Steve McBasser

nice....

We only saw three or four other boats all day up on the main lake. After several hours with no biters we should have run up river. We may try it again next week. We have some warm weather coming in the next few days. Hopefully it will get them on the move again.

Dang....

Nicely done Dock....

Ron and I decided to go up on the main lake at Stockton yesterday hoping for a pre spawn bass bite. I'm sure somebody caught 'em yesterday, but it wasn't us. We got very few bites and only got a handful into the boat. I know the guys running up the river have been doing well but we were hoping for some bigger fish. For us, it was tough.....Water temp was 47* on the main lake and as much as 54* in some isolated pockets. Caught my fish on the blade bait again. Ron caught his on a Lucky Craft jerk bait.

Basically yes..... Long casts but not too long. You can throw them a mile but then they hang up quite a bit. Still experimenting with that. I let it go all the way to the bottom and then hop it up. Sometimes a foot or two and sometimes just a few inches. I suppose the fish will tell you what they like but I still haven't thrown it enough to know. I am really having a ball learning how to fish it. I don't think I have caught a short fish on it yet. Its like learning the "dish rag" bite when you first start stitching a grub along the bottom or catching your first few spook fish after finally learning to "walk the dog"..... Its just new and exciting for me. Its nice to know you really can teach an old dog new tricks....

January 6th this year is the first time I ever caught a bass on a blade bait. I had thrown one a few times but had never caught a fish on it. I must say, so far it has been a ball trying to learn to use them. If anybody who is proficient with them or even if you are just experimenting with these baits as I am, has any pointers for me, I would very much appreciate it. Rather than buying the name brands, (I fish for Team Tightwad) I have been buying mine from lure parts online and letting my buddy Andy paint them for me. Then I put the split rings, hooks, and eyes on them. For me this adds to the fun when catching fish on them and I wind up only having a couple bucks in each one. Anyway, after the warm rains a couple weeks ago muddied the waters and brought the lakes up so fast we enjoyed a spring like crank bait bite that lasted for several trips. Now that we have experienced a serious cool down and the waters have cleared up and surface temp has dropped 5*, that bite has gone away. Now, instead of catching them in 3-10 feet of water, we were forced to follow the fish back out to 15-20 foot zone. I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to start throwing the blade bait again. And boy was I right. After giving up on the shallow bite I picked up my blade bait pole and caught one on my 3rd or 4th cast. Then just a few casts later I hooked another but she pulled off about halfway to the boat. Then in short order I had another one on and got her in. Then just a couple casts later had another one on that pulled off and I was getting so excited I was hyperventilating. Then........ the trolling motor died. NOOOOOO.......We made every effort to get it up and running but no go. So after finally figuring them out and starting to catch some quality fish, we had to quit. So much for MacGyver. Anyway, here is the two I managed to get in the boat before the troll motor crapped out on us.

Fished that blade bait again today...... Dang what a fun bite...

I try to do my part.....

Gary and I put in at Hideaway again and ran back to the mud. Its starting to fall out now and clearing up quite a bit. Still pretty murky but not the sassafras tea and milk like someone called it last week. We could NOT get a bite on the bright colored crank baits but instead it was green ned rigs that picked up the most bites. St. Patty's Day, GREEN neds, go figure. I caught a few on the green pumpkin/black flake hula grub too. But.... Dang it was cold. Froze our butts off all day. They bit just often enough to keep us out there. At least this time we remembered the coffee thermos.... Come on guys, get tough. Let's go get 'em. Planning to fish with Ron again tomorrow....

I used to launch at Big Bay all the time years ago. It was the perfect slope to launch at and was always a quick and easy alternative to going on down to Campbell Point. Unfortunately they have really let it go down hill over the last several years. And you're right about the unsavory characters that show up. I had to quit launching there after getting all the gas stolen from my van. I had two 25 gallon tanks. I guess they stole what they could carry and then let the rest of it just run down the hill into the lake. I was not happy. After a couple of years I tried it again and when I got there to launch a drunk had parked his pick up truck right in the middle of the ramp to sleep it off..... Makes me sad really. Lots of fond memories before that....

