The Bass Are Ready

I'm calling it the official start to bass season. OK, not technically "bass season" if you are a keep and eat it kinda fisherman....and not really even "bass season" if you are a catch and release kinda fisherman. NY a few years ago opened up bass fishing for all year....but keeping them for the table is still only an option part of the year.  ....but that's all a tangent....I'm calling it the official start to BASS SEASON!!! Meaning....it's worth your time to get out.

Either out of ignorance, or wimpyness, I've never really gone after bass until at least April. And even then I didn't expect much top water action. Well, this winter decided to play in my favor and was nice and mild. Heck, my wife and I only shoveled the driveway 3 times this winter. The lack of snow was a blessing considering we had bald tires on the van. Those tires are replaced and the weather in March has been fantastic....even bordering on too hot for a few days.

I took advantage of this great weather (although today was a bit chillier) and got out for one my famous 1 hour trips (1 hour-ish trips.) I met up with my longest surviving fishing buddy and hit Twin Rock pond. A nice little pond that I'd likely never tell you the location of even if you asked. See, I think as much as it's great to share fishing spots with people, and I often do, there are some that I'm going to keep for myself. Suffice it to say that this pond is easily found on Google maps, and even has an updated image showing the current shape and size of the pond. Like many of the ponds I fish it has houses surrounding it. See, I've already given away too much info.

We met up about 9am this morning and started having success! I hooked the first two before he started catching some.

Thanks for playing, Mr. Bass

Yes, top water bass in March

Using his go to favorite fly, the white foam ant (this one with extended legs) he found himself wrestling some bass, and a huge bluegill!

So tiny....nice try punk!

A decent sized blue

Before he met me at Twin Rock, he was fishing Lions pond. Using the Fishin' Clips from Grasshopper Outdoors that he won at the Guys, Flies & Pies fly tying party last month, he had an easy way to break down his strung up rod for a quick ride to the next pond. Notice (above) how easy the clips stored away on his pack while fishing.

Ready to rock, ready to roll

Although we only fished for an hour, it was a good way to get out of the house (full of sick kids...myself included) for a bit. I can't wait till the bass heat up even more!

A Great Morning For Bass

This past Saturday I was finally able to get out with a friend who I've fished with since we were kids. Ché (pronounced like Chay) met me at the house at 6:30am and we headed out for a few of my favorite local ponds.

First stop was Bronze Leaf where there is little access to a the pond which is only .3 acres in size. This is the smallest pond that I consistently fish. Weeds on the shore, and a few trees, makes it hard to fish with more than 1 person for any length of time.

Within a few minutes Ché caught a bluegill. I quickly missed a few fish then realized we needed to move on to the next place....which has more room for the both of us and a greater chance for more bass than sunfish.

First Fish

Next stop was at Twin Rock pond where we found bass willing to fight with us. Within a few casts we were catching bass after bass.

Time for some bass

Ché with a bass

We even caught a few sunfish.

This picture makes him look smaller than he was

Ché caught a nice 13 inch bass...

13 inch largemouth bass

...but the biggest fish of the day with a nice 16 inch largemouth bass that Ché caught.

Ché with a 16 inch largemouth bass

16 inches (After further review, I'll agree it's 15.5 inches)

My largest of the morning was a 13.5 inch bass.

In the end he caught 17 fish and I caught 27...all were bass except a few.

This was by far the most productive few hours of fishing yet this year!

A Good Week For Fishing

Last week was a good week for fishing. Some how the stars aligned and I got out 4 times! As noted in previous posts I was able to get out with 2 of my boys and my wife....and the fourth trip was another one of my sons.

Seth and I got out after his baseball team photo session. He called mom and asked if we could go fishing. No, I did not pressure him to do this, unless saying "it smells like fishing out here" counts. Mom said "yes" and we were off. After a quick trip to the post office to send out a shipment of GFP t-shirts (a few left if anyone is interested in one), we hit Twin Rock pond.

All of the 4, 1 hour trips this past week were to Twin Rock, and were all successful, so we had high hopes. After a few minutes of pounding the water I caught a bass and Seth reeled him in.

A standard size bass

 Soon after he was into a fish or two of his own!

Seth's bass on a Clouser minnow

Bass on a new popper

The fat one of the day

Seth's second

Bass on the fly

That fly caught at least 10 bass, and on one of the last casts A fish snapped the line. I saw the popper floating on the surface just a few feet from the shore. I walked over to it and with a new fly on the line I was able to wrap the tippet around the lost popper and recover it!

Unfortunately the rain is back. And it's not just back for a day or so.....it's been raining for two days straight and looks like there is rain in the forecast for the next few. I still may make a trip to the pond but it would be nice to have the clouds stop dripping first.