6-23-11

6-23-2011 Thr
6:30 PM- 8:30 PM

Weather: N 14, overcast with light rain, 59 ˚, 29.71 MB, rising
Moon: Major 1813 – 2013
H2O: muddy, 64 ˚, 8.41’ rising, 75.7 kcfs

Location: Mississippi R. Pool 7 – Lake Onalaska (upper end)

Caught: Six largemouth bass 18, 17, 2-16, 2 -10 inchers, and one 28 inch pike

Partners: none

Comments

What should a person do when the water is muddy, high and its temperature has dropped down to 64 degrees in the middle of June? Well go fishing of course! Actually I was pretty reluctant to go, but that little fishing demon in the back of my mind was pushing pretty hard.
On one hand I was thinking why go fishing, but on the other hand my previous experience with fishing every day for a whole year was telling me that there was a good chance something good would happen. And indeed it was a good evening. I would not say it was fantastic, but it was pretty darn good. For some reason I do pretty good largemouth bass and pike fishing after a cold front. We definitely had one today, the average high is around eighty-three and we struggled to hit sixty. As if the water temperature was not enough, I also had to deal with very muddy water.
I took the advice of the musky guide I recently fished with: his advice is hit the heavy cover after a major cold front moves in. It definitely was the ticket for the bass. The bait of choice was probably a little unconventional for the muddy water. Most fishermen would more than likely use noisy type baits, such as a spinner bait or rattletrap. The cover was too thick for the trap, but I was able to throw large and noisy spinner bait. I never caught a fish on it.
I pulled out one of my favorite baits from two years ago: a swim bait in a june bug color. It was definitely the bait the bass wanted. I caught the six bass and the pike, but I easily lost double the number of bass that I landed on this swim jig. I was having a very hard time with the hook set. The bites were pretty subtle and I think I was just too slow and weak on the hook set!

Observations

It is cold, the water is muddy, but the fish are biting. I am excited! There is quite a good crop of wild rice coming up, but I fear the high muddy water and the cool temperatures will do it in. Last year before the rains and high water came we had a lot of rice, but by the end of summer very little of it had survived.