jeb

Speaking of Senko/Wacky Rigs, I caught my first fish with one yesterday. I'm determined to try it more this year as it seems like a great finesse technique, and I tend to finesse fish a lot. It was my only deep water fish, off the corner of a dock in about 25'. Non-legal spot, but it's a start!

It's just amazing how quickly the fish went from being all about stick baits to migrating to the back of the coves sitting on beds. I started off with the stick today, but couldn't buy a bite with it. But I kind of expected that given my spotty experience with it Monday, and given the waters quick warmup. So I didn't burn a lot of time trying to force and went to flipping and casting Zoom critter baits in the shallows. Now we're talkin'! Lots of fish, and quality. I caught well over a dozen legal LM's, several in the 3 pound plus range. Lots of dinks and spots, too. And missed a ton of hits. I assume it was just fish moving it quickly off a nest. Saw some BIG bass up in 2' of water, but they saw me first. Water temps were in the low to mid 60's.

We got to see the bull elk fighting there 2 falls ago. Close to the road, too. Very cool. Bugling like crazy. I'd heard and seen elk on some of my dirt bike trips out west before, but had never seen them fighting in the wild.

The Buffalo River area is indeed beautiful. I understand why you're pulled to go back right away. Here's a picture of me and one of our dogs in that area last fall: I dedicded to not go out today on Beaver. Needed to get some of my to-do list worked on. I think the black bass going to the beds right now, but I'll give them another go all day tomorrow. Suppose to be a front coming in later this week.

Not sure what temps the whites spawn at, but the water temps have hit 60 in a lot of the coves now. So that should mean the black bass are going to spawn now or soon. I pulled up a small branch off the bottom in shallow water on Sunday, and there was spawn goo all over it. So something is already spawning.

No, AGFC. So wannabe' cops. I really think he was just showing off for a younger guy he seemed to be training in and preening for. Guy had an attitude a mile wide, too. Not a good experience. The younger guy working the next bass boat the prick waved over was much friendlier. I could hear him as the other boats were lined up behind me.

4 keepers on Beaver is not a bad day. Although right now, I guess we expect a little more, huh?

Oh, they're loving life. His wife golfed and we spent a couple of days fishing. They had a great time. Left for home an hour ago, darn it. The action was not as good yesterday with the slick water in the morning. But caught a good number of quality fish. Cops were busy in the Prarire Creek marina yesterday molesting bass boaters. I guess because of the pro/am tourny going on. Got several of us for no wake violations. I'll go to court and fight it as I was at idle and not putting up a wake. Said he could see white water coming off the bow. That's just the way wide front bass boats work. Moron.

My best friend from back in MN is down and I took him out yesterday in the PC area. It was a little slow at first, fishing mostly stick baits, although my buddy caught a nice one on his first cast! We picked up a few here and there. Then we boated down lake a bit into the Ventris area and found a big school of hungry fish. We caught at least 30 K's in about 45 minutes. Most just barely legal, some a little bigger. Huge fun to pull them in one after the other like that. Several doubles, too. All on stick baits. Going again tomorrow. Hoping for more of the same. Hope y'all are doing as well out there.

54-55 degress in the Ventris to Prarire Creek area the last few days. Clarity varied on exactly where you were. Anywhere from 2-5 feet, I'd say.

Very shallow. I was in 5-8' feet of water throwing it up into the edges of bushes that were in a foot of water. "Scrub the grub".

Oh yeah, darn near forgot about that carp taking the stick bait. Very funny to see. I think the word is getting out. I had about 3 hours to fish this morning and there were more boats in the PC area today. Kind of funny, though, that I've seen no other boats fishing where I've been finding the fish. No idea why as it's a very attractive area for this time of year. They're loss, I guess. Grub bite was back on with the sun today. Caught another half dozen whites. Probably at least 15 black bass. Some bigger LM males today, too. The cold front moving through tonight should give them lockjaw for a couple of days, though.

