Going against the grain.
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Sometimes you have to do the exact opposite of what logic dictates.
I guess you could call this period of time "ice out" even though there really wasn't much ice this year to speak of. The lakes and ponds get covered with a skim of ice every other night which melts to open water by mid day. So basically the water has been in this "ice out" stage for a month or more, never really getting much above 36 degrees at any time.
So..what do you do to catch fish when it's this cold? Most anglers would say to use finesse methods, soft plastics creeping along ever so slowly, dead sticking for minutes at a time or sitting there with an ice cold bucket of ice cold minnows to handle on an ice cold day. Screw that!!
Rob Kolar of Kolar Bait and Tackle in Carol Stream,IL gets full credit for giving me this next tip: When the water is ice cold, throw a rattling bait and reel it in as fast as you can!
What?? Huh?? Did he just say reel it in as fast as you can??
Yes. The faster and crazier the better. The biggest largemouth I ever caught in my life was caught on this method along with probably 3 or 4 others in my top 10 largemouth and smallmouth bass.
Now..here's where I added my own little twist to things. I combined Rob's tip with customfish.com's very own Mike Kauchak's method of spring bass fishing. Mike uses a Rapala Husky Jerk and retrieves it as if he's bringing in a 12" jerkbait for muskies...3 HUGE jerks followed by a short pause, repeat. Man, he gets some monster bass doing that. So, what I now do with a rattling bait is cast/let it sink a couple feet/ rip it upwards 3 times violently ( Starting at the 9:00 position) /let it die again and flutter a few feet/ repeat.
Now, mind you, you probably wont get numbers of fish ( but then again you might...) but you'll definitely get the biggest most aggresive fish by using this extremely reactionary tactic.
Here's the baits I like to throw. Rattlin' Rapalas in either a natural shad color or a bluegill color. ( I HATE neon colored firetiger super duper glow colored baits..they catch fishermen in stores. Have you ever seen a parrot colored minnow??)
And here's the results from yesterdays 1 hour sundown trip with Ken Schumacher. We treid soft plastics for 45 minutes before we switched baits.
*Note: These fish were all caught in a window of about 10 minutes. 3 more were missed. Timing IS everything.*
Click here to see what to do with these fish!!
posted by J @ 10:05 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Great fish, and I'm home sick in bed. Wah!
_Mike
Jamie, my ISA post has the pics.
Well, I stopped by my pond to try out Jamie and Ken’s yesterday tested theory with hard baits and fast jerk retrieves in cold water. First I p/u some milk and bread at For the Mrs. @ Meijers, which warrants a trip down the fishin isle. I p/u a Rapala RTU-4 rattle bait which was mostly Martian green w/ Harley flames down the sides (see other species post for picture), something about green and my pond that really mix. I tied it on my 5’6” ultra-light and hit the pond. It was drizzling on and off but still warm. Two carp fishermen were on the other side who said they’d not even had a bite for 2 hours and were packing it in. I side arm tossed my new lure allowing it to skip 2 or 3 times on the surface and immediately started a pretty fast retrieve for me with a pause and a jerk every few seconds and some times no pause at all. I was basically allowing it to sink to near the bottom and then bringing it to the surface. On the 3rd cast BAMB, I had a hard strike. I set the hook and began a doubled up ultra-light drag screaming fight. I was trying to wear him down easy with my 6 LB. test. All of a sudden my line went limp. I reeled and made a large jerk and the fight was back on(I think he spit it out). The carp fisherman were walking up looking like I was crazy and I yelled “ya’ll gota net?” which they yelled “no”. Just as they walked up I sensed his fight pause and I beached him in the mucky shore. They walked up moaning how I just got there and nailed what they’d been fishin for for two hours. Yes you’re right I Started my day with about a 22” carp hooked in the tail. See pic in other species forum post. They laughed and told me “I know what your havin for dinner”. I laughed and said “no, I know what your havin for dinner tonight”. They graciously took the fish and went home. I continued fishin in a hole just boiling with fish. Almost every other cast brought on a bump, strike, or fish. My next catch was a Gil one and one half times the size of my 3” lure (see other species post). Couldn’t believe he was picking on something so close to his size. Next up was a nice fighting 15” Smallie which I lost at the shore. Urgh!!!!!! I proceeded to hook and fight for a few seconds and loose at least 10 more nice size fish. Not sure what I was doing wrong but sure was pissed every time. One carp came up to the surface while I was fighting him and had to be 30”. He made a wake like the loch ness monster. So, any ideas as to correct my errors? Yes I set the hook firmly as I could with the ultra-light, I kept the line tight, and the NEW lure hooks were barbed and sharp (just ask my fingers). Do I need to pause after the strike and let them swallow it? I figured if they felt the hard bait to long they’d spit it out. I also feel like as hard as they fought I must have had a good set on them. Could it be the soft mouthed carps? It wouldn’t explain the Smallie loss. Time for a medium heavy rod? Boy I could feel that rattle bait rattling and swimming all the way to the reel on my retrieves. Pretty cool bait. Well it was fun any how. It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, the ponds surface was literally boiling with fish fighting over my lure. Thanks Jamie and Ken for the Inspiration.
Tom
AKA Grasshopper
Thanks Tom!! We appreciate the comments here! Hope to fish with you and Master Po soon!
Jamie
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