I’m finally getting on the water with the new boat and getting it broke in. The motor cleared the 20-hour inspection and it’s time to do some serious fishing. I got a fresh new injection of cortisone in the knee so that should be good-to-go for a few weeks…I hope, because the next step is another replacement, and that means 2 months of down time. Also, I’ve finally gotten the chance to play with the FFS and it’s been everything I thought it would be. My early morning ditch fish have been totally on FFS and I’ve watched the fish see my bait and react to it, start to finish. I thought that was pretty cool. Man, there is so much to learn though. I can tell already that I could get sucked into just using FFS all day and just absorbing every detail of what I’m seeing. How the fish react to my bait in real time and the graphics of the event is amazing. I can actually see the fish’s tail wagging as it swims after my bait! We’ve come a long way from the old flashers and watching for that little red dot to pop up.

Speaking of flashers, years ago, like maybe 40 years ago, it was late winter, and a buddy and I were returning to the ramp after a day off fishing a lake in central California. Right before we got my buddies Bass Tracker back to the ramp we had to cross over a small point, and we still had the flasher on as we idled over the point. I happen to look down at the flasher and I saw it light up with something between the boat and the bottom. I didn’t really know exactly what it was, but I knew something was suspended below the surface in 25-30 feet of water on the crown of the point. Once we trailered the boat my buddy Sonny was going through the rituals of prepping the boat for the long haul back home and I was dying to take a topwater rod down to the point and make a couple casts around the area I saw the fish on the flasher. Sonny told me to walk down and make a couple casts with a Zara Spook, so I headed down to the water’s edge on the point. I threw the Spook into the area where I saw the fish on the flasher and no sooner than the Spook hit the water a big largemouth just exploded on it. I fought that fish to the bank just as the sun was setting and it was a great way to end the trip. I thought it was the coolest thing to see the fish on the flasher and then catch the fish just a few minutes later. We’ve come a long way with technology since I was in my early 20’s and the flasher was the latest and greatest technology.

One thing that was noteworthy about that big bass was that he was out on the end of that point in 25-30 feet of water feeding and it was a warm evening in late Feb. My guess is that was staging and feeding up for the spawn. The same thing is starting here on the lake and the fish are starting to get their mojo back and some are thinking it time to start chowing down around those staging areas. Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of fish in the ditches munching on threads and blueback but then there are the meat eaters. Here’s a good example of some meat eating up on the staging points. This is a bigger fish I caught on a secondary rocky point in the creek last week. Check out the regurgitated fish I found in her mouth. That’s one meal she didn’t get to finish but a good example of the type of meal these fish require when staging and pre-loading for the spawn.

The biggest success I had with the bigger fish for the past couple weeks came from focusing on that 20 to 35-foot range out on the ends of points after the sun got up and back in the ditches very early in the mornings. I also had success around some of the deeper docks, mainly out on the deeper ends or the front of the docks like maybe some staging fish in deeper areas rather than the shallower areas of the dock. I would say that about 70% of my fish for the past few weeks were caught on a shaky head and the other 30% with a small swimbait on a Lanier Baits 1/4-ounce Damiki head or a 1/4 Trixster Baits Kamikaze head. I would also say that just about 60% of my bigger fish came from the shaky head out on the ends of points with the other 40% coming from the deeper areas of the ditches, like 40+ feet deep ditches. I mainly used the FFS of the ditch work and then turned it off, opting for using my mapping to show me the staging areas on the sunny afternoons. One thing that’s pretty cool and helps a lot with my mapping is Humminbird’s new VX mapping chip. You can do multiple contour color shading. I set my target area at about 20 feet to 35 feet in a nice shade of green and I concentrated on making most of my casts in that area when I approached a secondary point. As the afternoon progresses, I may focus on some more shallow areas of a secondary point but most of my focus has been these areas where historically bass stage in the early spring. Here’s a video I made a few years back explaining the areas where bass will stage in early spring.

Another tactic I’ve used in the past few weeks is following the loons when they are feeding early in the morning. The loons have been stirring up the bait which has been stirring up the bass in the areas of loon activity. It’s a good idea to pay attention to the loons, especially when they are cruising around in groups looking for bait. Working around the loons with a swimbait and letting it sink to the bottom is worth a try. If there are active bass in the area, I’ve been able to pick them up on the LiveScope and cast or drop the Damiki to them with a good success rate. Here’s a couple pics of my swimbait choice for the past couple weeks.

I can see that things are starting to change, and the fish have started to feed a little more as the water slowly warms into the 50’s. There have been a few exceptions when targeting these stagers on secondary points and every once in a while, I’ll pop a good fish up shallow. These fish up shallow that I’ve been catching are good shaky head fish and here’s my bait of choice when targeting stagers on secondary points.

I’m still using a Zman Big TRD on a 1/4 ounce Boss jig head, mainly because the Boss jig head has a great keeper for the soft plastic baits from Zman. I suggest changing the colors of the bait every once in a while, until you find a good one. Yesterday when I was out, I ran up north and targeted some points along the river channel and found a few nice ones on the shaky head. Usually I’m making very long casts with the shaky head, longer casts than the LiveScope can reach out to so I’m pretty much blind casting the staging areas to start with. Once I get closer, I can scope it, but the first few casts are blind casts. I can’t say enough about my worm rig for these bigger fish. This is my second year of using it for the heavy work and the Shimano Stradic 2500 coupled with a Shimano Zodias 7’2″ medium fast rod is the bomb. I’m using 20lb Cast braid, which, by the way, is the reason I can make these longer casts with the worm. The Cast braid gives me more distance than any other line I’ve ever used. I’m using an 8-foot Seagar fluorocarbon leader and joining it to the braid with my Jimberto knot.

Yesterday afternoon I was fishing a staging area just off the river channel and after a long bombing cast with the shaky head, I felt a little tap and set the hook on my first 5lber in the new Skeeter.

Right before I caught it, I was thinking about how long it may take before I catch another 5lber and sure enough, not long after the good Lord answered my question and blessed me with the one pictured above to make my day.

I’m sure in the coming days I’ll be able to mix in more moving baits like the crankbaits, spinnerbaits and chatterbaits but for right now I’m focused on the swimbait and the worm as my two go-to baits of choice. I can see that the water temps are rising ever so slightly right now, and the corps has started generating 10-12 hours in a 24-hour period. Because of the heavy generation periods right now the lake is trending downward and we’re just a hair below full pool. Look for things to continue to pick up over the next few weeks as we get closer to the next full moon and more fish move up to the shallower areas. Here’s a few fish from the last two weeks in the new Skeeter.