Are the bass schooling on bait yet?

[The_Outdoor_Chase]

Hello SDfish ‘ers.


Been a few years since i posted but always checking in from time to time. What the scoop on the lake?

Houser?
Pine?
Main lake?

Where to go at first light… all questions you have to ask yourself as you embark on your barrett journey for the day.

My main question is are the fish schooling or are they more focused on bottom feeding?

Thanks for any input. Tight lines. Hopefully report to follow!
-Chase

[JWall]

Will go first but know there will be varying opinions…yes the bass WERE schooling on bait a week ago. The recent cooling trend had them deeper with very little surface activity. The bite is still good, just deeper. My time references here (days on the water so far) are April 7 (Share Day), May 11th and 19th. We were assigned to Hauser in Share then have started in Pine our last two trips. For numbers, be on the lookout for boilers but throw worms or jigs in deeper water 10-15ft just outside the tree lines until you spot surface activities. Some of the topwater afficianados will say topwater all the way and I will admit I’m a worm/plastics guy at heart so pick your poison.

[Early release]

There's a couple reports on Wednesday that cover the lures we all used pretty well. I do have panoptix and saw bait balls at about 10 feet and lower on Wednesday. The bass were below them, but a deep crank couldn't get them to react. I'm terrible with plastics, so I have no useful info there. I didn't see any shallow/surface bait activity on this past Wednesday. I agree with John that there were shallow water schoolers a week ago. I did ok on topwater on Wednesday, but I think soft plastics/jigs at mid level depth might be the ticket tomorrow. Go to whatever spot you like, there's fish everywhere in that lake.

[The_Outdoor_Chase]

Great info thank you!

[Dannicus]

Some of the topwater afficianados will say topwater all the way and I will admit I’m a worm/plastics guy at heart so pick your poison.

Me too! But frogs can be fun occasionally as well!

[facedownbassup]

Took my groms out on Sunday 5/26 and got into some quick roaming schools in Hauser. They were moving around a lot but when you got on them it was every cast on weightless flukes. Not much size to the schooling fish we ran into, but super fun. They havent quite came together thick yet like they typically do.

On opening day I stumbled into wolf packs of 2 - 4lb fish wrecking havoc on bait in shallow at daybreak. It lasted for a hour or so and it was full speed on the buzzbait.

[ehondax]

Took my groms out on Sunday 5/26 and got into some quick roaming schools in Hauser. They were moving around a lot but when you got on them it was every cast on weightless flukes. Not much size to the schooling fish we ran into, but super fun. They havent quite came together thick yet like they typically do.

On opening day I stumbled into wolf packs of 2 - 4lb fish wrecking havoc on bait in shallow at daybreak. It lasted for a hour or so and it was full speed on the buzzbait.

IMG_8622.jpeg

Nice time with the little man! What size/color flukes were you using? I normally use flukes fishing the bay but want to use them more in fresh water.

Thanks for the report.

[facedownbassup]

We were using 5" Damiki Armor Shads in smoke / silver flake on a 4/0 ewg weightless. Cast, sink, twitch-twitch, pause...rinse and repeat!

Good luck, finding the schooling fish was happenstance for us but there's pockets of fish here or there. Hoping they school up solid mid-lake soon, when that goes down its lights out.