Shore Fishing May Be Done...

Ok maybe not done, but things are not going to be the way they have been for the past month.

Today I learned that that my Bass Club, the Baxter Bass Snatchers, are not getting together for Bass Opener on Platte/Sullivan lakes this year. Kind of a bummer cause I was looking forward to it.

Anyway I spent a good part of the afternoon organizing tackle for use out of "The Trophy" which is the boat I have access too. I was on the water shortly before 6:30PM and the motor started on the first pull, which was a blessing because the wind was blowing in at the Platte Lake public access and so I was able to get off the trailer and not get blown right into shore. I realised I forgot the camera before I started fishing, so no pics from tonight's voyage.

The Platte Lake public access is on the Peninsula between Channel Inn Bay to the South and the Big Western Bay to the North. I just drove down a little ways to the point and started drift fishing down the point because the wind was favorable to do that. My first fish was a largie on a DM Custom Baits Piranha chatterjig. I got this 13 incher close to a dock. I didn't get another bite until I was around the point and pretty much out of the W NW wind. My second bite was a 19 inch Pike also on the Piranha.

Around the end of the point I was fishing is a reed bed and I spent a lot of time fishing the old reeds with a brown/blue Monsoor Swim Jig with green pumpkin Zoom Speed Craw trailer and the Piranha. The fish preferred the swim jig. I caught a bunch(11) of 11" to 16.5" bass and got 4 small pike and had one jig stolen by a pike. I think this is the 3rd day in a row I've lost a swim jig to pike. I actually had another pike break my line just as I lifted it into the boat, so that jig already was on borrowed time.

As the sun was going down I ventured into the North end of Channel Inn Bay and started throwing a purple Berkley Frenzy Popper. My temp gauge said 61 degrees so you would have expected this bay to be teaming with life with an aggressive topwater bite but it was pretty dead. I didn't get a bite on the popper until I approached the little cut in the NW corner of the bay; The fish was yet another under 20" pike. I cast into the cut and had something swipe at the popper. A couple casts later I think I had a dogfish follow and strike but I didn't hook up and I couldn't get it to hit on anything else.

I started throwing a white spook in hopes of getting the doggy to bite that but it didn't work, so I moved away from the cut throwing the spook. I hooked up with 3 more bass on the spook and had a couple of misses before I switched up to the Monsoor Swim Jig; I caught a couple of bass on that and had my Speed Craw claws stripped twice. I called it a night around 9:30PM.