Post by djkimmel on Aug 7, 2005 23:02:26 GMT -5
Blame it on the bluebird skies (or the camera jinx maybe), but today was a slow tough day for me and cameraguy on Lake Ovid.
We got there shortly after 8 AM with several cameras (it's what cameraguy does after all) and high hopes for some repeat bass whacking. It didn't take long to see things were going to be different today.
It started getting HOT! With a light to no breeze, we really felt it most of the time too. I started a little different than I would normally, but I thought I had a great plan to get some shallow fish quick and then some worm fish off one of the many humps on this lowland reservoir. We wanted to get some tape and pictures during the good low light.
The bass had other ideas.
After a few hours of fishing - no muskies (first time this year) and only two small bass, maybe one keeper, on a green-pumpkin finesse worm and a black/blue Power lizard, both Texas-rigged.
We missed a few bites and had what was probably some bluegill hitting the smaller worms. But along the way we tried shallow to deeper cranks, jerkbaits, various worms and creatures, Carolina rigs, some topwater and stick worms.
At first, the lake was alarmingly quiet, but as late morning passed, we did start seeing more minnow and bluegill activity. Nothing like previous trips this year, but it looked like the lake was warming up.
We figured we had to try something different. The weeds and scum are dying back. Thicker weed lines in some areas on only in 6 feet or so and that may not be deep enough for some bass with water temps 82 to 85 F.
So the next available cover besides going into the really thick stuff with lots of dying tops, is to look for the deep wood along and in the original river channel.
We head for a smaller wood pile I know we can fish completely fairly quick. It turns out to be a great move as 5 keepers are quickly caught on a Carolina-rigged green pumpkin brush hog.
Using a 3/4 oz bullet sinker (for getting through milfoil better) and a 2 foot leader, we bounced the sinker off the wood to get the attention of the bass.
After 5 quick bass up to about 2 3/4 pounds, they got on to us. We only had 1 bite after that, but decided to head for larger wood piles. I also tried cranking the real deep wood, but after donating a nice full-size Fat Free Shad, I stuck to the Carolina-rig and cameraguy through other weedless rigs.
We couldn't duplicate our success on the next two brush piles, but with the food chain heating up a little more as the day plodded along (it seemed that way at times today), I thought we should check one of the big humps again that has a deeper weedline still in 7 and 8 feet with some weed clumps going out into 9 and 10 feet.
We were hoping bass would move along and use the 'clean lip' for some feeding on the gills and shiners. For a change to work the area quick, we went back to Fat Free shads in citrus and parrot (blue/chartreuse) and immediately got a small keeper and lost a nice one. The bass were out from the weeds a little ways and seemed to be moving along the 'wall.'
Cameraguy then whacked this - our biggest of the day a little over 3 pounds half way to the boat:
We missed a couple more and then a little ways around the tip I caught a 12-13 incher. We were running out of time, so instead of heading down the lake to the next log/brush pile (one reason we tried the cranks - so we could move along faster), we decided to move through the same spot with our slow baits.
Again, the bass were dictating the rhythm. These bass didn’t want a slow bait. I switched back to the blue/chartreuse FF Shad (middle size – fingerling) and had two hard hits I missed. I was sure a muskie had finally showed up, but I immediately tossed the crankbait back along the edge of the boat through the same spot.
Wham! Hard hit again and here comes a decent largemouth. So it wasn’t a musky. We decide to stay a little longer…
But these bass aren’t just going to jump in the boat. It was like the bass would either wake up, or a couple more would swim into our ‘area’ or our constantly changing angles would trigger 1 more to bite. We managed 1 more respectable keeper and lost a nice one about 15 minutes later and then called it a day.
I don’t know how other folks went because we didn’t talk to many, but all we saw were small panfish being caught and talked to 1 boat that had caught 1 small bass. It also appeared that many boats that came in early also left early. It wasn’t a blisteringly hot bite, but a respectable day that we both agreed was fun.
We got there shortly after 8 AM with several cameras (it's what cameraguy does after all) and high hopes for some repeat bass whacking. It didn't take long to see things were going to be different today.
It started getting HOT! With a light to no breeze, we really felt it most of the time too. I started a little different than I would normally, but I thought I had a great plan to get some shallow fish quick and then some worm fish off one of the many humps on this lowland reservoir. We wanted to get some tape and pictures during the good low light.
The bass had other ideas.
After a few hours of fishing - no muskies (first time this year) and only two small bass, maybe one keeper, on a green-pumpkin finesse worm and a black/blue Power lizard, both Texas-rigged.
We missed a few bites and had what was probably some bluegill hitting the smaller worms. But along the way we tried shallow to deeper cranks, jerkbaits, various worms and creatures, Carolina rigs, some topwater and stick worms.
At first, the lake was alarmingly quiet, but as late morning passed, we did start seeing more minnow and bluegill activity. Nothing like previous trips this year, but it looked like the lake was warming up.
We figured we had to try something different. The weeds and scum are dying back. Thicker weed lines in some areas on only in 6 feet or so and that may not be deep enough for some bass with water temps 82 to 85 F.
So the next available cover besides going into the really thick stuff with lots of dying tops, is to look for the deep wood along and in the original river channel.
We head for a smaller wood pile I know we can fish completely fairly quick. It turns out to be a great move as 5 keepers are quickly caught on a Carolina-rigged green pumpkin brush hog.
Using a 3/4 oz bullet sinker (for getting through milfoil better) and a 2 foot leader, we bounced the sinker off the wood to get the attention of the bass.
After 5 quick bass up to about 2 3/4 pounds, they got on to us. We only had 1 bite after that, but decided to head for larger wood piles. I also tried cranking the real deep wood, but after donating a nice full-size Fat Free Shad, I stuck to the Carolina-rig and cameraguy through other weedless rigs.
We couldn't duplicate our success on the next two brush piles, but with the food chain heating up a little more as the day plodded along (it seemed that way at times today), I thought we should check one of the big humps again that has a deeper weedline still in 7 and 8 feet with some weed clumps going out into 9 and 10 feet.
We were hoping bass would move along and use the 'clean lip' for some feeding on the gills and shiners. For a change to work the area quick, we went back to Fat Free shads in citrus and parrot (blue/chartreuse) and immediately got a small keeper and lost a nice one. The bass were out from the weeds a little ways and seemed to be moving along the 'wall.'
Cameraguy then whacked this - our biggest of the day a little over 3 pounds half way to the boat:
We missed a couple more and then a little ways around the tip I caught a 12-13 incher. We were running out of time, so instead of heading down the lake to the next log/brush pile (one reason we tried the cranks - so we could move along faster), we decided to move through the same spot with our slow baits.
Again, the bass were dictating the rhythm. These bass didn’t want a slow bait. I switched back to the blue/chartreuse FF Shad (middle size – fingerling) and had two hard hits I missed. I was sure a muskie had finally showed up, but I immediately tossed the crankbait back along the edge of the boat through the same spot.
Wham! Hard hit again and here comes a decent largemouth. So it wasn’t a musky. We decide to stay a little longer…
But these bass aren’t just going to jump in the boat. It was like the bass would either wake up, or a couple more would swim into our ‘area’ or our constantly changing angles would trigger 1 more to bite. We managed 1 more respectable keeper and lost a nice one about 15 minutes later and then called it a day.
I don’t know how other folks went because we didn’t talk to many, but all we saw were small panfish being caught and talked to 1 boat that had caught 1 small bass. It also appeared that many boats that came in early also left early. It wasn’t a blisteringly hot bite, but a respectable day that we both agreed was fun.