Welcome Welcome to RichZ's Bass Blog. Thoughts and discussion of fishing related topics from Outdoor Writer/Educator, Rich Zaleski.
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Posted by RichZ on: 07/25/2010
Between the Bass Open that ended Saturday and the FLW a week earlier, an awful lot bass had been relocated to the northern end of Champlain recently. How was the fishing likely to hold up in the lower end? How long can the VT and NY Fisheries managers keep allowing the size selective relocation of LMB to the north end of the lake before it starts to affect the quality of the fishery south of Crown Point? A pro who catches 20 is only taking 5 up to Plattsburg, but they are his biggest 5. He’s doing it again tomorrow too, and so are 80 or 90 of his buddies.
On Saturday, I’ve got to admit, it seemed to me that the lower end was just about devoid of what I think of as ‘typical Champlain quality largemouth bass’. Starting in South Bay and working up almost as far as Benson Landing, Tom & I caught over 60 bass on Saturday, but none was over 3.5#. Heck, only a couple even flirted with the 3# mark. Caught them all on our usual weapons — Ozmos and drop shot rigs. Caught a few on jigs, too, and I had a grand total of one on a spinnerbait. Our only horizontal presentation bass of the day.
It’s not that the fishing was bad. On the contrary, the action was pretty steady, and mid-afternoon, we found a really solid bunch of fish, and took about 15 off one little 100 foot long stretch of shoreline drop off. But the lack of quality fish seemed palpable.
As an interesting aside, when we launched at about 7AM in South Bay, BASS pro J Todd Tucker was in there flipping one small area of chestnut. The same stretch of ‘nut I would have started on had he not been there. But South Bay is about a 110+ mile boat ride from Plattsburg. You can’t get much farther from the tourney take-off site and still be on Champlain! Saturday was the last day of the tourney, and that meant that Tucker had ‘made the cut’ fishing the nut. But the round trip suggests about 700 miles of boat riding over 3 days. Even if the lake was flat and calm all 3 days and his boat does an honest 75, with slow-down zones etc., that would be at least 10 hours of his 27 hour on the water traveling back & forth. I like to fish way too much to do that kind of stuff any more!
Anyway, Saturday ended with good numbers for Tom and me, but the lack of quality left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Sunday tasted a whole lot better! We started in Ti and had 3 real good fish in the first 20 minutes or so. Here’s a couple of them.
 
With only the morning to fish, and with nothing to show for the next couple spots we hit in the Ti area, we decided that running down to the same stuff we fished on Saturday offered the best option for a decent catch to add to the quality fish we’d started off with. So we ran down and fished mostly the same spots, and with mostly the same baits as the day before. Except on Sunday, half our fish were in the quality range that we couldn’t get a sniff from the day before. So I guess there’s still enough quality fish down south to make it interesting. Why they wouldn’t bite for us on Saturday shall remain a mystery. Such is fishing.
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Posted by RichZ on: 07/19/2010
Jim & I hit the water at 7:30. Water temp 80+. Very slight algae tint to the water.
Worked relatively hard for 17 bass and a double barreled squatload of big pickerel between us.
Jim caught this one on a 1 oz jig & pig.
I caught this one on a deep diving crankbait. You might want to save this picture. Me even using a crankbait’s a real rarity.
Other than one Jim got on an Ozmo, all the rest of our fish came on the drop shot, including Jim’s best of the day.
While 17 bass for the day might not sound too bad, the truth is, we got 7 of them in a couple little 5 or 10 minute flurries, and picked off the rest one here-one there over the course of 9 hours on the water. Most satisfying part of the day was 3 quick bass on a deep ridge that tops out in about 20 feet, well separated from any of the milfoil or cabbage beds.
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Posted by RichZ on: 07/17/2010
Had a picnic at my daughters house this afternoon, so I only had a few hours to fish this morning. Hatch is only about 45 minutes, and it’s pretty easy to fish the whole place very thoroughly in 3 hours or so. So that’s where I headed.
