Minnesota Bass Opener Round 4

This morning Pete decided not to come out with me. Conditions were over cast and breezy out of the SE. I fished from around 8AM to 11AM.

After Pete caught a 17+ Largie in a big reed bed last night I made that my starting spot. About 1/3 to 1/2 of the reeds were exposed to the wind. Also of note is the reeds in this bed are not old growth but new growth sticking 1 to 2 feet above the water. For the most part their were not any areas where the reeds were super thick and close together although areas that seemed to hold a higher concentration of reeds seemed to hold the fish.

I started out using a 1/2oz all white Strike King spinnerbait but that didn't produce a thing. I might have gotten 1 smaller bass on a 3/16oz white Strike King Spinnerbait. The lure that did almost all the damage in the reed bed was a brown/blue Outcast Swim Jig with green Berkley Powerbait Grub trailer.

One of my first fish was this nice 26 inch Pike:

I think it was the only Pike I got in the reed bed.

This 16.5" bass was my biggest out of the Reed Bed and I think for the entire weekend:


Obviously there were some fish in the big reed bed but I didn't find any good concentration and the fishing was steady but slow. It also didn't help that I missed several bites. I did lose 1 nice bass that was hooked up and jumped.

On my first pass in the reeds I tended to stay closer to shore and on the 2nd pass I stayed towards the outside edge not getting anything.

Next I moved towards the shoreline where are cabin is starting a 1/4 mile East of our place near the dock and weeds Pete caught one of his 3lbers last night. This area was protected from the wind. I started out throwing a black/chart DM Custom Baits Piranha with watermelon Yamamoto Swim Senko as a trailer. The pike seemed to like it and I pulled in a nice one real quick then I missed a couple. I switched over to a Zoom Horny Toad and got a mix of bass and pike. When I got over by Jenny's the fish seemed to shut off and I don't think I got a bite from Jenny's to our place.

For the morning I got 5 pike and 8 bass, 6 of the bass where 13" or bigger and the other two were just under 12". One pike was 11 inches and the rest were over 22".