5/21 Bass report

[Skeeter ZX190]

Put in at Orleans Trail at 9:30 am and headed to the east side of the lake into one of those big bays with a gravel bank.  My report is almost exactly like Dutch's except I didn't catch a nice kicker fish like he did.  You would think I would stumble across one of those once in a blue moon but I never seem to.  I fished from Orleans Trail to State Park.  Water temps were  73.5 to 75 degrees. Water was about as clear as I've ever seen it.  I would say a good 10 to 12 foot clarity.  Maybe a little more.  As Dutch reported, I found the fish a little deeper in 6 to 12 feet of water.  Caught most of them on a ned in green pumpkin or PB&J.  Caught 8 others on a super fluke.  Ended up with 70 bass.  21 were keeper size but nothing over 16 1/2.  I fished a very long day.  From 9:30 am until 8:30 pm.  Caught primarily smallmouth which is just fine by me.  Dave Reeves (dtrs5kprs) would be proud of me.  I finally fished the ned the way he teaches.  Dead sticking.  I never had the confidence to know if I was throwing it where fish were, so I tend to move it much faster than he teaches.  I hit a stretch of bank where the smallies were congregated.  14 to 16 inch smallies.  I would cast it out and let it hit the bottom and just wait.  About 10 to 20 seconds you would see the line twitch.  Then it would start to stretch as the fish ran with the bait.  Always before I would let it hit the bottom and immediately start hopping it back.  If I had landed everything I had solid bites on, I would have been pushing 100 fish for the day.  I don't know how many times I had fish pick up the bait and start running with it.  I would go to cross their eyes and the bait would just pull free.  I assume they were just grabbing it by the tail, or were just dinks.  I tried a variety of hook set techniques.  Most times though on the ones I caught the fish were really choking on the bait.  

[Skeeter ZX190]

[Skeeter ZX190]

[Fat Cat]

Great report nice pics too

[liphunter]

Ditto that. Sounded like a great day Skeeter

[Unimog]

I know exactly what you mean, the confidence that the fish are there and you can slow down to that degrees must be an amazing feeling. 

[Dutch]

Great day there pard.  It has been a long time since this old man could do an 11 hour day in the boat.  6-7 is all I can handle these days.  When are you going back?  I plan to give it a shot on Thursday.  I'm afraid things will change after all the turbulence over the holiday.

[Skeeter ZX190]

16 minutes ago, Dutch said:

Great day there pard.  It has been a long time since this old man could do an 11 hour day in the boat.  6-7 is all I can handle these days.  When are you going back?  I plan to give it a shot on Thursday.  I'm afraid things will change after all the turbulence over the holiday.

Maybe I will give it a go tomorrow (Wednesday).  I think it will change a lot over the next few days.  Temps in the upper 80's will continue to move them deeper.  And then June hits and I don't know where they go.  I still say that they are out cruising in open water following shad schools.  All I know is that I struggle during June, July, and August.

[dprice]

7 hours ago, Skeeter ZX190 said:

You realize your holding a very nice mean mouth sir ?  Awesome report 

[Ham]

Lots of tail grabbing I think. It’s frustrating at times, but Gosh did you ever catch em. Good Deal