Rolling into post spawn (The hangover of my annual FISHmas)

(Above: I love it when the fish behaves and I can curl my fingertips underneath allowing almost 100% of the fish in view. #$%^ love fishing!)

Most of the Front Range waters that I fish are now showing signs of post spawn. The fish weigh a bit less and not quite as glorious as their prespawn form. Only the desperate males still cling to un-pollinated nests while bigger bass try to fend off the urge of busting through the schools of fry. Post spawn to me resembles a hangover on New Years Day. A few big waters are still sporting spawn action, “The Q” for example. But I will shy away from those waters now as those fish are taking some serious punishment.

After the spawn, bass will tend to rest a day or two and then go on feeding binges. These feeding binges vary by weather and forage patterns for the most part. The rest of this behavior is harder to predict. Rather than trying to dial in the best time to go for that big bite, I say, “Get out there now and be ready when the big fish does bite.”

This fish (shown above) was caught on the jig combo. I expected minnow and baitfish presentations to get the big fish but it still may be a bit too early. The water was heavy stain from rain and wash out so my lure choice was limited to darker colors or something with some halogen power. Going through the tackle bag I threw a variety of spinnerbaits, plastics and jigs. Jigs seemed to get the bigger fish for some reason. The only puzzle pieces I could come up with was: “fish hanging on the bottom” and “dark color + sound is a winning combo”. Bumping the jig along the bottom created more sound than the other rigs and may have been the key in this heavy stained water. The size and catch ratio for the jig pattern was beating the vibration of the spinnerbait in a virtual rock-paper-scissors dunking contest. Soon…the baitfish pattern will be money.

Note 1: As much as I like crankbaits, the double treble setup is my least favorite pattern on the inflatable pontooner style boat. This isn’t so much a result of fear but more the fact I am tired of patching @#$%^. The whole time out there I was thinking the Rat-L trap would be worth a toss or two…from the shoreline maybe.

Note 2: I better start mixing things up before my two or three readers get really tired of seeing all these big bass pictures. Really, I do go after more species than bass but I @#$% love fishing for big bass!

My must fish name is must fish Matt and I’m a must fish fishaholic!