A Quick Video From The 2016 Detroit River White Bass Run

They're Back! White Bass Are Officially Running In The Detroit River

I've been waiting on this day to come since the beginning of the year. What day,you may ask? It's not really a day, but more of a time... It's the beginning of the white bass run.  The white bass run starts right around Mother's Day and ends right after the Mayfly hatch in June. Yes, the stars have aligned, dogs and cats are in harmony across the world and the white bass are in the Detroit River by the thousands, eager to bite anything that looks like a minnow.

I couldn't wait to start chasing the white bass and today was a good beginning to the frenzy that is white bass fishing.  I got down to Elizabeth Park, in Trenton, Michigan just in time to see the sun coming up over Grosse Isle.  I was lucky enough to not have to be into work for a few hours and wanted to start the day off right.  Michigan Headhunter was already there with eight fish on the stringer and a big grin on his face as he was reeling in another.  Yes, white bass fishing brings out the child in all of us.

I wasted no time tying on a chartreuse and white 3/8th oz bucktail jig and casting into the current.  A five count to get the bait into the strike zon, a few twitches of the rod tip and "FISH ON!"  This fish was the beginning of me catching about 35 fish in 40 minutes, most of which I released.  not long after, I had a decent stringer full of fish and plenty of time to make it to work.  Needless to say, it was a perfect beginning to the white bass run.

Thanks for reading and tight lines...

Beautiful Day for Silver Bass

This morning was an absolutely beautiful day to get in some fishing for silver bass.  As you can see from the picture above the 6am sunrise was well worth waking up and driving to Elizabeth park at 5:30.  While the sunrise was well worth the drive that wasn't the reason why I was there so I started casting a basspro 2 inch XTS Vibrator in the tilapia color.  First cast and fish on, a decent sized silver bass but not quite the size I fish for.  This went on for two hours with me catching fish after fish totaling a little over 65 fish.  On the whole I only kept 12 white bass and released all of the rest.

What's funny is while I was fishing I noticed the other anglers were catching a few fish but not the numbers I was catching. I think it's because the bass have been getting fished pretty hard over the last few weeks and they've gotten used to seeing white and chartreuse jigs with twister tails and have become a bit skittish on non-moving minnows.

At one point I had a gentleman walk up to fish along side me but he wasn't getting any bites either. So I offered to let him use my other lipless crankbait but he refused and only ended up with two fish in the time he was there with me.

My setup today was pretty simple.  I used a shakespeare outback spinning rod with a quantum triax reel spooled with 10lb monofilament baited with  basspro 2 1/2 inch XTS Vibrator.  As well I fished with a berkley cherrywood ultralight spooled with 4lb monofilament baited with a 2 1/2 inch Rebel Red Eye Minnow  The red eye minnow didn't produce as well as the lipless crankbait mostly because the fish were holding close to the bottom and the bait couldn't quite get deep enough consistently.

Here are the fish I kept.

Finally Got Out To Fish A Bit

Finally, I got a chance to get out and do some fishing today.  After having the itch for the last few weeks I was able to sneak out for a bit after work today.  The day started with me throwing a couple rods in the car and grabbing a light tray of baits before I headed in for work this morning with the intention of sneaking in some fishing directly after work.  With rods and bait box packed I went to work trying to keep as busy as possible so quitting time would come as soon as possible.

Unfortunately as it always does quitting time took forever to arrive but when it did I disappeared

without a goodbye to the coworker bees and headed to Newburgh lake to harass whatever would be willing to bite. Less than ten minutes after getting off and I'm at the lake slow rolling spinner baits  hoping for a hungry bass or pike.  20 minutes in and I've caught nothing but a wet jacket because of the in and out rain we had today. Neither the spinnerbait nor the bitsy bug looked very enticing to the resident bass so I decided to switch out for a basspro XTS-Vibrator lipless crankbait in the tilapia.  Just two quick cast later and "Smack" fish on.  of course my assumption is this has to be a nice 17 inch bass or better because of how aggressive the bite was but low and behold the first bass of the year and it's a twelve incher with Napoleonic Disorder

Overall the fishing was a bit slow with me only catching 3 more bass and losing 2 closer to the bank, all of which were  pretty small ranging between 12 and 14 inches.  But all in all it was a great trip out.