Been a slow winter bass fishing for me this winter, the weather has been great, but time commitments have made it near impossible as of late. I had not caught a Minnesota bass since November! On the bright side, I did make a November trip to Lake of the Ozarks, a December trip to Lake Falcon & caught a Sailfish in Playa del Carmen, so I am guessing I will not get many sympathy comments from the faithful blog readers.
Even with all that, I was feeling some urgency to get my first 2012 bass under my belt and the Minnesota bass season closes at end of February for awhile, so my window was shrinking. So against my better judgement I set out for some fishing this past Sunday in weather temps that I would normally pass on, 14 degrees with wind chill of 1.
It ended up being not too bad other then not being able to feel my hands and fingers after touching wet fish a few times. I ended up with 16 smallmouth, mostly 2-3lb chunky fish, all came on a Shakey Beaver combo except for one on an Ima Square Bill. (See video for Shakey Beaver rigging). My fishing buddy for the day got 6 nice smallmouth on soft plastics as well, he wore better gloves and did not get frost bit fingers like this guy. Also of note, unbelievable how my DX 782 Dobyns spinning rod launches lights baits & gives great leverage when fishing from waders, super sweet setup with a 4000 size spinning reel.
But on a positive note, I can report near normal feeling in my right fingertips as I type this blog. Which is good, because I plan to brave the cold to chase some winter largemouth this weekend!
FISH ON!