Northeast Bass Fishing

Ice amounts here in central New Hampshire vary from 8-22 inches depending on which water system you refer to.  Today, the last day in March, we saw another cold front throw snow for a coupleof hours and when the air temperature hit 34 degrees, the preciption turned to a freezing rain.  Nevertheless, I was still able to get a boat out on the lake.  Actually, it was in Charolette, North Carolina.  Lake Wylie will host the TBF National Championship (http://tbf.flwoutdoors.com/article.cfm?id=146654) April 22-27, 2008.  I was there to practice fish for this event as I was fortunate enough to qualify through club tournaments, the state fish-offs(http://www.nhbassfederation.com/Tournaments/2006stqt.shtml), and finally the TBF Eastern Divisional(http://tbf.flwoutdoors.com/tournamentTBF.cfm?cid=80&t=news&tday=3&atype=6&tid=5853&tyear=2007&aid=146512).

My first experience on Lake Wylie was on February 23, 2008.  I ran the boat from Buster Boyd’s landing north up by paw creek(Buster Boyd Lake Wylie).  I began to fish the shoreline as the water temperature was 58-60 degrees.  I started by throwing a suspending jerkbait, pausing for 3-5 seconds before making the bait dart and dive again.  I then began to pitch stick baits around the numerous docks that line Lake Wylie.  Finally, I switched to jig.  before long about an hour and a half flew by with no results.  I decided to back off the shoreline (not knowing the weather pattern over the past few days and assumed a cold front of some kind recently kept the fish off the banks).  I began presenting a Fishbelly Hawgshad 3.5″ green back (http://fishbelly168.stores.yahoo.net/nexdrugshad.html)on a drop shot in 8-10 feet of water(www.fishbelly.com).  THUMP! the line got heavy and I boated my first keeper.  The fish was boated and weighed about 2 lb.s.  I went further down the 8-10 foot edge and THUMP!!! a much heavier sensation.  I set the hook on what I estimated to be a 4 1/2 lb.s green fish (largemouth) and skillfully brought it on board after enjoying the game of tug-O-war.  My partner believed it to be 6 lb.s, but I usually underestimate all my weights.  Who knows how big it really was (we did not have a scale) and I didn’t really care, I WAS FISHING again!!!!  After a scant few minutes, THUMP!! another bass weighing around 3 lb.s.  I thought this is it, I have a pattern going.  Now let’s see if these fish bite something different.  (To be Continued)