The bite has been off a bit. Although it wasn't a stellar day, it was a decent day during a tough bite.
I have been able to catch bass on both a 4" and 2.5" tube in two different colors. Three smallies came on a 3/8th oz. short arm spinnerbait that Al Winco and I are field testing right now. He has named it the "Bronze Bushwhacker" ("Boyd Fantasy" model) and it caught my largest fish today... a 17 3/4" smallie that was hiding in and among some boulders in about 4' of very clear water.
The morning air temp was much colder today than yesterday. I had 37 degrees this morning when I left home at 6:15 a.m. Yesterday's air temp was 45 degrees at the same time. However, yesterday I had the wind to contend with and today was a lot calmer.
The water temp in both locations ran from 49.7 degrees and, as the day progressed, rose to 53 degrees. We had high and low level clouds both days with the sun playing hide and seek with us. When it was out, it was nice and warm. :)
Over the past two days, we threw tubes, jerkbaits, crankbaits, and the short-armed spinnerbait.
We hit a favorite fall spot today and landed only two smallies. However, my two favorite moments for today happened there. I was using a 2.5" tube and cast it along a large lay down. I played the tube for a bit and started to retrieve it. Out of the depth (14') came a nice big smallie following my tube. I let the tube die immediately, but the bass caught sight of us and quickly retreated back into the darkness by the tree.
About 30 minutes of fishing this area and only catching a 13", Josh was ready to move on. As he stowed the TM and headed back to the console to sit, the boat drifted towards the lay down. It was like the tree was calling to me trying to entice me to make one more cast and I, of course, did. We actually settled onto the lay down and it held us in place. I slowly jigged the tube once and then twice saying to Josh, "Wouldn't it be neat if we nailed a fish while sitting here on this tree? Wait, there's one!" Josh thought I was pulling his leg and said "No, you don't have one!" Just then, the bass took a flying leap into the air and we both had a good laugh. :D
It's always fun to fish with Josh. These types of things seem to happen to us a lot and make for good memories.
Right before we caught that fish, we spied the second mink of the day swimming in our fishing hole. I told Josh that that one was our "good luck" mink and I guess she was. ;)
I ended yesterday with 7 bass with the biggest being this 16" chunk. She came just off the shoreline in about 5' of water among chunk rock.
Al has been fishing the NB since Sunday. He called me yesterday to tell me he had his first JB and Bronze Bushwhacker, All other smallies had come off plastics. SO he encouraged me to try the short armed spinnerbait once again. Here is the result of those efforts.
I am still hoping for a nice jerkbait bite to return. The water temp is almost perfect, but the bass may be off a bit because of the fluctuating temps(?).
dadTB
