Lake Barrett 5/6 - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

steveooo · 05-08-2015, 10:41 AM

Thanks to Andy for putting this together. I usually try to catch at least one bass a year, so this was a good trip to get that out of the way.

I left my place around 11 pm, got to Barrett at about 1 am, putting me 4th in line. Few hours of sleep, and was good to go when the line started to move in the dark at 4 something.

As the sun came up, the lake came alive. The bass were absolutely destroying the shad against the shoreline. It reminded me of killer whales beaching themselves while hunting seals. Every few seconds there would be an explosion against the shore, sending shad flying. A few times the shad would try to use my kayak as cover, and I could hear them hitting the bottom of the kayak. A few times the bass would crash through them, and a few shad got knocked into my kayak. Pretty crazy experience. For as much activity as there was, the day started pretty slow. I tried to match the hatch, but I think my shad imitation was a little too close to the real thing. A few bumps, but couldn’t get anything to stick on my shad imitation.

Only fish I did land on that lure was a bluegill.

Ron offered me a lucky lure that he had picked a couple up on. I tied it on and was able to catch a few pretty quickly by casting parallel to the shoreline, literally right against the shoreline.

There were a few nicer ones in the mix too

I must have knicked the line against a rock, because a few casts later, I hooked a bass, which broke off, with Ron’s lucky lure in its mouth.

I looked at the lures I had in my box, and tied on the closest thing I had to Ron’s lucky lure. It became the new lucky lure, because I landed probably another 25 fish on it. If you care, it is called the Daiwa peanut II.

After the main body of the lake quieted down, we made our way into one of the fingers of the lake to find a new bite and pattern. The bass were stacked up in this cove, not really oriented against any structure, but absolutely stacked in about 5-7 feet of water. We went up and down the cove probably 10 times, and would pick up 1-3 bass each time. All good grade fish too.

Ron even landed a huge crappie back there

Lake doesn’t look like the map anymore, but looking at it now I think this is the cove where we ended the day. With how steady the action was back there, If we put in an extended amount of time, I have no doubt we could have seen the 75+ fish days that barrett is known for.

Good to get the green bass monkey off my back for the year. Time to turn the focus back to the salt to knock off a few other yearly goals.

05-08-2015, 10:41 AM	#3
steveooo Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 1,922	Thanks to Andy for putting this together. I usually try to catch at least one bass a year, so this was a good trip to get that out of the way. I left my place around 11 pm, got to Barrett at about 1 am, putting me 4th in line. Few hours of sleep, and was good to go when the line started to move in the dark at 4 something. As the sun came up, the lake came alive. The bass were absolutely destroying the shad against the shoreline. It reminded me of killer whales beaching themselves while hunting seals. Every few seconds there would be an explosion against the shore, sending shad flying. A few times the shad would try to use my kayak as cover, and I could hear them hitting the bottom of the kayak. A few times the bass would crash through them, and a few shad got knocked into my kayak. Pretty crazy experience. For as much activity as there was, the day started pretty slow. I tried to match the hatch, but I think my shad imitation was a little too close to the real thing. A few bumps, but couldn’t get anything to stick on my shad imitation. Only fish I did land on that lure was a bluegill. Ron offered me a lucky lure that he had picked a couple up on. I tied it on and was able to catch a few pretty quickly by casting parallel to the shoreline, literally right against the shoreline. There were a few nicer ones in the mix too I must have knicked the line against a rock, because a few casts later, I hooked a bass, which broke off, with Ron’s lucky lure in its mouth. I looked at the lures I had in my box, and tied on the closest thing I had to Ron’s lucky lure. It became the new lucky lure, because I landed probably another 25 fish on it. If you care, it is called the Daiwa peanut II. After the main body of the lake quieted down, we made our way into one of the fingers of the lake to find a new bite and pattern. The bass were stacked up in this cove, not really oriented against any structure, but absolutely stacked in about 5-7 feet of water. We went up and down the cove probably 10 times, and would pick up 1-3 bass each time. All good grade fish too. Ron even landed a huge crappie back there Lake doesn’t look like the map anymore, but looking at it now I think this is the cove where we ended the day. With how steady the action was back there, If we put in an extended amount of time, I have no doubt we could have seen the 75+ fish days that barrett is known for. Good to get the green bass monkey off my back for the year. Time to turn the focus back to the salt to knock off a few other yearly goals.