Report 8/13/16

On the water: 7:40 AM- 12:00 PM
Air Temperature: 79-90
Water Temperature: 82-85
Water Clarity: Mostly clear in the shallows with a bit of a greenish tinge over the deeper water
Skies: Partly Cloudy
Wind: 0-7 MPH SSW
Barometric Pressure: 29.92-29.94

I had a small window to fish in the morning, so I decided to capitalize on the opportunity and head to my favorite lake. The last couple of times that I visited this particular body of water, I struggled to find any consistency. The large schools of alewife that the bass usually chase offshore, had seemingly disappeared, and the bass seemed to be scattered throughout the lake. My goal for today was to develop a pattern early, and run with it for as long as I could, until I needed to make adjustments.

As I paddled out into the lake, with the tepid, glass smooth water, and the sun still tucked behind the trees, I wanted to make the best of the conditions and throw some topwater. My last visit here, I managed to find a frog bite around the lily pads that sit atop the points that extend out towards deeper water. I had a black Booyah! Pad crasher  tied on and began methodically walking it through the pads.  On my 5th cast I was rewarded with a long and skinny largemouth that absolutely inhaled the frog. A few casts later, I got another, this time a little bigger.  Then another, and another, and... Well you get the idea. Aside from getting a little jumpy on the hook set on a few occasions, and the few fish that came unbuttoned in the thick vegetation, I managed to execute fairly well. However, once the sun got a little higher, the bass seemed a little disinterested in chasing the frog, and more focused on the dragonflies that were buzzing around the pads. I moved a little further up the lake to an area that still had a bit of shade cover, I had a few swirls and a couple blow ups but I couldn't hook up. I picked up the flippin' stick equipped with 20lb Test Seaguar Abrazx, and a Texas Rigged Berkley Powerbait Rib Snake, and started pitching into the pads.  I managed one decent bass pretty quickly. But the dragon flies soon made there presence known here as well, and I decided to change tactics.

As I was drifting, I noticed several fish suspended off the up current sides of the points I had been fishing, in 10-12 FOW. I was running short on time so I wanted to cover as much water as possible.  I picked up my Abu Garcia Veritas cranking rod and went to work.  With the water temperature climbing rapidly, and the notoriously lethargic behavior of suspended fish, I quickly determined that these fish were not in the mood to chase anything down.

I moved offshore to scan two humps that always seem to hold fish. I marked a single fish in 17 FOW and picked up my drop shot rod, rigged with an Alewife colored Lunker city Ribster. I quickly picked off the single fish, and scanned the area again to see if there were more in the area, but I didn't see any activity. I moved to another isolated hump a little further down, but there didn't appear to be anything there either. I was just about out of time, so I began my journey back towards the launch stopping at a couple of key areas on the way, tossing the Ribster past the points the fish were holding on and letting the wind drift me backwards as I dragged the drop shot. I quickly started hooking up, and I ran with the pattern all the way back to the launch.

As I was waiting for the launch to clear up, I threw a frog into the pads and managed one more fish. I was cutting it close time wise, so I packed up and headed out. If I had another couple of hours, I could have smashed them today, I still had a good day for the limited amount of time that I had, and I was pleased with the final result.  Although I didn't get many big fish, (only caught two that were around 3lbs, the rest were right around 2) I feel like I took a big step forward today.  Instead of trying to force patterns that are unproductive, I took a more disciplined approach, and did what the fish wanted me to do, rather than what I wanted to do.

Total for the day: 15 Bass
Pad Crasher: 9
Rib Snake: 1
Ribster: 5

Hawgust Returns 8/1/16

On the Water 5:45 PM - 9:00 PM
Air Temperature: 73-70
Average Water Temperature: 81.5
Water Clarity: Clear
Skies: Overcast
Wind: 3-6 Mph SE
Barometric Pressure: 30.06 - 30.11

I had a small window of time after dinner, so Josh and I set out to a small lake that has produced for us in the past, you can see an older report here.  Once we got out, we started out fishing the edges of lily pads where it drops off pretty quickly.  On my third cast, I was rewarded with a 2 pounder on a wacky rig.  My main mission, however, was to pull a fish out of the "Labyrinth Laydown" that is always good for a 3 pounder, so I made my way down to the other side of the lake, picking up a quick dink on the way.  Because this laydown is so complex, I usually fish it with a large texas rigged worm, and get picked up on my first pitch into the cover.  However after 5 or 6 casts, I couldn't get a bump.  I grabbed my jig, and tossed in a couple more times, slowly dragging it over the seemingly endless branches, and just as it started to fall back down, I hooked up with a decent fish, weighing in at 3lbs 4oz.

