Journal of a Minnesota Angler

The hardest part of Spring in Minnesota for a bass fisherman is waiting for bass opener to come around. It finally arrived this past weekend.

I was supposed to go up to my father-in-law’s cabin on the Gunflint, but my wife scheduled her garage sale for this week, so I was stuck at home helping to get the garage ready. That, however, wasn’t going to keep me from wetting a line.

I decided that I would try a lake I haven’t fished since before bass opener last year. I landed a 16″ fatty there on that outing and had been scouting locations the rest of that summer. One spot was a little bay that I figured would be a good spot in the Spring because it would warm up the fastest each day. I started with my Goto bait (in bubble gum) and on about the 10th cast, I heard a crack and the fluke went flying. I guess I flinged it like a whip and was too much for the knot.

I retied a new swivel and hooked on a Berkeley power worm. As I cast the new lure, I watched as a giNORmous crayfish scuttled across the rocks parallel to shore just out of my reach. (My apologies for the poor pic. I took a bunch and this was the best one.)

During this time, two guys had shown up in a pick up truck and started fishing next to me. After about 10 minutes, one of them pulled in a largemouth. I put down my rod to get a look at it and it was a nice 16″ lunker, not unlike the one I caught last year. The pair didn’t even know if they could keep it and had to ask me if the season was open yet. I calmly said, “yes,” but was thinking, “hell, yeah! Why the hell do you think I’m out here today?” The guy landed the bucketmouth on a green and yellow tiger striped shad rap (that he just bought that day), so it appeared the fish were being a bit more aggressive. I switched to a chartreuse spinnerbait.

It didn’t help.

I put on a green and yellow horny toad and felt a good thunk on one cast just as it hit the water, but nothing was there when I set the hook. To be honest, it caught me off guard and I think I was too slow on the take. A few more casts with no nips and I decided to switch again.

Having seen the large crayfish, I decided to try to “match the hatch” with a new jig I was itching to try. A couple of months ago, I bought some jigs from Northstar Baits and one of the jigs wasn’t too far off the color of the crayfish, so I put that on the line and started to throw that. Still nothing.

I decided it was time to move. I found a spot down the shore a ways and kept the jig on. On one of the casts, I felt a tick, but got nothing when I set the hook. When I reeled in, one of the tails of my trailer was gone. Since bass don’t have teeth, it must have been a northern or walleye that didn’t take a big enough bite.

I kept going down the shore and trying other lures, but that nipped trailer would be the only action of the morning. I even went back to the bay I started in hoping the late morning warmed up the water enough to pull in some more fish. If they were there, they weren’t biting. I was out for about three hours and with so little action, I don’t know if I’ll return to this lake any time soon.