March 2nd, Shad rapping it around Big M

[Quillback]

Water is still dirty brown around Big M, not as many leaves in the water and not a lot of big stuff in the main channel, but keep an eye out when you are motoring as there are a few big pieces of wood out in the channel.

I started off the morning throwing a Menace Grub on a 3/8 oz swing jig, caught my first fish on it, lost another one, then snagged up and broke it off.  Both bites were right up on the bank, so I decided to switch to a #5 Shad Rap.  I had noticed something Bo said in his report about the fish hitting his crank bait near the boat, so I thought it would be worth it to throw the minnow rather than bounce a crank off the bottom.  Decent bite on the Shad Rap, very shallow fish, mostly dinks, but a lot of fun on the light spinning gear.  Fish were in the muddy water, right on the bank.  Caught a couple dozen with 4 keepers.  Threw the Ned for a bit and caught one spotted bass on it.

Had one hard puller that got off, I thought I had snagged a big limb, drug it towards the boat for maybe 2 seconds, just dead weight like a big limb, and then it started head shaking and pulling drag.  Had it on for another 5 seconds or so and then it just pulled off.  Didn't see what it was, I hate big mystery fish that get off.

About 10 of my fish were smallmouth, all up very shallow.

Fishing got slow around noon, I was out of there at 2 PM.

A lot of boats out there today, I saw several bass caught by other fishermen.

WT 48-50.

A couple of pics, they didn't come out too well in the bright sun.

 

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[BilletHead]

      Nice!

  I have a good supply of shad raps Quill. I don't pick up the spinning gear much anymore but when i do the first thing I tie on is a shad rap. This time of the year I have done real well on walleye on the river run,

BilletHead

[Johnsfolly]

Quill - looks like a very good trip. Glad you got a good shad rap bite. Congrats buddy !

[m&m]

Quill,  thanks for the report. Patlock and I are going tomorrow(Saturday ) and will put in at big M too. We thought we might as well get a look at the water up there before the tourney.  We should be there around 8am. 

Mike

[96 CHAMP]

Got any original Mag warts?? Liable to catch a good one in that dirty water, good bait in early spring 

[Quillback]

10 hours ago, m&m said:

Quill,  thanks for the report. Patlock and I are going tomorrow(Saturday ) and will put in at big M too. We thought we might as well get a look at the water up there before the tourney.  We should be there around 8am. 

Mike

Good luck, looks like it will be a really nice day weather wise.

[Flippin]

Thanks for the report Quilback.  I look forward to the warmer weather and WT

[176champion]

Thanks for the report Quill!!

I was wanting to go out today but been working on daughters car instead.

[Carl W]

Me and a buddy fished out of Eagle Rock today and we cranked for most all of the day. The temps were 45 - 51. We ended up with around 15.  With 2 maybe 3 keepers. Only one keeper was a decent one and it was probably 2.5 pounds. 

[m&m]

Patlock and I put in at Big M a little after 8am Saturday. Water was stained to muddy. Visibility was <2feet. WT was 49 early and warmed to 51 when we took out at 1:30pm. Wound up with 25 fish but only 2 keepers. All were spotted bass and lacking a lot of color. Kind of like they just came up from deep winter habitat. 2 were caught on a double willow spinnerbait. And the rest were caught on crankbaits. Only 2 fish after 10:30am. All fish were in <10 fow. We tried deeper but no go. Tried jigs, c-rig and shakey head but no takers. Lots of boats running. We did see a guy catch a nice keeper in the back of a cove in shallow water on a white spinnerbait. If the water warms a couple of degrees this week, the bite should be pretty good soon. I will try to get back up there Thursday and Friday. I want to see if there is an early morning bite. 

Mike