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Posts Tagged ‘Largemouth Bass’
Sunday, August 15th, 2010
Jack and I loaded up the boat and headed north to fish Summit Lake State Recreation area this afternoon. It took about 45 minutes from Omaha, but man was the drive worth it! We started throwing grey pepper-flaked senkos (weedless and carolina rigged) on our Cajun Custom Rods (http://www.cajuncustomrods.com/) about 4:30 PM under a high overcast sky, and after about 20 minutes of fishing … we started catching … and boy did we catch fish today! In all, we landed between 20-30 fish (mostly bass and 1 surprise), of which we had a legitimate 8-10 Nebraska largemouth bass that were “keepers.” The keepers ranged in size from 15 1/4 to 19 inches, and all bass were “football bellied” and heavy. All fish were released shortly after catching them, but I put a few in the live-well for about 30 minutes or so to see if they’d spit out a bit of their lunch … so we could se for ourselves what they were eating. Shad … and little minnows that look like “glass minnows.” The sky was a bit overcast and we got a few light sprinkles around 5:15 PM or so. Water was aqua-green to coffee stained depending on where you were … the stain in the western part of the lake as wind was anywhere between 5 to 15 mph out of the east. We fished about 20-30 yards off the bank and pitched the senkos to holes in the grass mats or just to the edges of the weed lines until around 6:00 PM. Heck, if I didn’t know any better … I’d say these fish were hungry. Another point to note, the lake was relatively light on boat traffic and folks in general … a good thing seeing as today was Saturday. I mention this because usually the little Nebraska lakes that I have fished on Saturdays are essentially parking lots with traffic … not here, not today … and it was real nice for a change. Then we headed to the eastern end (near the damn) to get out of the wind for awhile and try our luck there … same results, but this time with crankbaits. I threw a silver sexy shad-colored lure (running fast at 5-8′) and Jack threw a bronze perch-colored lure (3-5′) … we both kept hammering the bass. About 7:00 PM, I threw my lure into about 6 feet of water (about 5-10 feet from the dam bank) and saw the swirl come off the bank … then it was on! I knew from the hit, the tug, and the fight at hand that surely I had a Nebraska trophy largemouth hooked up … this thought ran threw my mind as the fight took a solid 3 minutes … around the boat, around the motor, diving again under the boat, another loop around the boat … and deep too … and finally the big fish gave into to my custom fishing rod … coming up from 15 feet of water … like reeling a cinder block hooked to my crankbait … straight up and slow. I called for the net at some point during the fight knowing that Jack would be ready when I had the fish worn down. With a few more cranks and a steady high rod tip … Jack lowered the net and then … “Surprise!” What we had on the end of the line was a monster channel catfish. All in all, the catfish weighed in at just over 12 pounds and measured in at 28 3/4 inches. I’ve had cats hit bass lures before, but not like this one today … this cat was mean hungry and he hammered that crankbait … all six trebles in his mouth … not lipped, but engulfed (reminded me of the way you see the great whites on TV hammering those poor seals off some remote African coast). We had a few fishermen that we were close to, so we meandered their way for a photo of Jack and I with the big catfish … so we would have the proof for mom … and then let the big fish swim away … to raise havoc with the lake populations again.
After the excitement of the catfish, we tied on frogs and started our way back to the boat ramp … long-casting to every patch of weed, muck, algae, and grass mat we could find. Yep, hungry Summit Lake largemouth bass … and they hammered the frogs too! I think we caught our last bass this evening about 10 feet from the boat ramp before we put the rods down and readied the boat for the pull out and drive back to Omaha. What a fantastic day fishing with my son … I know he’ll remember today forever and I’m just glad I got to be a part of that memory. I wonder, will he remember how many fish we caught? how beautiful the sunset was? or will he remember today because of the “surprise” catfish who thought he was a bass for an afternoon? No matter, I’ll remember the smiles and good time spent with my son fishing … and be thankful that not only did we have a good time, but that we were using custom-tuned fishing rods that can handle whatever happens to be on the end of your next cast! Take a kid fishing and tight lines! BTW: here’s one of the “pot-bellied” largemouth landed we landed today at Summit lake SRA in Nebraska. Check our CCR Gallery out and see other pictures taken from today’s fishing trip.
