Salamander Lure vs BIG Smallmouth On Beds

How's it going everyone? I'm back again. I'm out here in Minnesota today. We're getting into the late part of May and we finally had some nice warm weather the past few days. So that's got the smallmouth moving on to beds and that's what we're going to do today, a little bit of bed fishing. I do have a new lure I'm going to throw at him, one pretty much specifically made for bed fishing. I've got the River to Sea Nest Raider. As you can see here he's a little salamander looking dude. So we'll go toss out on a few beds and see if we can get the smallies to pick them up and if we do catch them we'll make sure we get them back in the water as quick as we can so they can get back to what they're doing. Let's go see if we can catch a few. All right I've got a bed right up here in front of me. Let's throw that Nest Raider over there and see if he picks it up. He's looking at it. Got him. It's tough to actually see him pick it up with this wind today but I felt that one grab it. Just fishing my net. I'll try to get him unhooked and get him back in the water quick. Wow what a beautiful fish on that River to Sea Nest Raider. That is awesome. Beauty. Off you go. Oh there he is right there. So I have been seeing a lot of beds like that where I think they're still in the early stages of spawn where the male has fanned off the bed and they're just kind of waiting for the female to come around and lay eggs so they aren't all that protective of them yet. I did find that one that was definitely guarding that bed but there's a hidden little bay up here. We're gonna see if we can get into where I think the water might be a little bit warmer in there and who knows maybe they're a little bit farther along in the progression of spawn back here. See if I can even get back here in my kayak. It's a little tricky but and I bet there's gonna be some fish back here. Just have to ski pole my way through here. I think it's like a piece of cake. Maybe. I do know that the bass can get into here somehow. Great big snapping turtle right there. Look at that guy. Geez he's huge. It's pretty murky up here right now I think from that snapping turtle but looks like that's a bed right there. We've got a whole bunch of carp back here. Another snapping turtle. Look at that another snapping turtle. There's a bunch of snapping turtles back here. I'm gonna bother trying to drop my underwater camera back in here because it is just so murky. I don't know it might be nothing but carp back here but there are a couple more bays like this one. There's one right next door you can see it over there. That one gets a little bit more water flow going through it so I think it should be a little less carpy and hopefully a little more bassy. Something interesting just happened. I thought he grabbed my lure there. Oh you have got to be kidding me. So there was a snapping turtle chasing my little dude over toward this nest. That bass came and chased the turtle away. We're gonna get that one. I'm gonna have to come back in about 15 minutes after he settles down. That's my one gripe about this lure. No weed guard on that thing. I know I know don't cast it into the trees but the wind pushed it in there. Sometimes everybody makes mistakes. I'll give that fish 10-15 minutes to cool off and then I'll be coming back for you. Let's go right back over your bed over there. I'll come wake you up in a minute. So I've been seeing quite a few beds today where the fish just they're kind of hanging around them. They aren't all that protective so I think what's going on is we're in the early phases of spawn where for the most part it's just been males coming up fanning out those beds and they're waiting for the females to come along and put eggs on them. So they aren't really guarding them much. I do have one a really nice fish up here sitting right on the edge of that bed and my lizard over there doesn't seem to care all that much but he is doubling back. Oh he's going in for a closer look. Oh he's getting agitated. Got him. That is a big one too. Well I didn't think I was going to get that one to bite but sure enough I twitched that little nest raider in front of him long enough and yeah it drove him crazy. Nice look at that beautiful smallmouth. All right we're gonna get him unhooked and we'll send him back toward his nest over there. All right well there's two that we've found willing to bite. Both of them really nice fish. There's one thing I'm doing though is I have seen a few beds with smaller fish on them and I'm just kind of passing those ones by looking for those big bites. Two of them so far. All right there's another really nice one sitting on a bed right up here in front of me. I think we might be able to get this one to bite. I just saw him chase a snapping turtle away from his nest. He's looking at that lizard. Yeah I don't think this one's playing around. Got him. Oh I think he might have just grabbed the tail. You can only throw so many perfect casts over there. Got him that time. I just want to take a quick look at you. Oh my gosh look at that smallmouth. Geez that is a monster. Well we've got a few to bite and they've all been quality fish. We're gonna get that one back in the water quick. All right we've got another super secret hidden bay right here. We've got one over there. Oh that one's pretty good size. That's one thing I did notice today is that the more aggressive fish, the ones that seem to be willing to bite, they don't go that far from the nest when I come paddling by. So I'm gonna set my GoPro up on that nest and we'll see if we can get that one to bite. Bullseye. I'm just gonna let it sit there until that fish comes back. All right here he comes. Should I give it a little twitch? Just a little one. Gotcha. Oh I knew we'd get that one to bite. Look at the size of that smallmouth. Another tank. All right we're gonna get him unhooked quick. Get a good look at him. What a beautiful fish. See you later. Well I think it's about time for me to call it a day. I do think before I go though I'm gonna duck back into this bay and check a couple of those bass that we caught. Make sure they went back to their beds. So we'll go take a quick look. There's one right past this stump here in the corner. There he is right there. Hey fella. And the other one was right over here. Let's go see if he's back on his bed. Oh there he is right there. Don't get too close and disturb him any more than we already have. But that is one thing I want to stress is any of you guys that are out doing some bed fishing just make sure you get those fish back in the water quick and they'll go right back to their bed. As far as the nest raider goes that thing worked pretty well. It definitely agitated those fish into biting. My only gripe is that it doesn't have a weed guard. A lot of these smallie beds are right up in logs and sticks and that exposed hook likes to get caught up in there. But I only had to go retrieve it from snags a couple of times. So it's a good day of fishing with that thing. I had a lot of fun. Caught some nice smallies. It was a great day out here on the river. Well I'm gonna paddle back to my truck. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Thanks for watching again. I'll see you next time.