4-19-07 The Chuck Liddell of bass fishing.

A call was placed. It seems that Ken, Mike and myself all had a really bad day at our respective jobs. We needed to get out and fight something. And fight we did. Like Chuck Liddell with a fishing pole.
The methods used in the later afternoon-evening hours where; A Megabait "Charlie" (white 3.5"), a YoZuri Rattle-trap, 4" Senko on a 1/8oz Slider Jig (they should just call this the "Ken Set-Up") and a 4" Senko on a #8 Gamakatsu octopus hook. Those are what worked.
What didn't work; Salmo Boxer. Rapala Husky Jerk. Lunker City Slug-O. There's probably a few other baits Ken and Mike tried. I'll have to check on that.
Water temp was 64. If you remember last week it was only 55. We fished near shorelines in 1-5' of water and found bass cruising around looking for that pre-spawn meal. So..we are HIGHLY suggesting that you get off your ass and go fishing NOW!
The sunfish that Mike is holding up is the average size. If I had to put a number on how many we caught, I'd say about 20. Some up to over a pound. All on bass baits.
As far as the number of bass caught, I have to check on that too. I know Ken had 8 with his biggest hitting 18". I caught 7 plus probably 12-15 of the monster greengills. Mike had to have caught at least 8 bass including one over the 21" mark. He missed 2 that he.could.not.turn. They straightened out the hooks and got off. I'm assuming that they were alot bigger than monster #1 I'm holding in the slideshow.

The three pics pics of me are from a 15 minute forray. I saw bass #1 chase down a hooked 1/2lb greengill and miss. From then one I was on a mission. The gills shut down immediately out of fear...and the bass got pissed. I'm guessing the other bass came over to see what bass #1 was doing. From that point on it wasn't IF she was going to hit...it was a matter of WHAT she was going to hit. Tried a Salmo Boxer. Nothing. Tried a Charlie Megabait. Nothing. Tried a straight rigged Senko. Nothing. Tried a 4" little-bitty Senko whacky rigged on a #8 Gamakatsu octopus hook and it was off to the races! for the next 15 minutes. Between the 4 huge bass hooked were probably half a dozen greengills up to 1lb.
This all falls in line with Jamie Riani's "M&M's vs. a steak" theory. If you offer a steak to someone who just ate a 4 course meal, they'll turn it down. BUT..offer them one little bitty M&M and they'll eat it every time! Kinda like that itty bitty 4" Senko that all these 20-22" bass hit. We handed them M&M's and they couldn't resist. And they don't look like they're starving.
My first bass featured was my second largest largemouth to date. 22".

In other fishing news: For you muskie guys out there, you may want to keep tabs on Chad Cain's progress during the season. It seems like he's having an absolutely fantastic start to the season! There isn't a muskie fisherman on the planet who is more knowledgeable than Chad...nor is there one with a better record for catching huge muskies. Check out this link for some fish that would eat the ones we're catching! CLICK HERE

A note about location: We often get asked where we are fishing. That I can't say. Most of our dozen or so lakes we hit are either very small or private farm/subdivision ponds. So, it's really not important as to where we are, but rather what we're doing. The tactics we are using today are the same ones you can use in your local pond/lake/river. Location of the water means little. If there's fish in it, they'll be doing basically the same thing as they are in our lakes. Mike fished a different lake yesterday before I even showed up, and guess what....he caught bass there too using the same techniques.

And one final note: Going back to my "M&M's vs a steak" theory, of the many 20"+ largemouth bass and the dozen 20"+ smallmouth bass I have to my credit, not a single one was caught on a bait larger than 4" long. NOT ONE. In fact I'd say most of the big bass we get come off of 3" or smaller baits. My biggest smallie was caught on a 1 3/4" bait, as were at least 4 others in the 20" mark. Just something to think about the next time you go shopping for lures. The "big baits=big fish" theory isn't all it's cracked up to be, and we have about a hundred pictures laying around to prove it. As far as muskie baits go, I stick by my theory on that too. (Here's where the fighting will surely start. Heh heh) I don't throw any muskie baits that are larger than 6". Ever. Spring, summer, fall...doesn't matter. 6". And by all accounts I'm still doing ok in the muskie fishing department. (Let the hate mail begin!)

The quote of the day:
When all was said and done last night, Mike said to me after some high fives "Can you *%#@in' believe this?!"
I said " April, Mike. It's April."