Four Basstastick days at "Barrett Pond" 8/23&24 & 9/6&7

[j.rasta]

Well it had been a long while since this green bass junky had been to the slice of bass heaven on earth better know as Barrett Lake. On one of my last trips this season in late may my buddy caught 3 big bass (9,8,7# northern strain bucket mouths) along with the 70+ we caught between us. So a few weeks ago my buddy Derrick and I hopped on a boat with maybe 4 other boats who had reservations for Saturday the 23rd. I heard the bite was on but most folks can't take the heat or opt for the offshore bite.. We fished the marathon 0dark30am to 745pm and laid the wood to the green bass. It was topwater and flukes in the dark and anything you wanted once the greylight took over and the wolf packs showed up. Once the sun burned through the haze we found em in the trees and rock piles on senkos and creature baits. then random boilers would pop up and we'd throw as close to em as possible and usually end up with a few but not consistently enough to dedicate to chasing em. The afternoon TW bite was one of the best I've seen at Barrett in years. we caught easily 30 fish in the last 20mins as we heard Juuls fire up the chase boat to round us up. Final tally was around 65 apiece. Not too shabby by Barrett standards in the summer.

My girl caught wind of the good bite and I hadn't taken her all year so I kinda had to... Oh well if your gonna twist my arm I'll spend another day at Barrett jus for you we got to the gate a lil after the last train in 8:30... Luckily my buddy Jose knew I was comin and left the gate open for me B) we got on the fish right away by the dam and front of the main lake on senkos and ikas. For the 1st part of the morning they were up tight to the shore but moved to off shore structure by noon. We adapted to pick em off a lil deeper in the rock piles and deep ledges on jigs and nail weighted senkos. We'd find 4-5 fish on each stop and find more structure down the line to pick anther half dozen off of until the wolf packs showed up as we rounded the corner towards the high and dry island. We beached the boat on "island point" and the wolf pack pushed the bait right to us and we went to town on em for a good 45mins straight we caught a fish almost every minute between unhooking and rebaiting or untangling it was awesome! They went down around 5 and we moved to see if we could find another pack and found a small school towards the dam/dock area. Decided to call it a lil earlier and loaded up around 630 for a modest 10hr barrettastic Sunday. Final found was 115 between the two of us with a dozen to 15 double hook ups!

Took last weekend off lol friends in town from Utah and Ziggy Marley at Del mar on 8/31 meant I was gonna do some more double duty this weekend! Same story on Sat.... Epic morning bite in the 1st 3hrs we had over 25 apiece on TW and flukes and then the plastic bite came on around 8 when the sun started baking! We pretty much duplicated the 23 on 9/6 until 5pm when we had a wolf pack pushing bait between our boat and the shoreline and it was game over! Wfo anything you could cast at em got inhaled! We roped em for at least an hr fish every two mins if not less we were throwin spooks n rattle traps so the trebels made unhooking em a lil tedious but damn the explosion on the spook and force they stop a trap with is incredible! Ended the day as James came and scared the school off with the chase boat at 630 but they kinda fizzled out anyway. Final tally 165 between us.

So yesterday I took my girl back for some more bass assassination;) got to the gate around 8 and could tell it was gonna b different then the day b4, since the clouds out east had already moved in and they stayed out east Sat til round 6pm. We got into a decent bite few mins after leaving the dock towards pine creek. But the fish seemed less active until about 11 when they turned on and ate with near wreckless abandon. Turned out it was the bite b4 the downpour and man did it pour! For a good hr and a half it was pouring buckets which was awesome cause almost half the boats left and the few who didn't were prepared lol! We stuck it out and stuck some bass off the dock in the thunderstorm and it eventually let up and we got back to business. Seemed like the rain pushed the wolf packs down cuz they never really showed up in the numbers they did on Saturday but we got a few off the random packs that would pop up in casting range. Stayed until 715 and ended with a modest 85-90 between us, not a bad way to kill a Sunday. My girl was stoked she got a chunky 4lbr so not a complete waste B) sorry for the long write up, here's a few pics that got snapped amidst the chaos! Enjoy, thanks for readin. Rastafar-gone B)<==#~~~~

[sasquatch]

I haven't been there in a couple years. Barely recognize the place.

[Latimeria]

Excellent Barrett report Josh.  I especially like how your hat suddenly got a beer cap brim on it.   

Nice work guys! (PM me your addy for the sticker)

[faster u fool]

Owned it out there..well done sir.