Water temp low 80s, mildly green — about normal for Hatch in mid summer. Almost all the milfoil appears to be gone. There’s a little bit of black coontail here and there, and of course the pads.
Caught a bunch of fair-to-middlin fish on El Saltos, and a few on the Oz as well. All from the west side and the north end. The fun part of the morning was about 10 minutes of topwater action with the frog. But not in the pads. Open water, 5 to 20 yards outside the pads. I was fishing my way along the pads, when something swirled 20 feet or so behind me. I had the frog rod in my hand, so I sent a cast to where a fish had just fed. Walked the lure about 3 feet and got hammered. Kept doing it until I felt I’d exhausted it. I felt like Dean Rojas walking that frog over open water. I actually only caught three fish doing it, but two of them were my best fish of the day (about 2.5 & 4#).
No pictures. Brought the camera, but not the memory card. DUH. I did shoot some video, but this laptop’s firewire port doesn’t see m to be compatible with my cable, and my tower is DOA. I’ll figure out a way to get it off the camera eventually.
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Posted by RichZ on: 07/13/2010
This weekend was kind of a return to the places I used to fish.
Candlewood, for one. Love the fishery, and considered it my home waters for the better part of two decades. But I just can’t put up with the crowds any more, and being limited to fishing weekends for the most part, I almost never make it out on ‘the wood’ these days. Maybe that’ll change after I retire again in the next year or so.
Meanwhile, Alex and I took advantage of the poor weather day forecast for Saturday and hit it early, in search of smallies. We found ‘em in the predictable places — off points with scattered weed growth. As could be expected under the dark skies and occasional downpours, the spinnerbait bite was pretty good. Surprisingly, the soft jerkbait bite, wasn’t nearly as good.
Also surprisingly, one of the best smallies of the day came on when, flipping sticks in hand, we ventured into a very heavy expanse of shallow milfoil, in search of a kicker largemouth or two.
On Sunday, the plan was for Dave & I to start at “The Lake Who’s Name Shall Not be Spoken” for a quick hit of a couple spots with a high likelihood of producing a pig, then to put the boat back on the trailer and take the long ride to Mudge Pond for the rest of the day.
This would be a day tracing even deeper into my bass fishing roots than Saturday’s Candlewood outting had been. Before I ever fished Candlewood, if I had a “home water” it was Mudge Pond. I may have been there earlier, but I can certainly date my efforts there back to 1966! It’s the lake I really cut my bass fishing teeth on, and basically learned what I was doing.
But we started at TLWNSNBS, and while I haven’t been fishing there as long as at Mudge, nor did I ever fish it as frequently as Mudge, my history there goes back into the late ’70s, at least.
We thought that Dave broke the lunker ice pretty quickly, but his big fish turned out to be a near-5-pound pickerel. Nice, but no cigar!
Not too much later, a huge mouthed, but somewhat skinny largemouth that looked like a 7 when I reached over the gunwale to get a grip on its lower lip, but turned out to be barely a 6, ate my jig & PiggyBack.
Within 20 minutes after landing that fish, with one more big pickerel and a couple rat bass to our credit, we were on the trailer and headed for Mudge. That turned out to be a pretty good move. Nothing picture-worthy, but lots of fish to about 3#, mostly from the pads, flipping a creature bait behind 3/4 oz of weight, or fishing across the top of the pads with a golden shiner, 5.75″ Fin-S Fish.
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Posted by RichZ on: 07/05/2010
Saturday, 7/3
I joined Steve and Dave heading out of the Connecticut River for stripers, with a backup plan of fishing for fluke if the stripers weren’t hot. A couple schoolies on a jerkbait before leaving the river, then we each got a decent one early when we found them pushing bait under birds on a reef off Clinton. The bass action died pretty quickly as the sun got higher and more-and-more boats started racing up to them every time they surfaced. We spent the rest of the tide drifting heavy jigs for fluke.
Normally, I’m pretty good with a jig, but I was humbled on Saturday. Dave’s no slouch either, and he too was left wondering what Steve was doing different than us. Between Dave & I, we boated maybe 25 fluke. Meanwhile, Steve had 45.
