knobcreek

Cut out of work early today to shore fish from 330-5pm. Water was calmer than I would have liked fishing from shore. I was fishing a T-rigged creature bait over some emerging lily pad stems... Third cast, tick, tick, and I go to set the hook: and bam, my line breaks...dam, bad knot, line? Don't know. Retie the same rig, at about my 3rd cast as I made my way over to same area where I broke-off, feel some weight on the line, set the hook, Feels like a brick on there. Reel it close and I knew it was a nice one...and look there is some line hanging out of her mouth...I have her hooked nicely in the side of her lip, but there is also broken line leading to a Texas-Rigged creature bait half way down her throat..my Bait!!...I easily pull it out completely intact. I think she was having a slow time swallowing due to the Extra Wide Gap hook...Either way, I got my fish, and my original lure and hook back, minus the weight. Thought she was an easy 5, but my scale said 4.6. That was it for action, which really surprised me, as it started off so good. Felt good to be out there, even if it was only for an hour and a half.

Got out this morning from 5:15-8am. Water temps in the mid-70's, slight ripple in water...Started off following a school of bait fish (not sure what) breaking the surface..Figured there was some bass around them somewhere...Got one on a crank bait, then I threw a tube into the bait fish letting it sink to the bottom...Bam!! Caught about 3-4 this way, and about 5 total on the tube, biggest mid 2lb range...The sun was now up and it was bright...switched over to the shakey head...Got a couple decent 2lbers, deepest in 15' of water,, then I landed a Nice Fat 4 pounder for the kicker! This one felt good, still can't believe it wasn't a 5, and by a pound, I must have one of those broken scales that I've been hearing about, lol....Got another one in the 2 lb range... Overall, got about 10-12 LM, most in the low 2's and high 1's, couple heavy 2's, and a 4lber....Great day, too bad I had to leave as they were still biting...I will be hitting the salt from shore for some blues and stripers this week, hopefully I will get into some...

Got a head start on my vacation this morning...fished Stetson Pond from 8-11:30 am... I was glad to see it was cloudy when I got up this morning, and it stayed that way when I go to the water...Water temps in the mid 70's, slight breeze, and ripples in the water..Got over to the location I wanted to fish and I saw a lot of fish breaking the surface/ fins out of the water, so I was psyched! Proceeded to hook up right away, catching about 6-8 LM in the next half hour to hour, all on light swimming jigs for my top water offering, and on a shakey head worm for the bottom...Also caught a 2+lb pickeral on the shakey head, huge teeth on this thing... The LM that were breaking the surface were smaller, mostly 1-2# range...but they were actively feeding on something, I couldn't figure out what though?? Fins out of water, I have only seen this a few times..The schooling/feeding activity reminded me of striper fishing, especially when a boat made a b-line across the water right to where I was fishing, WTF?? No one else on the water, the whole lake is open...Turns out they were nice and kept moving after a minute or two...Anyway, even though the fish were active, the LM were picky, I also tried to speed things up with a crank bait/shallow runner, but they wanted nothing to do with it...same with a fluke on a light jig...but I knew I was on a school of fish, and I knew there had to be bigger LM's lurking below..just like Striper fishing, at least that's what I was thingking, lol.
After regrouping I slowed down with just the shakey head and started getting into bigger 2#+ fish at the bottom...I continued fishing the bottom in about 10-15 ft of water when I felt a small weight on my line, thought it was a weed, felt it again, very slight, lighter than any bite I had thus far and no line movement.... I lifted the rod up with a hard jerk to see, and Boom! rod bent over...I knew it was decent one for sure, I was just hoping it wasn't a pickeral as this thing didn't want to come up...I played it for a bit on my lighter setup, and finally a nice 3.6# bass showed its face....Not a lunker, but for this place, its very good. Maybe my biggest bass I have caught here, and a pound better than the other fish I was catching earlier... I thought I was going to get into the big mama's at this point, but proceeded to get no real bites for the next hour, the bass had moved and I couldn't quite locate them...Then a pleasure boater hit the water with some tubers, proceeded to fly right around me creating massive wakes, and I figured I'd call it a day, as I didn't feel like fighting the wakes...Hit a floating dock on the way in, and caught another small 2# LM on a small tube...Also saw it had a hook in its gill, so I removed that, my good deed for the day...All in all, about 13-15 LM bass caught, with a few pickeral mixed in.... I'll take it any day....

