South to North

[swamptuna]

Last Tuesday I went to the South lake hoping to keep a pretty good trend of big fish going only to get totally frustrated.  After everything that was working before, I couldn't catch a bass to save my life, except for a couple of small ones.  The water was really clear, so I went to the very back of some weedy bays and could see beds and bass everywhere.  Anytime I saw a school of bluegill, there were beds and bass getting ready to spawn, I think. Even being able to see all those fish, I could only get one to bite? Must be some kind of trick? I don't have a problem getting spawning smallies to bite.. It was breezy and I couldn't stay on top of them long so maybe a power pole would have been the ticket!

So, time to head North and fish Smallies. Friday went with the GF and Saturday morning with a friend and my bro. Water temps were in the mid to high 50's and seemed to constantly change depending on the wind and sun, of course that is surface temp from my transducer.  The fishing wasn't fast and furious, but it was good with lots of big ones......



We had 4 or 5 doubles, this one included a largemouth in my smallie spot! I was trying to take a selfie - oh well.




Humm, says I can only put three pics in? Anyway, most any plastic bait would work, worms always seem to work well, I like the soft plastic jerkbaits and small jigs also worked... I think they are close to spawning, some probably are, too choppy to see much though!

[swamptuna]

I'll see if I can add more pics this way



I measured one for Roy, this one was 21 7/8" but still no scale...


I hate to waste one of three photo slots, but oh well...


Strange looking smallie

[rgang4]

Many of us including myself have been frustrated with the south lake. Never seen it fish this way before. I haven’t looked for or fished for spawning fish for years. No need for a long time. Always found fish in stages up there. Sure there is a slow down, but always caught big prespawn and big post spawn fish together. Now it’s only smaller fish and very few at that.
Power pole would be great for bed fishing. LM can be as aggressive as SM but you need to be undetected to increase your chances. If you can do that the next most important thing is lure selection. My best luck has been with small tubes rigged light on on T rig and in a natural color that mimicked bluegills or crayfish. Angles are important too. For whatever reason a lure coming into a bed from one direction gets taken while another gets ignored.

Thanks for posting Scot. Those are some awesome smallies!!!!

[Brian]

Good post! Fun to catch those smallies in cold water, easier the reel in and then cast for another one .