The last weekend before the river closure is a weekend that every river angler wants to be on the water. The fish are biting, weather is usually nice, and fish can be caught a variety of ways. This pattern held true for the last weekend of April. I iced down the Engle Cooler Friday Evening and fished 25 hours over the course of the weekend without ever having to add ice. Over the course of two days, we caught largemouth and smallmouth bass on a variety of techniques.

Once the sun came out, I went very shallow looking for largemouth because I saw a lot of bluegills and minnows in the shallows from my cabin all week long. The largemouth were caught incredibly shallow. We caught those pitching a Strike King Denny Brauer Baby Structure Jig in green pumpkin with a Strike King Baby Rage Craw in green pumpkin. I used a 1/4 oz jig and 12 lb Hi-Seas Fluorocarbon so that the fish would not be as spooked. They were caught by flipping the jig onto the bank (dry land) and dragging it into the water. We also caught some fish on a Jackall Aska supershad crankbait and a Yamamoto 5 inch senko in watermelon red flake.

Strike King Denny Brauer Baby Structure Jig

Jackall Aska Crankbait

As for the smallmouth, the smallmouth fishing was incredible. We caught fish on hard cover banks, rock flats, islands, grass beds, and creeks! You could catch them on a variety of baits dragging the bottom from a Cabin Creek dirty dark green pumpkin 2.5 inch tube to a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper swim bait in sungill. The bigger fish, (generally speaking) wanted a reaction bait.

Cabin Creek Salty Critter Tube

Reaction Innovations Little Dipper

Ok.. here's the secret from last week, for all you Whopper Plopper fans, it is time! We caught some big fish super shallow on a River2Sea Whopper Plopper in Monkey Butt, Sexy Shad, and Bone White. You had to make a long cast and fish it slow. We also caught fish on a 3/8 oz. War Eagle Spinnerbait golden shiner, sexy mouse, and chartreuse/white with a slow retrieve. Once again, the Strike King KVD jerk bait caught fish by aggressively ripping the bait cross current.

River2Sea Whopper Plopper

War Eagle Spinnerbait

There were some very large fish caught on the swim bait rig that I discussed a few weeks ago. The swim bait rig that I am using is a Strike King Squadron head 1/8 or 1/4 oz paired with a Keiteich 4.3 or 4.8 swing Impact Fat in Pro Blue, Sungill, or Bluegill flash. The technique that I use for this is very important. I fish this rig on a G Loomis GLX 843 casting rod with a Shimano Citica 6:1 reel and 12 lb fluorocarbon. This is almost like a finesse approach to catching fish that want a reaction bait and won't eat a spinnerbait! With this setup, a long cast is made and I let the bait sink to the bottom. By reeling the bait slowly you can feel the bait barely thumping. The sensitivity is super important, because the way the fish eat this rig, they eat the bait while it is swimming at you. I lost a bunch of fish a few weeks ago by setting the hook too hard, so I now resort to a sweeping hookset. Some of the biggest fish of the weekend were caught using this technique.

Strike King Squadron Swimbait Jig Head

Keitech Swing Impact Fat

Shimano Citica Baitcasting Reel

Stay tuned for more tips and tricks! If there are any techniques you want me to discuss in further detail, let us know!

Tight Lines,
Corbin Gotwalt