Senkosam
Member
This one lake I've fished for over 40 years has taught me one thing: expect the unexpected. Some fish locations are seasonal and predictable, but others, after the spawn not so much. Case in point:
I always fish in shallow water on flats where spawns take place. Once the spawn is done, many fish are still in the same areas but under pads. I hate fishing pads! It's a hit-or-miss situation where fish seem more skittish from midmorning on. So, the only other areas to fish is usually in deeper water that has some form of structure. But this year was a shocker from May to the present.
In one lake, fish were scattered on a shallow flat with little vegetation and in flats parallel to shorelines. All fish were caught on mid-deep lures like the Micro Chatterbait with plastic worm, boot tail lures (swimbaits to some), jerk worms, Beetle Spins and small float-dive crankbaits. The bite lasted into the afternoon.
On a different lake I fished 2 days ago, the bite was super shallow near shoreline edges and adjoining flats. Again, little or no vegetation.
In the first spot I fished, I caught over a dozen panfish using small soft plastics. At first, all I got were nippers but no hook-ups on 2.5" lures. Once I downsized to 1.5" soft plastics, fish after fish!
The lure on the left, rigged on a 1/32 oz jig, was made using a Trout Magnet tail attached to a small tube body. The one on the right was another body attached to a thin tail. It caught pannies and 5 small bass like the one shown.
Another lure, that shocked the crap out of me, is called the RUNCL - a swim bait with textured body and thin tail:
The 4" version seen above wasn't cutting it in the morning, so I cut it in half and fish slammed it! The full-size lure caught fish like the white perch in the photo, in open water parallel to the shore. In fact, 10 fish were caught under a bright, hot sun in mid-afternoon in deeper water, no vegetation, although some pads in deeper water held fish.
As the day wore on, fish seemed to wake up and get more aggressive to larger lures such as this grub body minus the curl tail:
Now I was able to go up in jig weight to 1/16 oz. for longer casts and working deeper water with larger lures.
Here's one location that did well early on - water next to the rocks and on the rock flats on this point:
The above held fish at 9:30 am and then again at 3pm. That never happened before this year!
On the other side of the point, I caught fish under sun-protected overhangs:
In total (before it got too hot to fish - 85 degrees), I caught 49 fish, mostly panfish: i.e., yellow and white perch, small bass, crappie and sunfish in surprising locations on micro-size lures. The bite may have been influenced by the major storm arriving in the evening, where fish beforehand get a bit irritable.
Thanks for reading.
I always fish in shallow water on flats where spawns take place. Once the spawn is done, many fish are still in the same areas but under pads. I hate fishing pads! It's a hit-or-miss situation where fish seem more skittish from midmorning on. So, the only other areas to fish is usually in deeper water that has some form of structure. But this year was a shocker from May to the present.
In one lake, fish were scattered on a shallow flat with little vegetation and in flats parallel to shorelines. All fish were caught on mid-deep lures like the Micro Chatterbait with plastic worm, boot tail lures (swimbaits to some), jerk worms, Beetle Spins and small float-dive crankbaits. The bite lasted into the afternoon.
On a different lake I fished 2 days ago, the bite was super shallow near shoreline edges and adjoining flats. Again, little or no vegetation.
In the first spot I fished, I caught over a dozen panfish using small soft plastics. At first, all I got were nippers but no hook-ups on 2.5" lures. Once I downsized to 1.5" soft plastics, fish after fish!
The lure on the left, rigged on a 1/32 oz jig, was made using a Trout Magnet tail attached to a small tube body. The one on the right was another body attached to a thin tail. It caught pannies and 5 small bass like the one shown.
Another lure, that shocked the crap out of me, is called the RUNCL - a swim bait with textured body and thin tail:
The 4" version seen above wasn't cutting it in the morning, so I cut it in half and fish slammed it! The full-size lure caught fish like the white perch in the photo, in open water parallel to the shore. In fact, 10 fish were caught under a bright, hot sun in mid-afternoon in deeper water, no vegetation, although some pads in deeper water held fish.
As the day wore on, fish seemed to wake up and get more aggressive to larger lures such as this grub body minus the curl tail:
Now I was able to go up in jig weight to 1/16 oz. for longer casts and working deeper water with larger lures.
Here's one location that did well early on - water next to the rocks and on the rock flats on this point:
The above held fish at 9:30 am and then again at 3pm. That never happened before this year!
On the other side of the point, I caught fish under sun-protected overhangs:
In total (before it got too hot to fish - 85 degrees), I caught 49 fish, mostly panfish: i.e., yellow and white perch, small bass, crappie and sunfish in surprising locations on micro-size lures. The bite may have been influenced by the major storm arriving in the evening, where fish beforehand get a bit irritable.
Thanks for reading.
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