For the past couple of weeks since my latest Report (see here: Lake Winona report ) I have switched gears. Between a few other local lakes and the River, I have put in some real quality days on the water. Two weeks ago I found a gem of a lake that is loaded with big bass. The first time out produced a bunch of 2 lbers on suspending jerkbaits, but the second time out I figured things out and smashed over 18 lbs including a 5 lber that absolutely CHOMPED a strike king sexy spoon. That day, all of my big fish came on the spoon. After that outing, I haven’t been able to get bit on the spoon since. With the warmer weather and sunny days, the fish seemed to move down in the water column and took a breather on the feedbag. I located an underwater hump that is 25 feet on the sides and 12 feet on top. On either side my graph was absolutely loaded with fish ranging from 10 feet down to 18 feet down. This time I employed a Norman DD22 crankbait to call the fish out of the deep. The bite wasn’t fast and furious and required a very patient, slow approach to reeling the bait, but the quality was what I was looking for. One of my goals this fall was to catch a legitimate 6 lb largemouth in open water. I did it last year through the ice, but it simply was not as gratifying. After catching a couple of 4 lb fish off this spot and bagging 16-11 for the day, I knew that this lake had the potential to produce the 6 lb fish I was looking for. Afterall, I was catching 16-17″ fish that were weighing over 3 lbs. The fish were all thick, and had been gorging on bluegills, which are perfect ingredients for farming huge bass. I decided I’d visit the lake one more time- the next day. This day proved to be tougher, and once again the spoon and jerkbait bite was dead for those deep suspending fish. I checked my hump again and caught a few 3 lbers on the crank. I changed sides and after 10 minutes, hooked an absolute giant. The fish fought hard and when she came up I knew for sure it was a 5. I tried to swing the fish in but realized that was not a good plan, so I got down and lipped it in. The fish was one of the fattest big fish I have ever caught, and weighed 6 lbs even on my $60 rapala scale. That fish, combined with the 3 lbers i caught earlier gave me 18 lbs for the day. Overall, the fishing is on fire right now. A trip to the river last week (pool 8) produced probably 30-40 keepers for my boat between 3 guys and 6 hours out. The fish there are hitting jerkbaits, crankbaits, and jigs fished in the wintering holes. We didn’t catch many over 3 lbs, but my buddy did get one that was just over 4. Also got a few smallies throwing jerkbaits on the wingdams. The biggest one there was only 2 lbs 6 oz, but also only 15″. They too have the feed bag on. Get out there and enjoy the remaining bite! The water temps are in the low 40’s and the fish are chewin!
November 18, 2011 at 7:33 pm
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