Quick report for today. Arrived later in the morning, 0700, met my buddy Jim and pedaled over to Hauser. Air temp was mid 70s F I think, water temp was 77F. Jim held a seminar on fishing offshore structure with a jig and boated 7 fish before I even got started. I pedaled around and picked up 1 fish on a popper in Becky's cove. We both moved in an easterly direction to get to the back sections of Hauser, over that time, I picked up a few more popper fish and a few jerkbait fish. Jim kept chasing the bass and I decided to go into the bluegill section of the lake and play around with bluegills. They were a little tougher today and I only got three good ones and a bunch of smaller, should I say, normal size bluegills and not the typical 3/4 pound beauties that Barrett provides. Around then is the time when they usually are busting if they are going to bust, but there was a lot of wind. Didn't see a lot of busters at all. So I played about until 1130, chasing where I thought they'd be and cheating a little with the new toy, a panoptix live scope. I probed around with a mid depth crankbait and my favorite jerkbait. Finally I got a decent one and then I had an angry follow. Three bass ( decent size) all chasing and positioning around my jerkbait. They couldn't seem to hit it though. When I reeled it in I saw the lip had broken and it was doing some craziness in the water. Tied on a new one and that's when I found myself in an area they were busting. It was pretty non-stop for the next hour or so and I managed 23 bass for the day. Also saw a fish come down out of a jump onto my stickbait. That was a first. Water never got above 79 degrees.
The usual selfie with a decent fish
Panoptix in the background showing this guy has some friends available.
JWall wrote: ↑Sat Aug 12, 2023 8:21 pm
In the market for a new FF and will give the Panoptix a good look. Thanks for your report. Going next Saturday!
See you Saturday. I'm really happy with the Panoptix/livescope. The hardest part of the install was milling my transducer bracket to allow it to invert, so my transducer stays above the bottom of the boat. I also installed a separate power switch for the panoptix, so when I am not using it, it doesn't draw power. That unit draws between 2 and 5 amps while running. I only have 20AH of batteries in the kayak. Look around for sales, I got the panoptix for $999 and I think the 93SV UHD was $599, but they aren't stocking it at a lot of places, so maybe it's going to be discontinued?
On my end, Today was an experimental one where I tried to get into a larger grade of fish. I started off strong with 7 fish on the jig out of 20 feet of water, got 3 more on flylined 6 inch Tiki Shad’s,(Similar to Yamamoto Shad Worms) they sink enticingly and fast on a 4/0 EWG heavy flipping hook, I fish them like a jig tossing them on the outside edges of the tree line, line watching on the fall then a “ Dying Baitfish” up and down retrieve. I threw the 8 inch Glide Bait a lot for no takes. Made a fateful decision as the wind came up. I went back to where I got the Jig Fish instead of following the Lake Pro (Early Release) while he was hammering the busting Bass, I picked up one in the middle of the lake heading to my spot on an Underspin, then dumped a nice Jig fish that was hooked by a thread, I missed thumbing him twice before he jumped next to the yak and sat there staring at me before swimming off. My very own Early Release. So I only landed 11. We got off the water and had a great late lunch in Jamul with Dave before my Drive back to Orange County. Great day at any other Lake. Quite the adventure.
