First Bass of 2013 - Happy St. Patty's

First fish of the year, caught on a spinnerbait.

I finally made it out to one of my favorite ponds today to check it out and see what has changed over the winter.  Last year, we had a scorching hot summer, and the water levels suffered further due to extreme drought.

These factors caused this pond to become overgrown to say the least.  It was pretty much a solid weed mat making it impossible to fish anything but T-rigged soft plastics and topwater frogs.

We, also, for the most part had a pretty mild winter.  Ponds, river, lakes, and every angler was thankful for every inch of snow, and happier at the time it took to disappear.  The late snow storms helped bring the low water levels closer to full pool.

My usual M.O. at ice out is to find whatever healthy weeds you can and the fish will be there.  Today I found that all of the weeds were still in pretty good shape, and there were an abundance of them.

I started out throwing my usual ice out lures:

• Suspending Jerkbait
• Redeye Shad
• 3/16oz football head / shaky head with a finesse worm/craw
• 1/8oz hair jig
• 1/2oz Spinnerbait

I started throwing a Lucky Craft pointer 76 sp, but even on 17# flouro I couldn't get a good presentation b/c it was digging into healthy green weeds.  

The Redeye Shad was better; keeping the bait close to the bottom, rips out of weeds cleanly easier, and can cover water fast.  Still no bites on the red eye shad.  I should mention at this point that I was fan casting these baits looking for the deepest water I could reach fishing from the bank.

Reaction baits weren't working, so I got out the spinning rod and try to coax a bass to bite using the same strategy as before.  No Dice.

Running short on time, I wanted to cover a lot of water and get more of an idea of what was going on in the pond.  So I threw on a half oz spinnerbait.  

Still casting out towards the middle of the pond, letting it sink to the bottom and slow roll it back. The water couldn't be much more than 37 degrees, if it was even that warm...  I made a cast to my left at about a 45 degree angle and as my bait approached the bank I spooked a bluegill that swam right up to my boots.  

The gears started churning in my head.. REALLY? A bluegill  was that close to the shore?  Bear in mind that this was pretty much your average pond bank with a fairly shallow gradual slope.  So, I figure if the food is shallow, bass follow the food and adjust my casts from greater than 45 degrees to less than 45.  A little further down the bank there is a small trench  about 15 feet in from the shoreline and 15-20 yards long. 

Another shot, without my ugly mug in the photo.

I make a little cast to just the other side of the trench and slowly reel the spinner back. As it gets close, I see a black shadow behind my bait.  The fish's nose is ON THE END OF THE SKIRT, as the bait approaches the shore and the fish STOPS....(ugh).  Turns, and swims up the bank..The bass didn't look like much until it turned sideways and I got a good look at it,  she got a good look at me!.  It might have been... oh 3.5 - 4#-ish. 

I throw a few casts in the opposite direction in which the fish swam to let her settle down.  4 casts later i throw it to the far side of the trench and a third of the way back the line starts swimming sideways on it's way back to me.  I set the hook, its on!   

She may or may not have been the fish that followed my bait in a few casts prior.  First fish of the season, on a new rod, and a new reel (which wasn't even remotely close to dialed in.. drag was set way loose -- surprised I even got the hook it in her lip).

This is just another example of how staying observant of what is going on around you and in the water and adjusting your presentation can help you put more fish in the boat (or on shore!).  Or maybe I just had a little luck of the irish today!