07/09/08-Nightime Spinnerbait Success

I went fishing in my boat today with my friend Kous and the wind was blowing us all over the place. I managed to catch two healthy dinks, but that was it. The wind was really too much to handle out there. I was planning on using a new topwater frog lure, but it didn't arrive in the mail in time for our fishing trip. We decided to head in after about an hour and a half on the water. We got a call from our buddy Tim around 8:30PM and we decided to head out to the pier for some night time fishing. I started out throwing my popper, Tim was throwing his Hula popper and Kous was throwing a bleeding olive minnow rap. Tim and I didn't have any success at this point, but Kous did manage to catch a small Crappie. There were quite a few people at the pier earlier and we couldn't really troll that much. When these people left are success started to mount. Kous continued trolling his Minnow rap and I decided to switch to a Strike King Premier Spinnerbait.

I was really screwing around with my spinnerbait, because to be honest I'd never caught anything on a large spinnerbait. I started running down the pier burning it on the surface I stopped for a second and a small rock bass picked it up. Technically speaking my first ever fish on a spinnerbait. Tim walked down to the start of the pier where I was and switched back to his Hula Popper after he briefly switched to a Zoom Brush Hog. He was popping at the beginning of the pier, and I decided to keep throwing my spinnerbait down there to keep him company. I started experimenting with it and fished it sort of like a jig, bouncing it off the rocks in the shallows and sporadically pulling the blades fast over portions of the rocks. It wasn't long before this strategy payed off, something creamed my spinnerbait and fortunately I set the hook and wasn't shell shocked. I reeled her in and pulled her over and it was one of my nicer Largemouth Bass of the year a nice 17incher that we estimated weighed 2lbs 6ounces. This turned out to be the big catch of the night, but not by much.

Tim continued to throw his Hula Popper and not long after I caught my bass he got an explosive top water strike. He set the hook and started reeling in the fish he had on put on quite a fight. I saw him battling it in the corner and he had it about a foot out of the water, when the fish flopped off. He said it was a huge Walleye that he estimated was in the 3 1/2 to 4lb a fish that would've easily won him the week. He said it faught harder than the Smallmouth bass he caught yesterday. I think that was part of the problem, the Smallmouth he caught yesterday bent his hooks and he didn't bend them back. I think this was the cause for his big Walleye getting off.

The Hula Popper gets another A+ it is really proving itself as a really good top water lure. I was extremely happy I got my first Spinnerbait catch ever, but I'd only rate the spinnerbait a B+ because the wires bent after the bass hit it. I don't know where I'll go fishing tommorrow a big storm is supposed to blow in.

Thanks for reading, Bass-Sniper