Megabass Mille LacK of Action

Today I got all 3 of my Megabass lures I won on Ebay from Japan. I headed out to Eddy's Jetty on Mille Lacs to try the firetiger Pop Max and the yellowish brown Pop X along with the Payo Buzzjet and a bunch of my other topwater lures. Unfortunately there were just not any smallies to be fooled tonight.

The Megabass Pop Max is an interesting lure. You can work it as a popper or with a quick light bouncing action it walks the dog in a really tight pattern. The lure rolls as it walks. I wasn't nearly as enamored with the smaller Megabass Pop X. There was a bit of a chop on the water and it was a challenge to work the thing properly. From what I could tell you have to be kind of gentle to work it right. On a number of retrieves I was getting fouled up with the front hook.

I did head to Cemetery Jetty but between the mosquito's and the overgrown weeds I decided it wasn't worth it to try and get out on it.

Evening on Platte

I left to the lake around 3:30PM and first hit up Jenny's from shore, nothing. I then went and got the boat ready fishing the area around the dock pretty good, no hits. Conditions were sunny with a strong wind out of the SE.

Once I got out in the boat I headed just a little to the East and started fishing the rice edge with my new Payo Buzzjet Jr. At first I don't think I was doing a very good job of working the lure. Due to the wind I was getting blown along fairly quickly. Once I got around the little point at the entrance to our bay I was out of the wind. I decided with the high water to stay shallow right up by shore. I got my first fish on the Buzzjet Jr., which was just a little dude.
I kept working along the shore and maybe 150yards down I had this 14.5" smash the Buzzjet Jr.

Eventually I got past a little pad field to where the docks start in earnest. I think at the 2nd dock I skipped my bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke under a boat lift and I pulled out this 17"

After landing the fish I got situated and cast up under the boat lift again and pulled out a 14+".

On the next dock by the boat lift I caught a dink on the Buzzjet Jr. even smaller than that first one I got. I think I missed a couple of bites under the boat lift on this dock. On the next dock I pulled a 13+" and 15+" with the Fluke. Around this time it started getting pretty overcast. On the next couple of docks I pulled a 14+" and this 17.5" off boat lifts on a Texas rigged black/blue Crawtube.
The 17.5" was my big fish of the night; I missed the fish once as it bit and let go before I set the hook, so I pitched back into the same spot between the dock and the boat lift and got her.

I fished about 5 more docks without getting any hits, so I decided with about an hour of sunlight left to hit the slop on Loon Sex Point. I decided to start down along the last 3 docks before the slop starts. Nothing on the docks. I had worked my way maybe 30 yards up into the slop when I had a hit. I let it take the Zoom Horny Toad for several seconds and then set the hook. I missed the fish. I re-rigged the toad and cast back over the same spot and had a nice bass come out of the water but not hook up. I cast back again and this time caught a 13+" fish. I know the one that came out of the water after the toad was bigger so I cast back over the spot and sure enough I got another hit and hooked up. This bass was just under 15". About 2/3 of the way up the point I had a blow up in a shallow pocket, but I missed it. Didn't get any hits off the end of the point.

In the last bit of daylight I worked the wind blown rice/weed edges with the Buzzjet Jr. and Horny Toad. I had one little pike after the Toad and that was it.

All in all, not a bad night.

Snatcher Washburn Lake Tournament

Note-Washburn Lake is made up of 3 distinct basins (West, North, East)

Conditions for the day would be a little hazy for about the first hour giving way to sun and wind 12-20MPH out of the S or SW.

A number of our guys were none too pleased with the welcoming committee at the public access. Basically, a number of people from the Washburn Lake Association wanted to make sure we weren't bringing any exotic species to their lake. The lake already has Milfoil in it. Apparently, they also quizzed some of our guys about what lakes they have had their boats in recently.

We blasted off around 10 to 8AM from the Public Access on the South end of the East basin. My boater Darren and I headed North to a large rice and pad bed in the East basin. The wind was blowing close to 10mph at this point. I quickly switched from a white Spro Bronzeye Frog to a white Zoom Horny Toad because the slop wasn't the thickest stuff in the world and there were lots of open pockets. About 15 minutes into the day I landed a 13.75" largie. About 2 minutes later I had a blow-up that didn't get the Toad. I cast right back to the area and let the Horny Toad sink in a whole and sure enough, it got picked up and I put a 14.75" in the boat. Right after that, my partner Darren missed a blow-up on his black Spro Frog. At one point we worked our way down a lane in the weeds towards a beaver hut. I made a cast to the South into another open lane in the weeds and had a good blow up that didn't hook up. I cast back to the spot and got a good backlash. Right as I got done pulling out the backlash I realized a fish was running with the Toad. I set the hook and landed a 11.5" which was a short fish (12" minimum length). We kind of got stuck for a couple of minutes but eventually were able to get away from the beaver hut. We worked out way down a trail in the weeds but it was super shallow and we didn't get nothing.

