The day was exceptionally beautiful and a welcome relief from the hot, humid days that we’ve been having.  Ivan hadn’t fished for a while and it was good to get together with him again after a long absence. 

The fish were cooperating fairly well and this time I tried fishing the surface in the reeds and on top of the weeds.  My working deep lures, i.e., jigs and Texas rigged worms, spinners and cranks had not been doing the job in my search for the bigger bass in the lake (see recent postings).   Ivan wanted some action after a long layoff so, I provided him with some of my baits, ones that I had been successful with on previous trips to River Bend, the Strike King Caffeine Shad in white was doing the job.

Ivan was successful and began catching bass like the one shown and a little larger.  Again, I was searching for the bigger fish.  I decided to try the “Ribbit”, a floating frog by Stanley.  And I was doing alright getting hits but few hook ups.  It was the smaller bass hitting the lure but grabbing the frog by the leg but not engulfing the frog so that I could get a better hook up.

I thought that I should put on a stinger but the fish were small and I was still looking for the bigger fish .   I had recently read an article in ’Bassin’ magazine where this pro was catching monster bass in the weeds  (don’t they always?) so I stuck with the frog.

The frog floats and so I tried laying the frog in the reeds and slowly working the frog out and onto the weed beds.  Once I got the lure on top of the weeds I hopped the frog and then let it sit and then dragged it.  After it left the weeds I swam the frog back to the boat.  This got little results.

I then tried to work the frog a little faster.  The frog has paddle feet and stirs up the water like the “Rage” lures except  that it stays on top of the water. Letting it just sit and float and then swimming it fast got some action.  Pulling the frog faster along the surface got the most strikes but only five hook ups and three of them shook off the hook when they jumped near the boat.  I could see that the fish were barely hooked and putting the net under them was not an option; the fish were small.  I was not catching any big bass.  Then the action stopped.

We started out at about 4:00 pm and now it was getting close to 6:00 pm.  The score was Ivan 5 and Jim “0”.  Yes, Ivan had missed a few fish as well and he was having a good time.  I however, was going to be “skunked!!!”  I couldn’t let that happen so I used the Shad too for a while and caught two small bass.

We crossed the lake to the shady side.  The sun would be settling on the horizon and we hoped the bass would be coming nearer the shore in the shallows.  I tried the frog again but got nothing.  I switched to a crank bait that I had never used before even though it has been in my tackle box for a long time, an Excaliber  shallow runner. 

During the evening, the fish will sometimes come up to the surface chasing minnows or small fry. This got no results as well. I went to my deep diver and managed to catch a pair of small bass. I switched to the Shad again and caught two mere. Ivan managed to catch a couple more as well. We ended the day with Ivan catching seven bass and I caught four. Still, no big bass. Where are they? Tight lines Jim

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