Shown is a typical section of the shoreline of one of he lakes that I’ve been talking about recently.  Shadow lake is the other.  As you can see, this shoreline  is rough.  Fishing from shore is extremely limited except for a few small stretches that is accessible.

Fishing from a boat is the only way to fish these lakes safely and with the best chance of catching the "big one".  Well, I haven’t caught any of the big ones as yet here, with mostly bass in the 2 to 3 lb range.  Some people, (few is a better word) have claimed to catch fish larger than that.

Shadow lake is even more inaccessible.  Imagine pulling a 17′ canoe through brush that is shown in the picture.  That is what Ivan and I did a few weeks ago as mentioned in my web site.  There is some shore that is accessible, but is very limited.

To try to lessen the burden, Ivan and I decided to try fishing Shadow lake from rubber canoes/boats.  Ivan liked my Coleman canoe and decided to buy it from me and I would buy another.  I decided to purchase a Sevylor raft.  My daughter Theresa and son Timm (in law) loaned me their Eagle raft during my visit with them at "little Wolf" and I liked it, but I wanted one just a little bigger.  The Sevylor seemed to fit my budget better too.  

Ivan and I were to try them this week but things just didn’t work out so, we’ve had to postpone that trip.  Instead, I went to Sunset lake to fish.  See fishing Sunset Lake.  Tight lines.

Jim

A good day today.  The wind was from the N.W. at about 10-15 mph and the water was at near capacity; 5 feet. 

I tried some of  my favorites at first with a Yum craw in pumpkinseed, a Swimmin-Minnow on my fly rod, Strike King jig with a Yum craw in orange/brown, a Road Runner with a Berkley ribbon tail in blue/grey and finally a Beetlespin spinner with the Swinnin-Minnow, which is shown here.

I managed to catch one small bass on the Yum Craw and had a few light taps with it but I think it was bluegill taps, very light.  All the others didn’t get a rise at all, except for the bait shown.

At  first I thought that it was going to be a bad day especially after the first 1 1/2 hours of nothing.

Then I tied on the Bettlespin with the Swimmin-Minnow.

I first connected with a small bass which was immediately followed by a nice crappie and the another.  About seven in all as I moved about the pond close to shore.  If I tried out from shore nothing happened.  The key was stay close and parallel the shoreline next to the brush and tree overhangs.  The problem was several hang-ups and having to move on when I retrieved my lure and spooked the fish. 

But moving on was good.  Along the shore I picked up three more bass, a channel cat, and four nice 8" bluegill.

The moral of this story is, "keep trying until you connect"!

Because of the wind, I was pretty much confined to using my spinning rods loaded with 8 lb test mono.  Trying my flyrod with the wind  at my back kept my casts short especially with the wind gusts, so I didn’t try any poppers today. 

That’s it for now.  Tight lines.

Jim

This is where I keep losing that "Big One".  The tree fell into the lake a few years ago and it seems a very large bass has taken residence here.  The fish, whenever I hook up with it, heads straight for the sunken branches and invariably breaks my line.  When I’ve tried heavier line with a more  stout pole, I can’t get him to bite.  But, When I use my fly rod with the "Swimmin-Minnow"  he hits hard.  I can’t turn him with the fly rod fast enough.  Any suggestions?

Tight lines

Jim