No…I’m not on Cheq Bay, Lake Erie, or Lake St Clair…not Canada, Maine or Pickwic Dam… I’m fishing in Da U.P. on a public lake 45 min from home!
My friend Rich “moose” Henrion and I decided to put my strategy of deep water Drop Shotting to the test for late summer Bass…His first attempt (3rd cast) and this tank crushes the 3.5″ Stinger worm and it all began!
I was working the edge of a long rock point that dropped abruptly from 7 to 40 fow… 5 years of Zebra Mussels have this lake as clear as air, but 70% of the weedbeds are gone…I am guessing that the smallies have relocated to crayfish for their staples, and the long rock rubble bar has many. I opt to try an 1/8th oz custom football jig with a 3″ craw trailer…about 4 casts and this baby nearly takes my rod with her!
The color of my jigs has a lot of red…a few weeks ago my friend Richard had a crayfish hang onto his Senko and we were surprised to see the vivid red color it had.
I contacted my friend Jack at Elk River Jigs and he was kind enough to send a few samples… they worked really well!
The wind blew softly at our backs and I set a trail on my I Pilot to parallel to the rock bar and stay out in about 30 fow…casting to 15-24 fow. Rich sticks another Sow with
the 702 Dropshot and now I break out my own rod rigged with 8# Abrazx fluoro and a Revolution Stinger worm in Watermelon Red. That is some great line!Thank you Glen Walker for that tip!
I should mention that this fishing trip was a midday to 6 PM jaunt…not really “Prime Time”…makes you wonder…
I flipped the DS rig gently ahead of the boat and repeated the drill…tighten up, shake…pull a few feet, and repeat… the line suddenly feel heavy…hookset! Deep throbbing headshakes…another big fat brown fish…gotta LOVE this boys!
In 6 hours we put 19 Bass in the net…12 fish from 16-18.5″ and 5 tanks from 19″ to 19.5″…Not pinching tails, just laying them on my Hawg Trough. The over 19″ fish weighed from 5.02 to 6.42 lbs on my Rapala scale…exceptional girths for 19″ers (amazing!)
I cant remember a better afternoon fishing smallies of such amazing size! I wish you were here!
See ya on the water! Tom