With the stripers pretty much gone from the rivers, it was no problem deciding on a return to my fresh water comfort zone for Sunday’s fishing.
Sunday, 7/4
My buddy Jim & I started with a visit to the upper Housy, ostensibly for smallies. The plan was to fish that for a couple hours, then shift over to Lakeville after the ramp opened there at 7AM. To put it bluntly, the 90 minutes we spent on the Housy would have been better invested sleeping a little later. The river was oddly high, off colored, cold (66 to 68 degrees) and current was almost nil. I caught a lone rock bass. Jim caught a short smallie and a snapping turtle. We were on our way to Lakeville by 6:55.
On the water at Lakeville by 7:30, and stayed until almost 6.
Water temp was 74 most everywhere early, and 76 to 78 under the hot sun by afternoon. Air temps in the upper nineties. There was about a 45 minute period around noon that the wind blew about 10 to 12 mph out of the WNW, but other than that it was pretty much dead calm. Water was extremely clear. Most of the offshore vegetation was in full ‘friar tuck mode’ (big bald spot on top of the hump with a ring of veggies around it) due to recent weed cutting activity.
With the exception of one shallow shoreline shelf we got hot on during the brief period of cloud cover mid-to-late afternoon, most of our fish came from deeper water, outside the weeds. When the cloud cover turned on the shallows it was definitely an Ozmo/TitlesHOT bite, and it seemed like a weight light enough to not penetrate the weeds, and to flutter down slowly into pockets and openings. The deep bite on the other hand, was all drop shot, and all motor oil.
We ended the day with 28 bass between us. Biggest was around 3-1/2#. Didn’t keep an accurate count of the pickerel, but conservatively, we caught over 50 of Lakeville’s Lake Snakes, with most going around 3#. I had two giant toothies over 5#, including a 5-7. As usual the biggest toothies came out of deep water on the drop shot.
While I held an edge in the bass tally and a huge margin in the pickerel tally, Jim was species champ for the day, counting largemouth, smallmouth, yellow perch, sunfish, rock bass, pickerel and a snapping turtle among his catches for the day, beating me by a smallie, a yellow and a snapper. Of course species count aside, it was bass we were after. Here’s a few for today’s catch.
  
Monday, 7/5
Stay home and rest. Maybe go see the grandkids.
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Posted by RichZ on: 06/27/2010
Went out striper fishing on the CT River. Fishing wasn’t nearly as good as yesterday. I only caught two good fish, and broke off another two. Broke the knot joining the leader to the braid both times, and both times on the rod that I put together last night to sub for the one a bluefish ripped out of my grasp yesterday. I was out of my preferred 20# Fireline, and loaded up with 50# Big Game Braid. I found tying the blood knot I join the two lines with troublesome with the slicker finish of the braid. Still, one of the good fish put an awful lot of strain on that knot without failure too, before I broke the next one off on a close to the boat hook set.
Got far more action today on a Limetreuse Slug-Go than on my usual Ice Shad, Chrome, Arkansas, Albino or Smelt. Yesterday was an Ice Shad day, by the way.
My first fish of the day, until I had a grip on its lip, I would have bet money it was a 40 incher. I was shocked when I got it to the boat and found a 31~32 inch class fish had just had its way with me for that long. That would be the only fish I would boat on my usual favorite, Ice Shad Slug-Go (bottom, above).
Anyway, other than that 1st fish, it was a Limetreuse day (top, above).
At least until the tide was almost at full ebb. Then it just died. Once we convinced ourselves we weren’t leaving fish to find fish, we ran a couple other spots, and the best we could do was to find a bunch of schoolies out closer to the mouth. The schoolies seemed more willing to hit a hard jerkbait than a soft plastic. Caught a bunch on a Pointer 100 in Chartreuse Shad.
We ran that bite into the ground, and when it petered out, we decided to hit our starting water again, but to fish it with the jerkbaits this time, instead of the big Slug-Gos and topwater plugs. Only one bite, and it wasn’t a striper.
