MN Opening Week Report

[WatterBoy]

We arrived home last night after an 8-day stay at the lake, so I thought I'd share an update on how things went. Opening weekend was pretty good for numbers of bass caught, but nothing real big. Then some rainy, stormy, windy weather rolled in for the next 2-3 days and made the fishing tough. A small tornado hit town on the night of Memorial Day. It's about 7 miles from our place at the lake, and we were very fortunate to have nothing but rain and no trees or branches down or other property damage. By the end of the week the fishing was pretty good again. I managed to catch 60 Largemouth, 1 Smallmouth, 14 Rock Bass and 2 pike for the week. There was really no crankbait bite to speak of, at least not that my fishing buddy and I could find anyway. He is a gung-ho cranker (I'm a senko/dropshot guy) and normally does that 90% of the time, but even he was using pretty much all senkos and dropshot after the first couple of days. Water temps were 58-59 when we arrived and 63-65 by the time we left.

Breakdown of the lures used to catch the 61 LM+SM:

                5" Yamasenko wacky-rigged: 29
                                   Zoomie: 14
  5" Yamasenko wacky-rigged on a dropshot: 12
                              Rebel Pop-R:  3
           Havoc Craw Fatty on a dropshot:  1
                7" Yamasenko wacky-rigged:  1
                    Strike King Crankbait:  1

Here are the picture highlights for the week.

This was LM #9 of 10 I caught on opening morning (5/28) and was the only one over 2 pounds. It weighed in at 2lb 13oz and was 16.5".


These were #7 and #10 of 10 more that found their way into the boat on Sunday morning, 05/29. LM = 2lb 12oz, 16.25" & SM = 2lb 2oz, 15.0"


I now own my first baitcaster and tried to practice with it a fair amount from the dock. I even caught my first ever bass on it on Wednesday afternoon, 06/01. It was just a little guy at 1lb 10oz, 13", but it was fun to get my first bass on a baitcaster!


The Rock Bass were loving the 5" wacky senko on a dropshot. There were several nice chunky ones caught. These two checked in at 1lb 10oz and 1lb 12oz respectively (state record here is 2.0).



The biggest bass of the week came on Friday morning, 6/3, and was caught on a 5" wacky-rigged senko. It tipped the scales at 3lb 2oz and measured 17.25".


This one isn't of a fish, but I thought I would show you how wild and unruly our dog, Lucky, is in the boat.

[Ebbetsguy]

Nice work, cool dog! It's been about the same this way, great begging of season, a lot of the fish are post spawn now, but the nite bite is on! Have fun and stay safe this season.

Most of my fish have come on the 5 inch Alluring Trik Stik or BPS Stiko's followed closely by the Brush Bug/Football Jig head


What adjustments have you made b/c of all the high water your way?

[coldbasser]

Nice work and must of been a blast getting a good 8 days in.
Coldbasser

[WatterBoy]

Originally Posted by Ebbetsguy

Nice work, cool dog! It's been about the same this way, great begging of season, a lot of the fish are post spawn now, but the nite bite is on! Have fun and stay safe this season.

Most of my fish have come on the 5 inch Alluring Trik Stik or BPS Stiko's followed closely by the Brush Bug/Football Jig head


What adjustments have you made b/c of all the high water your way?

The lake I fish is about two feet higher right now than it was last year. I normally fish shallow anyway (almost always in 8' or less), but it seemed like everything was really in the shallows last week. I was often tossing senkos right up near the grass shorelines and reed shorelines where there was less than a foot of water. The only 3+ pounder of the week came in a small stand of reeds where it was only 2'-3' deep. I kept meaning to dropshot some deeper areas (10'-15'), but I never did try that. Maybe this weekend. I also need to throw some jigs as I have never done that before and want to start learning how. Most of the weedbeds and cover wasn't grown up at all yet, but I'm guessing a lot of the lily pads will have surfaced by this weekend.

[Bubba_Bruiser]

Awesome photos AquaMan! I could see asking my wife to make an 8 day fishing trip hahahaha. Looks like you have caught keepers in several different areas. Sounds like y'all had a good time though and congrats on the fish.

[WaffleJaw]

Man that sounds like an awesome trip!..Great pics WB,that rockbass is huge!
Im thoroughly impressed with you record keeping!!

[rrw4258]

Wow, what an awesome trip! Sounds like you had a blast.

Ryan

[MIbasser]

Nice job WB!! That sounds like a great way to start off the season.

[WatterBoy]

Originally Posted by Bubba_Bruiser

Awesome photos AquaMan! I could see asking my wife to make an 8 day fishing trip hahahaha. Looks like you have caught keepers in several different areas. Sounds like y'all had a good time though and congrats on the fish.

We actually have a place right on the lake, which we plan to retire to someday, so there is much to do there other than just fish. But then, my wife loves to fish also, so that is not a problem for me. She comes from a fanatical walleye fishing family, so she likes doing that, but she also likes to fish for crappies and I'm slowly teaching her to bass fish as well. She went out with me in the boat on 3 different bass outings and caught her first 4 LM ever on plastics while using a zoomie.

[WatterBoy]

Originally Posted by rrw4258

Wow, what an awesome trip! Sounds like you had a blast.

Ryan

Thanks, man. And the best part is that I currently have plans to spend THIRTY (that's 30! ) more days up there between today and August 7, including a couple of 5-day stints with just my dad and me up there fishing together. Even when the fish aren't cooperating, it's always a blast to be up there just relaxing and getting away from everything.

[bamabassman]

hahaha TOLD oyu folks ol dean is tearing em up already. nice pics dean, and i love an "unrully" canine on board. beautiful animal man for real. thanks and look forward to many more pics from you ol buddy.