Lower Crooked Lake Easter Bass Bash

[djkimmel]

I was lucky enough (and desperate) to get to go bass fishing on East Sunday 3/27/2016 for my first softwater trip of the season. It was a decent day though mostly cloudy and the strong breeze kept a slight chill in the air. Not the perfect conditions for early spring bass fishing but I will definitely take it.

I rented a rowboat over at Lower Crooked Lake and tossed in my poundage of gear (to keep me happy and from getting bored).

I first went to a shallow, semi-protected bay fishing a fallen tree, some old timber, bushes and scattered sparse weeds. I concentrated on the outside edge of shoreline cover hoping bass were already moving in though the recent weather wasn't perfect for that kind of action.

I saw almost no sign of fish life, not even carp and only the movement of a few real spooky panfish in the very back where they seemed completely unharassed by bass through jumpy anyway.

After only getting casting practice there I headed to a more protected bay with a protected pocket in the back. Hoping again for early warmth seekers. In the very back in shallow weeds and scattered brush and woods I found a few more panfish, again very nervous and saw one big crappie that I spooked before I could try to catch it. I was seeing zero signs of bass moving, spooking, sunning or just hanging out on the way in all the way to the back.

On the way back out I broke down and did some panfish fishing because a tug on the end of the line is always good for me. I also saw another BIG crappie just sitting in the scattered weeds and I really do like spring crappie fishing.


I caught a few medium sized pinkish/reddish bellied bluegills and that actually perked me up watch the bobber go down and feel the tug on the line. After a few bluegills I decided to get back to business.

I was kicking up lots of Wood Ducks and seeing some warming turtles so I expected somewhere to find some bass (especially because I could hear the peepers peeping loudly in large numbers - a good sign for spring bass!). I was not the only person out there. There were 2 or 3 other bass boats fishing around surprisingly on Easter Sunday but I never got a chance to ask how any of them were doing...

At this point I thought I would just try to fish scattered spots in the back, shallow end of the lake hoping for some movement into the warmest water I could find though I'm guessing because I had no temperature gauge with me. I was going by shallow water facing the sun and somewhat protected from the wind.

On the way I decided to try one more shallow protected bay that usually has sparse weeds in it with the same heavy woody cover along the shoreline most of the bays on the Lower feature. As I went around the shoreline again casting just outside the heavy cover looking for cruisers or signs of bass up in the heavy cover (it really is very heavy and challening to fish, especially from a rowboat), I finally saw a dink bass cruiser. Then moments later a decent keeper swam right into me about 20-30 feet outside of the cover just roaming in the open. A clue!

I casted out straight in front of my boat (after failing to get the attention of this already spooked bass) parallel to the shoreline cover by 20+ feet out and let my shad colored Snack Daddy (old version from when Bill Smalldon owned it) flutter to the bottom. I had it Texas-rigged with no weight to use it like a jerkbait.


I lifted up and set the hook because my primitive brain said I had one. It was this little dink like the first one I'd see moments earlier but this one was the other direction so that meant now that there were at least 3 bass hanging around the pocket. A real confidence booster.

I slowed down my movement to a crawl and kept casting out ahead of the boat. I saw a lily pad under water yet and cast past it. I thought I felt a light bite and set the hook! Nothing! I let the stickworm flutter down and set the hook because the ole brain said to again.


I popped another smaller dink out of the water. Not the big'un I was hoping for but finally some bass action. Just then I saw a mini-toad swim by really fast. I don't know if it followed the dink bass but it seemed suspicious. Unfortunately it saw me and did that sneaky spook away move towards the middle of the bay, and then I saw a smaller keeper coming up behind it that turned and went towards the shoreline cover.

Okay, so now I've got something going on. I just have to capitalize on it. I moved along on my slowest speed with my little portable Minn Kota electric motor that let me stay where I wanted to be and worked against the breeze. Then I saw something that really surprised me!


I don't know what that looks like to you but I know what it looks like to me! The breeze blew me over it before I could see if anything was around but I kept my eye on it and looked around for any movement or hanging bass.

About 30 feet away I saw a slightly thicker clump of weeds. I tossed the getting torn up stickworm over there and let it sink down next to the weeds. Then I realized it had moved on it's own down faster and away from the weeds. I set the hook.


Oh yeah! Now we're talking!! A solid 4 pounder that jumped twice and put up a good close in fight! Big Mama! Danny was suddenly happy...

Unfortunately I tore up the shad colored stickworm and realized I had no more with me having brought a metric ton of tackle but taken them out when I went to the Hot Ponds back in December... I tossed out my little anchor to hold in the same spot just outside the brush and between the possible bed spot and some scattered weeds.

