Night moves...at 5200'

[FishDr]

I finally got out at night again, and my usual cover-of-darkness partner and I decided to hit some new waters to see what their potential was. We started off at a tiny local pond, the kind of pond where an over-ambitious cast lands in the manicured lawn on the other side, or clatters off the sidewalk. I started off throwing the little Slammer (7") and he was throwing a CL8 vole, and immediately got action. Okay, he immediately got action, and landed a couple of largemouth on the vole. I didn't get joy on the Slammer, switched to the G2, got not joy there, and considered putting on a rat.

 

For whatever reason I bailed on the rat idea, and stuck with the G2. Since our plan was to fish and move and fish and move and fish and move again, when things slowed down (10 min. without action), we got ready to leave. I fired off on more cast as we headed to the car and wouldn't you know it, the G2 scored - not a big fish, perhaps 13 or 14", but a start.

 

Pond #2, Pond #3 - We hit these ponds in hopes of picking off some slightly larger bass and failed, almost miserably. I had one half-hearted swirl on the G2, my friend had a fish blow up with evil intent just as he lifted it up and over some downed timber. I could hear the commotion from half a pond away, but the fish missed. We put in about 1 hour of work on the pond and there was no further action. Time to up and move again.

 

Site 3 was a lake, not a big lake, and definitely a lake that was low - we're in the middle of a fair drought here in CO and my favorite lake is down 50 feet, my local lake is down 60 odd feet and this lake, not deep to start with, was probably down 20. All the standard cover was high dry, and a fair cast up the bank if you wanted to hit it, perhaps, if you wanted to try to catch a snake or squirrel. Anyway, since we were not after terrestrials, we focused on the water. There were perhaps 11 groups of people catfishing around the lake, so we had to thread our way between them, hitting spots where we wouldn't appear to be trying to creep into their "zones".

 

I worked along until I came to perhaps the only cover left in the lake, the dam. I threw the G2 along the corner of the dam a couple of times and that was a non-event. My friend tied on the big Whopper Plopper and when he retrieved it on a medium-fast retrieve, I swear on a set of Owners that it sounded like an idling motorboat. Talk about a noisy lure! I switched lures, putting on my standby, the 9" Slammer. I fired another cast along the dam, got it about 1/3 of the way back, and it got pounded. Not a huge fish, probably 15 - 17", but a largemouth and my first night bass from this lake.

 

I moved off the mud and onto the very edge of the rocks, and threw another cast down the face of the dam. Three cranks on the Curado and the lure got hit, again, and the Owners took action, again. Another largemouth, a bit bigger than the last one, but still no giant. But hey, I'm not complaining - two fish in two casts is always a treat.

 

I was still standing in the same spot and saw that my friend was walking off the mud to the dam as well. I figured I'd make a couple more casts and then we'd start the classic night-swimbait-leapfrog, moving down the dam approximately one good cast length at a time. I made a cast into deeper water and got no love. That cast was followed by another one with the same result. And then another one. Had I burned the spot? One final cast along the dam and as the Slammer click-clacked its way back to me, a mere foot of the rocks, it got bopped again. This fish was more agro, but it turned out to be about the same size as the last, with one key difference - it was a smallmouth! My first night swimbait smallie!

 

We started the leapfrog, and on the first iteration, my friend tagged a fish on the Whopper Plopper - I guess the lure, while noisy, was not too noisy. About three leapfrogs later, I tagged what was to be my final bass of the night, another chunky little fish, but still, a fish on a bright moonlit night.

 

I had a couple of short strikes later on, but most of the lake shore was a mudflat and the fish didn't seem to be in shallow. Perhaps earlier or later in the night, but definitely not with anglers spaced fairly evenly around the lake. We'll be back though, because there's definitely some promise there.

[SWIMBO]

Nice Chris!! That whopper plopper is suuper loud,glad you got into some fish

[kilog]

sweet...way to go...i love the got 'em thread because it gives me hope and motivation to keep chucking these huge baits, especially after a long drought

[Dogmatic]

Congrats on your first night smallie, sweet fish! Boy! drought and all, I still miss CO nights!

[FishDr]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I'm hoping to head out again on Thu or perhaps on the weekend, though I prefer weeknights. There is another potential sleeper lake that needs "checking" that is only about 30 minutes away.

[jpassmore22]

congrats on a good night and your first night smallie swimbait fish.