Post by Administrator on May 8, 2006 2:03:29 GMT -5
So I drove up to Wisconsin at midnight on Friday night after Steve and I waxed em at Kickapoo all day. Doug had just called me and told me that he was headed out to fish local lakes on opening weekend of bass fishing in Wisconsin. I just had to go join him, naturally! On Saturday we had some fun fishing a couple lakes for spawning/pre-spawn bass (yesssir, there were some nice bass on beds in 59-62 degree water!) and caught a few over 16, but a bunch of fish in the 12-15 inch range which was a blast. On Sunday we started off at a tougher lake where the shallow bass were spooky so we decided to make a move that would pay off HUGE! We travelled a half hour west to Lake Delavan...
Off the bat we decided to hit an area near the launch and immediately started to see fish on beds in shallow water in the middle of the weedbeds. We caught one that was just under three after working on it with different creature baits and Doug's Lunker Drop Shot Rig!! More on that later...
Then we moved on and worked a few more beds looking for more active fish, but tempting a few. We caught one that went three and a half on similar baits after working it over for about 40 minutes. I had it finally smoke my bait after about 30 minutes and then it pulled off halfway to the boat. But after only 10 minutes Doug pulled it in on his Lunker Drop Shot Rig, which consisted of a 1 oz tungsten weight tied 8 inches below a drop shot hook and half of a Paca Craw!!! It was a dynamite tandem to my white creature bait and green pumpkin creature bait....we were working on those fish real well together...
So we decided to make a run to another area on the other side of the lake so Doug could run his boat full throttle for the first time and to find some more bedders if possible. We got there in blistering time thanks to his nice new Ranger and 200 hp Yamaha! As were were idling towards the channel I hopped up on the front deck (yes, think KVD DQ incident) and started looking around...I immediately began seeing cleared areas in three feet of water so we cut the motor and put down the TM. I immediately spotted on nice fish that we started to work on and as this was happening, Doug spotted a nice bass off the back deck that was the biggest we had seen all weekend.
We kept working on the smaller one and it eventually bit...just over two and a half. We moved off of the nicer fish which spooked off a little and saw another fish that we started working on. I think Doug nailed this one on a LDSR (see above) after some spanking on that fish. It went just under 2.5 and we were one short of our limit and a kicker. We were measuring these fish on Doug's nice X-Tools Culling System so we had our tournament weight going.
At this point we knew we needed to catch that nice kicker bass to round out our limit after a good day. We turned back and eventually located the bed and the nice fish sitting in the center just ripe for the plucking (sorry Vandy). Doug was rigging something up and so I started working on it with my creature bait combination...I would work it over with the white creature bait to get it ancy and then take care of business with the creature bait while Doug danced his half craw in front of their noses. I immediately got a reaction from the fish after the second pitch through the bed and the fish turned on it. Doug pitched his LDSR this time with a wacky rigged fluke!!! And the fish crushed it and after some strong runs I had it lipped and in the boat. It weighed a nice 5 pounds 1 ounce and rounded out our limit of 16 pounds 8 ounces in only 3 hours and change of fishing!!!
Sorry for the long story, but it was pretty awesome to get out there and have the chance at some quality fish in Wisconsin while every one else fishes for Walleye...but you pay for it in the 50.00 dollar license fee!!
Good luck on finals and keep an eye on the message board for future fishing opportunities with me in the Ranger...maybe even Delavan soon...hmm...
Rob
Off the bat we decided to hit an area near the launch and immediately started to see fish on beds in shallow water in the middle of the weedbeds. We caught one that was just under three after working on it with different creature baits and Doug's Lunker Drop Shot Rig!! More on that later...
Then we moved on and worked a few more beds looking for more active fish, but tempting a few. We caught one that went three and a half on similar baits after working it over for about 40 minutes. I had it finally smoke my bait after about 30 minutes and then it pulled off halfway to the boat. But after only 10 minutes Doug pulled it in on his Lunker Drop Shot Rig, which consisted of a 1 oz tungsten weight tied 8 inches below a drop shot hook and half of a Paca Craw!!! It was a dynamite tandem to my white creature bait and green pumpkin creature bait....we were working on those fish real well together...
So we decided to make a run to another area on the other side of the lake so Doug could run his boat full throttle for the first time and to find some more bedders if possible. We got there in blistering time thanks to his nice new Ranger and 200 hp Yamaha! As were were idling towards the channel I hopped up on the front deck (yes, think KVD DQ incident) and started looking around...I immediately began seeing cleared areas in three feet of water so we cut the motor and put down the TM. I immediately spotted on nice fish that we started to work on and as this was happening, Doug spotted a nice bass off the back deck that was the biggest we had seen all weekend.
We kept working on the smaller one and it eventually bit...just over two and a half. We moved off of the nicer fish which spooked off a little and saw another fish that we started working on. I think Doug nailed this one on a LDSR (see above) after some spanking on that fish. It went just under 2.5 and we were one short of our limit and a kicker. We were measuring these fish on Doug's nice X-Tools Culling System so we had our tournament weight going.
At this point we knew we needed to catch that nice kicker bass to round out our limit after a good day. We turned back and eventually located the bed and the nice fish sitting in the center just ripe for the plucking (sorry Vandy). Doug was rigging something up and so I started working on it with my creature bait combination...I would work it over with the white creature bait to get it ancy and then take care of business with the creature bait while Doug danced his half craw in front of their noses. I immediately got a reaction from the fish after the second pitch through the bed and the fish turned on it. Doug pitched his LDSR this time with a wacky rigged fluke!!! And the fish crushed it and after some strong runs I had it lipped and in the boat. It weighed a nice 5 pounds 1 ounce and rounded out our limit of 16 pounds 8 ounces in only 3 hours and change of fishing!!!
Sorry for the long story, but it was pretty awesome to get out there and have the chance at some quality fish in Wisconsin while every one else fishes for Walleye...but you pay for it in the 50.00 dollar license fee!!
Good luck on finals and keep an eye on the message board for future fishing opportunities with me in the Ranger...maybe even Delavan soon...hmm...
Rob