Tweet
A couple more firsts at St. Mary's Lake, 3/15
I went for a quick 2 hour trip after work this evening. I planned on hunting for crappie, but I got distracted by some bass action. I thought I'd throw some bigger lures to see if I could scare up any more decent bass. I had bought a chatterbait last fall for snakeheads, so I thought I'd give that a try. On the second cast, a 15" pickerel nailed it, which surprised me. It was really skinny for its size and had kind of an overly large head. Anyway, it was the first fish on a new type of lure for me:
It looked like an eagle or osprey took a shot at it. There were several scrapes and punctures along the side. I had a couple more hits that didn't connect, but they were probably smaller fish that couldn't get the hook in their mouth. As a side not, chatterbaits aren't as snag-proof as the packaging claims.
I've gotten cavalier about throwing lures into brush piles, and my new lure with only 7 or 8 casts on it was irretrievably snagged after casting into a relatively sparse submerged tree top. I even got out of my yak and pulled up the little tree that I snagged on, but the lure wasn't there. 
Weird.
I talked to a guy at the boat ramp who had been slaying the bass on an unweighted fluke/bass assassin. I left all mine at home in my saltwater tackle, but I had a couple paddle tail assassins with me. The bass took that pretty eagerly:
I caught 8 bass in fairly short order. This was the first time I had used an unweighted lure like this. It was pretty cool. I missed three other fish and lost 2 at the boat. All were the typical small bass found in the lake. Is there a trick to maintaining contact with the lure? I was using a jerk-pause retrieve, and the fish were hitting it on the pause. I couldn't tell there was a fish on it until I jerked it for the next sequence, which jerked it out of the fish's mouth or resulted in a lame hook set. Any tips?
Even though it was cloudy and the sun was setting, I couldn't draw any strikes on a popper, which was unexpected. I struck out with a bigger spinnerbait, too.
Anyway, it was good evening out, and it was cool using different techniques. All the fish were caught in 3ft of water or less. I forgot to look at the temperature on my fish finder, but wading to launch the yak wasn't too bad. I would guess the water temp was at least 50*, if not more.
It looked like an eagle or osprey took a shot at it. There were several scrapes and punctures along the side. I had a couple more hits that didn't connect, but they were probably smaller fish that couldn't get the hook in their mouth. As a side not, chatterbaits aren't as snag-proof as the packaging claims.
I've gotten cavalier about throwing lures into brush piles, and my new lure with only 7 or 8 casts on it was irretrievably snagged after casting into a relatively sparse submerged tree top. I even got out of my yak and pulled up the little tree that I snagged on, but the lure wasn't there. Weird.I talked to a guy at the boat ramp who had been slaying the bass on an unweighted fluke/bass assassin. I left all mine at home in my saltwater tackle, but I had a couple paddle tail assassins with me. The bass took that pretty eagerly:
I caught 8 bass in fairly short order. This was the first time I had used an unweighted lure like this. It was pretty cool. I missed three other fish and lost 2 at the boat. All were the typical small bass found in the lake. Is there a trick to maintaining contact with the lure? I was using a jerk-pause retrieve, and the fish were hitting it on the pause. I couldn't tell there was a fish on it until I jerked it for the next sequence, which jerked it out of the fish's mouth or resulted in a lame hook set. Any tips?
Even though it was cloudy and the sun was setting, I couldn't draw any strikes on a popper, which was unexpected. I struck out with a bigger spinnerbait, too.
Anyway, it was good evening out, and it was cool using different techniques. All the fish were caught in 3ft of water or less. I forgot to look at the temperature on my fish finder, but wading to launch the yak wasn't too bad. I would guess the water temp was at least 50*, if not more.
Comment