March 23, Big M area

[Quillback]

I've been itching to get back on the Big Lake, there was a pretty good bass bite here on the Bella Vista lakes so that and weather has kept me off the Rock for a couple of weeks, finally made it over yesterday.

I have some pre-spawn spots that I can almost always find bass on this time of year, but they just weren't there yesterday.  The water is pretty stained, pea green soup in color, and that seems to have pushed the fish much shallower than I thought they would be.  It took me a while to figure that out so lost valuable fishing time trying to find them.

Got a few early on a Shad Rap, one was a keeper sized smallie, the rest were 10-12" spots.  Had one fish hit the Rap and just about yank the rod out of my hands, it pulled drag for a second and was gone.

About 10 AM I realized what I was doing, throwing the Rap, swimming the Keitech deep, and dragging the Ned was not working, I was getting one every once in a while, but not getting the number of bites I'd like to get this time of year.

Out of desperation I decided to fish a gravel point that the wind was blowing across, I was hoping for some walleye action, didn't expect any bass.  Threw a Keitech up shallow, and got a keeper spot after about 2 cranks on the reel.  Got 4 more spots off that point, nice 14-15" fish.  

Spent the remaining three hours I had left bouncing around to gravel banks and points that had wind and would usually get a bite or two off each spot.  Never got any more keepers, but had some fun with the spinning tackle.

Saw water temp at almost 53 and that was out off the bank a ways.

A lot of bass boats out there, I checked the MSP regatta listings and there's a 100 boat permit for an MLF/FLW tourney this weekend that starts Friday.   Quite a few other tourneys too.  Better bring your own brush pile if you plan on fishing the Rock this weekend.

[Maverickpro201]

Isn't Aunts Creek tournament this week end also

[Dutch]

11 hours ago, Maverickpro201 said:

Isn't Aunts Creek tournament this week end also

There is something big.  It looked like a holiday weekend.  Even idiots running fast in fog with near zero visibility.  If I had had a bucket full of stupid darts I could have used them all before noon.

[Quillback]

There was an MLF sponsored college tourney today - winner had 19 pounds and change.  Tomorrow there is an MLF high school tourney.  Quite a few boats up the White today, but couldn't tell if any one of them were fishing the college deal.