What I Did Instead of Fish The Tournament at Lake Alexander Today

17" or so

9:40AM-3:20PM

Conditions- Warm Rain, drizzle, cloudy, sometimes calm mostly light to moderate wind out of the E NE but starting out of the S SE, turning partly sunny by the time I left

Our Bass Snatcher Tournament at Lake Alexander was postponed until next week due to a floating blog blocking the access and the thunderstorms today.  So I went to the Grumpy Old Man Hole to give my new Cabela's Guidewear jacket it's first real test.  It rained pretty good for the first couple of hours I was out and it performed well other than me keeping the notepad I write my fish catches on in the inside mesh pouch at the bottom of the jacket.  From now on anything more than a sprinkles and the notepad goes in the inside zippered pocket where I put the cell phone.

I left behind 7' H Avid Crawtube rod and took 6'6" MH rod in it's place and I also put the 6'10" Crucial I have the Mann's Classic Buzzbait on in the truck as well. I also left my dock/Super Fluke rod at home.  I switched all the other rods I was going to use today at Alexander into the truck.  When I arrived it was raining pretty good and I decided to only take out the buzzbait rod.  I started on the SE side and  I had something blow up and not get hooked on my second cast.  I didn't get hit again until I was casting across the channel along the rocks.  I missed that hit too, but eventually got the toothy to hit it again.  It was almost a 23 incher.  I moved to the NW side and got the jumper right away.  I also got a smaller toother.  I then went and got the 7'3" Lamiglas Pure Poison/Stanley Phantom, Crawtube rod, Senko rod, and Yabbie Rod.  I proceeded to catch fish on all of them including my first dogfish of the year on the Lamiglas.

20.5" on the Pure Poison w/Grass Pig Trailer

 

If my count is correct I got 17 jumpin' bullheads, 6 toothy bullheads, and 1 dogfish.  The bites came sporadically and I missed a few of coarse.

Bass Opener Bust

Bulldog Lake Lunker

4:00-10:30AM
Conditions- There were some clouds at day break turning sunny, warm, with a breeze out of the S SW

Well after what transpired yesterday, I can't say I'm all that surprised at what transpired today.  After getting in from last nights trip so late I decided I would just stay up all night and be sure to get the spot I wanted at the Grumpy Old Man Hole.  I arrived at 4:00AM and nobody was there.  I put my stuff down on the SE side and went up on the bridge and did some stretching.  I really need to always do that if I plan to fish for any length of time.  From what the radar was showing when I left I expected the clouds that were coming to bring some rain but they didn't.  It was warmer out than I thought it would be and didn't get as cool as what the forecast said it would get.  I was wearing a stocking cap and forgotten to bring a ball cap, Doh!

 I got my first bite at 4:24AM while fishing off of the S side of the bridge with the firetiger Ripple Shad, but whatever it was got off.  I went down to the SE side and started throwing the Grass Pig and missed a couple of bites on that.  Next I picked up a blue/black Pure Poison with Craw Fatty trailer and on my very first cast I had a 16 or so inch fish take it at 4:42AM.  Why no picture you ask?  Well as I swung it up on shore it came off. It wiggled right past me down 3 steps and into the water.  I thought no problem, I'd just catch another one.  I was amazed when I couldn't get another bite on the Poison.  So then I started throwing a huckleberry Craw Tube.  I had a fish swirl on it as I was lifting it out of the water.  I cast back to the spot a couple of times and then got instantly cut off.  Thankfully I was smart enough to not use tungsten and I quickly retied.  I decided to head over to the SW side and cast from there for a bit before someone else showed up.  I brought the Craw Tube and Poison rods with me.  I had a couple of bites that I didn't hook up with when somebody else drove up at 4:58, so I quickly went back to the SE side.  I thought maybe he was a panfish fishermen by the gear he came down with, but he was fishing for jumpers with worms and a bobber.

I got a 21" toothy bullhead on the huckleberry shortly after the other guy showed up.  He got a jumpin bullhead.  I had a few bites on the craw tube, but I was having trouble detecting the bites.  A combination of being out of practice and the old line on my reel.  I switched to a Chigger Craw and got a couple of jumpers on that, but I missed about 7 bites.  The guy with his daughter showed up and were still after panfish and the guy who was in the boat yesterday with his buddy wrecking the jumpers showed up as well.  He anchored for a bit, got nothing and put the trolling motor down.  I experimented with various crankbaits and had a couple bites that got off.  It was really slow.  The guy out in the boat got a dogfish coming down the SE side towards me.  He said "the bass must know it's opener, because it's all I could catch the past couple of days."  I got a slimer while working along the cattails next to shore with a green pumpkin craw tube, also missed another bite that might have been a jumper doing that.

Catch of the Day

While fishing with the Chigger Craw towards under the bridge I thought I had a bite, but it was a snag.  When I went up on the bridge to try and get it loose I found out I was caught on somebody else's snag that it turns out had snagged somebody else, that had snagged somebody else.  All I could see at the time was the Rapala.  I went and got the Pure Poison what has 40lb Power Pro on it and snagged the Rapala.  When I pulled it loose the  other two snags came with it.  The dad said, well at least I caught something.  The hooks still looked good on the rap, so I cast it out a few times but didn't get anything.

The Morning's Entertainment, a goose family that swam through the culvert

Some panfish fisherman showed up and  I went up on the bridge and started casting a swamp gas Grass Pig and I got 3 toothies doing that.  The guy who was fishing with worms and the dad and daughter left around 8AM.  I think the guy with worms got 4 or 5 jumpers total.  I went over to the SW side and got a 15" or so jumper on the green pumpkin craw tube, but I didn't bring the ruler with me to know for sure how big it was. I also forgot to get a picture.  A couple of grandma's showed up so I went back to the SE side and started packing up at about 8:30.  When I got up to the car it looked like the NE side was open, so I put on a senko knock off Snatch Stix from the people at BassSnatchin.com and headed over there only to find some guy was fishing down there.  I went  to the NW side.  I had a toothy under the bridge swipe at the Snatch Stix a couple of different times but not get it.  The other guy left, so I switched sides.  Over there I got a couple of toothies on the Grass Pig and one on an old wooden Bass Pro Shops flat crankbait that I have weighted to suspend. Some guys that were fishing down a little ways from me were more than happy to take them from me.  I left a little before 10 when some kids on bikes who were going to fish showed up.

I headed over to Bulldog Lake and was happy to see no one fishing there so I pulled in.  I got the fish on the top of this blog.  Then unbelievably I caught a smaller one also on the Snatch Stix.  I had to go meet Dad at Jenny's so I didn't stay long.

I wish I would have thought to go fish the Culvert over the Platte River.  I came home and crashed, so that was it for my 1st day of Bass Opener.

8 Pike
6 Bass