Author Topic: Summer Bass Fishing has finally arrived!  (Read 1696 times)

Offline andrewlamberson

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Summer Bass Fishing has finally arrived!
« on: 07/17/13 09:57 UTC »
Summer bass fishing has finally arrived here in southern Minnesota. After all the record rain this spring and the Mississippi running at over 2x "normal" the river has fallen back to fishable levels and the bass have turned on.

The largemouth and smallmouth are "chasing bait"...mostly Emerald Shiners along the sand points and weed lines. Top water poppers are producing well...along with 3" and  4" Carrot baits fished on Do-it Worm Nose or Teardrop jigs like a jerk bait. Lots of 4 to 4.5lb largemouth over the last few evenings.

Caught some really big dogfish (bowfin) and largemouth on the Boss Hog creature bait. You see them smacking stuff in the heavy weeds and when you toss the Boss Hog in there ...bam! If you are looking for a big tug...the dogfish can't be beat! Just don't try to lip land them!!!!


Northern Pike are along the weed lines...competing with the largemouth. I lost three 4.5" ribbon tail worms to Pike the other night...but the largemouth bass were sure liking them so it was worth it (one of the reasons why I pour my own!). I eventually went to a 40lb test flurocarbon leader and caught a couple of the pike. I not sure on the effect of the leader on bass, but I like it better than a wire leader.

If the river keeps dropping the "slop" fishing will really pick up. I'm looking forward to fishing my Baby Berry's and Flippin' Hogs on the top of the weeds. In addition to nice bass...the "hammer handle" pike just blast those baits through the weeds. They launch themselves WAY out of the water...and sometimes manage to eat the bait on the way back down! Fun to watch and it scares the *&^% out of you!

I hope everyone is getting out and enjoying summer fishing...all this talk of ice fishing baits made me panic...so I'm going out again tonight despite the 95 degree forecast...I'll just wait until the "power hour" just before dark!

Andy
" You can't buy happiness...But you can buy fishing gear...and that's kind of the same thing"