New Lake, New Bait

On January 11th, 2015 my good friend Steven Kiser and I went to one of our local lakes; Lake Jackson. Though it is a local lake, I had never fished it, but since I have a tournament there in February I jumped at Steve's offer. It just so happened that the night before the trip, my order of Throw N Thunder lures arrived. In the order was a bait that Derek strongly believes in; the Throw N Thunder "Thunder Slaw". So I decided to test it out as I have seen its abilities on a few of Derek's videos so I was stoked to throw it. Steve had told me that the fish in Lake Jackson were mainly feeding on shiners and crappie, so I knew with its white blades and its white and orange skirt it would be perfect. It was set to be a cold morning with the high temperature only being 60 degrees. 

In the morning not only was it cold when we arrived, there was a good 5-10 mph wind across the water as well. After a cold run to our first spot we started out by throwing white and silver jerk baits. At about 7:00, Steve broke the ice with a little 1 lb bass on a custom jerk bait of his. Then soon after, he caught a better fish in the 3 lbs class. After not really getting any bites on my jerk bait, I picked up my Thunder Slaw and began to fish it like the jerk bait. Steve had told me that both of the previous fish had hit the bait when he had paused it. So, on my first cast, I slow rolled it and paused it. After about three cranks, I felt a good bite but the fish didn't keep a hold of it. Then about 5 feet from the boat, on a pause... Boom!!  I reeled up my slack and set the hook hard. She had come back and hit it again. I knew this was a bigger fish as soon as it began to go where it wanted to and I really had no choice. We had forgotten the net so when I saw my chance I swung her into the boat. We didn't weigh her but Steve estimated that she probably at least 5 1/2 lbs. It was my first Lake Jackson bass, first Thunder Slaw fish and not one to be ashamed about either.

 About 2 casts later, boom, the Thunder Slaw claimed another nice Lake Jackson bass. This one weighing probably around 3 lbs.  By 7:30 I had caught another 3 bass on the Thunder Slaw. By then the sun had risen and the wind  began to die off and with the spinner bait bite began to slow as well.  

 

Steve was still catching fish on a jerk bait so I set my spinner bait down and threw my jerk bait for a while. Because the jerk bait bite was so good, Steve said, "Watch this, I'm gonna blow their minds." He put down his white jerk bait and picked up a red one. As soon as it hit the water, Boom, instant hook up. When we got it to the boat, the fish had the jerk bait almost down his throat. It was a nice one too, probably weighing 3-4 lbs with a nice gut on it. We learned from this that the fish were still eating and eating very well too. What we noticed too was that most of our better fish had come from the deeper water, away from the lily pad edge. So, we circled the boat around so that we could throw to the deeper water. 

The wind began to pick up once again so i set down my jerk bait rod and picked up my spinner bait rod. There was an isolated patch of lily pads away from the main lily pad line that over the deeper water. I finally got a good angle where I was able to make a long cast parallel with the lily pad patch I let the Thunder Slaw fly. Again, I slow rolled it and paused it every few yards. As soon as it passed the final lily pad, I felt one solid "Thump" on my line. I reeled up my slack and set the hook hard. Now, most of the fish we had caught so far had come straight to the boat and this one did the same until it got about 10 feet from the boat. When the fish saw the boat it dove almost taking my rod with it. My rod was doubled over to the point that the tip was in the water. Meanwhile I was yelling, " Steve this is a bigger fish, get the net, get the net." Knowing we didn't have the net and seeing the size of my fish, Steve stuck his hand in the water, got her by the mouth and swung her into the boat. Now we could see how big she really was. Her weight came out to be 7 lbs, 3 oz. and she ATE and I mean ATE the Thunder Slaw. Had to use my pliers to get the hook out.

We had caught all of these fish by 8:30 in the morning and all in one spot. We estimated that our best 5 fish would have easily gone 24 lbs or more that morning. Steve had hooked one that would've dwarfed my 7 pound fish. Sadly, she spit the hooks before we could get her out of the water. If we had landed her, our bag would have been close to 35 pounds.  We released all of our fish back into the same spot for our upcoming tournaments. 

Huge Thanks to my friend Steve "Big fish" Kiser, if it weren't for him I wouldn't have been able to take the trip. He lived up to his nickname by putting me on some nice Jackson bass and it was a trip i won't forget. 

Take my advice, If you are ever in Florida and have a chance to fish Lake Jackson, do it. Be sure to bring your Throw N Thunder Thunder Slaw, and a jerk bait, and you're gonna have a great time!