Dave and I got to the pond we would fish before six AM. We worked our way to our favorite spot and began calculating how we were going to fish what we could see. It looked like some weeds grew where I knew there to be a ledge. I tied a 2/0 Owner cutting point EWG hook to the 15# fluorocarbon with a simple palomar knot.
I was wanting to fish a Rage Tail plastic called the Shellcracker. In two times out fishing I've had two bass grab the bait on the drop and on both occasions I didn't get a hook in the fish. I dragged them up to the surface and watched them let go of the bait. This time I rigged it up weightless, Texas rigged, and texposed.
I cast out into the dim light conditions and saw my bait land past some weeds. I worked it like a stick worm, let it fall then raise it up. Once I hit the weeds I flipped, flopped, hopped the little bait like a fish out of water on top of the weed growth. When I reached a hole in the weeds I let the bait flop right in, twitching it once.
-tap-
Reel down and WHAM! BASS!!
See, I told you bass start early. I didn't know if it was luck or not but this bass hit pretty much like I thought it would; on the drop as the "dying brim" floated and twitched it's way to the bottom. I cast out in a different direction bringing the bait to the weed edge again. Again flopping, hopping, then drop........Bass!!
Same cast, same retrieve, and same result. Dave got one too!! Nice double!!
The sun was lighting the sky but it still hadn't broken the horizon. More early-shift bass bit our bait. Then the finesse plastic bite stopped. We kept casting but stopped catching. As all good fishermen do Dave started switching baits, tying on other lures, other colors, other presentations until he found what the bass were wanting. Swimbaits!!
Dave ran out of Big Hammer Swimbait tails so he decided to pull a Stange and rig up a 5" Berkley Flatback Shad on a Strike King KVD Heavy Cover Swimjig.
First looooooong cast, I hear the swimbait hit the water. I hear Dave say $h!+, I think I'm snagged. Then I see it jump and toss it's head back and forth....BASS!!!!!
This would be the biggest we caught weighing in at 4.25# on my Boga-Grip. She did lots of acrobatic jumps and pulled drag on Dave's spinning reel four times to gain back line. Here's what she was trying to toss with each jump.
See how completely this bass ate the 5" swimbait tail and the extra inch of swimjig? The swimbait paddle tail is in the bass' stomach. This is the textbook definition of the term "She ATE it!"
Needless to say I switched to a swimbait and began to catch bass too.
I didn't keep count but Dave figured I caught 12 and he hooked seven including the 4.25#. My largest was 3.5# but not a bad morning at all.
After a short hike back to my car Dave and I loaded rods in the hatchback then headed to his house to enjoy a homebrew. We flipped through pictures on our phones of the fish we caught and marveled that all fish bit only two styles of lure.
Early morning the bass were favoring smaller fish sized plastics. After the sun peeked over the horizon the only thing that caught fish was a larger fish sized swimbaits. Less than half of our fish were caught once the sun was up. The bulk of our bass came early. Bass start early, so I need to start just a bit earlier. If I get to have this kind of a productive day I'm happy to start early too.
