Air Temperature: 66 - 75
Water Temperature: 70 - 72
Water Clarity: Murky/ Clear, Visibility 4-6 ft
Skies: Partly cloudy in early morning, mostly cloudy with occasional sprinkle later in the morning.
Wind: 0-7 Mph SW until 10:00, changing to W, NW, N
Barometric Pressure: 29.87 - 29.83
Well, my plans for a 3 day trip were foiled, so I decided to take a trip to a small lake that I visited once earlier this year (see the report here). Given the weather conditions over the past few days (unseasonably cool, with even colder nights), I wasn't sure what the bass were going to be doing. I anticipated, that they would be emerging from their summer time haunts, and getting ready to move shallow for the upcoming fall. But I had a variety of lures tied on, to allow me to adapt quickly to what the fish were doing. Unfortunately, I was expecting dirty water, but all that rain must have flushed out the dirty water, and replaced it with much clearer water from the stream that flows in from the south, so I had to retie to more natural colors. As soon as I switched colors, it was game on.
I changed out my junebug colored soft stickbait, for a Watermelon / Red Flake Senko. I made an awkward cast, almost behind me, to a deep lily pad edge, and I see my line jump, I set the hook and I was in for a ride. The fish started pulling drag and spinning my kayak around, before swimming 15 feet or so into the thick lily pads. I thought I lost the fish several times, as I paddled in to get him, and I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the end of my line, and saw the fishes enormous back sticking out of the water. I scooped it up, and picked the grass off him before weighing and snapping a picture.
After catching many less than stellar bass on the senko, I finally hooked up with a couple keepers, one was 1.19 the other 2.12. I took a few casts with a Booyah! Spinnerbait over a large flat, and scooped up another good fish, this one weighing 3.78.
After a while of catching dinks, and dropping a couple fish on a square bill, I made it to a large tree that sits perpindicular to a steep bank. I pitched a watermelon red flake Zoom Ol' Monster into the thick of the tree, and felt a thump on the way down, I set the hook, and was immediately tangled up in the tree, but I could still feel the fish tugging on the other end. Instead of pulling back and trying to force the fish out of the cover, I simply kept tension, and paddled my way over until I reached a more favorable angle. I landed the fish, and aside from a few more dinks, that was the end of my day.
At the end of the day, I wound up with a surprising 17.35 lbs for 5 fish. I caught 14 or 15 all together, but only 5 were keepers. I'm not really sure what is going on with this place. A lot of really small fish, and apparently, a good amount of big fish. But I'm still wondering where all the average size fish are. I'm not complaining though, so far, I think I've done pretty well this month. I hope it continues.
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