Bass fishing

[bucketmouth]

Today I finally got a chance to get out and go fishing for the first time this year.

Three days of warm weather and a mild front moving in tomorrow made me decide to get out there.

I went to the willamette and fished slack water. I caught 4 bass in all. One smallmouth and three largemouth. Two were real pigs. I tried several times to post this topic with a picture of the fish but for one reason or another it just is not working for me. Anyway a weightless soft plastic worm produced a 17 inch and an 18 inch largemouth at about 2:30 & 3:00 this afternoon at approx low slack tide. Water temp had warmed a few degrees from the morning temps and the fish were in shallow water.

What a day! It was great. Wish I could have made the picture work but my computer is super slow and something seems to be blocking my attempts. I wrote an email to Pete the administrator who has posted picture posting instructions. Maybe when he gets back to me I can learn what I am doing wrong.

[Not Skunk'd Agin]

Excellent, I was getting tired of waiting on springers!! :grin:

[Love Fishin']

Way to go Bucketmouth! Big bass and a beautiful day. Life is good. :dance:

[Smj]

bucketmouth...It's always suprised me that the first fish of the year for me every year are largemouth rather than smallmouth. I would think the smallies would be the ones to be active first as the water warms close to fifty.

Go Figure!

Smj

[hawgcatcher]

It is nicer fishing in the sun but growing up, we fished clear through winter on the Willamette above Oregon City. We caught bass in cold weather in the Rock Island area. I remember thinking that it would be too cold but we caught some of our biggest then. I remember that the largemouth would get to be a faded out green in the cold.

As the weather warmed, we fished more and got some nice fish but the real big ones were in cold weather.

This time of year when the salmon are running, I don't get out but boy your post makes me want to head to the upper Willamette.

Even put in at Meldrum Bar and drift down along the east bank, casting plugs and spinner baits toward shore and esp. at the boat docks. WOW.