Lake Barrett 5/6

[Iceman]

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegallery/data/500/barrett4.jpg

Lake Barrett opened for the season last Saturday and sounded like lots o shad busting bass at dawn for a couple hours. Landwhale, Ron, Ben Steveooo and I signed on to go on Wednesday. We decided to drive down and then sleep as the gates open at about 4:15am. We got there about 11pm and I was sleeping in the drivers seat around midnight. Brought the french press and Coleman stove. Had a rushed cinnamon roll and coffee as the gates opend and we headed in that last winding stretch of washboard to the lake. Having heard the mud was knee deep we passed Pigs Point and headed to the boat dock area. This worked well and we were on the water plenty early trying to figure out where to post up and wait for the boils. Shad was already thick and bubbling all along the banks.

Boils started and Steve got the first bass on board. I was hell bent on giving the first 1/2 hour to tossing topwater. Not a bump.

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegallery/data/500/IMG_1878.JPG

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwegallery/data/500/barrett5.jpg

Finally gave in to throwing crank baits and the blade. Got 2 on the spinner bait and the biggest of the day for me, a 3 pounder avoided the camera. Everything else was 1-2 pounds. Steveooo got one that was around 5 pounds. Everybody caught some fish, couple crappie and bluegill in the mix of bass. Fished until about 1pm and came in to tailgate up some pulled pork before hitting the road home. Fun freshwater times.

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[jruiz]

Thanks for the report, especially concerning where to best to launch from.

[steveooo]

Thanks to Andy for putting this together. I usually try to catch at least one bass a year, so this was a good trip to get that out of the way.

I left my place around 11 pm, got to Barrett at about 1 am, putting me 4th in line. Few hours of sleep, and was good to go when the line started to move in the dark at 4 something.

As the sun came up, the lake came alive. The bass were absolutely destroying the shad against the shoreline. It reminded me of killer whales beaching themselves while hunting seals. Every few seconds there would be an explosion against the shore, sending shad flying. A few times the shad would try to use my kayak as cover, and I could hear them hitting the bottom of the kayak. A few times the bass would crash through them, and a few shad got knocked into my kayak. Pretty crazy experience. For as much activity as there was, the day started pretty slow. I tried to match the hatch, but I think my shad imitation was a little too close to the real thing. A few bumps, but couldn’t get anything to stick on my shad imitation.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d154/bigsteveorr/IMG_1501_zpsvqwnsj3z.jpg

Only fish I did land on that lure was a bluegill.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d154/bigsteveorr/IMG_1504_zpswuvpkdvq.jpg

Ron offered me a lucky lure that he had picked a couple up on. I tied it on and was able to catch a few pretty quickly by casting parallel to the shoreline, literally right against the shoreline.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d154/bigsteveorr/IMG_1509_zpsmz3o5vne.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d154/bigsteveorr/IMG_1500_zpsgrssksj9.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d154/bigsteveorr/IMG_1505_zpsxeqnh86d.jpg

There were a few nicer ones in the mix too

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d154/bigsteveorr/IMG_1506_zpsbwon7iyn.jpg

I must have knicked the line against a rock, because a few casts later, I hooked a bass, which broke off, with Ron’s lucky lure in its mouth.

I looked at the lures I had in my box, and tied on the closest thing I had to Ron’s lucky lure. It became the new lucky lure, because I landed probably another 25 fish on it. If you care, it is called the Daiwa peanut II.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d154/bigsteveorr/IMG_1524_zpsldvlofao.jpg

After the main body of the lake quieted down, we made our way into one of the fingers of the lake to find a new bite and pattern. The bass were stacked up in this cove, not really oriented against any structure, but absolutely stacked in about 5-7 feet of water. We went up and down the cove probably 10 times, and would pick up 1-3 bass each time. All good grade fish too.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d154/bigsteveorr/IMG_1517_zpsjfl7wfw7.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d154/bigsteveorr/IMG_1513_zpsyyjnccnd.jpg

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Ron even landed a huge crappie back there

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d154/bigsteveorr/IMG_1522_zpscrtmxc55.jpg

Lake doesn’t look like the map anymore, but looking at it now I think this is the cove where we ended the day. With how steady the action was back there, If we put in an extended amount of time, I have no doubt we could have seen the 75+ fish days that barrett is known for.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d154/bigsteveorr/IMG_1528_zpsnyapblqh.jpg

Good to get the green bass monkey off my back for the year. Time to turn the focus back to the salt to knock off a few other yearly goals.

[alanhighhand]

Good report and nice picture thanks for sharing.

[FISH11]

It's crazy how low the water level is. Looks like the fishing is really good though. Thanks for sharing.

[JeffB]

Very nice! I'm hitting up the lake We'd, can't wait. I've been dying for some LMB action from the kayak. I've never fished the lake before, so it's going to be all new to me.

[roadx]

wow the water is low! nice report

[GBF]

Nice going Andy!!!