Review of the Mesa Tackle baits

I threw some top water yesterday morning and caught a few short. One might
have been a keeper, but I didn't have a rule in the boat so I tossed it
back. I didn't want to risk weighing in a short fish.

Like I said I fished mostly topwater. In one spot I had three hits on my
favorite Cabelas Real Image in baby bass pattern, but I just couldn't seem
to hook up. I tossed a weightless texas rigged Mesa Salt Stick worm. I
hooked up a little nine incher immediately on it. I think it was just a
matter of throwing a falling bait to a spot where a bass had just tried to
kill a minnow (my topwater) on the surface.

A few minutes later I caught my maybe 13 incher.

That was it for the day. They just developed lock jaw, so I headed for the
back waters figuring I could atleast catch some small keepers sight fishing
the channels and the standing timber int he back lakes.

Wow! Nothing. I saw very few fish in the channels, and those were all very
spooky. I never even saw a fish in the standing timber. In fact the only
decent fish I saw all day was a five pounder that ignored me in some shallow
reeds.

There was a little breeze, so I tried spinner baits off and on. Both large
ones and small ones in bleeding shad and baby bass patterns along with a
Ninja Spin three blade just to see if that obnoxious beast could provoke a
strike.

I tried smaller 6" Zoom auger tails on 6 lb diameter mono. In semi open
trees and even in the heavy weeds. I tried some large jigs with various
trailers in various colors in heavier brush. I even spent some time on one
of the bigger channels pitching the really heavy stuff. Nothing.

I weighed in zero fish.

On the other hand I did nail my first fish on a follow up technique I
learned here using on of Gilbert's worms.

About the only thing I didn't try were crank baits, small in-line spinners,
and drop shotting. There is so much weed growth here there are few places I
feel comfortable using those tangle ups, although I like to throw them in
the winter after the weed growth dies back.

Out of 21 teams there were 12 limits weighed in, and the big fish winner was
4.0 pounds. One guy complained that the poor bite was due to the fukll
moon. I might go for that. My bite died just as the sun got full up. I
have to admit I wasted almost an hour of my pre sunrise time rewiring my
trolling motor to work around a broken battery switch. I took the switch
out and wired the batteries directly to the motor using a roll of tape and a
fillet knife. I definitely need to remember to put a few basic tools in the
boat. I had a whole box of small stuff in the Skeeter including spare
switches and electrical connectors. I'll have to find that.


--
Bob La Londe
Yuma, Az
http://www.YumaBassMan.com
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