A lot of you have read this report somewhere else I am sure. But I wanted to make sure I got it up here where CB was such an active participant. It is a huge success story for CB's, especially the Bass Honey. I didn't throw a lure during the week that didn't have CB's on it. So here it goooooes.
Turkey Season Fishing Trip? Success!
We know that every year right around the end of May that Turkey Season starts in Indiana. We plan for it. We schedule around it. Our families know to expect us to be gone and unavailable for it.
It started innocently enough 7 years ago. Alan was a client of mine. He turkey hunted in Southwest Indiana every year which is what we did the first year. Up at 4 a.m. In the woods all day. The second year, I suggested that we fish in the afternoon instead of heading back into the woods. The third year I mentioned that we might hunt a couple days and fish a couple of days. Year 4, we finally saw the light. We bought a small bass hunter boat that we could push, pull and drag to secluded water, and it became a fishing only trip. Year 7 will be known as the year of the float tube. In an effort to find even more hidden water, we packed up tubes and went hiking.
Southwest Indiana is home to several small State Parks, Fish and Wildlife Areas, and all kinds of small water that produce lots of fish. We want to fish water that you have to work to get to. Low pressure, big fish. Our schedule for 2007 ended up like this:
Wednesday, 4/25/07 ? 1p: Sugar Ridge Strip Pit; Twin Lakes
Thursday, 4/26/07 ? 7a: Sugar Ridge Strip Pits; Bethel Pit (Float Tubes)
Thursday, 4/26/07 ? 1p: Sugar Ridge Strip Pits; Bass Pit
Friday, 4/27/07 ? 7a: Huntingburg Reservoir
Friday, 4/27/07 ? 1p: Honey Hole (Secret No Name Lake)
Saturday, 4/28/07 ? 7a: Celina Lake
Saturday, 4/28/07 ? 1p: Bob?s Lake (Private)
Sunday, 4/29/07 ? 7a: Bob?s Lake (Private)
7 different lakes in 4 days, hard to beat that schedule. The weather cooperated for most of the trip. High air temps for the week previous really set up some great fishing. The threat of thunderstorms and a cold front heading our way made the activity almost constant.
Wednesday afternoon we fished new water. The Sugar Ridge Strip Pits complex is made up of a couple dozen lakes. They are all crystal clear and full of bass. Rules were soon established on our typical challenges. First fish, most fish, biggest fish and most species caught. We soon discovered that the topwater bite was ON. Topwater poppers with a dressed treble smeared with
CB?s HawgSauce Bass Honey gave me the early lead with first fish and most fish. I never looked back. 14.5? was the biggest bass caught, but the numbers were good. 20 fish for me including 10 largemouth, 9 bluegills, and a very aggressive catfish that also hit a popper. Alan hit 8, 6 largemouth and 2 bluegills.
Day 2 was a challenge. We pumped up the tubes? in the rain. Threw the waders on and hit Bethel Pit in the rain. This is a lake that we have fished for years, and we chose it to tube for its clear deep water. Uncle Sinkos from
MMiB Baits have been the key in this lake for the last several years. And Thursday morning proved no different. Dark colors, blacks and peanut butter were the ticket. A couple of squirts of CB?s Bass Honey and flip the Uncle Sinko near any structure. Let it fall for a few seconds and watch your line swim away. It?s as easy as that. We came in for a quick lunch break during a particular nasty downpour and dropped the boat back into Bethel Pit to hit some of the more distant locations. The weather cleared up, the fishing picked up. I believe the numbers were Brian 21 and Alan 13 when we decided to move to Bass Pit for some late afternoon and evening action. The new pit brought us back to using topwater poppers. I started with the Storm I had so much success with the day before and then remembered a new bait I wanted to try. The Skip-N-Pop from
Boudreaux?s Baits. It?s a poured plastic popper that you T-Rig weightless. It floats with a 3/0 hook, and you work it just like a popper. It makes a nice splash, and with the aggressive bass we were hitting, it worked like a charm. I tore up all 3 that I had in the process of catching 29 more bass for a total of 50 for the day. Alan started spraying the dressed treble of his popper with CB?s religiously and kept the totals respectable with 21 for a total of 34 for the day.
