april bass fishing

GusMan · 05-13-2014, 10:56 AM

Hey Ranger1982,

Did you end up fishing up at Winnie at the end of April? How'd you do?

I figured I'd check back and give a recent report.

My club had a small bass tournament on Saturday, May 10 launching out of Harilla Landing which is at the end of Long Island in the very central part of the lake. After launching, I immediate checked the water temperature. It was quite cool for this time of year averaging right around 51-53 degrees at the surface. At that water temp, the smallmouth should be thinking about moving up to spawn. So I started searching the spawning flates with suspending jerkbaits. The bite was pretty slow and the fish I did catch were on the smallish side. So I decided to fish deeper.

I moved off the flats and into deeper water next to them and started tossing blade baits (Silver Buddies - a great cold water bait) and immedately started catching better fish. I moved around quite a bit but never found that nice school of fish from which you can load the boat!

I ended up catching 15-18 fish from 1-3 pounds, all smallmouith. My two best (that I weighed in) came to just over 5 lbs, not great, but good enough for 3rd place and lunker SM (just under 3 pounds)

Most reported pretty slow catches, but a couple guys loaded the boat. One member reported catching 40+ smallies, but couldn't find the larger fish. He too caught them on blade baits.

With the warmer temperatures, the fish should head shallow very soon.

Good Luick!

Cheers....

Gusman

05-13-2014, 10:56 AM	#7
GusMan Senior Member Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 135 Thanks: 1 Thanked 45 Times in 26 Posts	May bass fishing Hey Ranger1982, Did you end up fishing up at Winnie at the end of April? How'd you do? I figured I'd check back and give a recent report. My club had a small bass tournament on Saturday, May 10 launching out of Harilla Landing which is at the end of Long Island in the very central part of the lake. After launching, I immediate checked the water temperature. It was quite cool for this time of year averaging right around 51-53 degrees at the surface. At that water temp, the smallmouth should be thinking about moving up to spawn. So I started searching the spawning flates with suspending jerkbaits. The bite was pretty slow and the fish I did catch were on the smallish side. So I decided to fish deeper. I moved off the flats and into deeper water next to them and started tossing blade baits (Silver Buddies - a great cold water bait) and immedately started catching better fish. I moved around quite a bit but never found that nice school of fish from which you can load the boat! I ended up catching 15-18 fish from 1-3 pounds, all smallmouith. My two best (that I weighed in) came to just over 5 lbs, not great, but good enough for 3rd place and lunker SM (just under 3 pounds) Most reported pretty slow catches, but a couple guys loaded the boat. One member reported catching 40+ smallies, but couldn't find the larger fish. He too caught them on blade baits. With the warmer temperatures, the fish should head shallow very soon. Good Luick! Cheers.... Gusman

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to GusMan For This Useful Post:
mhtranger (05-13-2014), PaugusBayFireFighter (05-13-2014)