Here's my report of the day. Woke up and was moving like a man of a much more advanced age, so it took more than the usual cup of coffee to get myself in the truck. Got on the water about 30 minutes late, But it still was dark and strangely cool out. Pedaled over to Hauser, with my basic plan to fish the opening, drag about on the island with deep crankbaits and then to the back for topwater for a bit, and then back to the opening of hauser for the boils at 1000. Water temp at 0500 was 78.5F, by the end of the day (1200) it only moved to 82.6F. Air temp leaving was 98F. Also leaving the wind was howling in the main lake.
It may have been me, but I thought the day was kind of slow. From 0500-0815 I had gotten only ( Barrett spoils you ) 9 bass, the biggest being 2 pounds 4 ounces, but most were around a pound. All on my favorite little solid black popper. No jerkbait bite at all and nothing on jig or underspin. I did manage to land a rather impressive tree branch from where the island is, on a crankbait. Honestly at first I thought it was the fish of a lifetime. If it wasn't still dark I would have taken a picture of it. I did follow the rules and released it.
Then at 0815 I caught a large bluegill and thought I might as well catch some fish. I had a small 1/16 oz jig with a grub body, it was a curly tail, but I pinched it off. I had planned on this for the boiling bass, but I also had it on 4lb test and a springy rod. It's almost as if my subconscious did some planning. For the next 15-20 minutes I caught 20 bluegill, all good size and had so much fun. At that point I was no longer moving slow and went to go find some larger fish. On that light rod and light line, it sure was a great time. I made it over to a spot where I saw some activity and through no skill at all, found myself in the middle of three different schools of bass. So one would pop up and I'd be casting range, catch someone and then when I unhooked them, one of the other schools would pop up. This went on for almost an hour. I added 16 bass to my total in an hour. The jerkbait matched the jig for success. But they are focused on small fish. I sent my 4 inch topwater and didn't even get a sniff in the middle of a boil. The largest bass being a 3 pound 6 ouncer caught on the 4lb rig..I feel I got very lucky and the fish went the wrong way into open water, where I could tire him out with the drag. Then the wind came up and the surface action went quiet. I was so tired in a good way, I felt that was a sign to pedal myself in. Total for the day 25 Bass, 20 Bluegill and one forgotten Crappie. Have fun out there, but drink lots of water, it's toasty.
- My big fish of the day
- Good detective work will tell you where I was. Exactly.
- This is the fish who convinced me to fish for bluegill
