[Aux Pleins]

45 degree water today and bass were hitting on every cast. Could of broke records but I called it quits after 5 dozen. I may not see those numbers the rest of the year.

 

[Woohoodude11]

Also, are the water levels really as low as they appear to me?

The couple places I've gone to have been a tad swollen. Literally by an inch or two. Haven't seen anywhere "low" yet.

 

[Grain]

Also, are the water levels really as low as they appear to me?

The couple places I've gone to have been a tad swollen. Literally by an inch or two. Haven't seen anywhere "low" yet.

What I mean is - they look normal, summer-like. I kind of expected the ponds near the DPR to be flooded.

Could of broke records but I called it quits after 5 dozen

Fishing stories.

 

[mike son]

I'd believe it Aux, he's got no reason to mess around Grain. Bass were all over a lipless Thursday at a dirty little pond in the evening. Bass chasing it all the way to my feet. One even jumped half out the water as I pulled the lure out. Couldn't buy a bite liftings and fluttering. They were aggressive for the water temp, wanted a steady retrieve with pumps and upward pops.

 

[Woohoodude11]

Also, are the water levels really as low as they appear to me?

The couple places I've gone to have been a tad swollen. Literally by an inch or two. Haven't seen anywhere "low" yet.

What I mean is - they look normal, summer-like. I kind of expected the ponds near the DPR to be flooded.

Then you are 100% correct lol.
The most noticeable "flooded" spot I saw at Old School was my favorite spot to stand when frogging. During the dog days, its bone dry. After an average rain its just muddy. Yesterday it was under an inch of water. Same thing with my pike spot at Wright Woods.

 

[Aux Pleins]

No stories Grain, they were feeding hard yesterday afternoon. Honestly didnt matter what you threw at them they would bite. I'm finally a believer of the wind blown shore theory, that's where the every cast action was. I throw big baits and missed many tail grabbers, but still caught a small towns worth of dink bass. I was counting on 2 or 3 fish, but got about 200 hits instead.

 

[badger75]

Amazing numbers

 

[jmdog2003]

I believe it too. Both green and brown fish were biting in the main current on the Dupe over a week ago. Probably been there even longer.

 

[DasGoby]

Good stuff Aux. I think early spring can be very location dependent. Some waters and places on those waters can be very hot and others are skunk city.

I used to suck at finding the early spring bite but have gotten pretty good at the warming flats on a sunny day bite and Lake Erie tributary river bite, although I haven't had time to hit that up this year yet.

Got out Saturday for a bit and Goby jr and I each caught 4 bass in a little over an hour. They weren't in on the flats thick yet and the big girls aren't in but I can't complain. Had only 3 weeks from last bass on the ice to first bass onnopen water!

 

[cletedius]

Not bass-related, but checked in on the wolf river cam a few times over the weekend. The Shioc1camera in shiocton was pretty much a continuous flow of packs of walleyes (& suckers) swimming past the cam. If the sampling I saw is indicative of the whole Winnebago system, the walleye population appears to be in excellent shape there with plenty of healthy-sized fish!
I warn, this can get addictive
http://www.wolfrivercam.com/default.html

 

[grems]

I warn, this can get addictive

Wow you are not kidding, I could not stop watching. Looks like there is a minnow on a line behind a float or something in the lower right corner of the New London view...

 

[Grain]

Shadow Rap Shads came in today. I'll try and get out for an hour tomorrow and try it out.

I took mine out today, and was not impressed. The box says "slow-rising", that was not my experience at all - the pause between the jerks is enough for it to bob to the surface. So, until I get a hold of some suspend strips and work out its buoyancy it goes on the shelf.

 

[HEDDONFROG]

Shadow Rap Shads came in today. I'll try and get out for an hour tomorrow and try it out.

I took mine out today, and was not impressed. The box says "slow-rising", that was not my experience at all - the pause between the jerks is enough for it to bob to the surface. So, until I get a hold of some suspend strips and work out its buoyancy it goes on the shelf.

That is exactly what happened with the second one I bought (Halloween color) If I paused it for more than a second it would surface. I ended up having to rip it straight down fairly hard and basically not pause between jerks to keep that one down and when I jerked that hard, the front hook would catch the line 80% of the time. Totally different than Pro blue one I posted on earlier. That one does as advertised. I've read recent reviews about poor consistency on Rapala baits but this is the first time I've encountered it where it was that drastic. I do have suspend dots so I'll play with it...though I shouldn't have to.

 

[Grain]

That is exactly what happened with the second one I bought (Halloween color) If I paused it for more than a second it would surface. I ended up having to rip it straight down fairly hard and basically not pause between jerks to keep that one down and when I jerked that hard, the front hook would catch the line 80% of the time. Totally different than Pro blue one I posted on earlier. That one does as advertised. I've read recent reviews about poor consistency on Rapala baits but this is the first time I've encountered it where it was that drastic. I do have suspend dots so I'll play with it...though I shouldn't have to.

