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Lake Conditions
Water Temp: 54-57 degrees
Clarity: North End - stained; South End - clear
Weather: Mid-50's with strong north wind gusting up to 20MPH. Intermittent showers.
Typical of the Minnesota bass opener, Saturday morning of Memorial Day Weekend was cold, windy, and the occasional shower passed through. Even more typical was the cold front that had passed through a day prior. The stage was set for rotten fishing.
A tradition that has gone on as long as I am old put me on Roosevelt Lake for this year's opener. Roosevelt is about nine miles long, with very distinct structure at each end of this glacier carved lake. The north end offers a variety of fish habitats including lay-downs, sharp points, lily pads and cabbage. The south end is more noted for its rocky reefs, extensive flats and shallow bays. At max depth, Roosevelt runs over 150 feet. It takes no time at all for a jig to go from 2 feet of water to 20 feet of water with the lake's sharp banks. A single cast can run a jig across a lay-down, over rocks, and under lily pads. Little fishing pressure makes Roosevelt Lake on of the truly best sleeper bass lakes in Minnesota.
A second tradition is to fish at least one of the opening weekend days with Dad, and that tradition is now being passed onto his grandson. I can only hope that my son will be as good a son as I am to my father and buy a bigger, better, faster bass boat and take me fishing in it.
With three generations of Woods set for fishing, equipment loaded and locked-down, we headed north to the mouth of a small feeder creek emptying into Roosevelt. Upon arrival, I tossed out my first cast. It was so nice to see that lure hover above the water, gracefully heading toward its target, until - phhhht. We've all heard it; the sound of the tragic birds nest. While trying to pull out the fouled line, I managed to get tangled with my son's line. While trying to work that mess out, I beached the boat. Oh yeah, opening weekend - can it get any better than this?
It can! Rocking steadily in a rhythmic fashion, I managed to move the boat from the shallow sandbar where fish would normally rest. While doing this, my son kept on fishing, and wouldn't you know it - BAM...the first largemouth of the day. It wasn't huge, but it wasn't exactly small either. He set the hook, reeled the fish in, and my little 8-year old even tried to take the hook-out himself. If not for being lodged through the toughest part of the fish's lip, he would have been able to do it. He thumbed the bass like a true pro. All of my frustration gave way to a moment of joy and being proud of what my son had become - a fisherman. Five casts later and he was bored. The beef jerky had much more appeal to him. It wasn't thirty minutes and six sticks of jerky later when I was taking him to the boat landing for his mother to pick-up. He caught his fish, and I guess he figured his job was done for the day.
Down to two in the boat, we headed back north. Along the way we wrestled up a few nice fish, most coming on jigs of some variety. In the bunch was a 4.7 pounder that came out of 20 feet of water. The jig, however, was not to be the hot lure of the day.
At the northern most point of the lake was a hole showing a temp of 62 degrees - that was 5 degrees warmer than any part of the lake. Inside that hole were tiny beds of new weed growth and lily pads, with the occasional sunken tree coming into view. This looked bassy, and it turned out to be just that.
I continued to work the same watermelon seed colored jig that had proved productive earlier, but Dad switched to his old standby - the crankbait. From the piles of tangled treble hooks, he pulled out a shallow running Mini Fat Rap produced by Rapala. This little guy runs in 4-5 feet of water with a quick wobble. It's an excellent choice for buzzing across the top of weeds or bouncing off of logs and stumps, generating hard-hitting reaction bites from bass.
Casting toward a ridge that dropped quickly from 6" of water to 6' of water, a fish was landed with every cast. I tried working the same ridge with a spinnerbait with limited success, but nothing that of the Mini Fat Wrap. Other products were successful as well, including the Bandit 100 Series and Yo-Zuri Crank'n Dive SD crankbaits - both lures available at Bass Pro.
Color selection was not as much of a factor as depth and action. What was important was that the lure started at the break point of the ridge, was worked down into the hole, and clipped some of the structure along the way. Many angles get somewhat nervous fishing a lure with two treble hooks into this sort of cover, but it's not as difficult as it may seem. By working the lure at moderate to slow speeds, you line and/or bill of the lure is going to deflect off of structure well before the treble hooks get there. And if by chance you do get hung-up, a quick tug of your line swinging the rod in a straight-up direction should be enough to free your lure.
In all, about 40 largemouth and rock bass made their way into the Skeeter. Some came on jigs, but most were pulled in using tiny crankbaits with a shallow running action. By working ridges in the warmest of waters, we were able to get into plenty of pre-spawn bass. I was also reminded that even though one lure seems effective, there could still be a better one in the tackle box. When on the water apply your knowledge of fishing to narrow your lures down to a few, and then be sure to try each one of them. You'll eventually get to the absolute best lure for that day.