Next, we headed off to some docks in the channel between the West and North basins where my boater had success in pre-fish. We were between docks where there were reeds and pads when Darren said he had a bite. At the time I was throwing a texas rigged junebug Crawtube out into the lake. I switched directions and started pitching the Crawtube into the pads. Sure enough, I had a pickup and I brought in a 15.5". We kept working down the shore and I started throwing a white Strike King Burner spinnerbait out into the lake. I got a hit and brought in a 12.75" bass. Eventually, we worked our way into a little bay. When we didn't get anything there we headed out to work a rock pile in the West basin.  I started out throwing the spinnerbait and had a couple of hits that didn't hook up. Eventually, I got a very small pike. When we got on the backside of the rock pile where Darren had gotten a couple of bites in pre-fish. I switched up to the Crawtube. Darren caught a rock bass, then I caught a pike. We worked the area good, but no bass.

Next, we headed to go hit a fallen tree where Darren got a good bass in pre-fish. We actually started a little North of the tree at the first dock on that side of the bay. There were good looking emergent and submerged weeds here and I got hit right by the boat on the spinnerbait by what I'm guessing was a little pike. We got to the tree and Darren got the first crack at it. Eventually, I started pitching a black/blue Crawtube to the tree and on about the 3rd pitch I had a fish nail it. I set the hook and it was a good one.  18.5" and it would go 4lbs even. We kept working down the shoreline and I got a little pike. We were not getting any bites, so we headed to the other side of the bay to work the weedline and docks where Darren had gotten a number of bass in pre-fish. I pulled a couple of pike off the reeds weedline transition and then we got into fishing docks. On about the 6th dock I had a bad skip that went through and then under the dock. Sure enough, a fish picked up my Zoom Super Fluke. I set the hook, but being that my line was over part of the underside of the dock I didn't get a good set and the fish came up and got off. I ended up hanging on the dock, so we had to go get me un-hung. That would be the only bite we would get on a dock. We did fish several more docks and then we decided to make a move to another rock pile.

I started throwing a Mann's Baby Minus One and got a little dink of a pike. Next, I tried some topwater, then I switched up to a mushroom jig with a wacky rigged Zoom Z-Nail. I had a pike steal my jig. We worked this area hard as my Ace in the Hole said this was his favorite rock pile, but we came up empty.

Next, we headed off to find a dock that was recommended. I am not sure we found the right dock. It was about 1PM and Darren informed me that the trolling motor was losing power. We fished a little pad filled bay that was out of the wind. It looked awesome but there weren't any fish.

Next, we headed to the slop in the NW corner of the West Basin. It was a challenge working in this stuff with a dying trolling motor but at first, the wind actually helped us a little bit. I was fishing with an albino Spro Bronzeye and I had a fish just bump the lure in the duckweed. I cast back to the spot and very slowly worked the frog. Sure enough, it took it and I landed my limit fish, which was 14.5". The wind was starting to be our enemy and Darren missed a good blow-up on his black Spro. Right after that I had a blow-up and landed a 14.25". At this point, Darren was really struggling with the wind and we almost got stuck in the junk.

Basically, we were not sure what to do next so we headed to the SE end of the lake and just started a controlled drift down the East side of the West Lake. I got a couple of pike on the spinnerbait, I switched up to a white Pointer 100 but couldn't get bit on that, so I switched to a black/blue Strike King Pure Poison chatter jig. I got a couple of pike on that. Darren caught a couple of pike on a spinnerbait. I had a big pike hit but not hook up on the Burner spinnerbait. With about 1/2 an hour left we decided to head back and try the shallow pads by the access. I did get a hit on my Spro, but I think it was something small. And that was it.

Results:
As I wrote before my big one was 4lbs even and my bag went 12lbs 13ozs and was good for 4th Place, which equals my best showing of last year and this ties for my 2nd best result in the club. My poor partner Darren got skunked. The Tournament was won by Nate Steinbauer with 14lbs 11ozs and big bass was 4lbs 6ozs. I believe 1 smallmouth was weighed and a couple of guys caught them in practice.

Analysis: I fished clean other than missing that one at the dock. If we had not lost trolling motor power I think I would have probably done even better. Unfortunately, the bass just didn't seem to be chasing on the weedline and flats and that drifting in the wind was totally unproductive. How I wish we had made a move to a pad area my Ace in Hole informed me about. This spot was out of the wind and on our way in we watched one of our boats pull a good fish from the spot and they got another good one right after that.

