River Bend 8-25-11 Very slow day on the lake
It was a beautiful day, 84 degrees, clear skies, and a small breeze out of the North West. I usually start my fishing in a cove near the boat ramp where there’s a couple of nice points and the shore drops off on about a 45 degree angle to about 30 feet of water. There’s an inside and an outside stretch of weeds and a shelf where some bass spawn in the springtime. The weeds are tall and the tops are above the water. I like to fish the outside edge.
I started out with my new Rapala tail dancer crank bait as I did during my last session here and caught a nice two pounder, but this time nada.
I saw some small bass swimming around near the shore near the surface so, I got out my fly rod with a chartreuse and white clausen minnow thinking they’re after those small minnows that are in abundance in this lake. No, takers.
so, I thought go to your go to stick worm, a Yum watermelon/pearl that has worked so well on previous occasions. Nothing. Well, I cast it out again and let it sink to the bottom while I was looking at my other pre rigged rods thinking what should I try next. The stick worm answered my question: a nice two pound bass had picked the stick worm up off the bottom.
Well, I thought, lets try leaving the stick work to settle on the bottom while I use another rod, (two rods are allowed in Illinois).
So, I was still seeing some smaller bass near the surface and I thought a fly rod with a popper might do the trick. Nada. I also tried a frog on one of my other rods on top on the weeds without a single strike.
My fish finder was seeing fish at the 5 to 13 foot level, so I tried a silver no lip crank and on another rod a bass colored shad rap still keeping the Yum on the bottom and moving it after each cast just a little. After an hour of this without result I moved on. This was going to be a tough day and it was.
Instead of going to the reeds or the hump I crossed over to the west side of the lake to get out of the wind that had come up. This way the wind would be behind me as I worked that shore on my way back to the boat ramp. I usually do better on this shore. There is a sharp drop of about 50 degrees on most of this shore and some brush and weeds near shore and it gets the first shade in the afternoon,
I know where the bluegill hang out on this shoreline so, I got out my five fly rods each with a different fly, the popper, the clauser minnow, a black ant, a purple/black wooly bugger, and a tiny Yum Craw on a # 6 octopus hook. I got two taps…!!! Wow! nothing is biting!
I tried a couple more cranks, spinners, and creature bait…nothing. But, the bluegill would come up and nip at the yum stick worm regularly. So, I stuck with the stick worm the rest of the evening.
I hooked up with a small bass that got off at the boat, and one more bass just before getting to the boat ramp.
Total: Two 2lb bass in about 4 1/2 hours…but I had fun!
Tight lines
Jim
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