One of the things I love about this time of year is being able to sight-fish for bass in shorebang mode. For this I will go with weightless plastics on one rod and possibly jig combos or even baitfish patterns on a second rod this time of year. When there no bass to see I start search casting. Get a solid hit on a weightless grub that I think is a legit but not OMG bass. It has some spunk but you can tell it won’t pull anybody into the water. Pull the fish closer and see it is a crappie slab.
(Above: Serious forward grab on a near 15’er crappie inch. This one I actually measured at 14 ¾”-no weight. Quite possibly my biggest crappie via the shorebang mode.)
Even with the shameless forward grab the pictures don’t do this fish justice. Video tells more of the story. The new camera has a MOV format that is tripping up my converter for some reason. For now a raw footage post will have to suffice.
What seemed to work best was a weightless grub in the 4” variety. Green pumpkin with black flake really brought the attention resembling smaller fish and tadpoles that are fairly common menu items this time of year. Other baits thrown were the senko-matic and a few other lures that proved to be successful for bass mostly in the ho-hum size category. I did manage to pull one Clydish looking bucket that helped polish off the day.
What seemed to work best was a weightless grub in the 4” variety. Green pumpkin with black flake really brought the attention resembling smaller fish and tadpoles that are fairly common menu items this time of year. Other baits thrown were the senko-matic and a few other lures that proved to be successful for bass mostly in the ho-hum size category. I did manage to pull one Clydish looking bucket that helped polish off the day.
(Above: Some shots are not the easiest to get. In this case I have one foot in the water and clinching the grassy slope with my buttocks. Releasing the fish both the me and the camera almost went into the drink as well.)
Bass fishing is in post spawn mode for me on a lot of lakes and some sluggishness to the action can be expected. Fish will still feed but may binge sporadically until forage sources start to increase in way of breeding shad and sunfish. My lure choice will move off of the creature baits and more towards baitfish patterns depending on the location. Frog patterns will get a tie on in the mossy areas. Fishing can become more consistent in June and July but for some it simply gets more frustrating. There is always shuffleboard.
My name is Matt and I’m a fishaholic
3 comments:
That's a slab of a crappie...nice!
Matt, that is a trophy crappie. Very nice! Enjoyed the technical write up on gettin 'em. I had a similar experience banging the banks last night. They were right up on the shore. If I could actually get a bug right on shore and then strip it into the water, that worked pretty well. I was fishing poppers and divers on a fly rod though. Love the surface grab! Still waiting for a post on that custom tooner of yours.
Absolutely to the extreme when it comes to landing slab crappie like that. I know where you are coming from, because I got into some that size in April. Next to fly fishing this is my next favorite. Thanks for sharing
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