Prespawn has quickly become my favorite season to target big largemouth shallow. I love hitting the third warming day in a cycle. Especially when it tops the 70 degree range. Sunday was the day:
This string of ponds requires a sandy hike in:
Finding the water is a challenge. A launch spot one year may be filled in the next with a wall of cattails and invasive grass. In this case I found a little spot through a Russian Olive tunnel:
Go time:
The first pond was slow. The second and third connected pond I started catching a lot of 1 to 2 pounders:
Caught this one on the phone with @Irafly:
The day was waning into the afternoon when I found an exit from pond #3 to hike through another tick filled swamp to pond #4. It had been a really good day but I hadn't found any bigger bass. This was about to change. Having never fished pond #4 I first had to find a safe place to launch. I lucked out and found a muskrat hut that wasn't too grown up. I launched and lined up a cast to the cattails. Boom. First big girl of the day:
The next three hours were incredible as I found the range of bass I was seeking:
Twinning:
One particular fish waked to my popper from well over 50 feet away. It was ridiculous.
I'm not sure these bass have ever seen a lure. Fish of the day:
Even the deer were wondering what I was doing back there:
Pop it like it's hot
:
4 ponds to traverse and a long hike out. Exhausted. What a day!
Billy
This string of ponds requires a sandy hike in:
Finding the water is a challenge. A launch spot one year may be filled in the next with a wall of cattails and invasive grass. In this case I found a little spot through a Russian Olive tunnel:
Go time:
The first pond was slow. The second and third connected pond I started catching a lot of 1 to 2 pounders:
Caught this one on the phone with @Irafly:
The day was waning into the afternoon when I found an exit from pond #3 to hike through another tick filled swamp to pond #4. It had been a really good day but I hadn't found any bigger bass. This was about to change. Having never fished pond #4 I first had to find a safe place to launch. I lucked out and found a muskrat hut that wasn't too grown up. I launched and lined up a cast to the cattails. Boom. First big girl of the day:
The next three hours were incredible as I found the range of bass I was seeking:
Twinning:
One particular fish waked to my popper from well over 50 feet away. It was ridiculous.
I'm not sure these bass have ever seen a lure. Fish of the day:
Even the deer were wondering what I was doing back there:
Pop it like it's hot
:4 ponds to traverse and a long hike out. Exhausted. What a day!
Billy
