May 24, 2015
Fishing Time: 7:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Rating: 8
Weather Conditions: Overcast skies
Bait: Drop Shot with Strike King Green Pumpkin Dream Shot Worm and Quick Drop 1/4 ounce weight
Rod: Megabass Orochi XX Drop Shot Rod
Reel: Shimano Sustain
Line: 7-pound Sunline Super Sniper FC
Total Bass Caught: 7
Final Weigh in Weight: 5.75 pounds
I finally found a free day that I could get out onto the lake and I decided to make the most of it by starting bright and early. Since I had so much time, I started on the first point to the right of the boat launch. I tied on my trusty drop shot and cast over to one of the docks. Instantly, it was picked up and a fish started running with it. I set the hook and tried to bring it in, but unfortunately it shook off. I was a little disappointed about missing a bite, but was excited that I got a bite on the first cast. After that, I continued down the docks until I came to a dock with a wide gap between the pillars and the swim ladder. I cast right in-between the two and hooked into another bass. I got it all the way to the boat side and tried to pull it in, but as soon as I pulled it out of the water it shook off. At this point, I was extremely mad at myself for not being able to get two bass in the boat, but after awhile I realized that it was still a good sign that I was getting so many bites. I continued down the right side for quite a while without any success, until I eventually came to my favorite two-tiered dock. I cast to the swimming platform and my lure was hammered. I set the hook, but missed yet another bite. After this, I continued down to the v-shaped dock and didn’t have any success. I knew that I needed to get one in the boat to help my confidence, so I headed over to the trusty rock dock. I cast over to the rock multiple times, but wasn’t able to get any bites. I was just about to leave and made my final cast to the front side of the dock. I felt a subtle bite and set the hook. This time it stayed on and I was able to land a small 0.75 pound smallmouth. I then moved on to the next point and found a nice floating dock. I cast over to it and was able to land another 0.75 pound smallmouth. After this, the right side became a little weedy, so I moved over to a cove next to the sunken forest on the left side. This cove was protected from the wind and was extremely calm, so it was definitely promising. At the very first dock I came to I was able to land a nice 1 pound smallmouth. Just a few docks later, I landed another 0.75 pound smallmouth. I wanted to fish the rest of the docks in the cove, but unfortunately I came across another bass boat and had to move. It seemed that everywhere I looked there were bass boats, so I decided to motor all the way up to the north end of the lake. I fished around there for a while, but didn’t have any success. I was considering pulling out when I spotted some docks on a point that had a rocky bottom (I later discovered that this point was called bass cove). It was on my very first cast to one of these docks that I was able to land a 1 pound smallmouth. At the very next dock, I felt something smash my worm. I set the hook and had a long battle with a monster smallmouth. I was just about to bring it in, when it jumped up and snapped my line. I got a good look at the bass and estimate that it was probably a good 3-4 pounder, so I was absolutely devastated. I kept casting back to that same dock in hopes that it would come back, but didn’t have any luck. A few docks later, I came to a two-tiered dock. I cast over to it and landed yet another 0.75 pound smallmouth. It got weedy after that and I was forced to motor over to a small gravel beach. There were only a few docks along this gravel beach, but it was in a good depth, so I decided to give them a try. On the very first dock I tried, I landed a 0.75 smallmouth. I had hope for the second and third ones, but I wasn’t able to get any bites from them. After that I decided to call it a day and head in, satisfied with my seven bass, but still hurting over the loss of the monster.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 63-66 degrees, which is right about where I would expect it at this time of the year. I didn’t see any bedding bass, which leads me to believe that they are in the post spawn stage right now. I caught my bass in 16-30 feet of water and all of them came on docks with a rocky bottom. The bass seemed to be a lot more active today, which is always a good sign, but besides the one monster I missed, they were all pretty small. Green pumpkin seemed to be the go to color today, as I didn’t get any interest on any other color. All in all, it was a great day of fishing and I look forward to hooking into some bigger bass the next time out.