Bass Fishing

Be still my heart, I’ve been bass fishing. The sun, the breeze, casting to shore. I love it!

Mostly sunny, 77*, a lot of wind out of the northeast. We waited a few hours longer than planned to put the boat in the water for the first time this year because of the wind. It calmed down by early afternoon but was still blowing harder than I like when I’m bass fishing. I wasn’t willing to skip fishing and settle for just a ride. Fishing for brookies is fun but I’m a die-hard bass fan.

It took three or four lures to figure out what they were biting. The Rebel Wee Crawfish dives five to seven feet. I tossed it toward shore to edge of drop offs and reel. It weighs one-fifth of an ounce so it was hard to cast with accuracy in the wind. It wasn’t what the fishing were looking for today.

Next up, I switched to a Heddon Sonar 443. It’s red and white. This lure has three tie-on holes for casting, jigging and trolling. I used the front hole for shallow water, and it still dropped down more than I wanted but the vibration it produces was great. I knew I was hitting good spots but wasn’t getting any strikes so I switched after ten minutes.

When we moved out of the wind (Steve drove but didn’t fish.) I changed to the green Rebel Bumble Bug. It’s ultralight at 7/64ths ounce and not a lot of fun to cast. I tired of that after a few short casts. If you have tips on casting very light lures I’d love to hear them. 

And then, the lure of the day. I caught a chain pickerel on the third cast of a Heddon Baby Bass Torpedo. It’s always fun to hook and land a fish but pickerel aren’t really a fun fish to reel in. They don’t fight much and don’t jump. There’s no challenge until you get them in the book and have to take them off the hook…or as this one was caught, hooks.

Smallmouth bass

A few casts later I landed a 10″ smallmouth bass. It took me a little longer than I’d have liked to free the fish because I’m as careful as possible around gills but I got the pictured hook out, removed the two in its mouth, and released the bass. I have a love/hate relationship with treble hooks.

I missed a decent fish twice and it wasn’t willing to give me a third try. Small bass bumped the Torpedo but didn’t bite. The last fish of the day was a nice smallmouth, 14-15 inches, with a lot of parasites. We released all of today’s fish. Eventually we’ll keep some for supper and the freezer.

My tip: the fish were barely off shore today. It didn’t look like there was enough water for 10-15 inch fish but that’s where they were (including the pickerel). Cast to dark spots as close to shore as possible and let the lure sit for five or six seconds before you move it. If they’re there and haven’t hit it in that time they’re not going to. Start reeling.