Fish Catching Travel

Buy more baits, you can never have enough!

Today was a lot better as far as size goes.  With the big front coming I thought I would see if it could be a right place, right time thing.  It was, almost.  Bass love fronts and any chance I get to fish as one comes I try to take the opportunity.

First it was up lake to throw some spinnerbait.  The wind did not come up early, and there was not a cloud in the sky.  The lake is still slowly going down and the water temp is 78 up lake and in the 80’s down.  So after a long stretch without a bite on the spinnerbait it was back to plastics on wood.  That pattern has held the last couple of weeks, probably because it is the only cover available.

That will do!

The fish are on the cover unless the wind blows, real tight to the cover.  It is impossible to throw to close, and you want it moving when it goes by the cover.  I am twitching it a couple of times as I hop it and that seems to make a difference.  Line watching is critical, as some are impossible to feel and you just see your line swimming away from the cover.  When that happens it is important to get all your slack out before you set the hook.  Several got away today because I did not get the hook in them.  It does seem like once they start swimming with it you have plenty of time to reel the slack out until you are tight to them.

The average was just a little bit bigger today.

I am still throwing a 5 or 6″ bait, basically senko style and a short ring worm senko.  All are in watermelon red or pumpkin with red flake.  Using 30lb braid with a 3′ leader of 20lb test mono, it falls just right with a 1/4 ounce slip sinker.  One thing has become very clear, the best depth for the wood is 5 feet.  Very few have come from deeper or shallower than that.  But no matter what, bang the cover.  Of course they are not on all of it by any stretch.

I caught several more like this one.

I met my buddy Bobby out on the lake and he was struggling.  It really shows you how important it is to make a perfect cast down the side of the cover, or right over it.  Fishing is not easy right now but they are there to be caught.  Around 1 the wind started to blow just a little and I managed to catch 3 on spinnerbait and miss a couple and lose a good one when he jumped.

Love the hand to hand combat of getting this size out of the brush.

With what looks like a prolonged period of rain coming, if it is not to bad there will be some really good days coming on Coleto.  Clouds and wind will move more of the fish shallow, otherwise they are tight on the wood.  We have caught very few just casting down a bank.  If the weather cooperates there should be a good spinnerbait bite.  They are feeding on shad and the spinnerbait is a great fall option.  If I were guessing it was probably around 12 – 15 today and half of them were nice ones.

When I got to the ramp I noticed a couple loading their 17′ Mako Skiff.  I like the look and it is an improvement in the hull over the Carolina Skiff.  So I strolled over to ask them about it and Virginia, I learned later, said oh it is the blog man.  Yep that’s me.  She said she had been reading me from the beginning.  Another one of those things that tells me there is actually someone out there reading this, and I thank all of you.

Not sure what is next, the weather will be the deciding factor.  It could be messed up for over a week, or it may turn out to be perfect, we will just have to wait and see the next couple of days.  The weatherman is talking up to 8″ of rain and we sure need it.  I have a couple of comments and other things to say and will try to get them up tomorrow.  And if you have any reports or anything else to say lets have it.  We appreciate every comment we get.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines