Cold. Post front (again) post 1.5” of rain. I was anchored on a point with 5-10mph winds and gusts to 15-20 drifting me side to side. Sat there about 20 minutes fishing painfully slow  on the bottom because that’s the only place I’ve marked anything yet. Bait seem to be between 8-15 feet and that’s where I was casting to, working back up to 10 feet right below the kayak. 
 

I started seeing a different looking “spot” on the sonar dead smack on the bottom. Drift left, there’s the spot, drift back right, there it is again. Went this way for about 15 minutes more. Probably drifted over this “weird spot” 10 times every time the wind would gust a different direction. Then I float across it again and this time the “spot” had moved Up! Just a little... 
 

For the past three months or so I’ve kept a crappie jig tied on the ultralite whenever I’m out on the kayak so I can drop into schools and pick off a couple crappie here and there. It’s like playing the lotto though because you never know what you’re gonna get. Sometimes it’s crappie, sometimes a big bluegill, every now and then it’s a bass, but usually tiny. 
 

Drop the crappie jig over the side and let it slowly fall down to about 8 feet. Drift back over the spot, and sure enough the spot starts to come up off the bottom more! Sweet! Play the dangle game on the video screen and watch the mark getting bigger, and bigger, then there’s white space under it and it’s coming up toward the line from my jig... 

 

The tiniest almost imperceptible “tunk” on the line. I fish 8lb braid to a 6 foot 6lb floro leader on this rod, so bites are normally obvious, but not this one. Had to think about it for a second and really watch the end of the rod, then felt a little bit of a pull back down. 
 

Rip the rod up and the poor thing does a 180° U bend and the tip goes for the water and the drag starts screaming! I know what it is at this point, but don’t know how big it is yet. I also know it doesn’t want to come to the surface. It slowly swims a few circles under the kayak as I make a turn of the reel handle every now and then and wait. I reach for the net, yawn, wait some more, it’s finally coming up, then another drag rip and it runs back down to the bottom. Wait some more, swim another circle, wait some more... 

 

Felt like an eternity but was probably only 45 seconds. Short fat 4.5lb bass at 18”

One for the day!  

 

 

Beautiful green fish @Fairtax4me, enjoyed the account of the battle! Thanks for taking the time to share it

Congrats @813basstard! That’s a beast 

We have a 20 degree temperature drop and some precip coming in tomorrow to put an end to the springtime weather we had this past week. I expected that to trigger a great bite and it didn't, but I still found some willing spots on neko rigs to make it well worth heading out.

 

 

 

 

Beautiful fish. I've heard that they fight even harder than smallmouth.

My girlfriend has saturdays off now and agreed to go fishing as long as it was in the pretty mountains. Good call as we caught several fish in 3 hours, mmmmm fried perch. Water temp 48, caught with tube, spoon, drop shot/worm and gulp minnow on jig head 

Through the ice...first bass of 2020 caught on 31 January.

That would be a perfect eater. My last few times ice fishing I started releasing my fish. Then it occurred to me how silly it must look putting fish back in the hole. So I quit ice fishing. (Really because of the cold). I open water fish in the 30's but standing still in single digit weather lost its luster with age.

On 2/1/2020 at 11:53 AM, NorcalBassin said:

We have a 20 degree temperature drop and some precip coming in tomorrow to put an end to the springtime weather we had this past week. I expected that to trigger a great bite and it didn't, but I still found some willing spots on neko rigs to make it well worth heading out.

 

I would have thought they would bite better before the cold front too... It was almost like a false spring weather pattern! Still some nice fish, seems the neko is always a sure bet for some spots. Thanks for all your great Cali posts, I can relate being several hours south of you.

On 2/1/2020 at 2:53 PM, NorcalBassin said:

We have a 20 degree temperature drop and some precip coming in tomorrow to put an end to the springtime weather we had this past week. I expected that to trigger a great bite and it didn't, but I still found some willing spots on neko rigs to make it well worth heading out.

 

 

 

 

Those are gorgeous fish!!

Man I love seeing different stuff. Every bass looks the same down here

Got myself a nice 6.5lber off the dock this evening  That's in my top 5 heaviest bass ever. It's getting harder to make it in my top 5, which I'm happy about  

 

1/2oz queen tackle tungsten flipping jig in black magic, with a 3.5" big bite college craw in hematoma. Quickly becoming a go to setup for me!

