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It's Bass Time! (photos included)


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WHITE BASS that is! smile.gif

Not wanting to let an absolutely gorgeous weekend slip through our fingers, Darren (Dtro) and myself snuck up the Minnesota River this weekend with hopes of finding some fish, specifically white bass or channel cats. We were armed with spinning rods, catfish rods, jigs, plastics, and cutbait. You name it, we were prepared to fish for it. Ummm... almost prepared, we forgot to bring nightcrawlers with. Doh! To be honest, we were not sure what to expect and were willing to adjust to conditions and adjust to fishing for fish that would bite.

We hit a couple spots that looked like they'd hold fish and marked a lot of fish on the depthfinder. Those marks could be bait schools, they could be fish, but we couldn't confirm one way or the other on our first few spots.

We continued on narrowing our search to areas of slack water immediately adjacent to current. We slowed down our technique a little vertical jigging plastics right on these current breaks when bam! Fish on! She was not a big one but our confidence level clicked up a notch with one fish in the boat.

Here's the man Dtro with White Bass #1 for the day!

White%20Bass%20-%20Dtro%201.jpg

Shortly after Darren's fish, I connected as well on a small White Bass on a very large ringworm.

White%20Bass%20-%20Chris%201.jpg

We pulled 5 or 6 small White Bass out of this spot and decided to move on. We kept looking for tight current seams with slack, slack water near the shore. You really can't fish the main channel right now with the current so its imperative to find calm water.

Our next spot produced a vicious strike and hookup for myself that bulldogged under the boat when the hook popped out. We'll have no idea what that fish was but it felt good and pulled hard. If I was to guess, I'm going to say it was a big cat (10+ pounds) by the way it pulled. Oh man... the heart was pumping hard after that.

I kept casting back to the same area when I got hit again after a few minutes. This time, it was a White Bass though, one VERY LARGE White Bass! Its been awhile since I've been excited like this but this whitey was huge, and what a fun fight!

Here she is... 3 Pound White Bass! My personal best. smile.gif

White%20Bass%20-%20Chris%202.jpg

The tape doesn't lie either, that fish is darn near 18" long.

White%20Bass%20-%20Ruler.jpg

Shortly after getting photos of that piggie bass, Dtro went and put on a plastics for roughfish clinic as he caught these 2 Buffalo back to back on paddletails.

Buffalo%20-%20Dtro%201.jpg

Buffalo%20-%20Dtro%202.jpg

But the White Bass marathon was just warming up. We made a short move and was it a good decision. Our next spot was full of whites that were more than willing to bite. Over the next few hours, we C&R'd another 20 or so White Bass in all sizes. We did pull another 3-4 fish in that 17", 2 1/2lb range.

Here's me with another brute!

White%20Bass%20-%20Chris%205.jpg

And here's Dtro with a beauty as well!

White%20Bass%20-%20Dtro%202.jpg

Once we started to put the pattern together, it was almost too easy. smile.gif Current seams, slack water adjacent to main river current, and eddies all produced a few fish. We pitched jigs and plastics and hopped them back to the boat and caught fish. Vertical jigging under the boat produced fish.

My favorite technique was vertical jigging the "flathead lair". smile.gif The flathead lair was a pile of wood floating on the water that I dropped my plastic next to and got smacked right away by a whitey. I told Darren I would keep pulling fish out of that spot and I got 2 more back to back after that one.

Wow! What a day on the water! I had to remind myself that we had 2-3 inches of snow on the ground 5 days ago and now I've got a sunburn to prove that summer is here.

If you're going to go... bring your mud tires. Yikes!

White%20Bass%20-%20Mud.jpg

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Those first couple would be good bait size. laugh.gif I think this coming weekend will be my first outing on the river this year.

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Super reports guys. Them are some pigs! I aint never even seen whities that big before. And them buffalo, sheeze! Wild trip for sure. Congrats to both of ya! laugh.gif

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Nice fish, great pictures.

I can never seem to get into the white bass in the last few years, 3 years ago I landed one that pushed the tape to a bit over 20 inches, estimated it at about 4-4.5 lbs.

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I love the fight of a white bass, better than a similar size smallie imho. Though I have forgotten how much a smallie fights frown.gif cant wait till opener

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Pound for pound, whites are some of the hardest fighting freshwater fish around. If you think they fight good for thier weight, try tying into a wiper, or a striper in the 20 lb class laugh.gif, what a blast.

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