EricM
Well-known member
"It's ALIVE!"
Oh, wait, that was borrowed from "Young Frankenstein", but some of you may have been wondering lately about me since I have not posted much. I have been out, just a bit less frequently.
I actually got out of bed at 5:00 am to get out at first light and see what the shad were doing. I found zillions of them, most of them tiny and gilled in my cast net but a number of bigger threadfin and a few nice large ones were mixed in. I added a bunch of the tiny shad in the tank just so I'd have a good bunch - turns out I actually had a couple hundred, not the 50 or 75 I first thought.
I went over to a place that I know the bass school. NO grass, NO weeds, but there are still oodles of bass in the area. It is one of a number of drops into the channel with rock edges and cuts. Never left the place more than 50 yards or so. I used too big of a hook (5/0) at first and missed a bunch of the light bites. Changed to a tiny #2 Kahle hook and almost never missed another fish. Like I said, the bites were light - almost tentative. I had to wait until I felt pressure on the line before carefully setting the hook. Only two fish had been deeply hooked and a disgorger got those out with little damage. Almost all the others were corner hooked - one of the reasons I like to use Kahle hooks with live bait.
There were 4 smallmouth (one keeper), 2 white bass, 1 channel cat, 0 spotted bass, and 273,460 largemouth. Well, maybe not quite, but my best estimate was around 120 largemouth. They ranged from 10 inches to the largest at 6 lb 0 oz. The vast majority ran from 14 to 16 inches, a terrific indicator that we have some great bassing in our future years.
White bass schools went crazy nearby on the channel edge a couple of times, and the osprey were busy all morning crashing into the water. Cool to watch. The size of the shad I used made no difference, 3" (or less) were every good as 6". A one ounce weight bounced down the drops worked best for me, but fish were caught at all depths from 10 to 30 feet.
I quit before all my bait was gone. I just couldn't do it any longer. My back was killing me and my fingers, despite being careful not to lip many bass, were - and still are - raw from being wet and soft for hours. I'm too old for this crap. Maybe next time I'll quit after 50 or 60 bass. **grin**
No pics. Easier for you to disbelieve that way, but - trust me - I will always remember this one!
P.S. My wife saw all the shad scales that I left around the house and thought I had a hooker wearing glitter there.
Oh, wait, that was borrowed from "Young Frankenstein", but some of you may have been wondering lately about me since I have not posted much. I have been out, just a bit less frequently.
I actually got out of bed at 5:00 am to get out at first light and see what the shad were doing. I found zillions of them, most of them tiny and gilled in my cast net but a number of bigger threadfin and a few nice large ones were mixed in. I added a bunch of the tiny shad in the tank just so I'd have a good bunch - turns out I actually had a couple hundred, not the 50 or 75 I first thought.
I went over to a place that I know the bass school. NO grass, NO weeds, but there are still oodles of bass in the area. It is one of a number of drops into the channel with rock edges and cuts. Never left the place more than 50 yards or so. I used too big of a hook (5/0) at first and missed a bunch of the light bites. Changed to a tiny #2 Kahle hook and almost never missed another fish. Like I said, the bites were light - almost tentative. I had to wait until I felt pressure on the line before carefully setting the hook. Only two fish had been deeply hooked and a disgorger got those out with little damage. Almost all the others were corner hooked - one of the reasons I like to use Kahle hooks with live bait.
There were 4 smallmouth (one keeper), 2 white bass, 1 channel cat, 0 spotted bass, and 273,460 largemouth. Well, maybe not quite, but my best estimate was around 120 largemouth. They ranged from 10 inches to the largest at 6 lb 0 oz. The vast majority ran from 14 to 16 inches, a terrific indicator that we have some great bassing in our future years.
White bass schools went crazy nearby on the channel edge a couple of times, and the osprey were busy all morning crashing into the water. Cool to watch. The size of the shad I used made no difference, 3" (or less) were every good as 6". A one ounce weight bounced down the drops worked best for me, but fish were caught at all depths from 10 to 30 feet.
I quit before all my bait was gone. I just couldn't do it any longer. My back was killing me and my fingers, despite being careful not to lip many bass, were - and still are - raw from being wet and soft for hours. I'm too old for this crap. Maybe next time I'll quit after 50 or 60 bass. **grin**
No pics. Easier for you to disbelieve that way, but - trust me - I will always remember this one!
P.S. My wife saw all the shad scales that I left around the house and thought I had a hooker wearing glitter there.
