I had a hankering for fresh fish and needed to write a report so I hooked the boat to the truck and hit the lake yesterday for a few hours. The air was a bit nippy, but I found the fish fairly agreeable. I caught 8 keeper (10") Crappie, quite a few shorts, 3 nice (2.5 to 3 LB) Smallmouth, 2 Spotted Bass, 1 Largemouth, and at least a dozen Yellow Bass. I caught everything on a blue-green 3/32oz hair jig, fished with 4LB test on a 7ft Ultra Light St. Croix rod. Believe me….those Smallmouth gave quite a tussle on light gear. Julie (my wife) and I agreed that we had never eaten better fish than those cold water Crappie.
Every fish I caught with the exception of the Largemouth came on similar structure. Boat sitting in 22ft to 26ft of water, casting to 14ft, SLOW retrieve. The most good-sized fish I graphed were in 26ft of water. Yet I saw minnows skipping shallow on black chunk rock deep banks and caught a 13" Largemouth there.
I've been spending a fair bit of time putting brush piles out so my clients and I will have some new places to fish. I look forward to seeing you this year and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Capt Kirk, out!
P.S. I hear some big Largemouth have been caught on crank baits and jerk baits and jigs. From my experience, this time of year bass fishing usually doesn't yield large numbers, but often a few large fish!
