Get There Attention

"The bass are there; I promise. No, they must be there." This is my mantra at the beginning of every season and when I come to think about it, Prospect Park newbies must here this echoing within their own soul as well. But they are there, aren't they? Yesterday, I hit my favorite cold water spot in the park behind the Ice Skating rink. They tell me that good cold water spots capture the most amount of sun within the day and have mud bottoms that retain most of the heat. Fish are cold blooded, and thus seek out these warmed spots. Or at least that is what they are suppossed to do. Yesterday, they did not do what they were supposed to do.With my two piece rod, 14 lb line and rattle shad dangling I made my first cast. I threw it right across a stretch of sun beaten water and reeled it fast to get the rattling to go, but no bite. I threw it again, slightly deeper into the sun rays, hoping to snag a bass with not even a nibble to reward my efforts. After the 116th cast, the questions started to seem more like statements: Did they take the fish out? They did take them out. Did the ice kill em' off? Hey, maybe it was the ice that got rid of em'. Whatever the case may be, I did everything in my power to get there attention, and it failed.

Normally, during the earlier times of the year ie. March, April and May, bass are in different stages of spawning. Specifically, cold weather bass will be staging for pre-spawn feeding frenzies. And all you have to do is get there attention and they will smack your hook with no problem. For this type of situation, my go to bait is genarlly a rattling shad. It typically contains to treble hooks, a lipless body and ball bearing that create a rattling noise when jigged correctly. But then again maybe they weren't in that mood yet. Only time will tell.