Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Early Prespawn Buckets- An “Easter Bass” Special

Air Temp: 50-60 degrees
Wind Speed: Gusty winds 10-25mph.
Water Temp: 54 degrees
Water Clarity: Clear
Fished from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM

The stick bait is cast out and left to sink deep down through the clear blue water. It is early in the day battling winds of up to 20mph off and on. I reposition the boat with the left oar as my line gets a heavy tug. My hand quickly lets go of the oar and helped the right hand set the hook.

“Hold on, baby!” I mutter after losing one good fish today already.

In moments the fish was landed and it was forced to succumb to one my shameless photo-ops. Because this experience is taxing enough on the fish, I tend to forego the measurements and weighing. Easily a +18-inch fish in the 3.5lb range.

(Above: Every once in a while I catch what is dubbed a “beauty fish”. The new camera captures the fantastic color of this Colorado prespawn bucket.)

The early prespawn can be as rewarding as it is challenging. The fish are fairly stubborn for the most part but make up for that stubbornness in bulk. I tend to find some of my heftiest fish this time of year. The fish are still deep and waiting for things to heat up before they get very active. The bite is a bit sluggish as well and it seemed like I had to be ready to nail a sturdy hookset right off the bat or lose the fish.

(Above: A couple solid chunks like this made fighting the wind all day a bit more bearable.)

The stick bait was the only lure that got any attention for me. I worked two rods and alternated a few jigs and swim baits to no avail. The rigs had to be worked slow and fish would hit with one thump, maybe two. There was a layer of moss an inch or two think on the bottom. Next time I will have to run a drop shot and see how things go.

My name is Matt and I’m a fishaholic

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