New (smile) bass bait discovery...
About 2 months ago, I decided to spend a day crappie fishing on a small lake that I was totally unfamiliar with. I spent the first hour or so running around, checking my finder, trying to locate some structure, some fish, anything. I found nothing. Got tired of looking and decided to just set my poles out, turn broad side into the wind, and side drift.
Put 4 crappie poles, each rigged with 2 live minnows, in my holder and kicked back. I was rigged at about 15', in water that ranged from 20' - 25' deep. I had drifted for half an hour without a bite, and without a single sign of a fish on the finder. Suddenly hit a small, sharp drop-off and started showing fish on the finder. Threw out a marker and started working around it.
Long story short, the fish I saw were largemouths, and they were wearing my minnows out!!! At one point, had a bass on each of my 4 crappie poles at the same time. Twice, had 2 bass on a single pole (again, they were each rigged with 2 hooks). Caught 22 keepers in the span of 45 minutes or so.
Two young guys were anchored out a short distance away. As my back was to them, they couldn't see the fish, just me struggling to land 2 - 4 fish at a time. One yelled, "Man, you are wearing those crappie out!" I yelled back and told him that I wish they were crappie, but I couldn't keep the bass off my hooks long enough to catch a crappie. They were bass fishing, furiously swapping from one artificial lure to another, throwing everything they had in in their tackle boxes, and catching nothing.
They yelled again and asked what I was using for bait. When I said live minnows, one of the guys answered back, "I never heard of anyone catching bass on live minnows (SMILE)!!!
I am thinking about applying for a patent on this "new" discovery of mine!!!:D