Funny day. Had 3.5 hours to kill and it was calling for snow. This one lake about 45 minutes north of my house is pretty much the only clear water left after the latest deluge. It always fishes better in windy cloudy or even snowy weather so I head there. I get there and it’s sunny and cold and the water has risen about 12.5 feet. I’ve always heard that makes the fish go up shallow and eat so I cranked a wiggle wart around to no avail. Back to the trusty gulp minnow on a tight line down deep and finally started getting bites. Couple of dinks, pretty slow so I just sat down on the front deck and was taking it easy. Of course I get a bite and the fish starts pulling pretty hard. I’m afraid to stand up because I’m thinking as soon as I do, it will get slack and shake off somehow. I finally landed an 18.5 inch smallmouth while seated on the boat deck haha. Then a 16”. Meanwhile all my friends are sending me pictures of snow around my house and fellow member @Jermination sends me 1.5 inches on the front of his bass boat! Only about 1-1.5 hours south of me fishing in the sunshine 

Both of my normal days off I got scheduled for training this week (yay!), but thankfully I have a wife that is understanding and saw that the weather was supposed to be nice on Saturday when I was scheduled to have a partial day off to keep me from breaking policy for working too many days in a row, who told me to go fishing. Kind of got the crud right now and couldn't sleep real well. Woke up at 3, laid in bed until 3:30 and gave up trying because it wasn't happening. Tied up some bait orders I had and took off for the lake a little before 5 in the 19* air. Beautiful full moon was shining down on the clear night, and the power plant always looks like something from another planet on a clear night.

Had a little while before the sun was going to be up, so I decided to try the outlet where the water was the warmest. Haven't caught anything at all there this winter, but my second cast with a shallow flicker shad my rod loaded up on a heavy fish and the fight was on for the next few minutes. Hard to tell in the dark, hoping for a big bass but was guessing it was a wiper. Then it got close to the boat and I saw it was coming in sideways, I knew it was a carp then. One neat thing was it turned out to be a mirror carp, don't see them too often.

Nothing else at the outlet, fished along to one of my favorite little points that has a lot of rock and wood that can't be seen above the water. Lots of shad were flipping, started pulling the suspending 6th Sense Quake and had a little guy load up.

Had another one crush it on the pause that didn't hook up, then several cast later when I paused it not far from the boat, it got inhaled.

Nothing else going on there beside a couple swipes and misses. Moved to a steep rock bank and wasn't too long before I caught a little one on a jerkbait. A couple cast later, I got another good one on the jerkbait.

Something about that little 20 yard stretch had them piled up, I caught 8 of my 12 fish right there on a jerkbait or crankbait, including another one that was super fat.

The bite started to slow down and the other boats started showing up since it was getting close to being above freezing I guess. Went back to my point again and first cast with a jerkbait, caught one of the biggest white bass I've ever caught from this lake and one of my biggest white bass ever. Didn't weight it, but around 17" is a huge white bass and it makes the SK 300 jerkbait look little.

Went and fished a long riprap bank trying to decide how long I was going to stay since I needed to get some sleep before work. Switched back and forth between the jerkbait and crankbait without anything happening. Wind had died completely, sun was getting high, not good conditions on this lake so I was thinking about going and getting some sleep. Made a cast with the Frittside and noticed a swirl about halfway back to the boat like a fish had tried for my bait and missed. Made another cast and a heavy fish loaded up. Got her to the boat, and she was hooked right in the tail? Don't know if she was swiping and missed the bait, maybe it popped out during the fight and got hooked in the tail, or just plain got snagged in the tail, but I'll take fat 5.5 pounders however they want to come to the boat.

I piddled around about another hour before I headed home. Lake was getting busy, and I was tired.

Great post! I still don't know how you keep from icing up. 31* and I can't cast or retrieve without warming up my tip every other cast.

I have to do the same. Every few cast I have to dip my rod in the water and blow in the reels line guide to clear the ice. It's even worse here because the steam freezes to everything and makes it ice up faster.

My wife thinks I'm nuts, especially now because I'm fishing with "the crud".

Another good day for smallies! The TN river is a muddy conveyor belt of giant logs so I went to another tributary reservoir that stays clear. There was some current though!

