May 27, 2019
Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Rating: 10
Weather Conditions: Sunny with Clear Skies
Bait: Gary Yamamoto 5″ Green Pumpkin/Watermelon Senko with 1/0 Gamakatsu Wacky Worm Hook
Rod: G-Loomis GX2 Jig and Worm Rod
Reel: Quantum Catalyst PT
Line: 8-pound Seaguar InvizX Fluorocarbon
Total Bass Caught: 6
Final Weigh in Weight: 11.3 pounds
With this being a 3-day weekend, I decided that there would be no better way to spend the extra day off than on the water hunting for some monster bass. I knew that it was going to be a scorcher, so I hit the lake around 7:30 a.m. in order to beat the heat and capitalize on the early morning bite. I started the day off at the lily pads just right of the boat launch and used a wacky-rigged worm to work the edge of the lilies. I wanted to cover water quickly, so I mainly targeted the pockets and points formed by the lily pads. The outer lilies were still growing in and didn’t provide any action, but once I got back into the thicker vegetation my luck turned. I made a cast to a patch of lilies that extended out near a piece of fallen timber and almost instantly saw my line jump. I gave a huge hook set and knew that I had a solid bass on the line. Pulling the bass out of the thick vegetation proved to be difficult, but after a great fight I was able to get the largemouth bass in the boat. When I put it on the scale it came out to be a solid 2.49 pounder. I was thrilled to land my first largemouth of the season and wanted to continue fishing the lilies, but another bass boat was fishing the area, so I decided to head over to Newcastle Beach Park. As soon as I arrived at the park, the wind really started to pick up, so after a few casts I decided to head to more protected waters and fish the V-Mac. The V-Mac was really calm and shady compared to the rest of the lake and set up perfectly for some nice smallmouth. On only my second cast, I was able to get a bass to bite in a shady pocket surrounded by fallen timber. After a solid fight I was able to bring the bass into the boat. This one hit the scales at 2 pounds even. A few casts later, I made a skip cast under an overhanging tree and let my worm fall slowly to the bottom. I was just about ready to retrieve my worm, when I felt something hammer my lure. I quickly set the hook and managed to bring the 1.87 pound smallmouth into the boat. At this point, I knew that the bass were keying in on shallow, shaded areas, so I motored over to fish some of the docks next to the V-Mac. The first dock that I came to was really promising, as it sat in less than 10 feet of water and was surrounded by vegetation. My casts around the side of the dock didn’t yield anything, so I skipped my worm under the swim ladder to see if I could entice a bass to bite. I let my worm fall to the bottom and once I felt it make contact, quickly popped it back up. Almost immediately, I saw my line swimming off, so I gave a big hook set and was into another quality bass. This one ended up being a 2.05 pound largemouth. With three bass in less than 20 minutes, I knew that I was onto a pattern, so I continued ahead to a shady patch of water covered by an overhanging tree. A few casts in this area resulted in me snagging a 1 pound smallmouth. After that, I worked my way over to an old wooden dock to try my luck. I didn’t get anything to bite on my first two casts, but then I spotted an isolated log under the dock. I cast over to it and was instantly met with a huge tug on my line. I set the hook and managed to bring in the 1.89 smallmouth that had devoured my bait. This was one of the hottest stretches I’ve ever experienced and I wanted to keep the magic going, but with tons of ski boats on the water and people starting to swim around their docks, I decided to call it a day and head in.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 61-63 degrees, which was surprisingly cold for this late in the month. It didn’t seem to matter though as the bass were extremely active and devouring my baits throughout the day. All of the bass that I caught were found in shady areas and required precise casts in order to get them to bite. In addition, the bass were rather shallow and found in less than 10 feet of water. One thing that I noticed was that the bass all had really big guts on them, indicating that the bass may be spawning later than expected. It was extremely encouraging to catch both the quality and quantity of bass that I did in such a short span of time today. Add on top of this that my two biggest fish were both largemouth and I can easily say that today was the best outings of the year.