We put in around 9:30, it was chilly with south wind, light chop, 46 degree stained water. The sun was warm and welcome. Started off pitching jigs and TX rigs in 5' to 7' around grass. Bites were light but Jim got three and I one. A pretty normal ratio when fishing with him
. Then tried some casting with spoon and chatterbait. I rebounded with a bass on each. Went to some cleaner water where Jim schooled me, once again, with his crankbait, getting five bass to my zero. I was sure I'd get one on a TX rig...
. At the next stop a real fat smallie hit my Pointer jerkbait. Very reluctantly it came into the boat. Hit two more largemouths on the jerkbait while Jim got one on a spinnerbait. Then we went to try a point with grass, but the grass wasn't there. So, moved around until we found the grass and hit the only real concentration of bass for the day. Of course, Jim whooped up on me with his crankbait. But I'd dropped a buoy (actually two) and once I got my act together we both were whacking them on big crankbaits in 8'. After we wore out the area by getting snagged too many times, we headed back to all of the spots where we'd caught bass earlier in the day. One spot had come alive. We'd each caught a good chunk and decided to turn around a try the water again. Jim says "you know, they catch bass on buzzbaits at Lake of the Ozarks in December during snow storms". I said " 
". So he pulls out his, rigged up from summer, buzzbait rod and promptly gets a huge blow up that misses. Of course neither of us were watching the lure, because we were watching VTBass motoring down the lake. Must have been a pike. A few casts later another big hit. This time it's hooked and staying down. "I'll bet you it's a pike" I say. Wrong, a nice largemouth in 3' of 48 degree water. A few casts later one more big miss, but the shallow grass petered out and so did the bite. We moved along to a big dock.There I said "I never catch 'em at this bulkhead, but I've seen you catch plenty". So I pitched my jig to all three key spots; the ladder, north corner, south corner. Zippo. Jim gets a "tick" on his jig at the center of the crib. Pitches back in and winches out the big bass of the day. "Just luck" he says. Yeah, right. Did I mention this guy is a bass fishing wizard?
Quit at 6:00, loaded up in the dark. No other way to do it this time of year.
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This one hit the chatterbait in the a.m. in 6'.
Lucky Craft Pointer and Big Daddy CB accounted for this pair of chunks. Risky throwning the big $ lures, but the pike weren't around this day.
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