I've been fishing hard almost every day for well over a week now waiting for some bigger bass to show. Guys have been catching on the northern end but we have been patiently waiting for our turn... We finally got into a few fish yesterday... I couldn't get out till 4, the boat traffic and bright sun made it tough but we found a few down deep on Bass Harassers




With the rain today, we had the river to ourselves. Mike, Justin and I left the ramp at 5:15 in a light rain. The water had warmed to 54 and with the cloud cover overnight had stayed that warm. We made the run to the first spot, dodging a couple of logs along the way. Justing hooked up first on a Houdini Shad. It's always nice to get the skunk out of the boat right off the bat...



As it got light out, we could see herring dimpling the surface all around us and following our lures back to the boat. I hooked up a couple of times with small fish, we never bothered to take the camera out. On the second drift, Mike hooked a decent fish on a Revolution Shad. This one was a better fish. I forgot how good a screaming drag could sound...



It may have been the next cast that he hooked up again, I can't remember...



On the 3rd drift, all hell broke lose. There were fish all over the place at one point, we had a triple header going. I got mine to the boat first, another keeper and quickly released it so I could grab the camera for the other two fish.



On almost every cast, we had herring following our lures and trying to mate with them. On more than one occassion, my lure came back with herring scales on the hooks. I finally ended up snagging one on a Revolution Shad.


That spot seemed to die off after 7:30 so we started heading south checking other spots as we went. Justin hooked up with another nice fish on the Bass Harasser...



The rain got heavier and more steady. It kept the water nice and flat, so it was easy to spot surface activity from a distance. As we fished along another stretch of bank, we saw herring getting knocked into the air by stripers about 1/4 mile away. We made our way in that direction with the trolling motor on high and got within range. We all had fish on in no time. It was raining too hard to take the camera out. They were all about the same size as the fish before. Healthy and real fat! We fished for less than 5 hours and boated 15 fish. There were only 2 or 3 stripers that were not keepers. It seemed to take forever, but they are finally here.