So we hit the lake pumped and ready at 5:20ish – third boat there. Motored right off to the mouth of the SW bay and saw a bass working the top. As suggested tried a popper and skitterpop right up to the shore and back – and didn’t get a bite. My F-I-L walked the dog with a natural minnow and didn’t get a follow. I tried my go t o bait – green Senko and got bit twice – so fish were there, just not biting top-water.
I heard some action across the channel (west - see Jim’s Picture) and we moved over there. Tossed a few baits nothing. Did manage to catch a little bass on a silver and blue ‘broken back’ minnow. Had a nice hit on the consecutive cast but missed it. FIL tied on a silver/ blue as well and nothing. It was a bit choppier so I tried white spinner-bait. Maybe I don’t do it right, but they didn’t want it. We were getting skunked
Since my FIL is not a big fisherman or ever want to be one. He changed a bit and decided to pick up some panfish. He picked up a few. We fished along the west side of the lake around docks and up to shore. I tried jerkbaits, in few colors, crawfish colored jigs and spinnerbaits as bass were working all around us but could not get bit! I was not alone - another guy looked like he knew what was what was getting skunked too. I told him what we had tried and saw, he went in to the working fish but I did not see him catch anything either.
After 4 hours - the fish were winning. So I put away the notes and told him we were just going to catch a limit of panfish. We tried hard but where only catching babies. Put a few medium ones in the livewell along with the ones that were hooked bad and going to die.
But we couldn’t give up on bass that easy. Since we had some bites on Senkos, we tied them on and went to town. On the SE bay we fished the west side because the wind was blowing into it and picked up a 15 ½ and 16 ¾ bass – and a lot of little ones. Water was 82 degrees and most bass were little. Since this is the shallowest bay, I suggested moving to the SW bay as it was deeper and had the same type of cover we were fishing. The bass we caught were holding tight to matted cover next to lilly pads. We had seen this same cover in the SW bay so we went over there. Here we picked up a 10 inch bluegill and a 19 inch bass! Of course there were smaller ones too - the bite really picked up about 10:30 – I caught 3 on 3 consecutive casts!
Now funny thing is, these bass would not take anything else but a stick worm. I tried spinners, spoons, cranks, etc. I would catch a bass, fish the same area with other baits and then go back to a Senko, they would bite the Senko on the first fall. They didn’t even touch LIVE crawlers! We fished till we ran out of stickbaits – now I only have a color they wouldn’t touch. Green was golden, Blue and Black was pretty good too. I tried a Black curly tail worm and caught one 13 inch fish, but not like the stick worms.
Two things I was going to try but didn’t was a swimbait and zara spook. Had both, just forgot to get them out.
All in all we had a blast and now need to get more baits!
From reading what you guys posted, Zum would be declared fisherman extraordinare!. We caught fish right where he said on some of the baits he mentioned. The situation changed a bit though as the water was a little stained. Visibility was a max of 8 feet deep and a brownish color. They have been harvesting weeds here so I think that has really affected the clarity. (We caught the 19 incher right before the weed harvester passed us by
Thanks for participating and reading my ramblings - Enjoy the pictures…
Will
The rig
The take - yeah, we eat fish - not everything we catch though!
First Fish - he must have been hungry
Ambition!
First Legal Bass
First or Second Legal Bass
The area they were in... - shhh - don't tell anyone!
HUGE bluegill - 10 inches on a Senko!
Father in law and a 19 inch bass!