Spring Bass

[Deltaman]

Water temps are getting right, and seeing 62-64 degrees in most places I fish. Left work early yesterday, hooked up the little boat, and headed to the causeway to meet one of my brothers. With the rivers super high from all of the upstate rain runoff, having enough water over the grass was a non-issue. Despite the neapping tide, we still managed to box 2 shy of a limit (18), and quit around 6:00 p.m.. Nothing quite like catching bass on a spinnerbait, and as I laid in bed before dozing off last night, was still catching them in my mind! Was a fun afternoon, and always enjoy a "brother" trip!

[Darren]

Very nice! Do you get gnats in that causeway/marsh area like we do here in coastal La?

March is always known for horrendous gnats in the marsh as we start to warm up (and fishing gets good). Lately it's been foggy and warm each morning, not much wind......gnats thick. I try to go later in morning when it warms a bit more and usually more wind.

Itching to get out, may have to go ride out the Corona down at Shell beach camp.

[Deltaman]

Darren, we don't get the gnats bad along our causeway, but a little further North in the delta, we deal with what the folks call "bull gnats", and they are horrendous biting bastages that swarm. My brother-in-law built a camp up that way last year, and learned from the locals, that a cheap, vanilla body scent (Body Fantasies), found at the Dollar General and a few other stores, is the only thing they found that works (reminds me of the fix in South LA, where the locals told me to use Victoria Secret's Amber Romance for the mosquitoes, and many years ago here, people swore by Avon's Skin so Soft). BIL says you smell good, and it keeps the Gnats off. He said that once Spring fishing gets right, you cannot find the spray, which prompted me to do some searching. I found at the Dollar General, at the end of an aisle/in a display, and probably worth the effort for you to check it out if you plan to get out while riding out the Corona.

[Darren]

Darren, we don't get the gnats bad along our causeway, but a little further North in the delta, we deal with what the folks call "bull gnats", and they are horrendous biting bastages that swarm. My brother-in-law built a camp up that way last year, and learned from the locals, that a cheap, vanilla body scent (Body Fantasies), found at the Dollar General and a few other stores, is the only thing they found that works (reminds me of the fix in South LA, where the locals told me to use Victoria Secret's Amber Romance for the mosquitoes, and many years ago here, people swore by Avon's Skin so Soft). BIL says you smell good, and it keeps the Gnats off. He said that once Spring fishing gets right, you cannot find the spray, which prompted me to do some searching. I found at the Dollar General, at the end of an aisle/in a display, and probably worth the effort for you to check it out if you plan to get out while riding out the Corona.

Dryer sheets are somewhat effective as well, but yea Amber Romance (or any vanilla-like spray) works well. I still don't fool with them though.....

[Rick]

...Nothing quite like catching bass on a spinnerbait, and as I laid in bed before dozing off last night, was still catching them in my mind!...

My Capt. Rick phase broke me of fishing long ago. But what I remember dropping off to wasn't bull reds (or damn jacks) stripping line, sow trout trying to stun topwaters or big ling rising out of the dark to take a purple Mann worm. Was tiny slip corks dropping out of sight over spring bream beds time and time again. Makes me smile just to type it.

[SpinnerMan]

Nothing quite like catching bass on a spinnerbait

buzzbaits, topwater

The coolest thing I've ever done fishing. There was a low head dam on the Susquehanna. I used to wade on top of it. The joke about the Susquehanna is that it is a mile wide and a foot deep. Summer, the water going over the dam was about a foot deep. But below the dam was about 4' and a lot of fish congregated there because it was well aerated. Chuck a big spinnerbait downstream and reel it back towards you. When it hit the turbulence below the dam, if you had a musky following it, it would get pissed and come flying out of the water often just a few feet from you. The only problem is they nearly always missed the bait as it bounced chaotically. Cool as hell to see a fish around 2.5 - 3' long or better come flying out of the water a few feet from you. Eventually got very frustrating as I never caught a decent sized one. Had one legit 50"+ come out of the water after my bait. I was shocked by the monster. When my Uncle without any prompting from me said "it wasn't that big" or something along those lines I knew it was I did lose one nice one because I was being Mr. sportsman and was trying to land him without busting him up on the rocks. Biggest one I actually landed was only about 2'.

[Rick]

Though I've had similar big muskie misses below the most downstream of Ohio's Muskingum River dams (and caught big-assed flatheads there), the most fun dam fishing I've had was in the tail-race of an Ohio River navigational dam, where I'd chunk flat Hopkins' jigging spoons as far out across the fast water as I could on light tackle as I could, trip the bail and watch big white bass and hybrids slash at it as it skipped across the surface until one would finally catch it and peel line downstream to the eddy. And when I finally tired of that, a yellow jig would find sauger and walleyes for supper in the eddy.

Probably the most of thought about fishing in years...

[SpinnerMan]

where I'd chunk flat Hopkins' jigging spoons as far out across the fast water as I could on light tackle as I could, trip the bail and watch big white bass and hybrids slash at it as it skipped across the surface until one would finally catch it and peel line downstream to the eddy.

That made me think of one of the funniest things I've seen fishing. I was fishing a bay on a huge reservoir on the Savannah River in SC (Clark's Hill if I remember correctly). Big flat shallow sandy bay. Looked better as a beach than a fishing spot. I saw a nice striper (maybe 10 lbs or so) cruise by. I quick look through everything I have with me to see if I have anything with me big enough to interest him. All I have that is close is a decent sized Johnson's Silver Minnow. Make some casts, but no luck. However, there is a school of little white bass or maybe yellow bass that attack the spoon. I've waded out to where the waters about mid thigh. I keep skipping the spoon on top getting a kick out of these aggressive fish whacking it even though it's way bigger than anything they can eat.

After doing this for a little while, one of the little guys impales himself on the hook. He's shaking on the end of my line. Well the striper hadn't left town. He comes charging in to grab the struggling the fish. The little white bass sees him coming and heads for cover. Except the only cover in this sandy bay is me and he goes right between my legs with the striped bass hot on his tail

[Rick]

Now, if the spoon's hook snagged you and the stripper then ate the white bass...

(I'm leaving it to others to decide if it would be funnier, yet.)

[SpinnerMan]

Now, if the spoon's hook snagged you and the stripper then ate the white bass...

(I'm leaving it to others to decide if it would be funnier, yet.)

My Dad made a funny one about how things could have gone badly if the water was a little deeper and he got the worm.