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Author:
PECo
Date:
Aug 26, 2010
Subject:
Bantam Lake 08/26
Message:
Phish (aka Jed) and I decided to check out Bantam Lake from the formerly public boat launch on Jed's Ranger Reata fish & ski. I know what you really want to know, so FYI: 1) Around 6:15 AM, we were the only ones in sight; 2) The "Residents Only" sign at the entrance to the launch has been removed, although unofficially, apparently, because enough of the sign remained for me to tell what it had been; and 3) We did [b:02f039232a]NOT[/b:02f039232a] get ticketed. Oh, here's another thing: 4) We were followed around every time we were at the launch by this very lonely duck: [img:02f039232a]http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/69/019cropped.jpg[/img:02f039232a] It was a beautiful early morning. Although the humidity was a little high (i.e., over 80 percent), the air temperature was 68 degrees and there was a light WNW wind. There were only isolated clouds and we could see the nearly full moon. As the sun rose we got full sun. However, throughout the day, the winds rose and fell and changed direction several times, and the cloud cover came and went. All in all, it was a beautiful day. The water temperature was 68 to 69 degrees and clear down to about 3 feet. It was stained in parts and pea green in parts. The bottom was weedy in parts and rocky in parts. After we launched, we headed to the mouth of the Bantam River on the north end of the lake. There's a floating barrier boom protecting part of the shoreline there and we decided to try for some northern pike. The pads were accessible from about 2-1/2 feet of water. The only other boat we saw on the lake was a ski boat with a few guys skiing a slalom course adjacent to where we wanted to fish. However, the wake from their boat wasn't too bad. Jed and I both threw various topwater baits. I stuck mostly with a black buzzbait and Jed went with a black Spro frog. As we worked our way along the N shore from the barrier to the E shore, other than one blowup without a hookset on Jed's frog in the middle of the pads, we got nothing. We decided to fish a little deeper for bass, off a point on the W shore that dropped from about 12 to about 18 feet. I went with a 3/4 ounce brown and green football jig, while Jed tried a drop shot. Other than some tugs on Jed's drop shot, we got nothing. We headed over to some rocky shallows off the E shore to the S of the N bay, again to look for some bass. We each tried various baits, but mostly crankbaits. After a hookless tug on his crankbait, on his next cast, Jed finally hooked up with a fish. It hit like a freight train and turned out to be a 26 inch 3 pound 10 ounce northern pike: [img:02f039232a]http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/6528/006cropped.jpg[/img:02f039232a] It was a pretty fish. And frisky, too: [img:02f039232a]http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/2428/004cropped.jpg[/img:02f039232a] Yes, we too find it hard to believe that the pike was under 4 pounds. I, on the other hand, caught only a little rock bass on a diving crank bait that I had been dragging over the rocks on the bottom. The wind kept rising and shifted a little bit more to the W, so we decided to get alee of it and headed to the cove in the SW corner of the lake. We pitched various swim baits at docks and the shoreline, and got nothing. As we worked our way around the cove, we spoke with a guy fishing from the shore who said he had caught only a small northern pike. But after we passed by him, we saw him pull in another small pike. Meanwhile, Jed and I decided to abandon the swimbaits. I switched to wacky-rigged 5 inch Senkos, while Jed tried various finesse soft plastics (e.g., Texas-rigged Senkos, superflukes and brush hogs). On my very first cast with my favorite watermelon/red flake Senko, I caught a little 8 inch largemouth bass underneath a swim platform. A short while later, I pitched a purple/emerald flake Senko at a mooring buoy and caught a 14 inch keeper largemouth bass. The wind shifted to the N to blow directly down into the cove as we worked our way around and out of it. Jed threw his brush hog over and around a submerged tree off a rock wall on the W shore and got nothing. He asked, "Now why wouldn't there be a bass in there?" I pitched my Senko next to the tree and got a nibble, but told Jed it felt like just a little fish. However, my next cast landed smack on top of the tree and a fish came up out of the tree and slammed it as soon as it hit the water. I tried to jerk the fish out of the tree before it could dive down, but it mananged to wrap itself around one of the top branches. I held the fish there while Jed maneuvered the boat over the tree and leaned over the side of the boat with both hands to free it. It was a [size=18:02f039232a][b:02f039232a][i:02f039232a]monster[/i:02f039232a][/b:02f039232a][/size:02f039232a] largemouth bass: [img:02f039232a]http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/58/011cropped.jpg[/img:02f039232a] Nah, I'm only kidding. :D It was just a decent 18 inch 2 pound 10 ounce fish: [img:02f039232a]http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/3422/010cropped.jpg[/img:02f039232a] We had to run shortly after 12 PM. After waiting for a couple to load two jet skis onto their trailer, we loaded the boat onto the trailer and transferred our gear from the boat to the truck. Then we took off, but only after saying goodbye to the duck: [img:02f039232a]http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/240/018cropped.jpg[/img:02f039232a] A lesson I learned after spending the vast majority of the day throwing everything but wacky-rigged Senkos is that I throw wacky-rigged Senkos for a reason - [b:02f039232a][color=red:02f039232a]Wacky-rigged Senkos always catch fish![/color:02f039232a][/b:02f039232a] Hey, Jed, thanks for another great day out on the water on your one bedroom addition, [i:02f039232a]ahem[/i:02f039232a], boat.
Author:
weekend angler
Date:
Aug 26, 2010
Message:
let me say that the pic of the pike wiggling is a pretty cool pic , nice job fellas
Author:
Phish
Date:
Aug 26, 2010
Message:
Thanks for the company, Phil! Great report. You didn't miss much, my friend. We had a fun day out there. I'd love to have a day where we catch more than a few, but I'm not complaining. The crank that caught the pike was a Strike King Series 3 in Sexy Chrome on a varied retrieve. I was using a 7'6" Diawa Mike Iaconelli cranking rod and 14 pound flourocarbon. Of note here is that the extra-long rod was awesome casting in the wind and helped cover more water. The fish hit in about 7 feet of water probably about 15 yards away from a drop to 18 feet. Man those things are strong. It was only my second pike. I figured it was a 5 pound largie until it surfaced by the boat and saw me. It shot between the bow and the trolling motor and almost pulled the rod out of my hands. Thanks again, Phil.
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