Who's Out There???

I have a renovation going on and a baby due in 8 weeks and I haven’t been out in a week and probably won’t be out until maybe this weekend. I have so many things I want to try but not enough time to try them. How has everyone been doing out there lately? Been a quiet week in the bass section. Here’s what I want to try out lately:

-Megabass Dark Sleeper Swimbait (the more I hear about it the more I like it)
-White Jigs (structure or swim jig), I typically only throw black/blue and green pumpkin but recently heard white has been doing really well.
-More topwater, spooks mostly, out over mid depth weed beds. It’s about that time where this bite starts getting hotter and hotter.

I was out Saturday and Sunday last week.
Saturday was good, I ended up on a pretty good pattern. The lake I was fishing has a lot of bullrushes. I found that everywhere the rushes came to a point had a school of fish on it. On most points there was heavy submerged weeds, (mostly coontail) but there was a small 1-2ft gap in between the rushes and the coontail. That gap was the place to be. An 1/8 oz Texas rigged 4″ power worm or strike king super fry got the most bites. I also caught a few on a drop shot with a Yum warning shot plastic. Depths were 4-6ft of water. The fish using these areas were mostly 1.5-3lbs. No real big fish but the action was good.
Sunday I fished a different lake and it was really tough. The weather was a big factor I think as storms were popping up all around me and the wind switched 3 times while I was on the water. I ended up catching a couple small fish for my efforts in 4 hours on a usually really good body of water.
I just watched Tactical Bassin do an episode catching smallies on the Dark Sleeper swimbait, neat looking bait for sure.
I’ve tried a white swim jig a few times this summer, all I can say is that the pike love them. Im sticking with green pumpkin for now.
I got on a great topwater bite for smallmouth a few weeks ago in VNP, other than that the topwater bite has been lousy for me this summer. I can consistently get bit once or twice early in the morning but that’s about it for me on the lakes I fish.

I was out this morning… Topwater was off I think due in part to a hangover from the thunder and electric show the other night. Plastics were hit/miss, Flippin jigs in deep pads put a few 18 inchers in the boat, but not many. Chatterbait was a zero, but my buddy put on a spinnerbait (remember those?) and crushed it. I think bright skies and a light breeze made the difference there. Flash was the deal today…

FryDog62 wrote:

I was out this morning… Topwater was off I think due in part to a hangover from the thunder and electric show the other night. Plastics were hit/miss, Flippin jigs in deep pads put a few 18 inchers in the boat, but not many. Chatterbait was a zero, but my buddy put on a spinnerbait (remember those?) and crushed it. I think bright skies and a light breeze made the difference there. Flash was the deal today…

I don’t think I’ve caught a bass on a spinnerbait in 5 years…..Pike on the other hand…..

I was out yesterday morning and this morning, from shore, about 2 hours each morning. At my favorite spot. Best days of the season. Eight bass Monday and six bass this morning, most being 12-16 inches. Mostly used Texas Rigged Green Pumpkin Purple Flake Yum Dinger with a tiny split shot just above the hook. Without the split shot, nada. Unweighted Senko would also have worked but I reserve those for tougher days. Tried shim-e-stick with same sized split-shot. Was able to coax one but it was much slower going with it than with the Yum Dinger.

mahtofire14 wrote:

I don’t think I’ve caught a bass on a spinnerbait in 5 years…..Pike on the other hand…..

What about chatterbaits? We both know they love those things!

I went last Thursday and it was still quite good skipping docks. Caught 15 bass including an 18 and 19.5 incher. I intend to go later this week again.

Went to Thunder today by Remer. Smallies were small on drop shot. LMB were decent on Tx rigged craw. Boat in 20 fow casting toward weeds on sharp breaks. Not a great day, but ok. Avg size was good tho. Good months ahead.

Building a deck and have a 9 month old. Haven’t been on the water in over a month. 10 more days and I’ll have 2100 acres (mostly) to myself chasing smallies.

mahtofire wrote:
“I don’t think I’ve caught a bass on a spinnerbait in 5 years…..Pike on the other hand…..“

gimruis wrote:
“What about chatterbaits? We both know they love those things!”

I’m in the front of the boat this morning and throwing a Chatterbait… Partner in back is throwing a spinnerbait and telling me bladed jigs are over-rated. After about 2 hours I’m down 0-8. Hard to swallow the crow and switch but did. Oddly, we didn’t catch any pike on a lake known for them. All LMB.