Fluke on a jerkbait? Up the river on a 3 foot deep flat? That fluke’s (noun 1. any of several American flounders of the genus Paralichthys, esp. P. dentatus, found in the Atlantic Ocean.) gotta be a fluke. (noun 2. an accident or chance happening. )
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Posted by RichZ on: 06/26/2010
Went striper fishing in the lower Connecticut River this morning. The topwater bite on the outgoing tide was great, but there were quite a few blues up to the 12~14 pound range mixed in with the bass. I’ve got nothing against bluefish. They bite aggressively, pull hard, and are more prone to an aerial battle than the stripers. I don’t even mind the number of lures they destroy or bite off. Fair trade for the sport they provide in my book.
I may not be their biggest fan, but I am not a bluefish hater, either. Why then, do they so actively hate me? Two years ago, I had a nice sized one hanging from the Boga-Grip while I used the hook remover to pop my (barbless) jig hook from its mouth. Somehow, the fish came off the Boga and started flailing and snapping its jaws wildly. This was the result…
 Bluefish Revenge! This morning, I hooked a big blue, and knowing it wasn’t a striper right off the bat, I tried to make as quick work of the battle as possible. The fish had hit a 9″ Slug-Go that I was fishing on my AllStar spinnerbait rod. The Revo STX reel was filled with 20# test Fireline, and the 8/0 hook was tied to a 4 foot leader of 30# Berkley Big Game. That’s my standard rigging for stripers (and the blues that so often come along with them) except in the winter, when I fish lighter fluoro line instead of the Fireline. Once I was a minute or two into the battle without getting chewed off, I knew I could put maximum pressure on the fish with little chance of losing it, and asked Alex for the Boga.
Dave and Steve were within talking distance, and Dave remarked, “That fish isn’t anywhere near ready for the boga,” “I’m just going to lean hard on it and get it ready quick,” I told Dave as I reached for the BogaGrip Alex had tossed me, adding, “What’s the worst that could happen? I might…” The rest of the sentence was going to be “lose it?” But at that instant, the fish, only about a dozen feet off the boat, put on a power move that popped the rod right out of my hand. Right out of my hand and into the river.
I don’t really remember, but I assume I uttered a few rather uncomplimentary remarks about the bluefish’s mother, and perhaps other relatives, as well. But I quickly picked up another rod and went about catching more stripers. Don’t think I caught another blue after that last one that I can’t say I actually caught.
On the ride home, Alex remarked that I had taken it amazingly well, and held my calm. “Ah, it was a 15 year old rod,” I replied, realizing as I said it, that I don’t keep a rod for 15 years unless I really like it. This was my favorite spinnerbait rod by a wide margin. And of course there’s nothing really like it available any more — a slow taper, heavy action, 6-6 casting rod that handled 3/8 ounce lures with the same ease that it handled 2 ounce lures. You just can’t get that kind of range with the faster action rods that are in vogue today.
If any blog readers happen to have an old All Star “Viper” series 6-6 heavy action casting rod handy, please let me know. Or, if you’re fishing the CT River or Long Island Sound and happen to catch a good sized bluefish that just happens to be dragging one with a Revo STX reel on it, I’ve got dibs, man, ’cause it’s mine!
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Posted by RichZ on: 06/23/2010
Old friend and fellow outdoor writer, Darl Black and his wife from western PA are in state, and we try to fish together whenever one of us or the other are in the other’s territory for some reason. So Darl and Marilyn joined me at Lakeville this morning.
The fish cooperated. ALL the fish cooperated. Darl tries to keep a well stocked library of stock photos, so for a while, he was shooting photos of just about everything that came in the boat. Bluegills, perch, trout, rock bass, pickerel and even a few largemouth. The stock photos out of the way, we got down to serious bullshitting and catching up, and even managed to catch a few more bass. And a whole lot more pickerel. For the most part, it was a typical summer day on Lakeville. The deep weed edge was key, and if you got more than a few feet deeper than the outer edge of the milfoil, you caught a lake snake almost immediately. The biggest pick we got was about 4-1/2. Biggest bass, around 3. Caught a fish or two on a jerkbait and a couple on the Slug-Go el salto, but the fish were mostly deeper, and it was definitely a drop shot day.
