Kayak Largemouth (3/19 to 3/25 Report)

A few things conspired to make me lose interest in largemouth bass fishing in my teens. First and foremost was a growing obsession with surfcasting for striped bass, which offered a bigger, badder and more exciting type of fishing. Second was the closure of the only largemouth bass fishery within an hour of the house where I grew up. The reservoir I grew up fishing, suddenly and inexplicably went off limits to fishing. I heard theories ranging from a lawsuit filed against the company that owned the reservoir after someone drowned there while swimming. I personally believed it was the work of the lakefront property owners, who never seemed to like the fishermen being there anyhow. Either way, fishing was no longer allowed and enforcement was strict (and remains that way based on an ill-fated attempt at fishing there during the Greater Philadelphia Fishing Expo in February). After accumulating a number of parking tickets and some increasingly ugly confrontations with the security workers, I gave up on fishing the reservoir where the vast majority of my youthful fishing adventures took place. After that, my largemouth gear began to collect dust while my surfcasting arsenal grew.

This spring, however, I rediscovered the fun of largemouth fishing, and so did OTW Publisher Chris Megan. While we’re nowhere near as proficient at finding and catching largemouths and the more dedicated fishermen who ply the lakes and ponds throughout the northeast, we’ve scraped together some decent catches over the past couple weeks by exploring  in our kayaks.We’ve caught fish on Senko worms, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits and, on some of the warm days last week, topwater lures and flies. The bass are definitely getting active with the warming water, and we’ve spotted some real bruisers lurking outside the herring runs like muggers in a dark alley, waiting for an unsuspecting victim.

The current cold front has stalled our fishing efforts for the time being (time to shift the focus back to trout), but when things warm up, ol’ bucketmouth ought to start chewing once again.

We’ve got a lot to learn (and re-learn), but we’re having fun. Hopefully we’ll each find our first 6-pound largemouth before it’s time to resume the hunt for that 50-pound striper.

Here’s a couple pictures from the past week or so.