Initially I wasn't going to post a thread because...  I didn't take any pictures.  There also wasn't much of a story or anything to talk about aside from a few things.

 

But I figured I'd do it anyway, just to keep up practice if nothing else.

 

So, brother and I hit up Dow Lake yesterday in the afternoon when he got off work.  Got to the lake around 4:00pm.

 

Started fishing our usual spot, a wind-blown point near the top of the lake with shallow bits on either side.  Didn't have much luck.  Started off with a 3/8oz chatterbait in black/blue.  Brother started out with a 1/2oz Red Eye Shad in what looked like Perch.

 

I then swapped over to a Rebel Pop-R topwater just to get re-acquainted with the technique.  Brother then switched to a Rat-L-Trap in orange crawdad or something like that.  He also tossed a chatterbait. 

 

I didn't hit anything with the top so I switched over to a SPRO BBZ-1 baby shad 2.5".  I'm not sure what was going on with it, but it seems out of balance as it wasn't swimming correctly.  I tried with a snap and then tied on directly with a P-line CXX 8lb leader.  It was a bit ****-eyed and it's swimming motion wasn't until it was traveling quite quickly.

 

Despite this, I actually landed my first bass of 2017 with it.  Fish waited until the last second to make a strike.

 

 

You can see (I think) that it was actually hooked from the outside rather than in its mouth.  So I think it  was following it in and made a last-ditch effort to eat it but missed and got two of the trebles hooked from the outside.

 

Regardless, got it unhooked and let 'em go and he swam off.

 

We then decided to move down a ways as we were seeing some surface strikes near us.

 

Brother put on the purple Rapala Joined Minnow and I kept at it with the SPRO. 

 

Brother managed to hook TWO fish but both of them were as the lure was almost reeled in and both fish managed to throw the hook - whether it was the same fish or not, we'll never know.  But it's by far the most action either of us have managed anywhere.

 

After that we decided to move down to the floating dock where folks offload from their boats and give it a shot.  Brother put the chatterbait back on and I tried out the Ned rig as well as the SPRO.  Didn't land anything either here and around 7:00 decided to call it a day.

 

So, last week my brother caught his first bass of the year and yesterday I landed my first of the year.  With a little luck, the Clark Fork pontoon will still be on sale next week and my brother will most likely buy one when he gets paid on Friday.  Then we can really see what we can find!

Stay tuned!

Nice going, looks like the action is picking up and you've found places with bass!  Bass will often strike a lure right near shore when you're about to reel in and lift your lure out to re-cast.  I catch a lot of fish throwing a squarebill like this - bass will chase shad/baitfish all the way up to the shore where you'll see bass jumping a foot or two from shore at times so this is natural behavior.