4-20-2011 Wed

4-20-2011 Wed
6:00 PM- 8:00PM

Weather: W 10, intermittent rain, 39 degrees, 30.17 rising

H2O: 12.2', falling, 136 kcfs, clear, 42 degrees

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7 (Behind house)

Caught: 10, 14 and 18" bass
Partners: None

Comments

I do not know what possesed me to go fishing tonight, I definitely cannot say the weather! It was cold, rainy and we still had some snow left over from yesterday. I guess the best thing weather wise was the lack of wind. But man was it cold, and I was soaked by the end of the night.
I know they had been catching bass in the channel behind the house, and I wanted to try it myself. I had heard the go to bait was a senko rigged wacky style, and indeed it worked for me tonight. I was using a small senko (4") on account of the 42 degree water temperature.
Basically wacky style rigging is taking the worm and pushing the hook all the way through the center of the worm. If you hold your line the worm should balance in the air and be pretty much horizontal. Fishing these baits is pretty much a no brainer, but it can be rather boring if there is no action. Cast the bait out, let it sink for a bit, pull it in a few feet, let it sink back down and repeat.
I started out whith a white senko, and snapped my line on a fish after about the fourth cast. The next half hour produced no more strikes so I changed to a brown with a blue glitter color. On my first cast with the new color I caught my first bass of the open water season, a small ten incher. About fifteen minutes later I caught the nice one in the picture.
The action was not furious, but I probably missed as many as I caught, so it was not too bad either. The bites were not bone jarring. On a couple of the fish I just noticed something did not seem right with the line and wouldn't you know it I would have a fish on! All the fish had the senko way into the back of their mouths. They were definitetly trying to eat it!

Observations
The water is starting to recede. The boat ramp is still unuseable, but most of the parking lot is now exposed. I would expect within a day or two the ramps can be used again. The only plants that are in bloom right now are the bulb plants (tulips, etc.). We did have a snow storm yesterday that dumped four to six inches around the area, and the minnesota hills are still white.
I still have not had to mow yet this spring, I guess that is the one part I like about a cold, late spring.