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Travis and I hit Badin Sunday, hoping for the big May buzzbait bite! Day dawned cloudy and cool, and a northeast breeze. We were sitting on a great spot at daylight, and soon had two nice two pounders to the boat. Then, the action seemed to die off on top, so we switched to T rigs and C rigs. Nothing..
Saw no evidence of bedding fish, so we figured they were in the old post spawn recovery funk.
We continued to throw the plastics with no success, even adding some cranks and spinnerbaits to the assault.
Not a bite.
Around nine o'clock it dawned on me. Time to go finesse!
Out came the Shaky head rigs. We were using "spot removers" with Zoom Swamp Crawler worms.
About ten minutes after switching to this type of attack, a husky three pounder mashed my bait, then Travis got hooked up as well with my fish's twin, lol.
This went on for most of the day, the pattern seemed to be, find grass, find bass! The laydowns produced nothing, even my vaunted speed craw on the c rig was letting me down.
We had caught 25 fish by 1530, and most were one to three pounds. Never liked shaky head fishing, but like the man says, "I have seen the light!"
We were tired by then, and Travis needed to get home, his new wife needed him for "special" duty, it seems he had promised to fix supper for them, so, not to stand in the way of true love, I admonished him for one more try on a point, then we can hit the road. He agreed, so we went to a point where I had caught good fish before. I told Trav I had to give the speed craw a chance to redeem itself, and was glad we did. My first cast landed almost right on top of a stump, and a good fish mashed the bait instantly, and got off as I didn't get a good hook set.
Next cast, I felt the familiar thump, and saw the line sawing off to the left. Set the hook, and a minute or so later a fat four pounder was in the boat. Next cast saw another bite, and soon a nice three pounder was taken and released. We threw a few more times with no more bites.
Travis was getting "ancy", so we left for the dock, and Trav's duties as new hubby were saved!
Total for the day:
Buzzbaits-2 bass
C rig speedcraw-3 bass
Shaky head swamp crawler-22 bass, one blue catfish (Travis knew he had a real pig on this five pound cat, lol)
All in all, very productive day after we changed tactics..
Lake was fairly clear, in spite of recent rains. But was down nearly two feet
, guess they were drawing water..
Saw no evidence of bedding fish, so we figured they were in the old post spawn recovery funk.
We continued to throw the plastics with no success, even adding some cranks and spinnerbaits to the assault.
Not a bite.
Around nine o'clock it dawned on me. Time to go finesse!
Out came the Shaky head rigs. We were using "spot removers" with Zoom Swamp Crawler worms.
About ten minutes after switching to this type of attack, a husky three pounder mashed my bait, then Travis got hooked up as well with my fish's twin, lol.
This went on for most of the day, the pattern seemed to be, find grass, find bass! The laydowns produced nothing, even my vaunted speed craw on the c rig was letting me down.
We had caught 25 fish by 1530, and most were one to three pounds. Never liked shaky head fishing, but like the man says, "I have seen the light!"
We were tired by then, and Travis needed to get home, his new wife needed him for "special" duty, it seems he had promised to fix supper for them, so, not to stand in the way of true love, I admonished him for one more try on a point, then we can hit the road. He agreed, so we went to a point where I had caught good fish before. I told Trav I had to give the speed craw a chance to redeem itself, and was glad we did. My first cast landed almost right on top of a stump, and a good fish mashed the bait instantly, and got off as I didn't get a good hook set.
Next cast, I felt the familiar thump, and saw the line sawing off to the left. Set the hook, and a minute or so later a fat four pounder was in the boat. Next cast saw another bite, and soon a nice three pounder was taken and released. We threw a few more times with no more bites.
Travis was getting "ancy", so we left for the dock, and Trav's duties as new hubby were saved!
Total for the day:
Buzzbaits-2 bass
C rig speedcraw-3 bass
Shaky head swamp crawler-22 bass, one blue catfish (Travis knew he had a real pig on this five pound cat, lol)
All in all, very productive day after we changed tactics..
Lake was fairly clear, in spite of recent rains. But was down nearly two feet