Got out on 7/3/11 from about 9:15am to 12:30 on a local south shore park. It was cloudy with a little sun to start, pretty calm water. Water temp. in the area I fished was about 74 degrees. It got sunny towards late morning... First cast of the day was a bad one, as my lure got caught on my other rod behind me resulting in a bad backlash. I surprisingly straighted it all out, and after a good 5 minute delay, I got to fishing. On about my third cast, I landed my first LM of the day on a blue/black jig near the end of lily pads bordering hyrdilla. I proceeded to catch two more in the next 20 minutes, the third being a good 2.5+lbs. I thought it was going to be a very good day, with a good chance at a pig as I have caught some good ones here before....not so much. For the next two hours I threw the jig, horny toad (got a nice pickeral on it), spro frog, shallow crankbaits, and even a weightless senko as I got desperate...Nothing. I managed to land one more decent LM, a healthy 1.5-2lber with a little gut, again on the jig. On my way out, I landed another bonus LM, smallest of the day, a barely legal fish. Landed all five LM on a blue/black jig, and they were all very light bites. Scraped together a small limit, and showed some patience, which is unusual for me.

Got out last night from 7-9pm to fish sundown. Was a bit breezey when I got there, water temps 76-78. Fished some weed beds and drop offs and caught 6 LM: 3 from 1-2#'s, 2 light 2's, and a 2 3/4 lber. Also got a few small pickeral and a small crappie that took my tube, lol. Used shakey head, top water plug, and some crank baits. Good quick outing. There were a lot of boats and kayaks on the water, the most I've ever seen. Probably 6-8 boats on the water all fishing as the sun went down, most I've ever seen here at this time. This place is getting some serious pressure, the bass are really taking a beating here, lot of hook marks in a lot of them....It felt great to be back on the water after missing this past weekend.

Went out again today in afternoon after a lunch break from about 300-600pm. Steady sunshine, slight breeze. Was expecting a thunderstorm, but it never came...Water temp in mid 70's. Was looking to catch some crappie as I figured the bass bite may be slow. Brought some ultra light gear and of course, I still brought a bass rod with me just in case....Well, it turns out the crappie bite was slow, but the bass bit was on!... for a while. Caught about 6 bass, biggest about 2.5 lbs. Caught about 3 in that range, and a couple a little smaller. Caught them on crank bait, small grub, and a shakey head. Lost another one when I made a lame attempt at a hookset thinking it was a sunfish as this particular area was full of them. Caught about 4 white perches,3-4 bluegill, about 6-8 yellow perches, and about 5+ pumpkinseeds, all on small pan fish spinner type baits...One of the white perches I caught was the bigget I have ever caught, it was a good 1.25lbs+. I thought it was a bass at first... Got to get a new digital scale as my scale is all messed up...The crappie weren't where I thought they'd be or maybe they were, but they were not active at all...Finally when I was getting ready to leave, I decided to dead stick a small jig near cover figuring the crappie would only hit something that wasn't really moving...after going through a few perch, I finally got some crappie to bite...Good change of pace afternoon....

Went out this morning from about 930-noon time. Cloudy start, but then sun came out for good. Slight breeze, water temp about 74. Did very good considering the sun was shining pretty good. Caught about 8-9 bass, biggest about 2.5-2.75. Caught a few in that range. Nothing huge, but good steady action. Caught them on crank baits, shakey head, and tube (bass slammed the tube). Had a few pickerals mixed in as well. The low point came when I casted my favorite crank bait about 50 yards after the line broke (should have retied after a few catches, dam), and then it never resurfaced, I'm thinking a fish ate it, as it is bouyant and should have came back up. All well, will have to get another one. All fish caught in about 6-8' of water.

First time out on kayak in a couple weeks...fished from 5:15-9:00AM. Cool morning. Temps in low 50's to start and dead calm. Landed 6 total bass, the first 3 were similar 2.5lbers, the 4th was a 3.5lber, and the last two were smaller 1lbers. 5 were landed on crankbaits, and one was on a curly tailed worm near a boat dock. Also caught a decent pickeral on the crank bait, and a couple crappie including a 1lber on the worm. Good day all in all. Blue skies, no cloud cover, and the wind picked up slightly from the north during the last 1-2 hours.

Got out Sunday morning at about 6am. Bit earlier than I would have liked considering the cooler weekend, but you gotta get out when you can...The water was extremely calm and clear early, and no activity at all in the water. Few birds flying around was the only sign of life. Hit a few spots in the northern section of pond, and nothing. Wound up on the other side in the northern section and got my first bass of the day at about 8 am in a small section of lily pads (which are really starting to come in) near a small drop off. This was on a lizard type soft bait, and it took at as I left it sitting in the stems as I was fiddling with something on my kayak, so slow to stop was the key. It was about a 2lber. After this the wind picked up and things got tough (on a kayak). I caught 3 more LM, two keepers probably a bit under 2#, and one maybe just under legal limit. These were all caught on tubes on the wind blown side of pond. Two in some pad stems, one off shore a bit in a small channel. The wind by this time had taken over and it was becoming difficult to maneuver and hold any type of position. Caught a couple crappie as well for fun (2 males, dark all over right now), as they are always willing to bite and can be fun (and big here). Called it a day at 10am. Water was about 62 by this time, up from the high 50's when I got on.