I want to say a BIG THANKS to my "Ace in the Hole" Bob Downey of B3 blog for giving me excellent info about the lake.

Next Tournament: Serpent Lake (With a very good showing at Serpent I could move into the coveted Club Top 6 for the year. Currently I am in 8th, which is the highest I've ever been ranked)

A little "Big Sexy"

Today I got out for a little big of shore fishing on Platte Lake. I only had one hit and it was while casting off our neighbor Jim's dock. I did catch the bass and it was about 14". The camera was in the car but at the time I was in bare feet because Jim's dock is partly under water. I figured it was too much hassle to go and put my shoes on and run to the car for a picture. So far I am 3 for 4 on Mad Maxx strikes where the fish gets the lure in it's mouth.

If you didn't guess I got it on the Tru-Tungsten Mad Maxx in "Big Sexy" color.

Mad Maxx- In the Mail to On the Water.

Today my shipment of Tru-Tungsten Mad Maxx frog arrived from Bass Tackle Depot and tonight I got to try them out. I got out for about an hour up until dark.

My first stop was off the shore at Jenny's. Right away I was impressed with how far the frog casts. I don't know how much the frog weighs because it doesn't say on the package and I haven't been able to find that info online. Maybe I can't throw it as far as a Spro but what other frog does?

When I tied it up I cut the legs a little shorter and uneven; I've found doing that helps the side to side action of slop frogs. This frog has a tendency to glide a little bit which is good for walking the frog. I'm not the best frog walker in the world but I could get the MM to do it. Another feature that seemed to work as advertised was it didn't sink and it didn't seem to take on water.

I started out throwing "big sexy" which is a white/Chartruese/light blue colored frog. On about my 3rd cast I had a good fish boil hard on the MM as I was walking the frog. I seemed to be hooked up for a couple of seconds but then it got off. It definitely was a good fish and might have been a dogfish. I made several more casts with "big sexy" and then I switched to "Grapes of Wrath" and got this fish.
I did have a couple of small fish probably sunfish also hit at the bait.

Next I headed to the lake place to take the boat out for a quick trip in the general vicinity of the lake place. First I thoroughly fished from the dock and didn't get a hit. I took the boat out and headed East getting hit by something small that didn't get the frog. I worked myself 2 docks down and it started getting kind of dark so I headed back. I pulled the frog off some lilly pads and a fish boiled on the frog but didn't take it. I cast back and once again the fish bumped it but didn't take it. On the 4th cast it committed and I caught this chunk of a 17".

As you can see from the pick it really engulfed the "Grapes of Wrath" MM.

Since I had this luck in front of our jerk neighbor Sherman's dock I quickly moved over to the lane in the rice by our cool neighbor Jim's dock. It was so dark I went to the lighter colored "Big Sexy" and I cast it right up by the dock. Sure enough a fish swirled and just like that my frog was gone. Dang Pike. I quickly moved to the area of the strike to see if maybe the frog was around, but it wasn't on top and it was now too dark to see in the water. I would think it would have floated if it came loose from the fish. Didn't even catch a fish on that frog.

Hey lake, here's $5.

Lake Place Fishing From Dock

Tonight I had to go and drain water from the boat. I forgot to grab the slop frog rod, so I had to use what was in the boat house. First I picked up one of my 6'10"MH swim jig rods. On one of the casts as I was bringing the swim jig across the rice and I had a fish hit and miss. I cast right back to the spot and it smashed it this time. I set the hook hard and the line broke, apparently where the braid was connected with the wire leader. Haven't had that happen before.

I went and grabbed a rod with a Fin-Tech Title Shot Jig with white/red Strike King Bleeding Bait Flippin Tube. As I brought the tube off the rice into the open water of the boat channel the tube was nailed by a 14.5" largie which I caught. No camera for pics.

I had to get a move on for the Vikings pre-season game and so I didn't hit up Jenny's.

Yellow Magic- Act 3

Tonight I got out fishing for about an hour until it got to dark to fish. I gave Jenny's a try from shore and didn't get a strike. I then went to the boat and set out to fish water I thought would be good for poppers. Conditions were overcast with about a 7MPH wind out of the North. I fished a bit of the North side of the big Island and down the Eastern shore where Pete caught a few bass last week.

I took the suggestion from Big Indiana Bass to tie direct to the Yellow Magic Popper. I believe the line I was using was 17lb Gamma Co-Poly. It did seem to help in working the bait just a little bit, but it was still pretty inconsistent in terms of performance. The chop on the water might have had something to do with that too.

