Alan Gingerich with a smallmouth bass, and me with a good view of the lure I found that caught so many  fish that day! 

Before the rain started last week, I spent a couple of days hunting...  hunting a good place to catch some fish.  High winds made us seek out a long cove, being fed by a creek bringing in warmer water and the fish were attracted to it.  Right off my partner, Alan Gingrich, caught a small white bass about eight inches long. 

Then I caught one an inch longer and commented that the cove likely had a bunch of those little males wanting to go up that creek.  I remember saying that we weren’t going to catch any that were keeping size and about that time my fishing partner’s rod bent over like he had hung his lure on a log.  When he hoisted up a 14-inch female white bass I told him that I was about to say that there likely were a few females up in that cove as well.  But I couldn’t believe there were.

Between 4 p.m. and dark, we caught fish like we were fishing in a hatchery. The next evening was the same.  We’d fish three hours in the evening, trying to escape 40- mile-an-hour wind gusts, easily catching limits of white bass that were averaging 14 to 15 inches long.  In addition to those chunky white bass, we caught another 40 or so that were much smaller, and we each caught 20 or more bass; largemouth, smallmouth and a few Kentuckys.  With the light gear we were using, we had a great time, but we never did catch a fish above two pounds.  Alan stayed with a quarter- ounce jig both evenings, and truthfully he caught more fish on the jig than I did.  But I was using a small crank bait I had found on the lake during the winter that had a small spinner at the lures tail. I don’t know that about any crank bait wouldn’t’ t have caught fish, they were packed in the deeper water out from that warming creek, and they were aggressive.  But there is something fascinating to me about using a lure that I found and didn’t  have to pay for.

During those two evenings I was sure one of us would hook a walleye or two, which is what we went after in the first place. But we didn’t, and it is puzzling that in the landing of nearly a hundred bass in two evenings of fishing, there wouldn’t have been one somewhere in the four- or five- pound range. 

The rains came the next day and I am sure the creek is rolling high and muddy now.  When it gets back to normal in a week or so l am going to hit that place again.  I am sure the lake level will be higher though, and that could change things.  Spring rains will raise Ozark lakes and provide a much better spawning situation IF the water is kept at a fairly constant level through early June. 

In clear water, bass and crappie and other sunfish will spawn deeper, but in murky water they spawn shallow.  In muddy water they are nearly spawning at the water’s edge.

To change the subject some-- don’t cuss the March winds, they are absolutely part of the Creator’s plan, because strong winds sweep over the smallest of plants to the highest of trees.  There is a reason for that.  Waving, bending branches pull sap up out of the lower parts of all plants into their trunks, stems, limbs and twigs.  The wind is always a part of the early spring, and essential as the rain. Likewise, the lightning of spring and summer is just as essential, as the electricity in the air fixes nitrogen in the soil.  To get a more complete picture of wind and lightning’s importance, find reading material on the subjects. You will be surprised!

Before ending this, let me say that on Saturday, March 27 and again two weeks later, I will be taking some folks over to a wilderness spot on Truman lake where there is a large woodland with 200 to 300 year old trees, eagles nests, migrating birds and abundant wildlife.  We can take groups of fifteen at a time, and will go there by pontoon boat, do some hiking, have a big fish fry and return at sunset.  If you want to go, you can contact me via email, lightninridge47@gmail.com, or call my office at 417 777 5227.  Read all the details on my computer site…  larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com.