A New Year.
After a little time off for Christmas with family it was back to the important work of catching some fish. The weather looked like it was going to be sketchy, and it was. It was 40 degrees, the wind was blowing, and it was raining. Perfect!
Seriously, this is the best time of the year to catch a really big bass. Now I did not exactly get that done today, but it was close enough and turned out to be a good day. With the front and the wind I decided that it was definitely a jerk bait kinda of day, and it was. And the reason was the conditions, which is why I said it was perfect. This is exactly the kind of day to catch a big one in the early pre-spawn.
The picture does not do this girl justice, she was a real pig. A nice way to start the new year.
So as you can see, I did manage to put a good one in the boat. All were caught on 10 pound line on a black back/silver side Rapala Husky Jerk in the 4″. It was simply a jerk/jerk/ pause/then jerk/ pause and do it all over again. Only moving the bait about a foot and then letting it set. Some of them you feel whack it, others were just there when you jerked again. Most came off points, and I caught them from the dam to up lake. But the real pattern was some grass on a point with deep water close by.
Not quite as big as the other one, I can live with this. Notice the jerk bait, they knocked the cover right off that thing.
Of course conditions were ugly, wet and cold, but it was a great day for early spring fishing. In fact, the fingertips on my left hand are still tingling from palming the cold reel and jerking all day. I mean my hands were so cold that this one actually jerked the rod out of my hands, luckily it fell in the bottom of the boat.
There really is something important about this catfish, other than I almost lost a rod. (My wife says I look like Kenny from Southpark.)
The thing that makes him important is, once they show up on that jerk bait, and they do early, you know the big bite is on the way. Last spring I caught several until it got to warm. But when I catch them on the jerk bait, it means the spring move is coming. And one thing about catfish and lures, when one does decide to eat it they usually knock the crap out of it.
Over the day I caught 23 or 24, I can’t remember the exact number. Most were small, 7 or 8 of them were nice fish. And where I caught one, I caught another. They were definitely bunched up, and I did catch 6 out of one bunch. Soon it will be time to really concentrate on the points leading into the bigger coves. Jerk bait will be the best bait for the next few degrees. As the water temp rises topwater and spinnerbait will really come on. But even today I caught 4 or 5 buzzing a spinnerbait. It was just not as fast as the jerk bait. All in all well worth sitting out in the weather.
So I finished the year off with a bang, and it is a good start to the new one. On the plate, depending on the weather, is Baffin, Falcon, maybe Amistad, and Belize. We made our reservations for Belize, and even though it is not until May, I am already excited. So thanks for reading my stuff and we look forward to another great year at Fish Catching Travel.
Good Luck and Tight Lines.
