Love me some Bass - 2015 Opener

[Steve]

My favourite time of the year.

Bass Opener

Not only is the fishing fun, the company is even better. A group of friends, including my father, head up north for our annual opener. This years opener was one of our best yet. The most numbers of quality bass we've seen. Weather was fantastic. Low(er) winds and very little rain. Water temps fluctuated from 66 degrees to 71 degrees throughout the day.

Senko's, spinner baits, flippin tubes, and poppers/frogs were the best baits...but just about everything we tried worked at various times.

Often the best part of opener is the sunrise. The anticipation is unmatched. It is like every single sunrise during salmon season combined into one momentous morning. Up before 5am I started the coffee and waited for the others to awake. Weather was supposed to be clear in the morning, clouding over for the afternoon, with chance of showers. Perfect! Took this opportunity to snap a beauty shot of the sunrise.



Myself, Dad, and Bryan on my boat, while my buddy George was in his smaller 14' boat. We headed out to our favourite opener spot on the lake and dropped the motor. I wish I could just hit *pause* and enjoy that exact moment for hours.



My buddy Bryan noticed over by the waterline a couple of big deer. I just caught the back of them when they leaped back into the bush..they were really big!!!



I started with the same lure I've started my opener with since I bought my boat in 2004 - A Zell Rowland Pop R. I caught a largie on my very first cast. I knew that was a good sign. However, it was dad yielding his trusty Senko that produced the first good bass of 2015. Good job dad!



Water was cold at 66 degree's, and after the initial flurry of smaller fish, things started to slow. As the early morning turned into later morning, the sun started to warm up the shallows, allowing us to move in a little tighter. Dad kept with his productive ways, catching all morning.





Dad wasn't the only one finding the good bass. Bryan hit this big post spawn female on a flippin tube in some dispersed reeds.



I did manage to salvage one decent fish in the pads, after noticing her shadow under the heat of the sun. The morning was turning into afternoon and the air temps were really starting to heat up.



We headed in for lunch. Dad was content with his morning and went down for a nap. This allowed me to sneak out for an afternoon fish. Thankfully the clouds had started to build, cooling down the temps, making for a very nice afternoon.





I headed back and we headed out for our evening fish. Here's an ultra rare shot of dad working the casting deck...he hates it up there, lol.



Surprisingly, the evening fish was slower than expected, however, Dad did find one of these prehistoric beasts eager to inhale his offering.



Day 2 was very similar to the previous. Very little wind. Mainly sunny skies with a few cloudy periods. With the still air and heat, the fishing was tougher than day one.









We took opportunity in early afternoon to catch a quick nap and made dinner before the evening fish. Unfortunately the evening fish was similar to the day before, with mainly small bass coming across the gunnels. However, Dad pulled this beauty out, his biggest of the trip!



Day 3 morning I found myself waiting for others to awake. A beauty sunrise again.



A solo morning, it was the first morning with lots of cloud cover. I headed to a new section of the lake that I hadn't hit yet. It wasn't 6am. Lake was so peaceful and quiet. Hit some fallen wood and found a big girl.



Part of our trip is we hold a big bass derby pot. Biggest bass takes it. Usually the pot is big enough to pay your cottage fee for the week. I wanted to drop the scale on her, but I just put her in the livewell for a future weigh. I wanted to get my senko back in.

I moved off the wood, as there was a good amount of disruption during the battle on the last fish. I headed over to a weedline and threw my spinnerbait for a minute or two. Caught a few scrappy pike so I moved slowly back to the sunken wood. Out goes my bait to the same fallen timber and again my line goes tight. I do a very poor hookset and note a huge shadow doggin' directly at me!!! I barely picked up my line when she shot under my boat and around my trolling motor. The huge mouth came up to the surface and wallowed, exposing the barely hooked owner. I just prayed, reached down, and caught the lip with my thumb. I lifted her up and the hook fell out. As she was already unhooked, I just threw her in the well.....

I knew I had to go back to the cottage. We all have to witness the biggest fish of the trip on the official scale (Berkley TEC). I couldn't wait any longer to find out the weights myself. I took her out for a quick timer shot photo.





At the cottage dock we weighed the big girl, just shy of 6 on the TEC. A few more photo's at the dock and back she went.







I whipped up a huge breakfast for everyone. I was a happy camper.

We went out for an afternoon / evening fish. I tried working some deep spinnerbaits off the weeds, thinking some of the bigger girls like I found earlier in the morning would be hanging out there. I did find one good post spawn female, but like so many post spawn girls, the belly wasn't filling yet. They need to get back in shallow and feed up on the abundant shiners soaking in the warm sun.



