July 22, 2016
Fishing Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Rating: 4
Weather Conditions: Overcast skies with heavy winds
Bait: Drop Shot with Poor Boy’s Baits Green Pumpkin Erie Darter 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: 3
Final Weigh in Weight: 3.77 pounds
I am always looking to take new people out fishing and when I heard that my dad’s friend wanted to try his hand at bass fishing, I knew that this was an opportunity to introduce someone new to the sport. I started out the outing explaining what things I look for when picking a bass spot and then went on to teach him how to tie a Carolina Rig and a Drop Shot Rig. After that it was time to get our lines in the water. It was really windy, so I decided to start us off in a secluded cove on the right hand side of the lake where we would be protected from the wind. As we were motoring over there I noticed a steep drop off on my fish finder, so when we first got there I cast over to the drop off. I twitched my worm a few times and then felt something nibble my worm. I waited until I felt my line get heavy and then set the hook. It was a quick fight with the bass, as it ended up being a dink 0.5 pounder. Although it was a small bass, it was still a bass on the first cast, which made me hopeful that today was going to be a good day. I continued working that drop off and missed a few bites, so I moved on to a deep dock located on the edge of a drop off. I cast over to the dock and worked my worm down the drop off. Once it hit the bottom of the drop off, I saw my line go slack. I quickly picked up the slack and set the hook. I had a great fight with the bass and when I put it on the scale it came out to be a 1.67 pound smallmouth. After that the wind changed direction, so I decided to move over to the other side of the lake to another cove that was protected from the wind. When we got there I cast out to the deep drop offs and slowly hopped my worm back to the boat. On my third cast, I was able to get something to bite and managed to land another decent bass. This one came out to be 1.60 pounds. I then spotted another nice drop off on my fish finder, so I told my dad’s friend to cast over to it. He did so and managed to land two solid bass from that drop off. After that we tried the v-shaped dock and the stretch of docks on the second point on the right hand side, but aside from a few missed bites there wasn’t much action over there. It then got dark and we were forced to call it a day.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 71-73 degrees, which is about the same as the last time I went out. The bass have moved a lot deeper and I caught mine all in 25+ feet of water. They seem to have migrated from the docks and now are hanging around steep drop offs that run down to 30 feet of water. I have managed to catch decent sized bass over my last few outings, but haven’t been able to hook into any big ones. I will need to try to find out where they are hiding, but my guess is that they are farther up towards the north side of the lake.