Anone heading out this weekend?

The subject line says it all.
I will be fishing the southside or Vineland area, depending on the wind on Sat. Hope to see some of you out there.
A

Probably won’t be bass fishing, but will try the eyes on Sunday morning most likely. I’ll be in a black crestliner fishawk, yammie 115 with in-depth stickers.

I second what Waterfowler said. Even the part about being in a Black Crestliner with IDA sticker. Except I have a 125 Merc. I will be on the eastside. Quick change of plans here.
Weather sounds ok, so far.

Let’s hope it stays that way with the weather.
Hopefully I will see you two out there.

Alphid how was the smallie fishing? We played around in Cove a little on Sunday on our way off the lake. We had one Muskie and a couple smallies. The smallies were niot huge by any means but still a lot of fun. Casting cranks worked for us.

I got out for an hour on Sat – just after the big rain came through. I heard a little thunder and got drizzled on but nothing that raingear can’t cure – and some nice fish. I went out of cove and basically worked the same shoreline that I did on Tuesday and the fish where still there. The problem was that they where in more of the spawning mood and not so much in the biting mood. The ones that I did catch need to be finessed a little more with a slow moving worm – black. When they hit, they would kill it, unfortunately this didn’t happen all the time as I ended that day with 2 fish and a couple of short hits. Still fun for an hour.

Sunday – I got out about 10 and launched out by the casino and fished Vineland bay. I have heard about this area being great in the spring but have not actually ever fished it so it was good learning day. We starting working the area between the island and the main shoreline, and instantly have a fish blow and hook up on a white spittin’ image. Needless to say, we are pumped, a top water bite! Well, after a good amount of time with not another hit we threw that out the window. We saw a ton of smallies cruising in the shallow here but most of them wanted nothing to do with our baits. We did catch two fish here, the smallest of the bunch , on a black finesse worm fished ever so slow again. After some more fruitless attempts to catch these fish we headed to the bay that everyone seems to fish this time of year. There must have been 5 boats in there when we pulled in (didn’t see anyone catch anything but I really wasn’t paying too much attention to them). We saw another large community of bass cruising again here in the sand, reeds transition. I’m saying community because it was the largest grouping of fish that I have ever seen together besides yoy. There must have been over 60 smallies together in twenty x twenty foot area. Simple crazy. We ended up getting a couple of these fish on spinnerbaits and cranks but we assumed these fish where reactionary striking as they hit instantly when the bait hit the water. We caught the rest of the fish on that black finesse worm fished every slowly again. The biggest of this area was 20 1/2″. A true pig. The rest of the fish that we caught where in the 15 – 18 range but that one was clearly the brute of our trip. Saw two muskies here also sunning themselves, ~ 40″ and ~45″. (big fish)

I then headed to cove for a bit again to try my luck at the spot that was producing for me this past week and tapped into another 5 fish. Nothing monstrous but the ‘common’ Mille Lacs 16″ smallie. All these fish where caught on there beds with that black finesse worm. I was fishing this bait ever so slowing (have I said that again).

It was a great day on the water, clear skies, minimal wind, caught a ton of fish and saw the most that I ever thought I would. Keys for us was fishing that black worm and moving it slowly. I assume that the smallies think that it is a leech. Other colors, purple, pink, red, etc. didn’t work nearly as well in getting the fishes attention. I saw water temps from 59 (around the Indian point) to close to 70 (Vineland and Cove). In the coming week there should still be some great smallie fishing to be had in the bays and then we’ll hit the rocks!

alphid,

I was thinking about you and the smallies you must of been chasing over the weekend as I was fishing the MTT event both Saturday and Sunday.
The area you were talking about by Indian Point and the mainland is a nice little spot. A few springs ago, we worked a large school of fish in the this area. We got a few to blow on chug baits right off the bat and then nothing. We switched it up quite a bit for the next half hour and finally found something they wanted….a simple 3″ white grub on a 1/8th oz jig. A simple pitch to the area and a very slow steady swim retrieve. We actually bumped the bottom most of the way back and they would snarf it right off the rocks as we crawled it through. Simple but worked really well.

Thanks for the report!