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I had an amazing day out on the water on Sunday the 22nd. It was a great day partly because it was my first trip out this season with my regular fishing buddy (suffering from an ongoing case of steelhead-itis) and because the fishing was just plain amazing. The executive summary is that I caught 48 bass and my best 5 weighed 16lb 9oz and measured 95.75". My best was a 20", 3lb 15oz toad. My buddy did almost as well in numbers and caught a 20" fish as well! It is the kind of day you dream about.
There is an old myth that catching a fish on your first cast is bad luck but I found out that you can cancel out that bad luck by catching fish on your first 3 casts back-to-back-to-back
I caught those first 3 bass and quite a few others, including the first of my 3+lb bass, on a Sammy walking bait. Those fish were hitting the topwater with gusto! I still miss a lot of bites on that bait but it is a blast to throw and the bass hit it with such violence.
As the day brightened the bass were still hitting the topwater but my hookup ratio went down so I started mixing in and transitioning to the Jack Hammer Stealthblade. The JH SB did not let me down and stayed productive for several hours. I did occasionally mix in a Ned rig when I marked deeper fish but most of the work was being done with the JH SB. They were thumping that thing so hard, I love it when they just knock slack in your line. I love that lure because it is productive but also because it seems to produce bigger fish for me. Three of my 3+lb bass came on the JH SB.
By late morning the wind had picked up pretty ferociously and the JH bite finally shut off and from there on out it was classic deep water summertime fishing. I alternated between a drop shot and a wobblehead. Those are my go to lures when it starts getting rough on the Columbia and the bass (that are biting) are deeper. Once the shallow bite turned off we caught all the rest of our fish in 15-25' of water. The interesting thing is that I caught my biggest fish of the day on the wobblehead out of 22' of water and then a few minutes later I caught a couple of 6" dinks on a drop shot on the same spot. I was surprised that a 20" fish would be around 6" fish. I would think the 6" fish would look like food to the bigger fish.
Eventually as I was fighting the wind I noticed that the squeaking on my drive was getting worse and worse. I kept fishing for a a while longer but eventually I figured I should head home. I am disappointed to say that when I got home I found that the several needle bearings in the drive had broken, the housing had cracked and the spindle was chewed up. I love the performance of my Hobie Outback but the 180 drive seems to be fragile. This is the second major repair on a drive that is 6 years old.
Anyway, lets end on a happy note. My best 5 bass were a 3lb 6oz (18.75"), 3lb (18.5"), 3lb 2oz (19.25"), 3lb 15oz (20") and 3lb 2oz (19.25"). I also had at least 7 other bass that were well over 2lbs. There were certainly plenty of small bass mixed into the 48 but I did end the day with a 2lb 4oz bass which is a pretty sweet ending to an awesome day.
Here are pics of the 5 best and a video from the day.
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2rd7k8F]
There is an old myth that catching a fish on your first cast is bad luck but I found out that you can cancel out that bad luck by catching fish on your first 3 casts back-to-back-to-back
I caught those first 3 bass and quite a few others, including the first of my 3+lb bass, on a Sammy walking bait. Those fish were hitting the topwater with gusto! I still miss a lot of bites on that bait but it is a blast to throw and the bass hit it with such violence.As the day brightened the bass were still hitting the topwater but my hookup ratio went down so I started mixing in and transitioning to the Jack Hammer Stealthblade. The JH SB did not let me down and stayed productive for several hours. I did occasionally mix in a Ned rig when I marked deeper fish but most of the work was being done with the JH SB. They were thumping that thing so hard, I love it when they just knock slack in your line. I love that lure because it is productive but also because it seems to produce bigger fish for me. Three of my 3+lb bass came on the JH SB.
By late morning the wind had picked up pretty ferociously and the JH bite finally shut off and from there on out it was classic deep water summertime fishing. I alternated between a drop shot and a wobblehead. Those are my go to lures when it starts getting rough on the Columbia and the bass (that are biting) are deeper. Once the shallow bite turned off we caught all the rest of our fish in 15-25' of water. The interesting thing is that I caught my biggest fish of the day on the wobblehead out of 22' of water and then a few minutes later I caught a couple of 6" dinks on a drop shot on the same spot. I was surprised that a 20" fish would be around 6" fish. I would think the 6" fish would look like food to the bigger fish.
Eventually as I was fighting the wind I noticed that the squeaking on my drive was getting worse and worse. I kept fishing for a a while longer but eventually I figured I should head home. I am disappointed to say that when I got home I found that the several needle bearings in the drive had broken, the housing had cracked and the spindle was chewed up. I love the performance of my Hobie Outback but the 180 drive seems to be fragile. This is the second major repair on a drive that is 6 years old.
Anyway, lets end on a happy note. My best 5 bass were a 3lb 6oz (18.75"), 3lb (18.5"), 3lb 2oz (19.25"), 3lb 15oz (20") and 3lb 2oz (19.25"). I also had at least 7 other bass that were well over 2lbs. There were certainly plenty of small bass mixed into the 48 but I did end the day with a 2lb 4oz bass which is a pretty sweet ending to an awesome day.
Here are pics of the 5 best and a video from the day.
[/url[url=https://flic.kr/p/2rd7k8F]