Lake Winona Bass

Well, I finally net my match. I met a young man that is slightly more crazed about fishing than I am. Mike Anderson is Greg Vandemark’s (Reefrunner) nephew and has been the feature of Greg’s pool 4 fishing reports. Mike is the kid with the infectious smile, the smile that you can’t look at and not smile your self. Mike is spending the summer in Wabasha with Greg. Greg, Mike and I have talked on the water and Mike asked about going bass fishing. Seems like Mike and Greg catch there share of bass while walleye fishing and Mike wanted to try fishing for some QUALITY FISH, bass. We agree on the date, the choice of fishing location was mine. So where do you take a lad when you want him to catch his biggest bass ever? Lake Winona. The lake has a decent population of stocky fish and I figured we could put Mike on a 4 pounder.

The photo is the fish that Mike caught on his first cast ever on Lake Winona. A great start to a great day.

Mike is a very experienced angler for his age. Greg has taught Mike all about fishing bucktail jigs so he has a good sense of feel and knows where his lure is in the water column. I set Mike up with a jig worm (a 4” Berkley rib worm and 3/16 oz mushroom jig head) and mike took over from there. I had been on the lake several weeks ago and had a good idea where to look. There are a few clumps of fresh, green coontail in 6 feet of that hold concentrations of fish. Not every spot produced but when you hit the right ones, we loaded the boat. The photo is Mike’s biggest bass ever. It’s a 4-pound class fish and gave Mike the fight of his life. Congratulations Mike!

It was an exceptional day with light winds and thin cloud cover. We caught quality fish all day long. We had to re-visit some of the same spots for a hot bite but we caught fish scattered all over the lake. What was incredible was we had the whole lake to ourselves. There is a no-wake rule on the lake so we had plenty of time to talk as we moved from spot to spot. Mike had a million questions about bass fishing and he gave some pointers on fishing bucktail. It was a super experience for the both of us. Mike had a ball. I suspect that walleyes may have slipped off the top of his ladder. Those “green carp” as Greg call them might be what Mike may want to spend the rest of summer fishing.

So how did the old man do? Well when I wasn’t netting Mikes fish I did squeeze in a cast or two. The fish in Mike’s right hand is my half of a double Mike and I had. I want to remind everyone that part of my retirement subsistence is dependent on guiding (blatant commercial plug). So sign up now and keep me on the water. You don’t want me stuck home cleaning house do you?