9/24: 22" Largemouth Bass Streak Continues

If you saw the last blog we posted, Two Trophy Largemouth in 2 hours, you would have read a report in which I landed a 22" and 21.75" largemouth bass in under two hours. Since then I have hit the water a few more times and I haven't been disappointed.

Saturday 9/20

Saturday Shawn Skidmore and I went out and fished a few different lakes in hopes of upgrading our 5 fish total in Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail's Buckeye Bass Challenge. On our first stop of the day we hit a small state lake and began by throwing buzzbaits. At this point in the week we were fishing pre-cold front conditions. The water temperatures were holding in the low 70's and fish were still really active. The air temperatures at night hadn't dropped below 50 degrees yet, but they soon would. The buzzbait was hot, well for Shawn anyway. The day began rough for me, I ended up fishing more in the trees than I did in the water, broke my favorite buzzbait, and only managed two small fish (18" and 17"). Shawn on the other hand was on fire finishing the day with a 17", 17.5", 18", 18.5", 18.75", 20.5" and 22.25"! (Most of which were caught in the morning at our first stop.) 

At about 10am the wind started to pick up and fishing the small state lake became nearly impossible. We loaded all of our gear up and drove down the road to grab a bite to eat. From there we hit our 2nd spot of the day which yielded a few small fish but nothing worth mentioning. At about 5pm we loaded our gear up and drove over to our third and final stop. We fished until dark but failed to find any decent fish. 

Monday 9/22

Monday evening I went out by myself and tried to find the giant bass that I mentioned seeing in my "Two Trophy Bass in 2 Hours" blog. I had spent much of my time thinking about this fish over the last few days, "What if I tossed a jig back at him instead of pounding the water with the buzzbait?, What if I had stopped my buzzbait while he was following it, would he have ate it on the drop?, I wonder how big the fish really is? Will he make it another season?"...etc. It was driving me mad so I decided to head out and see if I could find my "white whale" and fool him into biting. At this point we were experiencing the full force of the cold front. Nightly air temps had been dropping into the low 40's and water temperatures were fluctuating quite a bit from dawn to dusk. I knew that the fishing was going to be tough but I couldn't help but to throw a black buzzbait. I fished for 4 hours and only landed one fish.  In the 4 hours that I fished I probably had two dozen bites on the buzzbait, and each time the fish would either miss my bait completely or pull my skirt down the shank of my hook. Since I was getting the bites I needed, I continued to make minor adjustments to see if I could trick them into inhaling the bait. I added trailers, I changed colors, tried triple bladed buzzbaits (as opposed to the traditional double paddle buzzbait), I changed my speed, etc. I went home that night with my head down, after several months of excellent fishing this trip really hit me hard. 

Wednesday 9/24

Shawn, Russ, and I went back out and tried to find a few quality fish. Shawn and I got on the water around 11am and Russ met us on the water around 1pm. Shawn started the trip throwing buzzbaits and crankbaits.  I on the other hand began with a hollow body frog and a jig. My thoughts were that if the fish were going to bust topwater again, maybe a slowly walked frog might do the trick. I worked the frog around vegetation and the jig around wood. I quickly found a few small fish on the jig near submerged wood, this would give me the confidence I needed to stick with the jig. About 50 minutes into the trip I hooked up with a solid bass on wood in 8 feet of water. After a short battle I landed the bass, took measurements, and pics. 

The bass went 21", which was good enough to bump my five fish total up by .5". I continued working the jig down the lake and landed several bass in the 16-18 range. On two separate occasions I hooked solid fish on deep wood and battled fish to the surface, after a few runs both fish found enough wood to wrap me up and throw the hook. I wasn't very happy that I was losing fish, but at least I was getting the bites I needed. Shawn on the other hand was having a very rough day. He struggled to get bites at all and he ended up spending more time in trees than he did in the water. At about 1pm Russ pulled into the parking lot and began unpacking all of his gear. I worked my way over to the boat ramp and waited to tell him that it was a tough bite but we already had one good fish on the board. As he was unloading I worked my way back into a small creek arm. I found a patch of duckweed setting in a little more than a foot of water and began working it with a jig. I had always gotten bites on a frog here before, but for some reason the fish had a hard time getting the frog in their mouth. I threw the jig onto the bank and began working it back to my kayak. With each hop of the jig I could see the duck weed move at the surface. At the end of my retrieve, about 3 feet from the edge of the duckweed, I hoped the jig and I noticed a boil of water push the duckweed away from my jig. I had either gotten somethings attention or spooked something. I gave the jig a quick hop and then waited........nothing. I pulled the jig up slowly and made another long cast, making sure that my jig was going to go through the area where the duck weed had been disturbed. I hopped the jig a few times and then I noticed my line jump. I dropped my rod tip and watched the fish swim away with my jig. I reeled up the slack and set the hook, and that's when the water exploded. It was another giant bass. After a few jumps and a couple slips of drag I pulled the fish into the kayak. 

