A young angler’s prize
Cole Watkins had no competition in the 7-10-year-old age group in the Junior Southwest Bassmasters’ January tournament from the Belle River Public Landing. Only one other angler, Hayden Corrent of Brusly, gave the youngest angler in the field a run for his money. Watkins, of Hammond, is holding three bass from his five-fish limit that weighed 9.05 pounds to stand tall among the other 22 young fishermen who decided to brave rain and chilly temperatures in a day spent in the Atchafalaya Basin. Corrent won the 11-14 age group with a five-bass catch weighing 8.35 pounds. Warmer temperatures pushed Basin bass to the banks, according to the report, but the week’s high skies and a cold front have sent bass back to the depths.
A young angler’s prize
Cole Watkins had no competition in the 7-10-year-old age group in the Junior Southwest Bassmasters’ January tournament from the Belle River Public Landing. Only one other angler, Hayden Corrent of Brusly, gave the youngest angler in the field a run for his money. Watkins, of Hammond, is holding three bass from his five-fish limit that weighed 9.05 pounds to stand tall among the other 22 young fishermen who decided to brave rain and chilly temperatures in a day spent in the Atchafalaya Basin. Corrent won the 11-14 age group with a five-bass catch weighing 8.35 pounds. Warmer temperatures pushed Basin bass to the banks, according to the report, but the week’s high skies and a cold front have sent bass back to the depths.
With the water on a slow rise after a summer of extraordinarily low water in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, it was good to read the report from the Junior Southwest Bassmasters’ January tournament on Atchafalaya Basin waters.
Like most days this month, these youngsters went largemouth hunting on a rainy, cold day.
OK, so January is supposed to be cold, and bass are supposed to linger in the depths where warmer water provides a bit more comfort.
Yet, a handful of 70-degree days apparently sent Basin bass to the shallows where the youngsters reported taking the few aggressive bass they found on bladed jigs, plastic frogs, soft-plastic worms and “creature” baits and spinnerbaits. And, there’s always a few in this group punching heavily matted grass and hyacinth with heavy jigs.
Those heavy jigs fly in the face of what most veteran bass fishermen know works on midwinter largemouths and spotted bass — it’s that you go small, light and slow.
It’s something Debbie Hanson sent along from the Recreational Boating and Fishing folks that reinforced that tried-and-true wintertime approach.
Hanson listed four tips, and it was the last one that probably should have been first — water temperature.
Finding water a few degrees warmer than other spots usually means finding more active bass. The same’s true for redfish and trout these days.
Anything that can direct the sun’s warmth into the water, things like rip-rap, oyster beds, piers, bulkheads, pipelines and cypress trees, can warm surrounding water. There’s a sharp reaction from a bass to water at 59 degrees rather than 54. It’s a subtle difference to us, but a big difference to a bass — and sac-a-lait — when it comes to these species moving into prespawn areas.
Hanson’s other tips are the same as the old standards — use smaller lures, lighter line and slow down your retrieve.
Notice how many big bass take small baits, even lures like a 1/16-ounce sacalait jig and a 4-inch tube jig, from now into early March. Small creatures make up a bass’ diet now because it takes more energy to digest larger food.
Next, the light line on a lighter rod makes it easier to detect the subtle bites from a full-in-winter bass. And, Hanson also points out that winter waters are clearer now and 8-to-10-pound line is less visible to a bass. Only problem is you have to be aware that light line frays more quickly and you should make it a point to retie lures more often.
Finally, know a bass is like most all other fish. They’re slower in winter because their metabolism is slow, so slow down on your retrieve, even to the point where you can leave a Texas-rigged worm laying on a log or on the bottom for several seconds. There are times when a bass will look at a nearby lure, but won’t inhale it until it moves or twitches.
About the only outlier here is a spinnerbait. When bass are in winter mode, slow-rolling a spinnerbait in the depths of a canal can produce a first-rate catch. And, that’s using a large, No. 5 Colorado blade on a quarter-ounce spinnerbait. The large blade moves lots of water to attract a bass’ attention and is easy to work on a slow retrieve close to the bottom. Again, the slow retrieve is the key so the bass can “catch” the spinnerbait.
Made a mistake a couple of weeks ago in publishing the proposed 2022-2023 hunting seasons.
The error came in duck season, and involved scaup, a species most south Louisiana hunters call “dos gris.”
The correct daily bag limit for scaup is hunters will be allowed to take one scaup during the first 15 days of the season, then two per day for the remaining 45 days of the duck season.
The big change involved mottled ducks. Hunters cannot take a mottled duck during the first 15 days of the season, then only one per day for the rest of the season.
The State Office of Motor Vehicles has assigned a staff worker to the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters at 2000 Quail Drive in Baton Rouge beginning Monday to handle folks needing to register boat trailers, renew vehicle registrations and to process duplicate titles.
The OMV will continue this staffing from 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. every Monday so that boat owners do not have to visit two locations to take care of their boating paperwork.
Bassmaster is accepting application from “young, female anglers" for the 2023 Helen Sevier Pioneer Scholarship Program, which will award two $2,500 scholarships to high school or college women who are committed to fishing for a collegiate program.
This partnership with Shimano honors Sevier, who owned and ran B.A.S.S. for more than three decades, years when women began to become more and more interested in the freshwater sport of bass fishing. Just last year, the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation reported women “now account for 37% of anglers in the U.S., the highest level on record.”
The application deadline is June 16. Applicants must be either a rising senior or high school graduate and B.A.S.S. member “with plans to fish competitively or must be currently fishing competitively at a four-year college or university, two-year college or university or vocational school.
For details, go to website: Bassmaster.com/Sevier-Scholarship, Or, email: scholarship@bassmaster.com.
We're still looking for freshwater and saltwater fishing tournaments to include in Advocate Outdoors calendar. You also can include charity skeet/sporting clays shoots. Email all details, including event, date, time, location, organization and contact name, email address and/or website to: jmacaluso@theadvocate.com.
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