apz245

got a chance to do 4 days of fishing at my cottage, didn't get as many hours on the water as I would of liked, and I didn't experiment with all the techniques I wanted to because as I'm sure you all know, it's easy to get stuck in your same habits/patterns. I did however start learning to use tubes, both by vertically jigging them and by dragging them with the boat, both methods were productive.

I fished the same shoal/hump all 4 days (probably a huge mistake) in sweltering heat, it was over 30 degrees all 4 days once the sun was up, Most days I fished from 6-10 or 7-11 am, then again from 7-9pm, first few days I was drop shotting minnows/worms and found that most fish were concentrated to the side of the hump where the wind was blowing, first few days got to be somewhat frustrating because before your minnow or worm would even reach the bottom a rock bass would have it, and if not a rock bass a 4-6 inch smallmouth, the novelty quickly wore off, on the first day though in the evening I got my first and only decent bass of the trip, it was around 16 inches so I'm guessing around 1 or 1.5 lbs, maybe one of you bass pros can help me out here.

Spinning wasn't working at all, tried inline spinners tipped with a plastic grub, spinnerbaits, and minnows/crankbaits 

The second or third day I started experimenting with 3.5" KVD coffee tubes, first by vertically jigging, I was happy because it at least kept most of the rock bass off, although I did feel lots of bites that seemed to be bass that couldn't get it in their mouth's and set the hook a ton of times with no fish to show, the tubes were working for me and I spent most of the rest of the trip dragging them or jigging, caught lots of bass between 8-15 inches, probably 30-40 all together, I kept maybe 5, and the big one for fillets. I forgot how much fun these smaller smallmouth could be, they fight like crazy, even the 8" ones.

the highlight of the trip was a 24", 5lb walleye that my friend caught after we drifted into some flats in around 30 FOW, on a worm and split shot, the pics below are of the bass and walleye.

another thing to watch out for is snags, if you have heavier line on than your rod is rated for it can mess up the guides or even snap the rod by pulling on the snag the wrong way, always lift high rather than pulling sharply to the side, front or back, this keeps the rod is working as it was designed to.

it's not illegal to throw them back, however it is generally considered by most anglers good practice to kill and dispose of them, others say it makes no difference..

it is illegal to use them as bait or to throw them from one body of water to another (for example you get some in your minnow trap, take them fishing up north, and when you're done you have some left over and dump em back into the lake up north) that is definitely illegal

congrats man, must have been a hell of a fight, they are strong fish

Bass and other warm water species are like weed while migratory trout and salmon are like heroin. You've been out for the salmonids enough times Remy, you didnt notice a difference in fishing pressure? I'm not going to give away my bass hot spots but if someone wants to its not the end of the world.

 

Now I will say that there are currently 22 guests viewing the topic     but for the most part people arent going to drive 2 hours to fish the Grand for bass like the would for the salmonids. You have been making alot of these posts in threads and the shoutbox for quite some time now. The mods are on the site daily and have their mandate so if you think a post is breaking the rules just hit the report button at the bottom right and it will get taken care of.

I could be wrong but from my understanding migratory fish are also more susceptible to fishing pressure.. that's why I keep bass occasionally and try not to keep as many trout or any salmon (salmon are useful for meat anyway once theyre in the tribs IMO).  I think its also worth noting that a good sized lake trout can be 20 years old! So migratory fish aren't the only ones that are vulnerable.

No problem. Let's hope we're both lucky in the bass/pike department, when the season opens.

yeah man, post pics!

welcome! can't speak from experience (I've only had success catching them ice fishing with minnows or drifting roe bags) but i've always heard mepps spinners are killer for trout. What species?

what do you usually fish for, on what setup?(sorry fishingnoob beat you to it )- this is an inside joke that you'll get if you post here for a bit, but its a good question imo