[twangy country music]
There's one.
There's one!
[cackles]
A little guy, but we'll take him.
If we can get'im in.. Get'im out of the weeds.
There we go.
A little jerk-bait bass.
Oh, it's a smallmouth.
By golly, we got us a smallmouth.
[grunting] Come on.
[chuckles]
You gotta be careful with little hooks with a jerk bait,
let me tell you.
They can create a nightmare.
Just like that.
Get'im out of the weeds here.
There we go.
Alright.
Alright buddy.
Look.. I got him hooked on the back hook.
Got'im.
[chuckles]
Hey buddy.
You know, one thing that's a lot of fun.. I'm gonna
have to get the pliers out on you just because that
little hook is hard for me to grab.
There we go.
One thing that's a lot of fun to throw.. That's just
a little guy, but they're beautiful fish right here
at Fool's Hollow Lake.
I'll tell you what, Fool Hollow offers a lot of
different kind of structure to bass fish.
And one thing I love about this lake-- I kinda grew
up on this lake-- is it's finally full.
We gotta-- we got submerged vegetation back here and,
you know uh, we'll probably see some tulies
here and there and I'll tell you what,
it offers a lot of rock.
Great for smallmouth bass.
We have largemouth bass in here as well.
And if you love to come up and trout fish,
what a great lake.
It's an early, brisk morning.
Believe it or not, we're almost in June.
Water temperature, 65°.
So these fish are just now starting to get going
really good so uh, we'll see if we can't catch a
few out here on a jerk-bait.
I'm throwing a smaller jerk-bait.. 12 pound test line..
Medium action Taipan rod.. And uh, you know,
it's made by Rapala-- Rapala-- however you want to say it.
And uh, tell you what, that's an awesome little
bait right there. We sure have a lot of fun.
A little olive-back with a white bottom on it,
which is great for this area.
You know we've got bluegill in here and uh,
we don't have any shad.
So I'm not really going with a big shad color.
So more of the fishy pattern like a trout,
you know, trout have a lot of green in them here
and-- and uh, the rainbow trout does.
And uh, so that's what we're pretty much what doing.
And I'm-- I'm twitching this pretty slow.
I'm not working it real fast.
I'm giving it a couple of twitches, I'm pausing it,
and then I'll twitch it again.
Now the-- now the big key to throwing this bait is
giving it slack every time you twitch it.
So basically, when I twitch it,
I put slack in my line so the bait actually kinda
walks underwater.
It gives it a good twitch and uh.. Cause you could
just pull it like this, and it's gonna pull and
it's gonna dig like this.. But if you give it the
opportunity with a little slack line,
it'll actually go back and forth just like this underwater.
And that's an awesome little bait.
And it suspends.
These fish are just now starting to bed and uh,
they've probably been going a.. About two weeks now,
but now's the time where they're really going
to start moving up.
What's really crazy, because if you're down in
Phoenix area and you're on those desert lakes,
they're pretty much done down there,
and they're just starting up here.
That's what I've always loved about the beautiful
White Mountains.
There's one.
There's one.. Nicer fish!
[cackles]
I knew you had to be in there somewhere.
Right around that tree.
[chuckles]
Come on.
That's a little bit bigger bass, see.
Oh come on buddy.
Come to the back..
We had to come to the back to get that done.
[sighs]
Fishing's a little bit tougher than I thought,
but were just getting out here,
working our way to the back of this Lake.
And boy, he ate it.
Little bit nicer fish, too.
Look how they're all beat up and..
But they look like footballs.
[chuckles] Little football fish.
Okay buddy.
Thank you!
What I've switched to--
we're in a lot of vegetation back here. I mean a lot--
and one of my favorite things to throw back here
is either flip a little
uh, brush hog or something like that in this stuff or,
a weightless Senko in the holes and pockets of the weeds.
You can also get away with doing some frogging. But-- and
we might do a little bit of that just to see what's going on--
but there's not a whole lot of action on the water right now.
Not even the carp are going nuts.
So, you know.. The water temperatures a lot warmer
back here.. 72°.. And what I'm doing is just going
along the shoreline right now, throwing my weightless Senko.
And what I'm going to do is target areas like little trees--
like the one we just caught this fish off of,
uh just-- just little areas like that,
and see if I can't catch them on a weightless Senko.
Now you can throw weightless lizards,
you know.. This is one of my favorites.
I'm using that nanofil line, obviously. I love it..
It's white.. I can see the fish actually hit it..
And I'm throwing a fluorocarbon leader.
Now, I went to a 12 pound test.
I'm throwing a 12 pound nanofil,
and I'm throwing a 12 pound test leader.
And uh, the reason for that is because,
you get them in these weeds, you want to be able to get them out.
Medium action Taipan spinning rod..
I can skip it up underneath something.. Really easy..
But I'm using just a little 2/0 hook..