A lot of fish crossed the gunwales, and it was just a very enjoyable, relaxed day on the water with old friends.
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Posted by RichZ on: 06/19/2010
So I went to my designated, half-day pond — Hatch Pond. All the weather guys kept talking about for this weekend, was hot and sticky. So I was kind of surprised to find myself fishing post cold front conditions. Air was brisk early, but the big problem was the rising barometer and the total lack of humidity in the atmosphere. Fish were not as active as I would have hoped.
Ended up getting 12 bass, but only one good one in the bunch. All the fish but 2 were within a few ounces either way of a pound and a quarter. One was close to 2#, and one was a little over 4-1/2. Three came on a black frog on the pads, 3 on a green pumpkin El Salto, and 6 — including both of the better ones — on the green pumpkin Ozmo on a TitlesHOT jighead.
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Posted by RichZ on: 06/13/2010
That’s Bass Fishing Weekend. With all the striper fishing I’ve been doing the past month and a half, I kind of needed a weekend fishing for my bread and butter fish – fresh water bass. Saturday was unspectacular. Didn’t have a full day available. Started at Mudge, couldn’t find anything that excited me, and when the line stayed up in a big arc 20 feet off the water after the lure hit the surface a few times, I knew that a lightning storm was due to start and I was out where I shouldn’t ought to be if there’s an electrical storm going on, so I got it on the trailer pretty quick and headed for Hatch.
Size-wise, expectations are always lower at Hatch than at Mudge, so it was a little unusual that the average size of our catch there turned out to be better than at Mudge. While it wasn’t fantastic, our short stop at Hatch turned a mediocre day into a fair-to-middlin’ one. Alex did best on a Super Fluke, while I did my damage with an Ozmo on a TitlesHOT head and a Texas rigged Spanky.
Today was a different story. Jim & I went to Lakeville. By all accounts, Lakeville hasn’t been its usual self since very early in the season. If today was any indication though, it’s in fine shape, just acting a little weird. Not counting runts, perch, bluegill, rock bass, pickerel and trout, we put 47 bass in the boat today. We caught fish on a Pointer 100, jig & PiggyBack (both 1/2 and 1 oz jigs), 4″ worm on a jighead, Ozmo on a TitlesHOT head, drop shot and Spanky, but our hot bait by far was a 6″ Slug-Go el Salt-O, which was responsible for over half our bass catch. We caught fish from about 2 to about 20 feet deep, but most came in the 4 to 8 foot range.
 
All in all, a fun day on the water. Water temp, which had been in the mid-70s the last time I was at Lakeville, on the 29th of May, was 68 to 70 degrees. I was sure that the spawn was long since finished there, but I actually caught one fish off a bed today, and saw two or three others on beds.
Weird catch of the day was a 2# LM that I got on a Pointer 100. When I landed it, it wasn’t hooked. At least not directly, with any of the hooks on the jerkbait. It had been previously caught and gut hooked by a live bait fisherman, who couldn’t get the hook out, and evidently, simply unhooked his snelled hook and left it in the fish’s gullet. The tail hook of my Pointer had caught the loop in the snell, and that’s how I landed it!
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Posted by RichZ on: 06/05/2010
I’ve decided to ride this striper topwater action in the CT River for as long as it holds out. By all accounts, that’s probably this weekend. But you never know.
My son-in-law, Jim took one of his 3 times a year fishing trips with me today, and got his personal best striper. View the entire post — Obsession? Maybe, but it’s a good obsession.
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Posted by RichZ on: 05/31/2010
Couldn’t find anyone to join me for an early morning trip on the river this morning, so I went alone. Put the boat in at 5:15, and pulled it out at 9:00, so I was out for just under 4 hours. Knock off the idle time between the bridges, and I probably had 3 hours of fishing time. 2-1/2 hours round trip driving time for 3 hours of fishing might not sound worth it. But it definitely was. View the entire post — Early morning attack on the river.
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