I took a picture of the fish on the board and then called Shawn to come take a quick picture for me.  By this time Russ was just paddling over to see what all of the commotion was about, it would build his confidence.....which would only be shattered as the day pressed on. We fished until dark and the bite never really turned on. Shawn went on to land 9 bass under 16" and Russ landed a 12" bass and a 10lb snapping turtle on a frog.

The fish went 22" and 5lbs 7oz. This would make the third bass for me over 5lbs in less than two weeks, and that's not counting Shawn's 5lb 13oz 22.25" bass....not too bad for a couple of guys from Ohio. I'd like to say that we have been very fortunate the last month, but to be honest its been a heck of a year. We have been blessed with quality fish after quality fish, which has me both nervous and excited. I am beginning to wonder if we have hit our peak, can we do any better in the years to come, or will this be the year we look back at and remember? I guess only time will tell! 

9/18: Two Trophy Largemouth in Under Two Hours

Toward the end of the work day Thursday Amanda called to tell me that she would be going to the mall with her mother. This could only mean one thing......I was free to fish! At the time I really didn't consider the fact that I had been on the water the previous two days, or the fact that I had been running on less than 6 hours of sleep. All I had on my mind was hitting a local lake for a few hours after work. For the last week and half Russ had been talking about his desire to fish a lake near my house. He didn't know it yet but those little conversations would push me into hitting that very lake this evening, which would then result in one epic day of bass fishing.

Before I hit the water I called Skidmore to talk about our weekend plans. We had made plans Saturday to head out and try to upgrade our five fish total in Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail's Buckeye Bass Challenge online tournament. As of now Shawn was leading the pack with a five fish total of 105.5" and I had slipped into second place with my late season run and was sitting at 104". The other anglers weren't far off, which was really putting some pressure on us. With less than two weeks to go we had to find a few larger fish. I also told Shawn that I was on my way to hit the water while he was stuck at work....just to shake him up a bit. I had no preconceived notions of actually upgrading my smallest fish which was at 20.25", however he didn't need to know that. We got off the phone around 3pm and here's the text messages that followed that phone call:

Clearly he was worried, and to be honest I was just poking the fire.

I got on the water around 4pm and started working my way around the small state lake. I had tied on a weightless plastic, a hollow body frog, and a jig. My plans were to work the frog along the weeded banks and see if I could tempt a few bass into crushing it. If that didn't work I was going to switch to a weightless stick bait and see if I could find a few fish sitting near wood. I had the jig as a back up plan, but I honestly didn't think I would throw it. Lately the fish have been feeding on baitfish, which means most of the time they are looking up in the water column, not down on the bottom. I began by working the banks with the frog and success came quick.

A 19.5" bass fell victim to a frog that was quietly placed onto the bank and then slowly drug into the water. It wasn't an upgrade to my five fish total, but it was worth sending a quick picture text to Shawn......poking the fire again. I turned my phone on silent and went back to working the banks. Ten minutes later I hook into yet another solid fish on the frog.....17" and worth another text to Skidmore!.

I worked my way around the lake with the frog, pounding the banks and every fallen tree I could find. About halfway down the lake I tossed my frog up onto the bank and pulled it across a scum mat, when all of a sudden a fish stirred the surface scum but didn't eat my frog. I stopped for a second and then gave the frog a couple quick twitches.....nothing. Once I cleared the scum mat I reeled my frog in and made another cast onto the scum mat. This time around I worked the frog more aggressively, jerking and pulling the frog quickly across the surface. The fish couldn't resist this time! The fish exploded on the frog sending scum and water flying everywhere. It was a good fish! I reeled down to take up slack and set a solid hookset. I fought the fish for 5-10 seconds and then proceeded to pull it up and over a small branch. With a couple quick head shakes and a wave of the tail she said goodbye. I was sick to my stomach. I feel confident in saying that it was ~20" give or take a half an inch....a good fish by anyone's standards.

I continued working my way around the lake and eventually made it back around to the boat ramp. I had done my damage with the frog, landing 3 bass over 16". At this point the sun was starting to fall over the trees so I cut off my frog and tied on my lucky buzzbait.  I had just enough daylight left to work the lake one more time if I hurried. I started working the buzzbait by casting as close to the banks as I could and then ripping it off and slow rolling it back to the boat. Every now and then I'd twitch my rod and splash the surface just to give the bait a little extra noise. I was hoping that this extra splash would call in a few fish that were setting deeper in the water. After 20 minutes I was losing hope in the buzzbait.