A little 4 inch uh, Senko.
And when the bass fishing gets tough on these lakes,
you have to downsize a lot of times uh, to get'em to bite.
That's not saying you can't throw, like I said,
a frog over the top of the weeds and catch some fish.
Because it's-- it's got that potential as well.
And I'm probably going to throw it a little bit,
just to see if we get bit on it but.. Couldn't get
any top water action this morning on my Rico but--
um, out on the main lake.
So I'm thinking.. We just went through Memorial Day
weekend too, so a lot of people are out here.. The
fish are pressured.. When the fish get pressured,
you just downsize.
So instead of throwing the big 5 inch,
I'm gonna throw a little 4 inch.
I'm just gonna go down through here and see if we
can't pluck another bass.
That was a lot better fish than we were catching on
the jerk-baits and uh, we'll see what happens.
It's slick water today.
No wind, so.. These fish will be hanging out,
and once the sun gets real bright,
they'll get themselves underneath the weeds..
In the little shade pockets.. And that's where we'll
want to catch them.
Alongside a piece of wood or something like that,
so.. I'll go back to another little 4 inch
Senko and see if I can't get them.
This bad all over?
Oh! Got'im!
He came out from underneath that rock!
[chuckles]
That big ol' rock right there.. I just tossed my Senko by..
And he came out and caught it.
Not a big fish, but another smallmouth.
See, that's the deal.. There's some smallies
around them rocks, still.
Little buck bass.
Little male.
Three fish.. That's pretty good for this lake.
[chuckles]
You know uh,
these fish.. What's so cool, like I said,
about this Lake.. You can get up and fish the weeds.
We fished those weeds forever.
Just could not get anything going back there.
Caught the one fish,
but now we're coming back out to the rocks,
and I thought Well, I'll throw around the rock a little bit and
usually when you get around the rocks, you find the smallmouth.
Maybe we can get a couple of them going.
Might have to pull out the ol' droppy-shot.
Something else I like to do on this lake is wacky-Senko too.
And I might-- I might switch over.
Uh, if we don't have a whole lot of weeds
once we get out towards the main lake,
I'll probably go to a wacky-Senko.
Only because, when we get in those rocks and stuff,
I love to drag that wacky Senko over those rocks.
[acoustic banjo music]
Hey folks, just a few quick baits that I want to
show you that work really good on these upper lakes
here when you come to the White Mountains,
that I like to throw this time of year,
going into the summer.. First and foremost,
is a spinner bait.
It's really important to have a good spinner bait on you.
And I like gold blades up here.
You know, we have trout.. The bluegill..
And gold blades are awesome up here.
I've always liked gold.
You can go with the nickel and the gold,
but have a gold on there one way or the other.
It's a great bait to throw.
Another bait-- that you've seen us catch a few fish on--
that I've done really well on.. But..
Normally, when the wind starts kicking up,
you can start catching them on a jerk-bait.
Jerk-baits are a lot of fun to throw this time of year.
And like I said, those fish will start moving out
on the edge of the weed lines,
and you want to fish the deeper water with these
and-- and throw that jerk-bait away from the
weeds and-- and I'll tell you-- or alongside the weeds--
parallel yourself with them and you'll do pretty good.
The all around go-to bait on these lakes up here--
remember, we have a lot of crawdads-- is a jig.
Little jig, with a little trailer on it,
works really good.
I like black and blue, or a craw color.
Like say, anything with a little copper in it.
Something like that works really well.
Make it small, compact, and it works really well.
Uh, sometimes when the fish are really eating good,
you can put a big ol'-- you know-- brush hog or something
on the back of these things, and they work really well.
And so uh.. You'll-- you'll catch some fish on
this bait right here.
You gotta move it slow.. Find the rock.. And uh,
maybe throw it in a few of the pockets and things like that.
You know, don't forget the frogs.
I don't throw a whole lot of frogs up here because
I'm busy throwing uh, Senkos and things like that..
Weightless Senkos.
That's another thing that's really good.
And remember.. The 4 inch.
Always go with the 4 inch.
You can go with a five if you wacky-style it.
I like to wacky-style the five.
And then when I'm throwing into the weeds,
I rig it up weedless, and I like to go with that--
with that watermelon color.. Watermelon black..
Anything like that works really good up here.
Got'im!
He went-- he went and got that!
[cackling]
He went and got that!
Look at that..
[chuckles]
That was funny.. I saw him swimming.
Alright, come on baby.
[grunts]
These little male bass right now,
are moving up into the shallows and uh,
starting to make beds this time of year..
Going into-- to June.
And so you can see them up here, in there roaming..
The water's dirty but.. We came to the main lake area,
and it's really weedy.. And we got islands..
It's beautiful back in here.. And I saw a big one that I
want to go back and try to get.. A decent fish but..
if you can find enough water clarity here on Fool Hollow,
and right now with all the water that we had, uh..
