THE BASS COLLEGE

Saratoga Lake.

This lake has been fairly quiet since the good bass fishing during the spring spawn, but all of a sudden, the big bass bite has been as good as eve.

In a recent South Shore Marine Wednesday afternoon/evening three-bass team tournament, there were several trophy largemouth bass that came to the scales. The top three cash position teams each had a five-pound-plus bass in their bag. Leading the field of 31 teams were Saratoga Springs anglers John Jenkins and Dave Munger with 10.85 pounds, which included a 5.25-pound largemouth.

First place returned $260. Second, with a 5.34-pound largemouth anchoring their three-bass catch, were Jim McHale of Ballston Spa and Gary Rhodes of Saratoga Springs, with 10.39 pounds, worth $180. But it was the third-place Schuylerville team of Ted Spezio and Justin Liptak who had the tournament’s biggest bass of 5.41 pounds and a three-bass total of 9.28 pounds. Third place returned $120, and the big bass an additional $155.

Many of the the tournament anglers reported plenty of action on pound-and-a-half bass, but the bigger ones were hard to come by. McHale and Rhodes said they were fishing in six to 10 feet of water

and really only got three good bites. This seems to be the trend on Saratoga Lake. You have to put in the time and weed through the smaller

fish to catch a few bigger ones. Venom Salty Slings and Slingipedes fished weightless are still producing when the wind doesn’t blow, and weighted when it does. However, Andy and Jeff Daubert of Ballston Spa, who weighed in a 5.44-pound largemouth, caught it on a spinner bait.

As for “spots” on Saratoga Lake, I would suggest the weed beds in the south end of the lake, Stoney Point, south side of Snake Hill and any and all of Manning’s Cove. Work them slowly; it’s worth the effort.

Although these smaller bass (10 to 14 inches) aren’t what most anglers are looking for, their willingness to bite is something that can be quite useful when teaching a youngster not only how to fish for bass, but how to release them. Wacky-worm fishing is very simple to teach a youngster, and it’s usually

very easy to recognize a bite. If it gets a little windy, you can weigh the bait down with a BB-size pinch-on weight placed right above the hook eye. Another way for a youngster to fish this bait is with a small bobber about 24 inches above the hook and bait. This bobber technique will also work when slow-drifting with the wind or current.

In the smallmouth bass category, I would say the three-plus-pound smallies that Gerry Rosenbarker of Scotia and his partner, Bruce Jeram of Rexford, caught in the recent Schenectady Elite Anglers tournament on the Mohawk River definitely qualify as big bass. Their biggest smallie weighed four pounds, 10 ounces. The waters were quite muddy when the 27 teams left the Mohawk Valley Marine launch that morning, but it didn’t seem to have an adverse effect on the anglers. Gerry and Bruce’s winning six-bass limit bag of smallies totaled 20 pounds, 14 ounces, and earned then a first-place cash award of $710.

The second-place duo of Tim Paraso of Inlet and Matt Leiberman of Mechanicville had all largemouths totaling 16 pounds, four ounces, and they received $535. Jeff Zielonko of Green Island and Mike Warmt of East Greenbush were third with 16 pounds, one ounce, and the Rotterdam team of Vince Monini III and Brian Ouillette placed fourth with 15 pounds, eight ounces. Third- and fourth-place finishers, both with mixed bags of largemouth and smallmouth bass, returned $355 and $180, respectively. Big bass honors and $135 went to Pat Lenny of Colonie and Scott Madchero of Schenectady for their four-pound, 12-ounce largemouth.

The winners actually culled a dozen 21⁄2-3-pound bass throughout the day. With quite a few 12- to 14-pound, six-bass team limits coming to the scales, the bass bite is definitely on in the Mohawk River.

At the Bassmaster Weekend Ser­ies, operated by American Bass Ang­lers, the New York State Division opener on northern Lake George earlier this month, the quantities were high, but the quality was average. Of the 84 participants (42 boaters and 42 co-anglers), there were 33 boater five-bass limits and 34 three-bass co-angler limits weighed in.

Jim Kane of Massachusetts won the $5,000 first-place money in the boaters’ division with 11.29 pounds, just a little over a 2.25-pound aver­age. His biggest bass was a 4.37-pound

largemouth. On the co-angler side, the top three had three-bass limits that averaged more than three pounds per fish. The winner, New York angler Mike Rinaldi, anchored his 9.90-pound catch with a tourn­ament-leading 4.98-largemouth.

Most of the largemouth that came to the scales were caught in the weedy bays in the South Basin. These included Dunhams, Northwest, Bolton, Kattskill and Harris Bays. And, I was told by several ang­lers who fished in this event, that “dock fishing” also produced a number largemouths. As for the smallies, the Narrows and many of the islands in both the North and the South Basin

held fish. The lure choices varied from top-water offerings in the early morning to wacky worms, both weightless and weighted, tube baits and shad-colored crankbaits.

Hudson trophy

This week’s big bass honors go to Dr. George May of Plantation, Fla., a summertime resident of Saratoga Springs, who hooked, photographed and released a six-pound, one-ounce largemouth bass in the Stillwater area of the upper Hudson River.

Several persistent casts to a small weed and rock undercut bank finally

triggered the big bass to bite so hard it almost pulled the rod out of his hands. The fish was caught on a wacky-rigged Venom Lures six-inch black/red glitter salty Slingipede.

BASS STILL NO. 1

According to the 2007 Freshwater Angler Survey by the State Department of Environmental Conserv­ation, the black bass is still the top favorite among the 20,000 New York anglers who participated in the survey. These randomly selected state-licensed anglers spent an estim­ated 18.7 million days fishing in 2007. Oneida Lake and the Hudson River were some of the bodies of water that had significant increases in number of angler trips. Each jumped about 200,000 additional anglers since the last survey in 1996.