I couldn't help but get some down scan shots of the notorious tree.  Notice the difference between the down scan (left) and the sonar.

After fishing the rocky bank for a little while longer, my phone rings, it was Josh wanting to know if I had a scale.  I know what that means, so I paddled as fast as I could towards him.  When we met up, I couldn't believe the giant that he was holding.

This girl ended up weighing a whopping 7lbs 6oz, good for his new personal best.  He was winding a spinnerbait through some broken up grass.

We didn't have much action after this, a couple dinks on a spinner bait, and I lost a good fish on a jig.  It was nice getting out with Josh, and even better being there for his new PB.  Congrats dude, that was a toad!

Report 7/24

A quick word of caution before I get started; if you decide to leave your battery for your fish finder in the trunk of your car, make sure that there is nothing metal that can come in contact with it.  I figured this out the hard way.

7/24/2016

On the Water: 11:15 AM - 5:00 PM

Air Temperature: 82-90
Water Temperature: 84-85
Water Clarity: Clear
Skies: Partly Cloudy
Wind: 5-10 MPH NW, S, SSW Gusts to 16
Barometric Pressure: 29.98 - 29.94

After installing my new Lowrance Elite-4 Chirp, I needed to take a trip to test it out.  Knowing that I was probably going to spend a lot of time playing with my new electronics, I went back to the alewife lake that produced for me last week.  I had assumed that the pattern would be much of the same, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  Upon launching my Future Beach Angler 160 into the lake, a couple things stuck out to me, the water temperature was a sweltering 84 degrees and rising, and the wind was blowing from the north west.  I knew with the warmer water, I was probably going to have to slow down, and adjust my casting angles accordingly to fish with the current rather than against it.

Once I had the Lowrance all set up, I made a move to the two humps that always seem to hold fish this time of year.  I zig zagged over the structure, and only marked a couple small schools of bait, but did not mark anything on my chart that even resembled a bass.  I threw a Zoom Super Fluke in the vicinity of the bait fish, however it did not appear there were any bass actively feeding near the surface.  As I let the wind push me along, I began noticing some surface activity on an adjacent point.  I quickly tossed my fluke in that direction, and hooked up with a small bass that was about a pound.  Not exactly what I was hoping for, but a bass is a bass.  Shortly after, there were some more swirls on the surface out in the middle of the lake, knowing I wouldn't be able to cast my fluke against the wind far enough to reach the fish, I grabbed my swimbait and launched it into the ripples.  It was picked up, but as I set the hook, the fish swam straight at me and jumped 3 feet in the air, and tossed my swimbait.  This was the theme for me today, as I wound up losing 7 total fish, all of which threw my bait in the exact same manner.

Around 1:00, the wind shifted and started blowing like heck out of the south, so I went back to the two humps, and hurled a Strike King 6XD as far as I could into the wind, and was a quickly rewarded with a nice fish that absolutely inhaled the crankbait.  However, I almost wish I didn't catch this fish, because it was the only one I was able to grind off of the deep structure all day, despite the 2 more hours I tried, with various techniques.  At this point, I knew that I had to change my approach.  One side of the lake was starting to get some shade cover, so I paddled my way over.  I began marking schools of bait out in open water, and was able to manage a few bass on the super fluke, however, the quality of the fish, was not what I was looking for.  With the water being so warm, I figured that the bigger fish had lost interest in chasing the big schools of bait, and were starting to stack up in the lay downs that project out towards deeper water.

I had a Strike King 3/4 oz football jig (I don't recommend using a football jig around wood cover, as it tends to hang up easier than your standard flipping jig, but this is what I had tied on, and it was working, however I did hang up several times)  tied on, with a Rage Tail Craw trailer, so I chucked it towards a lay down that extends out into about 20' of water.  As soon as it started to fall, a fish thumped it.  I was finally able to get on a pattern, as I worked every piece of wood I could find on the shady side of the lake.  I ended up getting 5 more fish, all between 2 and 3.5lbs on the jig, and lost 3 more before I had to leave.

So all in all, it was a strange day for a normally predictable lake.  I really had to work for every fish, but it just makes it that much more rewarding.

Total for the day: 13 Bass

1 on the 6XD

6 on the Super Fluke

6 on the Jig