Tags: Bass, Cajun Custom Rod, catfish, Largemouth Bass, Nebraska, Summit Lake
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Sunday, August 8th, 2010
I have been taking my boys out to multiple Nebraska lakes over the last couple of weeks and fishing has been “hot” … not just temperature-wise, put catchin’-wise too! We’ve been throwing lots of crankbaits recently and have been doing pretty good on any rif-raf … down deep as well as the shallows … anywhere there is cover and most importantly … “SHADE.” As far as where we’ve been over the course of the last few weeks, here’s just a few in/near the Omaha area: Lake Wehrspan, Lake Zorinsky, Standing Bear Lake, Glen Cunningham Lake, Fremont SRA Lakes, Walnut Creek, Summit Lake, and a few of the I-80 Lakes in Nebraska. We’ve hit these lakes multiple times each and the pattern is running true on each of them – colder water, shade, rif-raf and laydowns, early AM or late evening, Yamamato worms (downsized and in darker colors), scum frogs, crankbaits, and small booyah jigs (dark colors). We’re fishing slow and picking everything apart methodically … sometimes, casting as many as 15-20 times to a log or stump to get that “reaction/feeding” strike. The strategy is working, but it’s tough and you’ve got to be patient. Water temps all around are in the upper 80′s (I’ve seen as high as 88 degrees Fahrenheit in some lakes). You’d think the temp would get the bass moving around … but it’s been the opposite. When it gets this hot, they get somewhat sluggish and need a “trigger” to feed. Additionally, I believe with the water temp (and outside air temp in the 90′s each day), the algae and water weeds have had a hay-day growing. We’ve seen blooms in all lakes (not severe, but the green-tinted water with algae is certainly taking its toll on the oxygen in the water) and my guess is the fish are holding shallow in cover where its cooler and they can ambush food … or they are holding deep on cover (above the thermocline and where its cooler). All of us boys have downsized our fishing tackle, fishing line, and custom fishing rods … we went to lower-geared fishing reels to help us “slow” down our plastic bait presentation, and are really working our crankin’ … the more life-like on the cast-and-retrieve … the better we seem to do with these artificial baits. BTW: we’ve been successful on several different crankbaits: crawfish, shad, minnows … if I had to say a color, I’d say “different” or ‘as close to the baitfish color as possible.” We got skunked a few times out and I sat down to “rethink” what we’d done on those trips and what we needed to change. So, we pulled out the custom fishing rods designed for smaller line and lure weight, strung em’ up and gave it another shot at those same lakes. Voila! Smaller and slower … hammer-time! We’ve been netting between 3-12 bass on our 4-6 hour weekend fishing jaunts and the boys have had a blast with their light-tackle Cajun Custom Rods … makes a pound-and-a-half or two pound bass feel like a five-pounder every time. As we dig in and get ready for the end of summer, I suspect the “bite” will prove to be steady state for the next month or so … then comes the fall and the bass are certain to start lining up for the buffet in preparation for the winter. Keep at em’ and remember to take a kid fishing … they’ll never forget you and will make it their sport of choice in the coming years. Tight lines.
Jaesen Yerger
www.cajuncustomrods.com
 Bug Catches Yet Another Lake Standing Bear Bass
Tags: Bass, Bass Fishing, Big Bass, Boat Fishing, cajun custom rods, CCR, custom fishing rods, Femont Lakes, fishing rod, Freshwater Fishing, Glen Cunningham Lake, Lake Wehrspann, Lake Zorinsky, Largemouth, Largemouth Bass, Lincoln, Omaha, Standing Bear Lake, Summer fish, Walnut Creek
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Saturday, March 27th, 2010
I had the day off work, so I decided I would go wet a line and do some moving around on the water today. I fished this morning and early afternoon in Black Creek at the back of Doctors Lake … the bass aren’t on the beds yet – caught 2 largemouth around 2-3 pounds each, missed a good one (4-5 lbs). All bass were caught with a Terminator chartreuse spinnerbait (1/2 oz) – I was surprised because I fished (carolina rigged and flipping-pitching) a 6 inch Zoom Junebug curl tail worm for two hours and nothing even looked at it. I worked the spinnerbait around the lay-downs and over the flats in the back of Black Creek (water temp was around 67/68 degrees). Then I ran back northeast into Doctors Lake to see if there were any bedding bass in Flemming’s Cove … no beds and the winds were putting up 1-3 foot waves, so I booked out of there and headed back to the marina at NAS Jax. While in Black Creek, I saw a couple of nice size gators (one was an easy 7-8 feet … just hanging out and enjoying the sun today). Since the west wind really picked up, I pulled the boat and traveled north up the 95 to the 9A to drop the boat in at Clapboard Creek to fish the incoming high and outgoing low tides tonight. I put in at Clapboard Creek around 4:30 PM and ran the river behind Blount Island to the Dames … then to Dunn’s Creek to hit a few spots I like (man, the west wind was putting out some chop on the main river). After catching a few flounder and a red before sunset, I headed back east and fished behind Blount Island and into Broward Creek. I ended up with another small flounder, three 15-17 inch reds (1 at the base of an oyster bed and the other two in little grass cuts where there was water moving through just as high tide steadied up), and about 15 trout once the sun went down … only one was over fifteen inches – the rest were little guys. Water temps in the creeks on the incoming tide was 64-65, water temp in the creeks at slack was 66/67. I caught all the trout in and around Blount island … in the lights, near structure (dock pilings, rocks, etc.), and once the high tide started dropping out and moving the water out into the main river.
Pretty much from around 10:00 AM this morning until around 8:00 PM this evening the wind was steady out of the west at 10-15 knots. Then, the wind dropped off and went light/variable up to 5 knots. I got off the water around 10:30 PM … fishing was just slow today for me, but man was it gorgeous out there … ready for the heat and the sun 
I fished a gold/speckled with white underbelly Mann’s jerk-bait, a white chub-tail plastic minnow on a 3/8 oz jig head, and a 4 inch Berkley Gulp Natural Molt shrimp. No takers on the jerk-bait, a few trout on the minnow, and everything else hit the Berkley Gulp shrimp. All fish today that were caught were released back into the wild … to catch again another day.
If the weather will at least hold in the upper 60′s low 70′s and Mr. W. I. N. D. will stay away, the upcoming weeks for both freshwater and inshore/saltwater fishing should prove to be fantastic as the bite heats up. I can’t wait!
Tags: alligator, Berkley Gulp, Black Creek, Blount island, Broward Creek, cajun custom rods, Clapboard Creek, Doctors Lake, Dunn's Creek, Flemming Cove, Flounder, Freshwater, Garmin, Garmin 460SX, Gator, Inshore, Largemouth Bass, Redfish, Saltwater, Speckled Trout, spinnerbait, trout
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