LAKE BLOOMINGTON PIG !

Date: May 6, 2011
Time: 6:30-11:45 AM
Location: Lake Bloomington
Water Temp: 55-60 F
Weather: Sunny, High 40's-Mid 60's
Fish: 5 Bass (18", 13", 13", 12", 10.5")
Lures: ((2 SK Bitsy Jig) (2 Spro Little John Crankbait)(1 T-Rig Rage Tail Lizard)




Notes:  I was excited Thursday night in anticipation of my first full fishing excursion of the year, however I still have not organized  and performed maintenance on all of my gear yet for the year.  I did have a solid game plan for the trip, the only thing I was going to try for sure was the Texas Rigged lizard in super shallow water.  I have used this technique a few times in early May with some good success, nothing real big but always decent action.  I woke up early ate my breakfast and read the newspaper, I made it to the garage about 5:30 and had the boat hooked up and ready to go by ten till six.  The weather was quite brisk and it had rained the night before.  As usual the day started off slow for me.  I managed to hang lures in trees and I eventually broke the lip off of my favorite silver shallow shad rap.  It was seven by this time and I decided that I needed to get serious about catching fish.  I decided to fish the strike king bitsy jig exclusively until I started catching fish.

First Fish of the day 10.5" on Jig

I started pitching visual wood cover on the south side of the short creek arm.  I managed to get a short fish within fifteen minutes.  I managed to put a monster hook set up on him, and yanked him halfway back to the boat on the hook set  It always loosens things up after the skunk is out of the boat.  After getting things settled back down I continued pitching to the wood.  My bait was pretty messed up when I thought about putting a new Yum Wooly Hawg Craw on, but before I did I pitched to the base of a laydown in a foot of water.  I saw her swirl at the bait right when it hit the water and managed to only get a one handed hookset on her, but it was enough to get this sow to the boat.

Fish of the year so far 18" bloated bass ready to spawn caught on strike king bitsy flip jig

13" on Texas Rigged
 Rage Tail Lizard

Needless to say my heart was racing.  After a few pictures she was back in the water to finish spawning.  I always struggle after I catch a nice fish.  For some reason I loose focus and motivation.  It is like i am satisfied, if I ever want to start tournament fishing I need to maintain focus even after I catch a nice fish.  I stayed with the jig and subsequently missed a fish and finally snagged it and had to break the line.  At his point I decided it was time to start throwing the Rage Tail Lizard which was the lure I planned to use for the day.  I managed one fish on the lizard and missed another.  I fished the lizard in super shallow water along the bank at the back end of the bay on the short creek arm.  I went back to pitching to timber, but had no additional bites by 10 AM and decided it was time to try something different.   I finished the day throwing a Spro Little John Crankbait  and a Spinnerbait on the large flat at the beginning of the back creek arm and around the corner from the flat.  I caught 2 bass on the Crankbait, one on the flat and the other around the corner.  I missed an additional fish on the spinnerbait on the flat.



12" Caught on Spro
 Little John Crankbait

13" Caught on Spro
Little John Crankbait

I ended the day around 11:45 after a 15 minute fight trying to recover an $11 Spro crankbait.  This ended in futility, and I lost the lure.  I decided I need to get a better lure retriever, I can't afford to loose expensive baits.  All in all it was a beautiful day and very relaxing morning.

Goal: 80 hours on the water, 50 bass, 10 legal bass

Results: 7.75 hours on the water, 7 bass,  1 legal bass