Minnesocold Bass Opener Round One

I woke up just before 4AM, so I beat my alarm clocks by 25 minutes. I decided to get up and get ready. I knew Pete, like me, got to bed after 1AM so I thought I would just let him sleep and I would go out and then probably meet him on the lake. I think I left the house around 4:40AM forgetting a ball cap and my Cocoons sunglasses. I realised I didn't have the sunglasses when I was loading the boat. I pretty much had everything loaded when the cell phone rang.

Oh coarse it was Pete. Apparently his dog Sandy must have heard me pulling out of the driveway and started barking, that or she desperately needed to be let outside because of the runs. Anyway Pete was on his way with Sandy who would come along with us.

I am pretty sure we were underway to the Sullivan Platte River mouth by 5:30. As we got a clear view of the area it looked like we were going to be the boat with first crack, however, when we arrived at the mouth there was another boat already 75 yards into the river. Ohh well, beat to the spot yet again.

It didn't take long and Pete had the 1st bass on a buzzbait.

I tried a Horny Toad and Strike King Pure Poison chatterjig over some of the river mouth sweet spots but couldn't get a fish. I did hook up with my first bass when we had moved a little East of the mouth on the North Shore line.

Here is #1 for Me

I was kind of lucky to catch the 14 incher because I was using a brown/blue Monsoor Swim Jig with green pumpkin Zoom Speed Craw and I got distracted by something and let the jig fall slack. When I picked it back up there was weight on the line, so I set the hook and BAM first bass of the season. For the next several hours Pete and I worked the weed flat I call the Sullivan Platte River Outlet(SPRO). We fished from about a foot of water to maybe 5 feet deep amongst emerging pads, wild rice, some curly leaf pond weed, and cabbage. Pete's hot bait was a pink Terminator spinnerbait which caught him our biggest bass and a 27 inch pike. Pete ended up with 20 bass with one close to or maybe over 17" as the biggest.

We took the picture but didn't measure it.

As for myself I probably threw a Zoom Horny Toad most, then the Monsoor Swim Jig, then a white/silver 3/16oz Strike King Spinnerbait catching fish on all of them. It was not a good morning for big fish as my biggest bass was 15.75" and I think I got it on the Horny Toad. My biggest 5 were 15.75", 15.5", 14.5", 14.25" and 14". I caught 12 bass 12 inches or bigger, 9 bass between 10" and 11.75", one dink at 8.5" and I had 3 bass that I long lined released close enough to the boat to count. That puts my tally at 25 bass and 1 Pike.

We headed back in at 11am and the morning water temps were 60-61 degrees. Our best action was before 9:30AM.