We decided with the high sun and blue skies to head in tight to cover to see if we could find something hanging around the shallows. Dad found a nice girl feeding up.





We partied hard into the night. We all celebrated the good fishing, great weather, and life long friendships. This of course meant a slow start in the morning. I still managed to jump out of bed, still high on excitement from the day before.

Snapped this beauty shot.



However, the cottage remained quiet. No souls dared awake this AM. I decided I was going back to bed. Yep. It felt great.

We all slept in, and cooked up a huge feast for lunch, as it was our last day, and no point bringing home food. French Toast, Eggs, Bacon, Ham, Sausages, Hamburgers, literally, everything we had, lol.

As great as our success had been, my buddy George was having less success. His boat was giving him frustrations. Popped rivets kept him on shore for many hours. I decided we were all piling into my boat for the last night of the trip. Never fished with four on my 17' boat before (next to trolling). We made a decision to limit everyone to two rods per person. That meant we ALL brought a single senko rod, and a single frog rod, lol.

We headed to one spot on the lake that you can essentially cast 360 degrees on big weed flats, that way we could all just fish without worrying about hitting specific structure. Boat was cleaned out and I decided to basically relax at the tiller and watch the guys go at 'er.

As mentioned above, the evening fishing had been poor. But on this night things were different. The fish were on fire!!! I couldn't have asked for a better ending to our trip. My dad and two of my closest friends smashing bass left and right...and simply throwing senko's and frogs. Fishing does not get any better than that!!!

Here's a bunch of photo's I snapped from our final evening.

Bryan was the first to get on board with a big evening fish.



The boat had enough room for all of us.





I was just snapping shots as everyone around me was into fish.







But I just had to get in on some of the action.



Even with some nice double header fun.



I managed these last two photo "successions" ... I was having the time of my life.

George in action.











dad in action under the moon.









Just as we were getting ready to call it a night a silly walleye inhaled my senko. Silly Senko Walleye, lol.



A fun cap to a great opener!!!

I guess the only shot left is the best shot --- $$$$



















Yep - I like bass fishing

[Gallie]

Nice report man! Some hog largies there for sure!

[leaf4]

Nice report, couple of piggies in there too don't hurt and congrats on the big fish of the trip

[OhioFisherman]

Great! Nice fish!

[misfish]

Great report and nice smack down you all layed.

[Steelheadphycho]

heck ya nice report

 

cant beat that!!!

[SHAD]

Damn schmelly been waiting for this report! One year hope to join ya's on this trip, great fishing boys!

[Pigeontroller]

What a Hawg fest! I'm having a hard time believing you were in Ontario!

[Rod Caster]

All your photos are great. The second pic really catches! A screensaver for sure.

 

Silly senko walleye, hahhaa

[Old Ironmaker]

A great report. Some of those Buckets would be a PB for many a fisherman and you guys got 1 after another. You are a good freind to let 3 others fish from your 17'er. And let them bring 2 rods each!! That would be a ready made cluster jam for my pals on my 19 footer. All fun and games till someone looses an eye. I wish your buddy with the red and white ball cap had glasses on, hope he did. On my boat no glasses no fishing. Time for your other buds to get a boat?

 

A fantastic opener you had, especially having Dad with you. One for the ages for sure.

Edited July 1, 2015 by Old Ironmaker

[spincast]

Very nice. The weekend winner is a killer. Nice going

[fishindevil]

Great report & pics !!!!! Wow some tank largies man !!!!! Awesome fishing trip for bass opener that's for sure !!!!! And a handful of money to finish it off ...... Cheers

[The Urban Fisherman]

WOW! I thought about posting my opener until I saw this thread! lol Good job all around!

[bawbag]

Great report and congrats on the big fish for the weekend

[MCTFisher9120]

Great report, kicking myself for not camping this year on opener week, always good fishing most years! Congrads on all those nice largies and that near 6 wow.

 

 

MTBF

[msp]

Simply amazing Steve !

I look forward to your opener post every year. You did not disappoint yet again.

BTW, seeing deer in the morning is always good luck for me.

[Gerritt]

What an awesome report! Thanks for taking the time to post it! And I have to say your looking svelt! Been losing a bit of weight? Until the awesome fridge clearing lunch!

 

Thanks for putting a smile on my face today

 

G

[Steve]

Thanks for the kind word gents.

 

Yes, this is a lake in Ontario, with cottages on it...far from remote or private.

 

Just have to do the homework to find lakes in certain area's that contain certain factors (ie, no bass tournaments, no major pike populations, some form of fatty fish as bait - ie, cisco, shad, herring, etc).

 

This opener will go down as one for the ages.

 

And, Gerritt, thank you kindly for noticing. 25lbs down, 30 to go. :)