Journal of a Minnesota Angler

Species: Largemouth bass
Size: 16″
Lure used: minnow with hot pink jighead set under slip bobber

Date: 4/23/2010
Time: 7:45am – 1:00pm
Body of water: Lake near Finlayson, MN
Location: Finlayson, MN
Weather Conditions: overcast

Last weekend, when I went fishing with Mark, he mentioned that he was taking today off. After watching the weather during the week, I decided I needed a break from work, so I took the day off as well. After some discussion, we decided to hit a lake about an hour and a half North near Finlayson, MN that two of his brothers have cabins on. So he knew the lake well. We left at 5:45am and were on the water by 7:45. It felt way too early at 5:15 when i got out of bed, but I felt much better once we were on the water.

Things started out kind of slow. We hit several of Mark’s spots, but didn’t get so much as a nibble. We ended up in the Southeast corner and found a ton of fish on the fish finder. Shortly before 9am, Mark landed a nice 11″ crappie. We thought we were golden. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The large school he kept seeing coming in and out of his graph wasn’t interested in hitting any of the minnows we offered. The water was really calm, so we opted to move on and come back later when the sun had warmed up the water a bit.

We motored across the lake to the Eastern shore, hitting water less than 3 feet deep. On one cast, my bobber started to go under. I tightened my line as the bobber sank slowly. Once it went totally under, I waited another second or so before setting the hook. We didn’t know what it was, but it felt strong. Mark got the first glimpse and thought it was a large crappie. A second later, I got a flash of its side and it looked like a different species, but it looked big. It made a run under the boat, but I managed to pull it back and into Mark’s net. It was a nice sized bass. Bigger than any I’ve caught in a long time. It had been hooked past the barb, but within a quarter inch of the edge of the lip, so it was a good thing I waited that extra second before setting the hook. It ended up measuring out at 16″. That made my day.

We continued down the shore and hit a few more of Mark’s spots. At one point, my bobber went under again slowly, but I missed it. It happened again on the very next cast. Mark wasn’t convinced it was a fish, but rather just weeds pulling the bobber down as we drifted. I didn’t believe him, but after this occurred a bunch more times, I had to concede he was probably right.

At about 11am, we finally ended up back at the spot where Mark caught his crappie a few hours earlier. The wind had picked up and there was a nice chop on the water, which is what Mark really likes for crappie. He continued to see fish on his fish finder, but they still weren’t ineterested. We spent another hour or so on that spot, but there wasn’t so much as a tick.

Frustrated, we rounded back around the South shore back to where I caught my bass. Mark had a nice hit right in that area, but that just served to keep us there longer than we needed to be. Not unlike a slot machine almost paying off. A dozen or so more casts from each of us yielded nothing.

The five hour trip wasn’t a total waste with the two fish we caught, but we certainly would have liked more. All around the lake there were prime spots to cast for bass. The fact that I couldn’t target them with bass lures was killing me. April is always a tough time in Minnesota due to the seasonal restrictions. But any fishing is better than no fishing. And as they say, “a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work.”