June 15, 2019
Fishing Time: 7:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Rating: 6
Weather Conditions: Overcast
Bait: Gary Yamamoto 5″ Green Pumpkin/Watermelon Senko with 1/0 Gamakatsu Wacky Worm Hook; Drop Shot with Poor Boy’s Baits Green Pumpkin Erie Darter and Quick Drop 1/4 ounce weight; Lucky Craft Flash Pointer Chartreuse Shad 115 Jerkbait
Rod: Megabass Orochi XX Whipsnake; G-Loomis GX2 Jig and Worm Rod; Abu Garcia Veritas Winch Crankbait Rod
Reel: Shimano Sustain; Quantum Catalyst PT; Shimano Curado Casting Reel
Line: 8-pound Sunline Sniper FC Fluorocarbon; 8-pound Seaguar InvizX Fluorocarbon; 12-pound Yo-Zuri Hybrid Fishing Line
Total Bass Caught: 5
Final Weigh in Weight: 5.02 pounds
Early weekend mornings have been providing me some great fishing this year, so to keep the momentum going I woke up and hit the lake at 7:00 a.m. As has become standard, I started the day off by heading straight to the lilies right of the boat launch. When I arrived, there was already a boat in the area, so I decided to give them some space and fish the secondary patch of lilies closer to shore. On my fifth cast of the day, I cast to a point formed by some extended lilies and let my worm fall to the bottom. I didn’t feel anything bite on the initial fall, but after a few twitches of my worm I saw my line take off. I gave a huge hook set and after pulling the bass through some thick vegetation, managed to get it into the boat. When I put it onto the scale, it came out to be a solid 1.52 pound largemouth. As soon as I released the bass, I noticed that the battery on my boat was dead, rendering my trolling motor and my fish finder useless. With no means of stealthily navigating through the lilies, I decided to head over to the V-Mac to see what I could get to bite. The water at the V-Mac was extremely clear and after a few casts it became obvious that I needed to start fishing some deeper water. The rocky docks opposite of the V-Mac perfectly fit this bill. The first few docks I came to were a little weedy, but once the bottom cleared up I was able to get a bass to bite. I made a cast over to the left of the swim ladder and before my drop shot weight even hit the bottom, I felt a bass swimming away with it. I gave a quick hook set and after a great fight was able to bring the 1.25 pound smallmouth into the boat. A few docks later, a cast left of the swim ladder yielded another solid bite. Unfortunately, I was unable to keep the bass from jumping, which resulted in me losing it before I could get it back to the boat. I would estimate it to be a 2 pounder that got away. Fortunately, my disappointment didn’t last long, as I was able to land a 1 pound smallmouth on my very next cast. After that the docks became weedy again, so I decided to motor over to fish the rocky flats near Newport Shores beach. I haven’t had much success with jerkbaits this year, but today was a different story. On my very first cast at Newport Shores Beach I had a bass hammer my jerkbait. After a solid fight I swung the bass into the boat. This one came out to be another 1 pound smallmouth. Two casts later, I got yet another bite on my jerkbait. This one was a little smaller and only weighed in at 0.75 pounds. Shortly after I released that bass, I managed to get one more smallmouth to bite. This one was my smallest of the day at 0.5 pounds. After that, I was met with a slew of bass boats fishing the mouth of the canals, so I decided to call it a day and head in.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 66-67 degrees, which is right about where I would expect it to be at this time of the year. However, the one thing that did surprise me was the water level. The water was extremely low, which resulted in there being a lot more areas in the lake where you could see the bottom. This may have forced some of the bigger bass to deeper water and will be something to monitor moving forward.