With a wicked cold front looming, and 20 mph winds forcasted for the entire weekend, I knew the bass bite was going to be tough. But, with a little bit of persistence and some fine tuning of our presentation, we turned a slow weekend into a great one. Here’s my Dad Ardie with a 20.5" that sucked up a Salt & Pepper 4" Chomper.
My dad and I had intended on coming back down to Fisherman’s Wharf on Saturday to chase the Smallies with the rest of the IDA crew. But, with the fierce wind, the decision came early that any effort to fish on the east side of Millie would be a loss. So instead, we opted to fish our 150 acre private lake just east of Aitkin, focusing on the deep weed edges with a super slow prestentation. We fished with Chompers 4" tubes and Chompers 5" Salty Sinkers. The water is unusually clear this year, so we went with mainly natural colors. Our best producers were Watermelon Red, Pumpkinseed, and Salt & Pepper. The fish were scattered along the deep weed edge in 12′-14′ of water, and wind played a major factor in finding numbers. The key to getting picked up was to move the bait super slow along the bottom, and ripping it out of the weeds ever so gently every time the bait hung up.
The Pike were on an absolute tear. We got bit off over 40 times this weekend, and the few Pike we managed to bring in had taken the plastic throat deep instantly. They were mixed in with the bass on most of the wind blown weed lines, and didn’t seem to show any preference as to what they wanted, they wanted it all!! Including 4 packs of 4/0 Grigsby tube holder hooks, 2 packs of Owner 3/0 wide gap worm hooks, about a half dozen sled heads, and 5 black Jungle Jigs. Not to metion all the plastic that was attatched to them, Arghhhhh! time to go shopping again.
We ended up with 43 bass for the weekend, 20.5" was the biggest with most between 16" and 18". I am expecting the bite to continue to improve from here on out, and ice fishing to start sometime around the 1st of October….
Brrrrr its cold.
Thanks for the fun weekend Dad.
Dan Larson
Hawg Hunters Guide Service
In-Depth Angling Field Staff
612-247-9398
NICE JOB DAN, GOOD TO SEE THE OLD MAN OUT THERE IN THE BOAT WITH YOU. I WILL HAVE TO GET BACK UP THERE WITH YOU AND SEE IF I CAN PUT A FEW OF THOSE BUCKETS IN THE BOAT. I AM DO FOR A TRIP WHERE I OUT FISH YOU FOR A CHANGE. NICE PICS MAN…
Wow, that is a great job after a cold front or heck anytime. Your dad has a hog in his hand!!
I DIDN’T SEE THAT PHOTO WITH YOUR DAD HOLDING HIS HOG…….
… OK THATS ENOUGH