Mine is Elite Blue, from your link, and I thought the same - time to play with the sinkers. You don't have a scale that goes to .01g by any chance? It would have made it easy to check for weight difference.

 

[HEDDONFROG]

Mine is Elite Blue, from your link, and I thought the same - time to play with the sinkers. You don't have a scale that goes to .01g by any chance? It would have made it easy to check for weight difference.

I do have a scale that will measure weights in grams but I've already put suspend dots on them for an outing today. I'll report back. I'm hoping to get some video as well

 

[Grain]

I did some experiments with the bucket and weights. Mine is 11.82 grams and definitely back heavy, it need .39-0.40 grams to become buoyant/slowly sinking to 1', so my thinking is it needs two dots and they should go between the lip and the front hook.

 

[mike son]

The shadow rap shads float nose up. I find they float up about 2-3" every second. The rate is probably affected by water temp too fwiw. Quality control is probably none or just visual, I don't believe they test and tune that bait before sending it to market so variance is almost expected. I've added 2x gamakatsu round bends in size four to the front for near suspending. Adding two of those hooks makes it sink very slowly. I fish the shadow rap shads if it's shallow water or the fish are aggressive. If super cold water, I use the shadow raps as they suspend. Don't smack them on the water to clean them off, they crack :lol:

 

[HEDDONFROG]

I did some experiments with the bucket and weights. Mine is 11.82 grams and definitely back heavy, it need .39-0.40 grams to become buoyant/slowly sinking to 1', so my thinking is it needs two dots and they should go between the lip and the front hook.

Yeah, I can't comment on how they worked today because I forgot I was throwing jerks using wire leaders which will obviously throw everything off. I did use the pro blue one for one fish but ended up predominantly throwing the much larger Megabass Vision 110 Magnum on shorelines and shallow flats and several fish inhaled 90% of the bait. Made it a bitch to remove with all three sets of trebles in their mouths. For deeper water I threw a Vision 110+1 & 110+2

 

[cyanatic]

Been too long since I've been on here (not sure if I even posted at all last season) but it's good to see so many familiar names. About 3 years ago, a lot of you and your suggestions helped me go from being a "just use a worm and bobber cause I'll never catch a bass" kind of fisherman to a "holy sh*t I really CAN catch bass on artificial lures!"

That said, I usually start my fishing in late March, early April, depending on the weather, not that I'm any kind of experienced expert. I'm writing this at work on my lunch break after having loaded my fishing gear yesterday in anticipation of hitting Opeka or Beck after work today. I literally work across the street from Opeka, but Beck is not that far and I love the setting. No knocks on Opeka (I caught my personal best there almost 2 years ago), but Beck feels more like a fishing lake if you ignore the expressway whine in the distance.

Hopefully this year's first outing goes better than last year's! A quick embarrassing story:

From what I've read, and from what many of you guys have said, I know that as a general rule different times of the year require different lures and techniques. I read that jerk baits and lipless crank baits are sometimes recommended for prespawn so last March I purchased a few. I found out that jerk baits are NOT cheap. I went to Opeka (no yak, I'm a shore fisherman) and decided to try out one of the jerk baits. I read up on some of the retrieves and tried them, but didn't generate any interest. I decided to switch to a different color. I always use a Palomar knot, and as I'm tying on the jerk bait, I think, "Hey! Maybe this is a good time to try tying that "Improved Palomar knot" I've been ignoring for years. How did that go again? Hmm, not sure but I think this is it." So I reach back and cast that baby out and as I watch it sailing out over Opeka, I think, "Damn, that one must have more weight to it than they other one. Look how far out it's going!" It was about a second later that I realized my version of "Improved Palomar" was drastically defective because the lure had just sailed off the end of my line without the slightest amount of resistance. I don't know how the hell I managed that but if any of you guys ever found a brand new jerk bait floating in the middle of Opeka last spring, now you know where it came from.!

I don't carry a thermometer with me, but when I get to Beck this afternoon I'll give it the hand test. I'll let you know how it goes on the Beck board. Good fishing all!

 

[Rambler]

I don't carry a thermometer with me, but when I get to Beck this afternoon I'll give it the hand test. I'll let you know how it goes on the Beck board. Good fishing all!

That's the real deal - old school. I use the totally unscientific hand method to judge water temp too. My depth finder is a rock I drop over the side to see if I can hear when it hits bottom. So far neither method works worth a shit but I have fun anyway.

I've been out a number of times already but tomorrow is when I get "serious". Heading down along the Dupe & then to one of my favorite little creeks that flows into the lower DPR. I'm even packing my hip waders just to make it real interesting.

PS - good to have you back cyanatic.