Two trips last week found the wild shiner bite to be very steady. In fact, the live bait probably beat out the artificial in the same area 15 to 1. The first day we went out with only two dozen shiners and they were gone in about an hour. We soon realized that the bass really preferred the taste of those shiners as our catch count was drastically reduced once we had to switch to artificial baits. We did have limited success with spinner baits and jigs with trailers, but plastics just weren't cutting it.
In a most unusual scenario, an angler on my boat, Shannon, was throwing his spinner bait into the same vicinity as some shiner fisherman from another boat about 50 yards away. Suddenly, both anglers were fish on. Realizing that he may have crossed lines with other angler, Shannon gave way to the other allowing him to reel the catch to his boat. Upon landing the bass he saw that the lines were not crossed but the the fish had actually eaten both the live bait and the spinner bait, which was firmly lodged into the corner of the fish's mouth. After unbuttoning his hook the other angler dropped the fish overboard with the spinner bait still in and Shannon fought the fish back to our boat. Now that was a double of a different kind. That must have been quite a ride for that greedy bass.
The next day we would be much better prepared for the live bait catching as we went out with five dozen shiners. Buddy and Dave had an excellent day on the lake after an early morning downpour. A very steady day of bites ensued with most in the 2-3lb. range and a few topping 5lbs. A few gar in the area were also partial to the baits for a while with a couple really big ones making it all the way to the side of the boat. Unfortunately, the largest bass of the day snapped the line in my face at the side of the boat just before I could lip it. All in all, judging from the raw skin on my thumbs after two days of catching, we had plenty of bass that did make it on board. The fish are out there; call me if you want to go catch them.