On one particular occasion, I underhand casted my bait under an overhanging limb and proceeded to slow roll the bait back to my kayak. As soon as the buzzbait made its way past the overhanging limb something sucked the buzzbait under the surface. It wasn't your typical explosive topwater bite but this fish was moving. I couldn't even drop my rod to set the hook, as soon as the fish took the bait he dove back down to the bottom. I could tell pretty quickly that this was a good fish. The water visibility was about 3 feet and that's just about where this fish stayed. I couldn't see the fish, but with every change in direction I could see it stir the surface of the water. Eventually it surfaced beside the kayak and I landed the fish quickly. At fist glance I thought I had beaten my person best of a public water bass of 5lbs 1oz. I had tied this personal best twice last year and fell only an ounce shy one other time. Onto the scale she went......5lbs 2oz. A new personal best by 1oz. It wasn't the break out fish that I was looking for, but I would take it. It also went 21.75", which tied me with Shawn in the BKFT Bass Challenge. (Remember the text above.....I pretty much called that!)

 I broke the news to Shawn that we were going to be tied going into our fishing trip Saturday. I continued working my way down the lake and picked up a few fish here and there. Halfway up the lake I casted my buzzbait into a pile of logs and began slow rolling my bait back to the kayak. As soon as the bait hit the water I saw something wake off of the bank and head right to my buzzbait. It kept its distance at first but eventually it found itself trailing the buzzbait. It would burst forward, disturbing the surface of the water,  like it was going to hit the bait, and then it would fall back. This fish followed my bait all the way to my kayak and as I went to lower my rod and try to "figure 8" the buzzbait I caught a glimpse of the fish. It made the 5 pound fish I caught less than an hour ago look like a baby. It took one look at my kayak and took off, throwing water everywhere. I threw my buzzbait for nearly thirty minutes around the wood, and even threw my jig a time or two but the fish wasn't interested. There was nothing I could do so I began working back down the lake.

At  8pm I decided to paddle back the lake toward the boat ramp. Along the way I stopped and hit a few spots that had produced fish earlier in the day. Eventually, I paddled up to the spot where I had landed the 21.75" bass earlier and threw my buzzbait up and under the tree again. This time around the buzzbait didn't even have the chance to clear the overhanging limb before something exploded on it. I didn't get to see the explosion, but the fish felt solid. About 10 seconds into the fight the fish cleared the water, and with a few head shakes tried to free the hook. It was another good fish! The fish made a few good jumps, and then swam up to the side of my kayak. I was hoping the fish would clear 6lbs and help me break out of the 5 pound club. After a few pictures I placed her onto the scale.....5lbs 10oz....a couple tail shakes......5lbs 12 oz,.......and then it settled on 5lbs 8oz.

 Lightning had struck twice....two five pound fish, over the Fish Ohio trophy length, from the same exact spot, and less than 2 hours apart. I was pumped! I continued working around the lake until well after dark but failed to fool another fish into biting. I broke the news to Shawn and told him that I had landed yet another giant bass, which propelled me into first place. After doing some math he figured that he now needed a 22" fish to beat me, which under normal circumstances would be tough to do. However, in the last 2 weeks I have landed 6 fish over 20" in 6 trips, 2 of which were over 22". With those odds anything is possible.



------------------------------------------Update--------------------------------------
A few days later we weighed a fish in the 5.5lb range on Shawn's scale and I had a hard time believing his scale was accurate so I weighed the fish on both scales. My scale was 10-11oz short of Shawn's scale, which only happened to be a few weeks old. He went home and ran a few tests to verify his scale was accurate, which more or less meant my scale was going bad. Not that it matters much, but I will consider my personal best 6lbs 3oz....adding the 11oz difference to what I previously thought the fish weighed. 

Looking to Knock Em Out at Knox

Looking to Knock Em Out at Knox

Shawn Skidmore

It was Friday night before the BKFT Knockout at Knox tournament and I was still working on a game plan, one that would probably change within minutes of being on the water.  After spending several evenings during the week eyeballing the lake map, and doing what my dad, buddy, and I refer to as "map study", it was finally the night before the event……. And I was pumped!  I was making final preparations, changing out some line, organizing tackle, and texting Sean and Neil trying to get their take on the lake clarity and conditions.  I needed to be up at 3:45am the next morning in order to get the boat on the car and make the 2.5 hr drive to Fredricktown, OH for the event check-in.

