Was fishing a derb out of Parry Sound Ontario and went for greens instead of browns which was a gamble but it payed off. Took 1st with just over 18lbs. Found some good ones in a small bay and stayed there all day. Mix of pencil reeds, pads and cabbage. Gin clear water 2ft-6ft sand bottom. Temp was 73 in the morning and 76 in the afternoon. Little overcast but mainly sunny. Little wind but hardly a ripple. Area was loaded with bluegill. We pulled up just in time for the breakfast buffet to kick in and had our limit in the first hour. Myself throwing a field mouse and my co with a white belly frog.
After the initial feeding window the bite slowed right down which I was expecting so I switched over to some more subtle presentations to play cleanup, jig/senko/ned but not even a sniff for 2+ hours. Picked up the white frog again and every 3-4 casts would result in a blowup but short strike. Ok so consistent short strikes are telling me I need to make an adjustment. We've already confirmed they want it on top so maybe a colour change or cadance change. My co and I worked really well together, he kept a white frog on while I rotated through black, brown, yellow, green, blue, as well as different size profiles. Never got hit, not once while the white kept getting shorted.
Alright, so we've confirmed white on top. Let's break down the cadence. Same frog, same casts about 10ft appart. I worked mine aggressively with shorted pauses while my co worked slow with longer pauses. They wouldn't touch it moving slow, had to be moving some water. Ok, another piece of the puzzle. I switched up to a popping frog while co kept the walking. Nope, they don't want it just popping, had to have that side to side action to it.
Ok so confirmed white walking on top, maybe a angle change. Went in as shallow as we could get casting out deep past the cover and bringing it in. Same results, short strike. Went clockwise and counter still the same. I'm good with boat control and staying quiet but thought maybe we're just making too much of a disturbance so lets pull off, eat lunch and give them 30 mins or so. Pulled back in with TM on 1 and pinned down. Same result, short strike.
I think by this point most guys would have moved on or just came back later but I wasn't going to give up. These aren't just dinks slapping at it, there are quality fish still hitting. The short strike weren't just little pops, some of them you could get a good look at. They were active enough to hit topwater and there was the potential for a 25 pound plus bag in here. I knew we were close to 20lbs arealy and were definitely in the money but there was no way I was walking away from a PB limit. Weightless texas rigged floating white 5' senko. Meets all the criteria, this should be it...Nope...Crazy.
Long post but I've never before run into bass that were so super specific on what they wanted. Every time a topwater bite has died off a jig or a senko does a good job at cleaning up. Maybe others have run into a similar scenario? please share. hoping to learn something new.
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Originally Posted by BassnPhoenix920
. It’s happened on other occasions also, a 6.5 nearly made me pee my pants close to the boat! For the life of me, I don’t know how they do it, guess it’s catch it or starve.