Friday morning, Day 3, found us paying the price for the cold front that tore through the evening before. Air temps about 20 degrees cooler than the day before and windy as all get out. We decided to spend a crappy day on one of our worst lakes. Huntingburg Reservoir really stretches the limit of lake that we have great success on. It?s a bit big for a lot of our best tactics. But it has monster largemouth in it, so we keep it on the schedule. The morning crawled by. I caught one Walleye on a crankbait, and Alan caught one largemouth on a jerkbait. And that was IT. We made for shore early and tried to make up for our slow start at the infamous ?Honey Hole?. A small lake that we never miss a chance to fish, the honey hole is a surprisingly low pressured lake with big largemouth and slab crappies. T-Rigged and weighted curly tail worms have been the fish catching lure in the past. Alan found the piece of the puzzle first with t-rigged lizards. I one upped him by whipping out my Parasite Weight?s bullet sinkers and catching several fish on one lizard while he tore up lizard after lizard. The lake was up we had to pitch and flip into heavy timber and all sorts of nasty stuff. The Parasite clip that is part of their bullet weights saved us both a lot of plastic as we dragged stuff in, over, under and around all kinds of junk. We were so happy to actually start catching fish again that we lost count right from the start. We were both well into the 20?s when night started to fall and the trolling motor started to die. So we limped the boat to the dam end of the lake and started chucking for the crappies that lurk there. It actually ended up being poppers yet again that produced not only great crappies, but bluegill and some small aggressive largemouth. A bite on almost every cast left us fishing in the dark.
A new lake was our destination Saturday morning. After packing up the camp in Huntingburg, we were headed east to Bob?s lake anyway, so we stopped at Celina Lake along the way. Another lake that pushes the size limit for us, it started off like a firecracker and ended like a dog. Like a broken record, water as clear as gin showed us grass about 3-4 feet under the water. I tied on a small shallow running X-Rap. Smeared some Bass Honey on the dressed tail and started chucking. I was about 3 casts in when my line went tight. A beautiful 16? largemouth shot out of the water as I set the hook. About 3 casts after that, my line went tight again and I hit the twin of the one I had just released. We both caught a few little ones here and there as we worked our way around this beautiful lake. But the fishing was slow at best, and pretty much stopped the last 45 minutes that we were on the water. Off to Bob?s, we both gladly agreed.
I hate to call Bob?s Lake a sure thing. But for the last few years, we have hit some monster bass whenever we get a chance to fish this private lake in Southeast Indiana. Its location makes it perfect for a stop on the way home. Its production earns it 2 slots on the schedule. This year was no let down. The first trip around the lake was a test mission. Looking for which lures would produce, we threw just about everything with moderate success. Chatterbaitesque Water Rockers from MMiB, spinnerbaits, lizards, jerkbaits, crankbaits, and of course poppers. Some produced, some didn?t and none called in the big ones. Alan did nail a nice crappie on a small pencil minnow as we trolled along a submerged stump.
As we came to a nice pile of slime along the far bank, I saw a beauty swim lazily from the trash into deeper water. I told Alan to make a mental note. We continued around the lake. As we passed the dock, I mentioned a nice log coming down into the water and a spot Alan should toss his lure. He missed and unfortunately, I was sitting there with my Storm Popper cocked. I tossed it beside the log and the water exploded. Our first big bass at Bob?s for 2007. And it was gorgeous.
I decided to start pitching
Granny Ribbits up on the bank and hopping them into the water for a few cranks. I was getting a few little nips and even managed a couple little largemouth when we crept up to the spot I?d seen the big one earlier. I made a few casts but nothing. I flipped my Ribbit down the bank about 6 feet and let it rest just at the edge of the water. I twitched my rod and it plopped into the water about 8? from the bank. A huge V in the water shot along the bank and my Granny Ribbit disappeared in a giant splash of water. I reared back on my pole and told Alan to grab the net. Another beauty.
We got up bright and early on Sunday morning, about the crack of 10a to be exact. Our Turkey Season Fishing Trip 2007 had come to an end? almost. We swung by Bob?s lake for one last hurrah. We hadn?t even left the dock when I decided I was miserable enough to go home immediately. But Alan wanted a crack at a big one before we left. I suggested a Title Shot jig head and a MMiB Nanny Beaver flipped along the edge of some real cabbage across the bank we were coming up on. It was the ticket. In about 5 casts, Alan had on his big momma. He could go home happy.
Our first trip for 2007, the Florida Fishing Trip was a heck of a lot of fun. But it was completely over shadowed by TSFT 2007. It will be hard to keep up the pace for the rest of the year, but we sure had a fantastic start.