Gary and I put in at Hideaway again on Monday and ran to the muddy water we caught 'em in on Friday of last week. The bass were still there and this time we caught a few that were a little better size. We fished from 8am to 6:35pm so we had time to put a few more in the boat this trip. Red/Orange crank baits in the mud seemed to pay off the best but we did catch a few on a grub and a ned rig as well. It was 26* at the ramp when we took off and after a couple of very cool nights 52.8* was the warmest water we could find. That north wind piling in cold air all day was brutal, but the fish bit good enough we put up with it. Hope you guys are getting to fish too.....

So Gary and I put in at Hideaway Marina at 8am on Friday. Fished many spots looking for the clearest water we could find and only caught a few here and there. Then when we were wore out and about ready to quit we decided to start fishing the muddy water...... Oh my gosh. We fished secondary points in the muddiest mud and found 55* water and started thrashing them. Nothing big but several. They were all white as a ghost like they had just come up out of the depths and they were crazy. They were very aggressive and fought hard with multiple jumps and surges for the deep before they would finally give up. It was an awesome trip. The run back to the ramp was awesome too running the motor we rebuilt last summer. Only an hour left on the break in. What a fun hobby.

The Finley and the James are both rolling high and muddy just south of Springfield. I drove over both of them two or three times today. Table Rock is going to be a mess.....

I never leave home without a pen in my pocket. Its a throw back to my desk job days. The first thing we did when we got back to town was to pick up a handful of 5/16 OD barbed fittings and put them in the boat. You never know.

Launched at Bridgeport and ran down lake toward Cape Fair. Just about the time we were running in front of the marina the boat lost power and died. As we started to try to figure out what was going on I could smell gas real strong. Used the troll motor to get us to the closest cove and backed the big motor into the bank. Pulled the cowl off and could see fuel trickling out of the bottom of the water separator filter. After closer inspection I noticed the sending unit for the alarm was missing out of the bottom of the filter. How in the world? No big deal, we'll just figure out a way to bypass the filter. So..... in MacGyver like fashion, I took the ink pen out of my pocket and took it apart and used the body of the pen to make a splice between the incoming and outgoing fuel lines on the filter. Pumped the bulb back up and turned the key to pressurize the fuel rail. Awesome, No leaks. Put the cowling back on and it started right up. Fished it like that the rest of the day. Put a new fuel filter on it yesterday morning......Every trip is an adventure. Even caught a few fish... This is the bottom of the fuel filter....

Ok..... I'm back in business.....

Its a private gravel ramp near Buck Creek...

We really expected them to be biting much better than they did. We'll take what we can get. It should be picking up here directly.

Back down to Mid-lake Bull Shoals. Hit the water at 9am and found 45* water. Backs of the creeks were closer to 50*. We caught a few but nothing to brag about. I had 3 bites but only got one into the boat. My buddy Ron got 8 bites and got 5 into the boat. Still slow cranking is the best bite for us.....Hope you guys are getting to go some also....

I don't know Mav..... We took the grand tour down there and the folks than ran the place seemed nice. Was just a little more than we wanted to spend. Looks sharp from the water too. Wish I could be more help.

Ha ha...... I've been known to tell fish stories. Just sayin'.....

Thanks Quill..... Always grateful to find a few biters....

You are right about that. I'm going to order about 15 more of them tomorrow. I already called my buddy Andy that paints them for me. Should be back in business shortly.

I like catching fish, DEEP because of the novelty of it. Its cool to be able to find them on the graph and then drop something to them and watch them come up and get it right there on the screen. However, given the choice I would much rather throw out a bottom bouncer of some sort and stitch it back in the 6' to 25' range of water. The phrase that pays here is "I like catching fish", so whatever is required is what I do.....