Bonus Catch

At first I thought a small bass had blasted out of the brush and pummelled my Money Craw. Then. when I got a glance at the hooked fish I thought it was an overzealous bluegill. When I pulled the fish into the boat I happily discovered that it was actually a warmouth, which is sort of like a bream with a bass' mouth. The fish wasn't very big and it didn't put up and impressive fight, but I was happy to have caught it because it was the first warmouth Nathaniel and I had ever seen come out of that particular pond. For me, a novel fun comes from catching something new from a given waterway and learning a little more about what lives there.

The warmouth also helped me add to my 2013 species list, which has been slow getting going. It marked species No. 6. Of the species I've been able to put on this year's list, three have come from the same ponds in my home town, and three have come from North Carolina's Nantahala River. I have big hopes of building the list next week through fishing travels planned in Tennessee and Arkansas. Black and white crappie, smallmouth bass and rock bass are among the most likely additions.

Circle of Success with Soft Plastics

It took two casts from the bank to confirm that 3-inch YUM Money Craw nose hooked on a 2/O Daiichi Bleeding Bait Circle Hook would catch at least one fish today. Within a few minutes of launching the boat Nathaniel and I could tell that it would work pretty well.

I already knew from a few days ago that pond conditions were right for fish to attack a Money Craw, rigged weightless and swam steadily. Last week I used an offset worm hook and rigged it weedless. However, I missed a lot of solid strikes, so that made me wonder about the idea of rigging it open with a circle hook. I've nose-hooked the same circle hooks in soft-plastics before with excellent success, but I wasn't positive how the Money Craw would swim or whether the pond's many stumps would cause problem.

As it turned out, the bait swam perfectly, my hook-up ratio was vastly improved, and I only snagged stumps twice. The bait also stayed in better condition than it did with the worm hook, when I had to set the hook hard, and it repeatedly slid down the hook. We fished for an hour or more today, and I caught several bass, but I only used one Money Craw.

One snagged stump actually provided one of the outing's most fun moments. I was snagged and Nathaniel was navigating the johnboat toward the stump I was on. Suddenly I felt tugging and I reacted with a hookset. Of course, I missed the fish because hooksets don't work well with circle hooks, but Nathaniel had been looking in the water at the time, watching my bait so he could push the boat closer, and he saw a bass swim up and snatch the Money Craw right off the stump!

Simple Spring Fishing Fun

With the sun shining warm and bright and fresh memories of the fish biting well on Saturday when Asher and I visited the beaver pond, Nathaniel and I had to slip back over there for a while after I finished a story yesterday afternoon. The spring bite doesn't last forever, and there only so many days that lend themselves well to pond outings.

The fish behaved exactly as we hoped, readily taking moving baits, and we landed a baker's dozen largemouths, plus one bonus bluegill, in maybe an hour and a half of fishing. We also lost a few fish partway back to the boat and had a quite a few other short strikes.

Nathaniel even got to catch a few fish on a buzzbait -- something he had been waiting to do all spring. The topwater bite will only get stronger as the water warms. Our best-producing bait was a 2.75-inch YUM Money Craw rigged weedless and weightless on a 2/0 Daiichi Bleeding Bait Offset Worm Hook and swam steadily just beneath the surface.

My bluegill, which was fish species No. 5 on my 2013 catch list, hit a Money Craw.

If you have small waters that hold decent bass populations close to home and can get out when the spring bite gets good (right now in North Georgia) don't miss those opportunities Even if you only can fish for an hour or two after work, when the bass are shallow and aggressive, the fishing is just plain fun.

You don't have to think a lot. Just cast to obvious shallow targets, keep a bait moving steadily and enjoy the fish-catching fun. I like to swim weightless soft plastics that have a lot of action such as a Money Craw. Soft plastic jerkbaits and square-bill crankbaits also do really well for the same style of fishing. When the bass are shallow and active, they really don't have to be that big to serve up huge fun.