Leave a Comment / By valleyfisherman / April 22, 2024
4/20/2024
I’m back at it again, trying for some more bass! I’ve had pretty good success the last few outings I’ve had at Lake Nockamixon, so I figured I’d try to keep the trend going and out again tonight. The conditions are significantly different though from the last few times I went out. The overnight temps have been good, and it hadn’t been incredibly cold, nor had it been overly windy. It’s also been pretty dark, no moon that had been seen. However, tonight would be very different.
My ideal conditions for fishing at Nockamixon are a dark night on the cooler side (keeps others off the lake), with a little bit of wind, and no moon. The more clouds the better. I’ve had my best success on those kinds of nights. Add a bright moon with a clear sky, and I’ve found that it tends to hurt the bite.
As soon as I got out of the car and realized it was almost as bright as day time without my headlights on, I knew I was in for a rough night. Even so, I grabbed my gear and made my way to my favorite spot for April fishing. I tend to fish the banks this early in the season, the water is a bit cold for me to feel comfortable in a kayak, and I don’t have a boat.
Undeterred by the moonlight, I walked down to my favorite spot and chose to start fishing right at the mouth of the feeder stream. The flow of the stream is behind me at this spot, and I’m able to cast with the flow, against the flow, or across the flow. This area also has large rocks throughout, both submerged and above the water, plus a small bay to my right. This creates areas that offer protection from the faster flow of the water. Bass will sit in these seams and dart out to get fish as they swim against the current. This is why I will typically start in this spot. It’s a bit of a pain to get to since you have to traverse rocks to get to a clearing, but it’s generally worth it.
The first cast of the night
I chose to start off with a 6” Bass Pro speed shad on my 7’3 MHX medium heavy fast action baitcasting rod paired with my Lews gen 1 Tournament Pro reel (7 to 1 gear ratio). Admittedly I don’t usually use a big bait like this, or a paddletail for that matter, this early into the season. However, it’s produced big fish already since I started using it so I figured I might as well just start with it.
The Speed Shad is rigged on a 4/0 ⅛oz weighted EWG swimbait hook (VMC Heavy Duty swimbait hook). I prefer these over jig heads as they are much less likely to snag in my experience. I can fish a weighted swimbait hook in places I’d never be able to put an equal weighted jig head.
With the inflow of the feeder behind me, I casted downstream with the current. I made my first into the seam between the current and the slack water of the little cutout right of me. There’s a lot of rocks and at least one down tree in this area, making it possible to snag. I counted to 4, and started my retrieve. No bites on this retrieve unfortunately. I turned around, and realized my shadow was being cast onto the water due to the moon. I shifted my position, standing outside of the water and proceeded to fan cast the area. I would count down anywhere from 0 to 10 before retrieving (0 meaning starting the retrieve right away) I had 2 or 3 quick taps on a slow retrieve, but nothing that really was a solid strike.
I had a feeling this might happen, the bright moon doesn’t put much shade on the water. I’ve found the bite during this kind of condition tends to be slow and hesitant. I thought I needed something more subtle, so I switched over to my second rod. I only bring two rods on these trips, a baitcasting setup and a spinning setup.
Going more subtle, switching to the Super Fluke
Having only had a few taps on the bigger paddletail, I decided to switch over to my spinning rod and toss my super fluke. For the spinning setup, I was running a 7’ Okuma Reflections rod and a Daiwa Laguna 5000 spinning reel. The Superfluke itself was rigged identically, with a ⅛ oz 4/0 EWG swimbait hook. This hook was from Berkley (Berkley Fusion19 Swimbait hook).
I made identical casts, fan casting the area and counting down between 0 and 10 before starting my retrieve. Again, I had a couple taps but was not able to connect with anything. At this point, I decided to turn around and cast toward the feeder creek. This time I would be casting upstream. I had one solid hit this time, but I wasn’t paying attention and missed it unfortunately. I decided it was time to shift positions and move to another spot in the area.
Trying fresher water
I moved a bit further down from where the feeder flows into the area. The water is still somewhat high, so some of this area is under water about ankle high. At this point I was pretty convinced I needed to switch to something I can work much slower than a swimbait, something far more subtle. This meant going to a worm. The only worm I had with me was a worm I used a little while back. A black 6 ½ inch worm I cut down to closer to 4”. I tied that back onto my spinning rod, and casted it out. I didn’t really put much thought into this cast, only that I wanted to try to stay tight to the bank line to my left.
Worms I’ll usually count past 20 before I retrieve. I don’t really like using them because they are a time consuming bait and I typically only am out for 2-3 hours. Sometimes longer, but my usual trip is about 3 hours. So, this time I settled for a 20 count.
Finally a good bite!
Right as I counted to 20, I felt a thump on the line. I hadn’t even started to retrieve yet! I reared back and set the hook. Fish on! The fish felt small as soon as the fight began. I got it to my feet without much trouble, and as I went to pick the fish up out of the water, it got free of the hook. Naturally, when I tried to grab it by the tail it jumped and got free. It was a fairly small bass, but sadly no pictures. And that was the only catch of the night.