As I laid down that evening I couldn’t help but to think about the tournament the next day. The cold front during the second half of the week was going to make it interesting as it had taken the water temp from the mid 80's earlier in the week, down to around 70 by tournament time.  The weather was calling for a sprinkle, some clouds, and some strong winds.  I'd never been to Knox lake so based on "map study", water clarity report, and the weather I started imagining how I was going to catch fish the next day.  I tied on a few baits that I was going to try, but I knew what I really wanted to do if the conditions were as they were forecasted.

Saturday morning and I made it to Knox safe and ready to fish.  After the captains meeting was complete it was time to launch. It was time to see what this place was all about!  My decision the night before was to basically launch from the registration point and follow the creek channel banks as far down the lake as I had time to.  I could see that the lake had a lot of wooded shoreline with plenty of laydowns...my kinda fishing!  I paddled up to the first section of shoreline where the creek channel came close to the bank and against my better judgment pulled out my buzzbait rod.   I just couldn't help myself.  I wanted to see if I could coax a big one into coming up and busting it despite the cold front conditions.  After about ten minutes I pulled a Texas rigged craw and gave it few tosses at the laydowns and brush, but i knew deep down that really wasn’t what I wanted to do.  After about 5 minutes flipping and pitching it was time to break out my chartreuse black back crankbait. It was really looking good to me in that somewhat stained water, now it was time to see if was what the fish wanted.

I worked every piece of wood and brush I could find with that crankbait. I fished all the way down the bank until I had just about reached the point of the bank where the creek channel turned back toward the south shore. At this point I finally got my first strike but failed to hookup.  I knew there was a fish there so I threw a few more times and finally had another taker.  This time I boated the 14.25" bass and thought, "well I'm off to a better start than I was at Kiser lake". 

I looked to the south shore and could see that the wind was really slamming the banks over there, which was exactly what I wanted.  I paddled over and started chucking my crankbait at all the junk in the water that I could find.  It wasn't long before I had another one on, and this one was a little better.  It was a 16" or better bass, it made a few runs, and then it was off.  It was disappointing, but at least I was gaining confidence in what I was going to trick these cold front bass with.

The bites kept coming though and the wind continued blowing hard.  Within an hour of the start of the tournament I had 3 on the board, nothing of much size though. At that point I was looking to upgrade my bass for the rest of the tourney.  Twenty minutes later with a small fish here and there, I was finally able to connect with and land a fat 17.5"er.

Now I was really gaining confidence that I could get the bigger bites on this pattern.   After making my way up to a large midlake point I made a decision to cross over to the wind protected north shore and work some of the laydowns down on my way back toward where I started. 

 

After a few bites and no hookups, I was really feeling like paddling back to the start of that windblown south shoreline and cranking back up it in hopes that more takers would be there waiting.  After a few casts at a fallen tree, I had hooked the big one I was looking for!  I got a good look at a fish that I would say was comfortably over 18"….. but it wasn't meant to be.  She came off half way back to the boat and I was starting to think it might not be my day.

I blamed my crankbait for the lost fish, so I started throwing a chatterbait around for a while. However, I couldn’t stay mad at my crankbait forever.  Despite the nature of a crankbait (if they aren't flat eating that thing bass have a tendency of shaking off that crank) I couldn't stay away from what was getting me the bites. This time around I HAD to get those good ones in the yak.  The day wore on, the sun started to show itself a little, and the bite seemingly died off.   The word gets around fast out there and by this time I had found out that Jeff Bennett and Brad Driscoll had each boated 2 fish and each of them had a big bass.  My confidence was starting to fade a bit but I still knew how quick things could change with one big bite, so I kept at it.

Nearing the event's end, I had committed to a stretch of the south shoreline a little closer to the check-in and I didn't quit on that crankbait either.  After several casts up into the shade that some overhanging trees provided, I finally put one on a bass' head.  She couldn't resist, and I now had a slight upgrade with a 15.25"er.  At this point it was time to head in, I felt like with that upgrade I might have a shot at top 3 if the other anglers had as tough a time as I was hearing about.  I was sure Jeff Bennett and Brad Driscoll had picked up their third bass and they would be at the top.

Well, by the time the awards were handed out I was feeling good about having a chance as I found that most anglers had a tough day out there.  Those who had some big fish hadn't picked up there limit either, which really gave me hopes of placing well.  When the names were called and prizes given,  I found myself with a narrow .25 victory and my first bass tourney win!  Despite tough cold front conditions, I had found a way to boat 9 bass, and improve my top three to 47"...not a terribly impressive number but given the circumstances of the day, I was more than happy with the finish!