Fishing Report 11-11-14

[Ham]

I hemmed and hawed, but finally decided the White River Zig Jig deal was not doable in the wind we had.I needed to be back in town for 1730 and would rather have fished the White. So, I got a little bit of a late start, but I finally manned up and made it on the water about 0915. Wind was awful and the wind chill was nasty cold. I had a fair amount of clothing on, but more would have been better. I launched at Pontiac knowing the ramp was protected from a north wind.

Water temps were int he 59-60' Range. Water was beautiful in most areas. It picked up a little stain in some of the shallower wind blown areas as I ran up towards Theodosia.

Wind was really bad to start and gradually got to just painfully annoying. I broke out the drift sock on multiple occassions. Handy, but the drift sock requires some effort as well.

I tried slinging a blade on a proven main lake point. No hits, no looks, and no follows. I did get frozen hands out of the deal. I headed to a more protected area to get feeling back into my hands. Ned to the rescue. I quickly caught a largie, a smallie, and a chunky short LMB. My first fish was a pretty decent LMB that would have scared 3 lbs. The smallie was a chunk,, but not a "keeper".

Feeling much better about things, I eased around and got a keeper spot on the Ned in my next little area. I tried the blade in another wind blown area with big chunk rock and again. No looks, no strikes, and no follows. Not good.

I ran up Spring Creek into a little finger. And finally got some action on the blade. I caught three bass and lost another one I had hooked. I also got absolutely lit up and missed that fish clean.

But I also missed a hard hit on the Ned and lost a real nice Spot that I had on the Ned. So with the sun starting to break out and having more Ned areas than Blade areas. I starting running my Ned pattern and I would pick up the blade and sling it when it looked right.

I got a lot more fish on the Ned and never another look on the blade. Maybe, I just have commitment issues, but I want to catch fish and not freeze to death. If I had gotten more bites on the blade, I would have been willing to suffer the elements. As it was , I was pretty cold all day long.

I ended up with 21 bass and one Green Sunfish. I had a pile of keeper spots, several keeper LMB, and a handful of chunky smallies. No keeper size SMB.

I used various colors on the Ned. I'm not married to any color. I pick based on water color and available light. I've caught fish on all 13 colors I tote. Yesterday, I used four colors. Fish were in general much shallower than I expected and all the fish felt warm to the touch Lol.

I love my BassCat. She ate those White caps like a fat kid eating doughnuts. No problems at all. Despite the wind, I stayed dry. I might be getting used to running this boat.

[Ham]

. Pretty Spot

[Ham]

. Keeper but released

[Quillback]

Nice ones, those keeper sized spots are fun to catch.

[Tuffy]

Okay - I will ask the dumb question. What is a Ned?

[Ham]

Oh my goodness where to begin? Look at the largemouth bass photo ; see that jighead above the fish"s eye? that crappy little jighead with a non descript chunk of worm on it has changed my fishing if not my life.

Basically a Finesse plastic on 1/16 oz head with a #2 hook. I thow mine with light action spinning on 6-8 pound nano with a 6-8 pounder leader. My basic retrieve is to throw it to a liking looking spot. deadstick for a little bit. If no bite, I might shake it in place or lift - swing - deadstick again. It's only slow until you catch fish on 5 casts in a row. This past spring it was stupid good.

It looks dumb, but fish freaking eat it early and often.

A weeks worth of reading on the Ned can be found using the search function.

[Tuffy]

Thanks for the explanation. I did some research and I can't believe I have never heard of this bait. I fish a 5" gray grub a lot and it almost always produces fish, but not many quality fish. This is a little like that grub without the tail.

I will have to give this a try next time out.

Thanks again.

[Ham]

I love dragging a grub around. It is (was) one of my favorite ways of catching fish, but a Ned will ruin you on that. Once you get the hang if the Ned, you will absolutely be costing yourself fish trying to force feed them a grub on points.

IF you like fishing a grub, you've likely got the rod and reel you'll need for a Ned and the fishing skill set you need to detect the strikes. Good Luck and Good Fishing.

[Fish24/7]

thank you Ham, great report

[Plastic_worm]

Nice lookn fish, I especially like the spot.