4-29-11

4-29-2011 Fri
5:30 PM- 7:30 PM

Weather: SE 9, clear, 61 ˚, 29.86MB, falling

H2O: 10.68’, rising, 104 KCFS, clear, 53 ˚

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7 (Upper mid-pool)

Caught: We combined for a total of approximately eight bass and about six northern. The biggest bass probably was around eighteen inches and the biggest northern was thirty-three inches.
Partners: Little Jake and Ben

Comments

It was the end of the week and why not start off the weekend with a little fishing! We had a fairly steady breeze to contend with and it was quite cool on the water, but other than that the conditions were pretty good.
The fish did not come fast and furious, but we were all able to boat some fish. Most fish came on spinner baits, but a number of them did come on Rattle Traps. Jake does not have a lot of fishing experience, and I supply the tackle when he does come along. So, I thought it would be quite interesting having him use a bait caster for the first time. I tightened the brakes down quite a bit and he did just fine. I only had to pick out one bird nest the whole night.
Ben, who was using a spinner-bait most of the night, was hanging it up quite often on weeds and stumps. This just is not normal for spinner bait fishing. After looking over his set-up I figured out what the problem was: he was using a leader with a snap, and his spinner bait did not have a closed loop on it. What was happening is when he would cast; the snap was riding down the spinner bait. This would cause the bait to pull oddly through the water, thus allowing it snag more often.
The easiest way to cure this problem is to take a rubber band and put on the back of the open bend of the spinner bait. This will keep the snap from moving down along the shaft of the bait. Ben happened to have some rubber o rings for Senko fishing, and that pretty much cured the problem.
Observations
The water is very clear and actually rising a little bit. The temperature of the water has pretty much stagnated around the lower fifty degree range. I did notice some lily pads starting to percolate up from the silt on the bottom in about four feet of water. These types of areas are excellent for attracting early season bass and pike.