You know these fish-- these fish are up. They're up.
It's just hard to find them right now.
It's hard to catch them.
And like I said-- I don't know if you can tell by
the millions of people on the bank right now--
we're here on a holiday, so..
Why? I don't know but.. We are, and uh,
there's a lot of people fishing.
So the lake-- you gotta remember-- this kind of
lake gets pressured really easy.
And what I mean by that is,
you know.. You've got three or four bass
fishermen going around in a circle on this lake--
because it's not that big-- and it pressures the
fish and they just, you know.. They-- they quit hitting.
So what I like to do this time of year, is I--
I can usually go up and find a few beds or something like that.
Get into areas where everybody else isn't fishing
and try to fish for those fish. And it's not areas
I normally fish, to be honest with you.
[twangy guitar muscic]
I'll tell you what, for my Tip of the Week..
When you're on these little lakes up here in the White
Mountains, one of the best things you can do is get
out early in the morning before everybody else gets
out, and cover the water with reaction baits.
You do that and then-- and then slow down and start worming.
Because otherwise, the banks get so loaded up during the summer,
that it's-- it's hard to fish the banky areas.
So it's been a big trick for me for years,
even in our bass club--
because we still hold bass tournaments here--
but I'll-- I'll go around the lake once with a reaction bait.
Spinner bait, crank bait.. Whatever you want to throw..
Try to catch those quick fish,
and then slow down and go after the worm fish.
And I'll tell you what, it'll help you a lot more.
That's a good Tip of the Week for here in the White Mountains.
Got'im!
I got light line on that drop shot!
[cackling]
I got light line on that drop shot.
That's a little bit better fish, huh?
Oh, he was blind in one eye!
He was blind in one eye.
Come here fish.
Alright, you're done.
Gotcha!
That took me a little while.. But I got'im.
One thing nice about Power-Poles,
especially in this shallow water,
is even with a little breeze blowing here and there,
you can still get these fish to--
to bite if you just sit there and sit still.
We sat on this fish for a little bit and uh,
managed to get in there and get'im.
He was a spooked fish.
But look.. He's blind in one eye.
So he's still got one good eye.
And he bit that with the one good eye.
Beautiful fish.
2+ pounder right there.
Yeah..
That's what we should be catching here at Fool Hollow.
Look at him.. Go ahead.. See you buddy.
[chuckles]
You know a lot of times,
especially with-- with fish that have already
been caught and things like that, when they get
real finicky you can throw that drop shot in there.
It's risky at times, because I like to throw the light line in
there. Because the worm actually acts more natural,
the lighter the line that you have.
In saying that,
what do they say.. "No risk, no reward".
He ended up biting my-- my little worm there but uh,
you know I like to have it there on the deck.
Throw a 1/4 ounce weight.
And this bait works good all over the lake but..
There's times it works better, obviously but..
I love drop shotting. I'm using my Taipan drop shot rod and--
my Signature Series drop shot rod-- which is a..
It's a medium-light. But in saying that,
it's got more of a medium action to it.
But it's got the real light tip-- soft tip-- and
it.. The way it loads is just awesome.
Loads up pretty nice, right there.
And uh, I'm still using the braid line,
and I just hooked up the 6 pound test line up to it.
Now I had been throwing 10 on it because I just got
back from Clearlake and-- and uh,
you need 10 pound test line there. But uh,
anytime these fish up here get finicky like that,
you gotta go to the lighter line,
especially in the clear water.
They're a little bit more weary of what's going on,
and they have tons of of boats running over them.
You know, when you're in a smaller pond where these
fish see boat after boat after boat,
you have to learn to downsize.
And that's what we're talking about today, just to get bit.
And it's tough right now.
The fishing's really tough here, and it shouldn't be.
But it's tough but.. We're catching some fish.
There's still some fish bedding, you know?
[laid-back guitar music]
Well, it's been somewhat of a tough day.
We found a few bed fish.
There's a few uh, jerk-bait fish but uh,
I've had some fun-- some Senko fish-- uh..
Fool Hollow Lake.. It's a fun lake to fish.. It's very
unique.. You can bring your bass boat out here..
You can't fire up your big motor,
you gotta use the trolling motor.
And that way, you can have a lot of fun and -- and
like I said, I can get around the lake three or
four times with my-- with my batteries, normally,
and do pretty good on that trolling motor so..
Yeah, you can.. I've had people ask me all the time,
"Can you bring big boats up, like the bass boats"?
And I'm like.. "Yeah, you can bring them up".
We use them in our bass club all the time.
You just can't fire the big motor.
Remember, it's a 10 horse motor only up here so..
Trolling motor is just fine though.
These lakes are small enough,
you'll have a good time.
Thanks for joining me on the show.
Till next week, I'm Johnny Johnson.
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