Even though the objective was to put the Yellow Magic Popper through it's paces, my first fish actually came on a bullfrog Berkley Frenzy Popper.
I was using the bullfrog color because of the overcast and it is similar in color to the lime Yellow Magic. The fish was about 12.75". As soon as I caught this fish I switched to the YMP.

A couple of minutes later I had this dude swirl and get hung on the YMP.
This was just over 14". I kept fishing the YMP and had a small bass get hooked up, but it got off right by the boat. I kept throwing the YMP for a while, but eventually switched to the BFP. I had a small pike strike at the BFP right by the boat and that was the last hit of the night.

I am not sure why I didn't get more action than I did. Maybe the fish were turned off for the most part. For the second night in a row it was a pretty equal showing for the two different poppers.

Yellow Magic Act 2

Tonight I didn't get on the water until after 7:45PM and then on the way to my first spot there was a boat in need of a tow, fortunately not far, and that took up about 10 minutes of fishing time. I started off throwing my new lime Yellow Magic Popper. I made a great cast right up by a dock and two jetski's on lifts. Sure enough this 14.25" largie sucked it in.

I did throw back to the spot a couple of times and didn't get anything. I pitched in a blue/black craw tube and had a small bass pick it up. On my hookset the little guy went airborne and came off.

A little farther down the way after I had tried some Snagproof Frog fishing in some slop, I had a smallish fish, maybe a pike, hit at the Yellow Magic and not get it. I tried casting back to the spot without luck, so I picked up a purple Berkley Frenzy Popper and tried that without any luck. On the next dock I got a 12.75" on the Frenzy Popper.

On the next dock down I made a cast which spooked a great blue heron which promptly flew right into my line. I let it take out a little line before closing the bail and as soon as I did the heron dropped down into the water. I figured maybe I could get in behind the heron and find the Frenzy Popper, take it off and then reel in the line without any problem. It was kind of dark and the area had weeds, so I wasn't sure I would be able find the lure. While I was looking the heron took off and was totally untangled from the line, so it was all good. I didn't have any more hits from fish.

More thoughts on the Yellow Magic: I haven't yet mastered control of the lure. It seems like you can be working your rod a certain way and the bait reacts differently with each twitch. Sometimes the lure slurps but most of the time it doesn't. I threw the Yellow Magic twice as long as the Frenzy Popper tonight, yet ended out at 1 fish a piece.

Tonight on Platte with Pete

Tonight Pete and I got out for about an hours worth of fishing in the boat. I got the only fish with the "Viking" Snagproof Frog about 4 feet to the side of the end of a dock in open water. I got this fish when we were fishing close to our lake place.

We closed the night fishing on the East side of the big island. Pete missed a couple of hits.

I did get a chance to throw my new lime Yellow Magic Popper and my first impression is that I am underwhelmed. Pete had pointed out that it looks like a Rebel Pop-R, so I was kind of expecting it to have the chugging sound of a Pop-R. It doesn't. It is definitely more of a spitting popper, which is what I prefer. It seemed to cast pretty good for a 1/4oz lure, but I never did try to really chuck it a long way. I don't know that I was around fish with it much tonight and I didn't get so much as a swirl. I definitely will be playing around with it in the coming days.

Vikings Football Vikings Frog

Tonight is the 1st Vikes Pre-season game and I got out and did some fishing with the Snagproof "Viking Frog" when I went to check to see if there was water in the Trophy (boat).

Off the dock at the lake place I got about 15.5" largie. At Jenny's I started out missing 5 straight strikes, but I think I managed to catch those 2 fish plus one more. The first was a skinny 17+", the 2nd and 3rd were 14+".

Pete Fish

Here is Pete with a couple of bass that he caught last Friday and Saturday. The first one is off the shore at Jenny's. He caught that one and missed a strike. That is a River2Sea Bully Wa

The second fish was obviously caught out in the boat. We were fishing the North end of the big Island on Platte right before a thunderstorm moved in. That night Pete caught 3 bass and 1 pike and all I got was 1 pike. Wish I would have had a rod rigged to throw a Frenzy Popper when we were fishing by the Island.

Shore Nuff

Tonight I went to the lake place to make sure the boat wasn't filled with water due to a couple of storms in the last few days and naturally I brought my frogging rod along to try and catch some fish. The frog tied on the end of the line was Snagproof Viking which is a purple frog with yellow in the legs. I didn't take the boat out. I only fished from shore and off the dock. On about my 3rd cast I got this 13"+ largie.


On a cast over by Sherman's dock I got a 12"+ and in front of Jim's dock I had something, probably a pike, swipe at the frog.

I also fished for a couple of minutes at Jenny's and caught a 13" largie.