I must say, it feels good to be back on the water chasing Bass in my backyard. I’ve only been out 3 times since ice out and each time it was something less than spectacular. This trip, while short, was a great time and the fish were extremely cooperative.
We started out hitting one of my favorite spawning areas hoping to get a bend on the rod and it didn’t take long for that to happen. I believe it was the 3rd cast and a large head wake chased down my swim jig swallowing and swirling on the top of the water. After a few acrobatics moves from the water this nice sized LM Bass was in my hands and ready for a photo op. I quickly slipped this fish back into the water and got back to hucking my swim jig up and down the bank looking for more takers. Thankfully the wait was a brief one and within minutes I had another chunky LM Bass splashing water on the side of the boat.
I really enjoy the power-fishing methods of hucking a swim jig. You can cover a lot of water in a short period of time and you can determine in a decent amount of time the mood of the fish. Are they picking at it, ripping the tails off? Are they chasing it to the boat leaving a large swirl at the boat? Or are they pouncing on it like a fox pounces on a mouse? Today the swim jig was the mouse and the LM Bass gladly played the role of the fox. Most times, I’d see the Bass approaching the swim jig from at least 3ft away, giving me ample time to put a slight twitch in the rod tip or slow the presentation down just a bit to give it more appeal. I matched a Bluegill patterned swim jig with a blue sapphire Yamamoto grub. It’s probably one of my favorite patterns to use this time of the year. There’s tons of smaller Bluegills around and it matches them pretty well.
Another pattern we were able to exploit was going the opposite direction of the swim jig and slow down, pitching Senkos to spawning pockets. There’s something about that slow fall that just drives a hungry Bass crazy. My Dad backed up my hectic casting schedule with the snail’s pace of pitching senkos, targeting the Bass that are defending their beds with extreme prejudice. He was doing a great job of holding his own in the back of the boat catching Bass like the one pictured. Best colors were Green Pumpkin with Black flake and Sour Apple flavor that’s exclusive to Dick’s Sporting Goods. I forget the color name as I type this. Another favorite color we like to throw is Black w/ Blue Flake. That with the Green Pumpkin color are staples in our boat.
The other hot lure for our boat was the X-Rap Prop. Typically with spawn phase Bass I like to keep a buzzbait on hand to get the topwater bite going early in the year. This time around I swapped out the buzzbait for the X-Rap Prop and I wasn’t disappointed. Those LM Bass were all over that thing. If they missed it on the initial cast, just put it right back in their wheelhouse and let them have another crack at it. They won’t miss it more than once. For those unfamiliar, this is more of a rip-type bait where you work aggressively across the surface, but on this day they wanted a small action, most times just a short pull to turn the blades and they were crawling all over it. FYI….Do yourself a favor and get a good pair of sunglasses, because there’s always that one bass that won’t commit and that’s where the guy in the back of the boat comes in handy by placing an accurate cast with a senko just ahead of your lure. A chasing Bass may not hit a topwater bait, but get something to sink in front of their face and you’ll have you hands full hanging onto your rod from the sudden strike. Paying attention payed off, as I had to laugh when I hollered at my Dad to set the hook as I watched his Senko get inhaled by a Bass before he knew the fish had hit it. That was a hoot.
We had a great few hours out on the water hitting our yearly spawn locations. It was nice to see those spots producing again this year. The higher water has helped quite a bit, and it pains me to say this but I hope it sticks around until after the Bass has finished spawning. I have some other areas that I’d like to try before the water gets back to normal river stage.
Good to those of you getting out on the water. 