4/22 Bass in the hole

[Dr. Duckbutter]

I hit one of my favorite local spots late afternoon and wound up with a nice mixed bag of fish. When all was said and done i wound up with 5 chain picks, 2 crappie, and 1 real nice sized lg bass. As per usual all were caught and released. None of the picks were really note/picture worthy with the largest at about 19-20in. Spotted a number of uninterested bass in the shallows but i managed this nice bucket on a 3 1/2" RC STX suspending jerkbait in about 8 ft of water. I've been finding the rise and fall of temps have really not allowed the bass to stabalize right now. It seems to be day by day and activity is dependent on the daily surface temp. Would like to know if you guys are findin the same.

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[buzzbaiter]

Cold nights have been f'ing up the daytime fishing. Only good action is late in the day when the lakes warm up a bit but we've been having 50-55F days(w/ wind) so not much warming going on. Best days are those following warm(>50F) nights. We haven't had one of those since last friday when it was 60F+ @ 6:30 in the morning.

Its delayed the spawning for sure. All fish spawn based upon two things: water temp and length of daylight. Thats how they control egg production at hatcheries by fooling them with lights. Its mean but effective. This way the fish are always 'in the mood'. lol. Anyhow next 2/3 warm(70F+) spell where the water jumps into the low 60's will have bass very active. Pickerel are probably the most active right now. They don't seem to mind cold nights.

[Eskimo]

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Nice bass.

The weatherman on TV this morning said the weather is running about a month behind where he would expect it to be. This has definitely delayed spawning.

The cold front that blew in Saturday night really messed up the fishing on Sunday.

[tycomps]

What retrieve did you use with that jerkbait? I'm tryin to figure out if they want it slow and steady or start and stop.

[Dr. Duckbutter]

What retrieve did you use with that jerkbait? I'm tryin to figure out if they want it slow and steady or start and stop.

Ive been using a quick start and stop cadence varying the length of pause depending on the water temp... The colder, the longer the pause. I use something like 2 hard twitches...pause... three hard twitches .... Pause.. Repeat.
Looking for an erratic/darting motion so always make sure to jerk on slack line. 99% of your strikes will come on the pause.

[dboyd101]

Lazy fish last weekend with similar weather.

[DUCK OR BLEED JR.]

Nice Fish... Slow Stuff For Now Almost Dead Sticking..couple Nice Nights They Should Turn On....fish On!!!!

[tycomps]

Thanks Doc, great info! unfortunately what I've been doing :(

gonna head out later today when water temps rise.

[Moz]

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The cold front that blew in Saturday night really messed up the fishing on Sunday.

The wind honking on Sunday didn't help either. At least I managed to catch a cold on the day. :(

[GetANet]

The bass really seemed to turn off for me as well, Couple weeks we had that couple day warm spell started to catch several decent largemouths,then for what ever reason ( unknown to me ) they just stopped biting completely!!!! Very frustrating!!! Fished at least four or five times in the last two weeks and caught one small bass , pickerel are on fire caught about twenty five in the last few trips and a few crappies but no largies!!!water temps seem warm enough for them to bite.....Can't figure it out!!! Seems
like there are none in the LAKE!

[tycomps]

saw males cruising the shore looking to build nests today at a favorite pond, couple yesterday on senkos deep once everything warmed up at about 6pm.