Within the first little bit I got a 19” and 18” smallmouth, both chunky! The wind was supposed to be 3 mph but of course it’s unpredictable in the mountains. We toughed out some more smaller bass and perch before the trolling motor died and went to do more coats of drywall mud at the lake house downstream. 

On 2/9/2020 at 1:23 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Both of my normal days off I got scheduled for training this week (yay!), but thankfully I have a wife that is understanding and saw that the weather was supposed to be nice on Saturday when I was scheduled to have a partial day off to keep me from breaking policy for working too many days in a row, who told me to go fishing. Kind of got the crud right now and couldn't sleep real well. Woke up at 3, laid in bed until 3:30 and gave up trying because it wasn't happening. Tied up some bait orders I had and took off for the lake a little before 5 in the 19* air. Beautiful full moon was shining down on the clear night, and the power plant always looks like something from another planet on a clear night.

Had a little while before the sun was going to be up, so I decided to try the outlet where the water was the warmest. Haven't caught anything at all there this winter, but my second cast with a shallow flicker shad my rod loaded up on a heavy fish and the fight was on for the next few minutes. Hard to tell in the dark, hoping for a big bass but was guessing it was a wiper. Then it got close to the boat and I saw it was coming in sideways, I knew it was a carp then. One neat thing was it turned out to be a mirror carp, don't see them too often.

Nothing else at the outlet, fished along to one of my favorite little points that has a lot of rock and wood that can't be seen above the water. Lots of shad were flipping, started pulling the suspending 6th Sense Quake and had a little guy load up.

Had another one crush it on the pause that didn't hook up, then several cast later when I paused it not far from the boat, it got inhaled.

Nothing else going on there beside a couple swipes and misses. Moved to a steep rock bank and wasn't too long before I caught a little one on a jerkbait. A couple cast later, I got another good one on the jerkbait.

Something about that little 20 yard stretch had them piled up, I caught 8 of my 12 fish right there on a jerkbait or crankbait, including another one that was super fat.

The bite started to slow down and the other boats started showing up since it was getting close to being above freezing I guess. Went back to my point again and first cast with a jerkbait, caught one of the biggest white bass I've ever caught from this lake and one of my biggest white bass ever. Didn't weight it, but around 17" is a huge white bass and it makes the SK 300 jerkbait look little.

Went and fished a long riprap bank trying to decide how long I was going to stay since I needed to get some sleep before work. Switched back and forth between the jerkbait and crankbait without anything happening. Wind had died completely, sun was getting high, not good conditions on this lake so I was thinking about going and getting some sleep. Made a cast with the Frittside and noticed a swirl about halfway back to the boat like a fish had tried for my bait and missed. Made another cast and a heavy fish loaded up. Got her to the boat, and she was hooked right in the tail? Don't know if she was swiping and missed the bait, maybe it popped out during the fight and got hooked in the tail, or just plain got snagged in the tail, but I'll take fat 5.5 pounders however they want to come to the boat.

I piddled around about another hour before I headed home. Lake was getting busy, and I was tired.

shhhh with the suspending lipless talk. I don't miss my cotton cordell suspending super spots after finding those 6th sense & IMA ones a couple months ago  

So proud of my little guy. He shattered his PB on Sunday afternoon. He had been bugging me since Saturday to hit the lake. With the wind as bad as it was and the cold nights I didn't want to bother. I just got him a new Tatula rod and reel combo he's been wanting to try. I told him we're not going to catch anything and he said he didn't care he just wanted to be out there and try his combo. Sunday he finally talked me into hitting our little spot out in the woods. On his second cast with a Storm wildeye swimbait(of all baits) he hooked up with this beauty. It weighed in at just over 6lbs! His previous PB was 4.5 lbs. Tight lines and take those kids out fellas. 

 

 

Congrats to him!!! Not only did he break his record but he also learned never to assume anything about bass behavior and go when you get the chance!

Yes sir, you are absolutely correct! I have been fishing for 30 years and I still can't get that listen through my hard head.?

February night time bass on a Matt Lures 6" Hard Gill.

Shellcracker G2 gettin it done.

 

Temp got down to 1* on my way to the lake. Climbed all the way up to 9* by the time I got to the ramp. It was tough fighting wind, ice, and frozen fingers, but I did manage to get bit, including my first 2 smallies of the year. Only took a couple pictures because I didn't want to keep the fish out of the water long in those frigid temps.