Angler with a largemouth bass caught in June

Why is it that some of the most pleasing fishing, in June bass fishing,Ā  is also some of the simplest? Iā€™m not stepping on bass anglers with that comment either, but chuckinā€™ baits up near shore and dragging them back right now will get you bit on most of the weed-choked shallow systems that I fish this time of year. The fishing is that good. As a kid, I grew up bass fishing. For a southern MN boy, they were the most attainable of the ā€œbigā€ fish. Walleyes lived up north, you needed a float-plane to fish for pike, and sunfish were for ā€œkids.ā€ From age 10 up and through my teenage years while I most often fished for largemouth bass, I was far from a kid. Catching bass back then, esp. big ones, made your chest puff out a bit.

Ever since those years, every time I see the cottonwood seed fly in late May and early June, I think back to summers when Iā€™d fish constantly on small ponds and lakes. Just like trout anglers like to see big fish rise to a dry fly, a bass nut wants to see those fish eat top water. There probably isnā€™t a better time to do it than when that cottony mess continually accumulates on your line and fouls your casts. At our peak, weā€™d boat more than a hundred largies over 4lbs in the summer, mostly on frog patterns, but on a variety of soft plastics as well. When that bite slowed or we just grew tired of it, we tossed hand-poured versions of the original Slug-Go, as the Senko had yet to be invented, or at least introduced to us. It should be no surprise then that I wanted that experience for my son Isaac as we set out on a small lake in Wisconsin a few days ago with our dilapidated half duck-decoy-tag-along, half-canoe of a watercraft.

Our first time this year in a tippy-canoe with a little bit of wind made me think twice about taking any photography equipment with us. Even the cell phone stayed back on shore. Trust me when I say we had enough fish to keep us more than happy, including a few fish in the 4lb range, and another one lost boat side (first bite of the day) that was a particularly long and spawned out female which probably was bigger. What a way to start out, 3rd cast, and the fish was on! Lots of ā€œGeez dads and ā€œoh mans,ā€ Isaac declared before it rolled boat-side, too big to effectively jump, giving a half-hearted rollover before it somehow threw the hook.

The best part? The pattern hasnā€™t changed in decades. I pre-rigged 3 rods and we fished 3 baits all afternoon, each one being most effective for specific areas. We fish weed-choked, soupy systems. Not lily pads, Iā€™m talking algae, pondweed, and all kinds of messy stuff. For that, you need a top-water weedless bait of some sort. That day, lots of smaller males were way back in the grass, blowing up on dragonflies and eating developing tadpoles and young frogs. Iā€™ve become a fan of the single-hook weedless rigged soft plastic frog imitations for bites like these. If I can keep the bait riding high and the fish will eat it at that pace, I get better hookups than I do with the dual-hook soft-body style baits I used to use more of when I was younger. You also have the added advantage of letting that bait settle and sink into some of the holes and pockets in the weeds. A white buzzbait was perfect for areas adjacent to the slop where developing grass was coming up but not quite to the surface. This day, a buzzbait caught most of the fish, and I canā€™t think of a more fun way for kids to fish. Finally, perhaps the most versatile bait that day, and the bait which caught the biggest fish, was a texas-rigged soft-plastic sinking worm in Watermelon Red-Flake. This was for the weed edges, especially the deeper edges of the coontail. Count it down a few feet and start slowly working it back. Also, donā€™t overlook beaver lodges. The deeper areas created by the animals coming and going, directly adjacent to shore held some nice fish too.

Thatā€™s really all there was to it. Isaac did most of the casting, and for a kid, throwing out a frog and keeping the rod high with a steady retrieve is about as easy and rewarding as it gets. We fished for a little more than an hour, then he wanted to see if we could race a beaver with the canoe and win. Thatā€™s part of the wonder too. I take for granted all of those experiences, which to a youngster are brand new, or at least super cool even if theyā€™ve seen them before. I loaded the canoe and he chased frogs around after we finished up; I canā€™t think of a better ending to an already incredible day.

 

 

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