Senkosam
Member
The torrential rain in May and June have raised the lake level to a point where unseasonal fish locations and especially schools made for quite a day! By this time, the weeds in shallow water are denser with fewer open areas to retrieve any distance. Granted, I could pitch jigs all day in weed pockets and get a few, but I'd rather cast-&-reel, covering more water in open water locations.
I don't have a clue why some fish in schools would be holding near shore in 2', but each school held over a dozen fish that bit different soft plastics. The bottoms were soft and hard but all needed vegetation at the water's edge (for which I have no idea why.) The pads held some fish but hit or miss. Bright sun didn't affect the shallow water pattern and shaded areas also held fish in 2':
I got lazy and rotated through few lures than usual seeing as how I like to test many lure shapes when the bite is on. But at least I got to use different plastics with the Beetle Spin to confirm they were still good such as the flat tail worm and Crappie Magnet:
Other did well also such as joining two different bodies together to make a mini stick:
...or adding a spike tail: to a short worm body
...and of course the Crappie Magnet tail was added to a worm segment and on the right, a segment of the mini stick that caught the bass.
;
As you can see form the above, nothing is straight from a package. All are hybrids or modified in some way.
The sunnies were pretty hefty and gave a nice fight, but the yellow and white perch, bass and crappie were nothing to brag about. Key was using a 1/32 oz. jig for very shallow water and a 1/16 oz for deeper areas. A slow retrieve with pauses is always a must when it comes to finesse lures.
Important: ALL LURES SHOWN ARE INTERCHANGEBLE meaning, you could catch fish on any single one of them guaranteed!
Before it gets too hot, today I'm fishing a different lake that has different bottom structure such as flats with no pads, but bottom weeds the fish suspend over and shoreline flats that drop fast into 18'. This lake will also be higher due to the heavy rains and fish locations may also surprise me.
I don't have a clue why some fish in schools would be holding near shore in 2', but each school held over a dozen fish that bit different soft plastics. The bottoms were soft and hard but all needed vegetation at the water's edge (for which I have no idea why.) The pads held some fish but hit or miss. Bright sun didn't affect the shallow water pattern and shaded areas also held fish in 2':
I got lazy and rotated through few lures than usual seeing as how I like to test many lure shapes when the bite is on. But at least I got to use different plastics with the Beetle Spin to confirm they were still good such as the flat tail worm and Crappie Magnet:
Other did well also such as joining two different bodies together to make a mini stick:
...or adding a spike tail: to a short worm body
...and of course the Crappie Magnet tail was added to a worm segment and on the right, a segment of the mini stick that caught the bass.
As you can see form the above, nothing is straight from a package. All are hybrids or modified in some way.
The sunnies were pretty hefty and gave a nice fight, but the yellow and white perch, bass and crappie were nothing to brag about. Key was using a 1/32 oz. jig for very shallow water and a 1/16 oz for deeper areas. A slow retrieve with pauses is always a must when it comes to finesse lures.
Important: ALL LURES SHOWN ARE INTERCHANGEBLE meaning, you could catch fish on any single one of them guaranteed!
Before it gets too hot, today I'm fishing a different lake that has different bottom structure such as flats with no pads, but bottom weeds the fish suspend over and shoreline flats that drop fast into 18'. This lake will also be higher due to the heavy rains and fish locations may also surprise me.
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