Went fishing on Beaver with Quillback/Jeff yesterday in the Paririe Creek area. That boy can work a stick bait! I was throwing a wart and he was pulling one black bass in after another on the suspender, from the back of the boat no less! So I switched over after getting in the hole like 3 or 4 to nothing, and started catching a few, too. For sure it was the bait for yesterday. With the cloudy day, the wart and grub bite was almost completely dead. We ended up with at least 20 mostly legal sized black bass with some toads mixed in there, and 3 whites. Mostly females, but we caught some males later in the day. Had a great time showing him the PC area. He'd never fished around there before yesterday.

Forgot to mention about the boats. Not much traffic where I was at yesterday. Less than normal for a weekend, I'd say. I guess they were all following Quillback around.

Temps were 54 where I was, but I didn't check it when I went way in the back of one little cove. Probably higher in there. The stripers were shallow. 10' or less. But they were surfacing out in deeper water too, maybe 30' or so. Still seems to be a lot of stipers up here. A striper guide told me on Wednesday when I was out (he was using casting nets to get bait) that he'd caugt 19 over 20lbs, and one 42lber in the Prarire Creek area in the last couple of weeks.

Sounds like a good day, Jeff! They're biting good up in the Prarire Creek area, too. Found 3 hours to get out this morning and just fished right around the area. Caught 6 LM/spots (3 legal), 4 whites and 2 stripers, one about 10 pounds. Mostly shallow, lots of bites on grubs but caught them on Warts and stick baits, too.

I cut my teeth boating on the mighty Mississippi River in SE MN. Those barge wakes can be interesting for sure. And the boils they put into the water for 100's of feet behind them from their big props make boat handling a somewhat unsure thing.

I was out yesterday from about sunup to 1pm. Never left the Prarie Creek area. Didn't fish much main lake stuff. Figured they'd be headed into the coves. I caught my 3 bass (2 legal K's, one short LM) all up shallow on Warts. Less than 5' of water for all of them. Caught a big white too, but I don't really count that. I also fished stick baits, grubs and some lipless cranks, but they did not payoff for me. Trolling motor was sure running hard in all that wind! Water temps were from 49-53.

I caught a big white yesterday tossing Wart's for "real" bass. Biggest one I've ever caught, probably in the 4lb range. Looked like it was full of eggs, too. Lots of folks catching them from shore at the mouth of Prarie Creek where it flows into Sunset Bay.

The wind was howling on Beaver yesterday. White caps even way back into some of the little coves! Still, I'd rather deal with those in my Skeeter than wake board boats and big cruisers. It's when those guys are out that you'll find the roughest water on the Rock.

Sounds great, Jeff. Congrats on your impending retirement, as well! Everyone tells me I'll get bored retiring at 52, but I'm willing to find out for myself. I have plans for Friday, but Monday or Tuesday will probably work. Forecast has another front rolling through this weekend, so let's keep an eye on the weather and go from there. Glad you liked the DVD. I sure did well on C-rigs last year.

Sounds like you picked a nice day to fish, Jeff. What was the water temp? Now that I have my dirt bike events out of the way and am retiring on Wednesday, I plan to make up for some time lost on the water! Seems like with the cold winter and cold water we've had so far this year, I may be hitting the sweet spot. Or at least I hope so.

Yep, we had 8"-9" here by the lake. And it rained quite a bit before it changed over to snow. All the snow in the open areas melted off yesterday, and the rest should be gone today. So lots of cold water running into Beaver. It's sure looking like a late spawn this year.

Boy, they really were thick! There'd be 3-4 at a time circling overhead or sitting in trees watching us. Amazing. Thanks for taking me fishing, Jeff! Had a blast.

Good luck, guys. Bass fishing has been pretty slow on Beaver for quite a while. The cold water this year really killed it. I have no recommendations as I've been throwing everything at them at least one day a week with very little results.