Saturday at Del Valle was the perfect storm for big bass fishing! Overcast skies, and high winds on the eve of the springtime full moon had the big females feeding up before they spawn.

It seemed like a long month of waiting since the female bass pulled back out to deeper water, when the conditions were not yet to their liking at the beginning of the month. Well, the wait is over because the "Girls are Back in Town!" This time of year has always been my favorite for catching big bass, and Saturday at Del Valle did not disappoint! Landing 23 pounds for my top 5 bass, set my new one day total personal best at the lake! My day wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Actually, it was quite painful from pulling my lower back out the night before. Finding it difficult to walk or even stand upright, I decided to hit the lake anyway. Upon reaching the docks I could see baitfish jumping out of the water as small mouth bass were teaming up on them along the shoreline. We started fishing immediately passed the docks throwing all sorts of small lures at them but did not prevail. The next stop was the Christmas trees just passed the camping area. I pitched a weightless Senko in and hooked a 5+ !bier. She jumped and with a head shaking tail walk, threw my barbless rig back at me. In pain and frustrated I fished on! Next stop was Swallow Bay off a point of a cove. Casting a 1/2 oz. lipless crankbait it snagged some submersed vegetation in 4¬5 feet of water. As I ripped it through to clear my line of grass, a 1 1/2 lbs. male bass jumped on it for my first fish of the day. A few minutes later on the other side of the point, I picked up a small mouth on the same lure. After fishing around the pocket I went back to where I caught the male bass. Making a long cast over the vegetation, and ripping it through to clear my line, another bass jumped on. This time it was a giant female weighing in at S lbs. 12 oz. A pattern was starting to form, so we moved on looking for similar depths with submersed vegetation. Running up to Heron Bay we found it, and added a 3 lbs. 12 oz. bass to the list of lipless crankbait fish.