Bass on fire

If you think its too early for bass fishing in Minnesota, you might usually be right, but not with the sunny record warm days we've been having!

Me and fellow bass-nut Steve Loraus took to the MS river yesterday, and with a few tips from our buddy Marty, we really got on the fish.  We're talking back to back to back to back doubles, and probably well over 60 fish for the day.  We lost count and stopped keeping track after we started getting fish on back to back casts.

We even pulled up to one spot and we both caught fish on nearly 10 consecutive casts -- all tanks ranging from 2.5lbs to well over 4lbs.  This was the first double we got when moving up onto the spot...

From there we caught bigger fish and many more fish, but there was no time for pictures when both guys in the boat are busy catching fish on back to back casts... over and over...  I only wish we had someone there filming the action.  It was unreal.

The key seemed to be finding 3-5'+ depth of water next to shallow spawning flats.  These larger fish were in prespawn-feedbag mode and they really liked sitting in the deeper water next to the warm flat.  The fish were scattered mostly around on the transition from the deeper water to the shallowest water in the backwater spawning flats and on the bank.  There were many fish to be had up on the flat and in the shallows, in as little as 6" of water right on the bank.  Most of these fish seemed to be a little smaller but definitely just as aggressive.

Finding warm water seemed important as well.  Anywhere with current was around 55 degrees, while in slack water 62-65 degrees was the norm.  Water over 60 degrees seemed to hold the most active fish.

White/chartreuse spinnerbaits seemed to be best at finding the most active fish.  If we got big fish on a particular spot and the spinnerbait bite shut off, switching to a shallow crankbait or even pitching a plastic would pick off a few more -- often the biggest fish using the area.  I was using a 7' medium Shimano rod with a Shimano Chronarch high-speed reel and 20lb mono line.  Baits of choice were the War Eagle Finesse Spinnerbaits.  Click the links to check the stuff out at Cabela's.


Here's a couple other pics from that day: