Reservation Number : 38825
Property Name : Salt Lick Lake
Reservation Date : 03/05/2024 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 40 (18 bass harvested, 10 released, 13 crappie harvested
Lures Used : crankbaits, A-rigs, bass jigs, wacky rigs, crappie jigs

3/5/24. Fished from 7:30a-5:30p.  Partly cloudy, AT from 65-80, light/variable winds.  WT 62-66.  Water was very clear, but had a green tint to it due to a significant algae bloom.  Slimy green algae was prevalent aroud the entire perimeter of the lake, which understandable due to the very warm temps lately. 

Fished in my friend’s 18’ Ranger which we easly launched.  We used Livescope to look at structure, bait, fish, etc.  Caught a very healthy/fat (probably pre-spawn) bass right off the bat just casting crank baits in the deeper water because we saw fish just roaming around.  Caught some nice crappie on cranks and crappie jigs roaming as well.  We saw a lot of bait sized fish on the scope holding close to the bottom, in and around structure, but not sure if these were shad or not.  They weren’t tightly schooled together and would follow our crappie jigs up and down and peck at the baits, so they acted more like small bream.  Anyways, there were a lot of them, so plenty of groceries for growing bass!

We struggled to get many bites up shallow, I think because of the algae and the pre-spawn pattern, and maybe the hail storm that rolled through early that morning.  We tried wacky rigs, creature baits, and even fly fished some wooly buggers.  Just a few takers up shallow.  Maybe the fish were buried under the green algae.  So, we focused our attention on more open water baits:  crank baits, swim baits, and A-rigs.  The standing timber on the old “pond dam” on the east end of the lake was holding a lot of bait fish and bass, but bigger bass were off shore.  Ended up with several bass in the 3-4 lb class and harvested 18 that were under 14”.

Great day on one of my favorite properties.  Looking forward to going back soon.