Last week, friend Randy and I, ventured to Green Lake (Spicer) for our Club’s monthly Outing. Our club was there for the first time last year, and from what I saw then, I was very eager to return. Randy and I also won a day trip with Jason (FishingVets), at this years St Jude’s Benefit dinner that was very fun and helpful. The weather was very decent with afternoon thunderstorms, that mostly went around us. We lucked out with the storms, and really enjoyed two days of trophy Smallmouth fishing.
The water temps for the two days, ranged from 59 to 62 degrees, there were some prespawn bed activity, and the few that we saw were not biting. Most of time we were casting Jerkbaits over three to five foot depths of sand bottom, with scattered rock and boulders.
My fishing club has a point scoring system for our multi-species Outings. Fish are caught and measured, and if you want, pictured; then quickly returned to the water. Fish are NOT dragged around all day in the livewell and weighed later. I really feel this is much more beneficial for the fish, especially when summer brings warmer surface temps. I wish more weekend Clubs would adopt a similiar system. It’s not about the weight, It’s about having fun with friends and our great Resources.
Most of the spots we’d fish, we could catch two or three fish, and that was it, so we’d just keep moving, and come back to productive spots a couple of hours later. Later in the day, we had mainly four producing spots, that we just kept rotating through. I did try slip-bobbers with leeches, to no avail over slightly deeper water, but kept going back to the Jerkbaits.
Quite a few Smallmouth would spook away from the bait when they would see the boat. But I was also very surprized that a few more active fish followed baits right to under the boat and hit the Jerkbait. It sure was fun to watch that all happen six feet from the end of your rod, then HAVE to hold on with a fighting and slashing fish at boatside.
Am already looking forward to returning next year and doing it all over again.
With the big Smallmouth I’ve been able to catch the last couple of years has really gotten me turned around to thinking BASS FISHING is NOT just about Largemouth.
Hope everyone has a Safe and Great 2008 on the water…
Click on pics to enlarge.
Jack
Look at the Girth and Belly of this fish.
All of our fish were very healthy looking.
Jack..
Great report Jack. Those fisha re there are sure piggies and the best part is that there a lots of them.
I got to get out there again….
Thanks for the report, Jack. That’s a lake I have been thinking about trying the past couple of years but haven’t gotten around to it. I pass through there are my way to Mille Lacs a few times a year. From the looks of your report, I need to stop for a spell!
Thanks for a great weekend of fishing Jack. This was a top 3 smallmouth bass trips for me!! The company was good and the fishing fantastic!! Thanks again.
Those are some dandy smallies guys. Congrats!
Nice report Jack.
Boog
That looks like way too much fun!
Nice report Jack and congrats on some great looking smallmouths!
Great fish guys!!!!
Nice pics!!!
nice job Jack, glad to see that your donation paid off well for you and your tourney. looking forward for our little outing later this summer.
shane
Nice report Jack. I tend to take these fish for granted because I catch so many when I’m chasing walleyes, but they really are a blast to catch.
Did you catch any walleyes by accident? Probably headed that way this weekend.
Jack and Randy were top knotch fisherman to take in the boat that weekend. when I suggested for them to try something, they did it. There was nothing about doing it your own way, it was about catching fish.
I was slightly disappionted with the number of fish thatwe caught but we still managed to boat around 60 and most of them were 16-18″ with around 8 at 19″+. It is hard to complain about that.
I would have taken that in the Silverado any day.
I really like the way that their club rules are. By the way did Jack mention that he fook 1st place and Randy took 3rd place.
These were great guys to have in the boat, I really enjoyed meeting and fishing with these guys. Hope to do it again some day.
Thank You Jack & Randy
Dan,
During our Outing day, I occasionally tried a slip-bobber and leech over underwater humps, but that didn’t work, so we went back to the Jerkbaits.
We did NOT catch any Walleyes, nor did we try for them, we probably should have; and we did not fish any deep water at all.
I did hear of a couple other boats who did fish 25-28 feet, and did catch a few 20 to 21 inch Walleyes. think they had leeches or redtails.
thanks again Jason for the Friday trip it was a lot of fun.
good luck.
Jack.
Great Report Jack