Tournament fisher and Fresno, California, native Damian Thao was in his kayak fishing Eastman Lake near his home on the warm afternoon of Feb. 28.
He’d been on a tear for big pre-spawn largemouths, including catching-and-releasing an 18.75-pounder just two weeks ago from his solo kayak on Eastman.
“But the warm weather made the bass move shallower getting ready for spawning,” Thao told Wired2fish while on the road traveling to the Bassmaster Kayak Championship tournament on Lake Chickamauga, Tennessee. “I used my forward-facing sonar to locate bass because they’d moved.”
The Catches Continue
He added: “I found some fish with sonar in 15 feet of water on a point. I cast to a huge fish weighing maybe 20 pounds that I saw on my sonar, but a smaller bass rushed past it and struck my swim bait before the big one hit it.”…