Ok so my buddy Josh and I decided to go out for our first attempt at Winter Bass Fishing. We met at Beaver Lake at about 10:15 am and fished until 4:15pm. Our plan of attack was to see if we could locate some bass or crappie on the bottom with Josh's fish finder. But if that didn't work, we were going to try trolling for trout.

So we get on the water around 10:30 and it is bright and sunny. It is extremely chilly in the shade but it is nice and warm out in the sun! The lake was calm and the surface of the water was glass. The water temp was 44 degrees. We started out by trolling various crankbaits. We trolling all the way to the north end and then we saw a huge bald eagle swoop down from the tree towards the water. We were anticipating seeing it catch a fish but it quickly flew back up once it was about 10 feet above the water. We believe that it might have been going after a sunbathing bass and that quickly fled into deeper water.

We then trolled down the opposite bank towards the launch and we didn't get anything. Not even a single bite on various cranks. There were a couple other boats on the lake that we chatted with briefly. At the same, they didn't catch anything either. The people fishing from shore at the boat launch had no luck either.

So we decided that we would try to see if we could mark some fish and drop shot them. We randomly marked fish in deep water but we absolutely could not get them to bite. Just for fun, we wanted to test out our new swimbaits to see them in the water. The Savage Gear Line Thru 3D Trout is AMAZING! The swimming action on this jointed soft plastic swimbait is so real that it's not even funny! We tossed them around a bite just for the heck of it but didn't spend too much time doing it.

For several hours, we mixed it up between trolling it and drop shotting. Then towards the end of the day, we decided to try one spot that looked good. After losing a bunch of drop shot hooks and weights to snags, I actually hook up with a bass! I was working my drop shot slowly along the bottom, trying my best to stay stationary and gentle twitch my bait. Thank God for sensitive rods, braided line, and fluorocarbon leaders! I felt the slightest difference in line tension and I set the hook. FISH ON! I bring it up to the surface and see that it's a bass and immediately I'm in disbelief. Did I really do it? Did I finally accomplish the goal of catching a winter bass? Yes, Yes I Did! It wasn't a big fish but it was very chunky. It came in at 1.38 lb on my Accu Cull Digital Scale. And to add icing to the cake, it was a LARGEMOUTH! I hear about people catching smallies in deep water in the winter but don't hear too much about largemouth being caught. At this point, i was ecstatic and it felt so surreal! I was a very happy camper!

We keep fishing and then the same thing happens! I feel the slightest difference in line tension and I set the hook! FISH ON! And this time it's MUCH BIGGER! It's fighting pretty hard and as I get it close to the surface it's start to shake its head violently! Unfortunately, it spit my hook about 2 feet under the surface. I had to suffer the heart break of watching a big largemouth bass swim back down to the bottom. This bass was easily twice as big and I estimate that it was pushing 3 lbs. It easily dwarfed the 1.38 lber that I caught. At this point, I went from being ecstatic to extremely disappointed and frustrated. But oh well, you can't win them all right?

Needless to say, I would call this a successful day. Never did I imagine that I would actually catch a winter largemouth bass!

Oh yeah, it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do but I quickly turned on my hatcam once the first largemouth got to the surface. If I had lost line tension, I might have lost the fish. But here is the brief footage, enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5OrPhZE3Eo