Yep, Spinnerbaits still work!

Grub, what is VNP?-dumb question? Have not had my coffee yet.

tim hurley wrote:

Grub, what is VNP?-dumb question? Have not had my coffee yet.

Voyager’s National Park
Rainy, Kabetogama, Namakan, Sand Point, and Crane Lake are all at least partially in the park.

FryDog62 wrote:

Yep, Spinnerbaits still work!

They sure do. Chatters can be fished slower and deeper in my opinion. When the water is warmer a faster moving spinner bait is a better choice.

I love spinnerbaits best lure for me for bass. It’s been a little slower for me with all the goofy weather patterns. I have been doing ok on crankbaits have not found them tight to the weed edge but rather on the top edges.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>FryDog62 wrote:</div>
Yep, Spinnerbaits still work!

They sure do. Chatters can be fished slower and deeper in my opinion. When the water is warmer a faster moving spinner bait is a better choice.

Spinnerbaits are half the price of Chatterbaits… no way they can work!

Haha. Guess it depends on which ones you’re talking about. The northland reef runners are about 2 bucks on sale at fleet farm but they last for 2 vicious attacks from pike.

Why I love my titanium Terminators.

tim hurley wrote:

Why I love my titanium Terminators.

I’ve got about 6 of them left. Rapala bought them and stopped making them for some reason.

My wife likes War Eagles, the solid gold ones. You can’t argue with success, she catches the heck out of the Largemouth with them. She watches the retrieve like a hawk and when she sees a Pike zeroing in she yanks it right out of the water.

SR

Steve Root wrote:

She watches the retrieve like a hawk and when she sees a Pike zeroing in she yanks it right out of the water.

I do this too. But most of the time they don’t hit it nearly close enough to the boat to yank it. Its way out there.

To quote the Mrs. “Pike are worse than weeds because they’re harder to get off the hook”

gim wrote:

Haha. Guess it depends on which ones you’re talking about. The northland reef runners are about 2 bucks on sale at fleet farm but they last for 2 vicious attacks from pike.

It’s been a few years and probably more expensive now – but I bought a bunch of those “3 Spinnerbaits for $10” at Wayzata Bait. You can customize colors, blade types – and best of all a CLOSED LOOP! With that loop and the money I saved I bought those mini 2.5 inch leaders Bob makes. I think I bought 9 spinnerbaits and still have 7 of them 4-5 years later..

I agree the Reed runners do not last long. I did not know that they no longer make the Terminator spinnerbaits I did not have as much luck with them the main blade always seemed to fly off. I have been using Strike King from walmart seem to hold up good Zman makes some as well that I really like but 8 bucks a pop ouch bye bye mr pike says. I have not caught one fish on a chatterbait this year go figure

Mr Pike, if you have any Terminators left, guard them. Or sell them to me.

The titanium Terminators flex when you speed up, I like that they don’t spin out also that flex seems to bring them threw the weeds a bit better, I could use a couple more if anyone has a source.

Steve Root wrote:

To quote the Mrs. “Pike are worse than weeds because they’re harder to get off the hook”

Haha. When you hook into one of those slimy monkeybutts using a lure that has treble hooks, its a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off. There’s almost nothing to grab and its a slippery snake with all kinds of hooks just waiting to embed your hand. You don’t want to net it and then spend the next 10 minutes untangling and you don’t want to grab it either!

I always use my Berkley grabber thingy (can’t remember what it’s called) someone makes a big plastic one that works well a must have. If you firmly grab a pike where the head meets the body, at the top, it freezes the pike so you can do your dentistry. That trick does not work if the pike is too big, for me about 5lbs.

I bonk them on the head. Makes it real easy to get the hook out……..Usually can find a chatterbait in their mouths also…..get some $$ back from those little devils. And I’m making friends with the bald eagles after they grab the floaters……

Prefished for our multi species league this evening. White Booyah spinner bait, and I mean all white, even the willow blades, worked as well as the DT-6’s we were throwing. This beauty even wanted a taste of it! Should’ve left the bait in it’s mouth for effect.

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Nice one Joe

Stuck a 20.5 incher on an Airtale Rattler. Good day despite fishing morning after a storm…

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