough to bag a couple of meals. towards evening I started heading out onto the flat area where i got the walleyes Wed. night, it started slow with no bites at first. around sunset ben came out in his tube and tried a fuzzy grub tipped with a leech and soon got a walleye around a foot long. I decided to try my new Gulp! minnows, they come in their own little pail and look pretty real too. I soon was into a good eating sized walter,a chunky 15 incher, but released it because of the minimum 16 inch size limit on the lake. Soon afterwards I hooked into a hard fighting fish that I thought for sure would be a huge wallygator, it turned out to be a big drum. Ben then nailed a big drum too. It was getting dark and we started working our way in when I got a goot bite. I set into a heavy fish that pulled good! During the battle she pulled me around in circles as I did my best to keep it from tangling the line around my feet! I thought mabye it would be a huge drum, but when it finally came up I could see the glowing eyes, it was a monster humongous walleye! it was 26.5 inches long but had to weight between 7 and 8 pounds, it was so big and piggy! What an awsome fish, my biggest yet from a float tube. Ben snapped a few pics for me and we turned her loose to catch again next spring. We started seeing some lightning in the west, so we headed to shore, as we were coming to the landing I stuck another eye on the Gulp minnow, a good 18 incher. I gave it to Ben, since I already had some crappies. Wow, what a day, and I was only half done! Tomorrow night on the Bucket, I will post my reoprts for part 3 and 4, with some bassin' action!
I met Ben Newton at his house early Saturday to try a lake he found near by that has some good pike and bass. it was kind of hard to get into, we had to drop the tubes and park a few blocks away, then had to walk through the woods on a narrow trail with thorn filled trees everywhere, not good for tubes! When we got there there were a couple of guys wading and getting some pike on suckers under a bobber, a good sign! Ben got out first and it was pretty windy, he started drifting down the shore, I finally get out and he is pretty far down when he gets the first fish, a chunky 2 pound bass. I started looking for pike, but nothing was doing, tried plastics and spinnerbaits, no takers. We got tired of the wind and decided to kick over to the calm shores, I trolled and cast my way over but still no pike. When we got into calmer waters it was looking like good largemouth waters, so I gave up on the northerns and put a bass magic swimshad on a weighted keeper hook and started pitching it up in the shallow cover and promptly hooked into a pike around 2 pounds. it shook itself off before I could get my hand on it. Soon I got another eating sized pike and gave it to Ben to put on his rope. We came up to a channel without much action, I missed a hard strike, but didnt see it, then I cut acroose the channel to fish a point with cattails the wind was blowing onto and hooked into a huge bass on the shad, I fought it for about 15 seconds befor it jumped and shook off the hook. I caught one dinky bass as well, Ben wasn't having to much action, and we were getting hungry, so we went to his house, and filleted the bones out of the pike, then he showed me how to cook it on the grill on tinfoil with butter, Mmmmmmm. I soon hit the road for round 2 while he had to get some things done first. part 2 next!
I was a late starter this year, like two months late! It was worth the wait though as I caught lots of fish. Started out fishing around the docks for some crappie, they bit pretty good, though they were runing kind of small. I went out deeper to see if they would be bigger, they were smaller. I decided to kick my way to the second set of docks and on the way out I dragged a small jig with a power minnow. Wasn't to long when i hooked into a heavey fish, it pulled hard on my mico rod and 4 # line, I thought it was a carp, turned out to be a huge walleye, over 4 pounds! Got some pics and turned it loose. Threw the plastic minnow out again and started looking at my new pics, when the rod tip started going down, set into another huge walter, mabye 4 pounds too! Snapped some photos and release, soon I was into another one, this one really pulled hard and had me going in circles, but it turned out to be a smaller eye, around 2 pounds, had to take him for dinner.
some crappie action
baby bucketmouth
Nice surprise almost 25 inches? my what big teeth you have walter dear!