I found a different color of approximately Green pumpkin and tinsel flake, and made a few casts with that. No more bites but because the bass moved out from the weeds I was very suspicious... so I broke out the ole Nemesis Baits Bullet Craw. I had black blue handy and that's a good color much of the time.


I pitched to Bullet Craw with a 3/8 oz tungsten bullet weight to the same weed clump 2 or 3 times and then set the hook when my line jumped and caught this solid quality keeper bass from that same clump! Bingo!

[djkimmel]

A few more pitches produced no more detected bites as far as I could tell and feel. I thought I had rested the suspicious bedding spot long enough. It was just out of range of being able to see if anything was actually on it. I pitched the Bullet Craw past the clean spot and let it drop. I moved it a short ways until I felt it enter the clean spot.


It started swimming so I set the hook! Another decent keeper off a possible bed on the 27th of March! I don't know but it sure seemed suspicious to me. I have actually seen bass on beds on this lake as early as the first week of April in 50 degree water in the past so I'm going with an early attempt at making a bed and attracting a girlfriend first.

After that excitement I actually saw a commotion up in the brush. I was still anchored so I turned and cast the Bullet Craw over a laydown tree up into the brush and other cover. Just when the Bullet Craw got to the laydown it pulled back. I could see everything but somehow a bass had got my Bullet Craw without me seeing it. I set the hook and pulled it jumping over the laydown. It was a small keeper so I didn't take a picture.

I then picked up the new stickworm and made a long cast (on P-Line Spectrex IV braid and a spinning rod I use for dock skipping) over to the next closest clump of weeds. I felt movement or weight and set the hook. A HAWG flopped up out of the water crashing down and then put up a drag-stripping fight!!!


What a HAWG! Not real long compared so some bass but this bass had a dark black top and was very deep in the body and fatter in the belly than me!! I had no scale or measuring board with me to I could only estimate it at short but about 5 1/2 pounds due to the serious girth.


Check out the fat, fat belly on this beast of a fun bass that I really appreciated having it eat my stickworm!!

After casting the stickworm around and pitching the Bullet Craw some more I only had 1 bite that I missed so I pulled up the anchor and started to move with the electric motor on low. I moved maybe 10-15 feet and made a cast with the stickworm to another small weed clump when my line jumped again. Set the hook!!


An even Bigger HAWG! This bass jumped 3 or 4 times and really stripped out the drag several times before I finally got it by the lower jaw and hoisted it into the boat. It was 3 or 4 inches longer than the fat one, not as fat but still had the deep body of a toad female. Now Dan is very, very happy and having a great day!!

I released here gently back into the water and then pitched the Bullet Craw around. I had another light bite but the bass ran right at me so I never got a good hookset. It jumped right at the boat and came off. Another quality keeper but I was still pretty darn happy because I almost got it and the day was going great!

I moved out farther from shore and pitched the Bullet Craw back to the front of one of the weed clumps when my line stopped and my craw felt 'heavy.' I set the hook and my rod doubled over - another quality bass!


Not a toad but a real nice early spring bass anyways that I'd be happy any time to catch!

After that I ran out of bass. I fished around the middle of the bay with various lures but couldn't get any more bites. It was getting later and I wanted to try some main lake stuff so I left my new favorite bay to head back into the main lower part of the lake.

I fished a beautiful milfoil weedy point way out into the lake with a KVD 2.5 just bouncing through the tops of the weeds for awhile but got zero bites... I did have a little adventure.


I came upon this little dude rowing along the surface way out. My guess is it was minding it's own business hanging out in the milfoil waiting to ambush unlucky prey and my weed skipping crankbait must have spooked it so it decided to move...


This will give you a better idea how big this 'little' dude really is. It's called a Water-stick bug by some people but it is really a Water Scorpion - the thinner Ranata one. I rarely see them because they usually hang in weeds with an air bubble under their tail waiting to snag bugs and small creatures that swim by with their knife blade like arms in which they snag the prey and then stab them with their rostrum injecting saliva that sedates and dissolve the prey to be sucked up! Yuck! But they're harmless to people. They breath through their tail.

After that I was getting chilly and it was getting later afternoon so I decided to leave the rest of the lake for later explorations maybe. I only really found 1 spot all day but it was a pretty great spot. Like I said I never did get to ask the few other boaters how they were doing so I don't know what else might have been working on the lake though I know a few things that didn't work.

[21XDC]

Forget about me taking you fishing, I want to fish from the back of your rented row boat!

Wowza!  Nice day!

[djkimmel]

Funny... I'd have to move over all my piles of tackle...