Surprizing Day at Lake Cassidy

Sep 10 2024

Steve Alston

Fry

Member Since :
2013
Number of Posts :
24

Reservation Number : 40900
Property Name : Cassidy Farms
Reservation Date : 09/10/2024 AM -
Total Fish/Sizes : 1 fish 18" = 6 fish 17" = 3 fish 16"
Lures Used : All fish were caught on soft plastics, Crawls 4&5" and Yum Dingers 4m Dingers

On the lake fishing at 6:45 AM and everything looked great. Still to dark to tell acutal water clarity, but; wind was calm and a fantastic 60 + degrees. Wow.  Lake level down about 12” which is still next to perfect.  Some type of fish was schooling everywhere, but I had no sucess with catching any of those.  After fishing both sides to the right of the ramp I didn’t even have a strike, which is very uncommon for this lake and especially since I know alot of the holding spots.

After about one hour of throwing everything in the box I had only caught 2 bass which were both 16”. I fished from 8:00 to 10:00 before catching my next bass. From 10:00 to 12:00 I caught another 8 bass, but; really had to work hard for those.  In my mind I would have expected at least 20 plus nice bass by this time. 

At this point I had determined the water clairity to be 6” at best and had decided that early in the morning before the sun really came up the fish simply couldn’t see the bait. By 10:00 the sun was overhead enough to where the fish below could adctully see the shawdow of the bait working through the water and that’s when I started catching fish. By the way my go to color was Blue Flec on Crawls and Yum Dingers, but more productive with the Crawl as its a swinm bait and has greater vibration for the fish to follow.

All of the bass were very light in coloriing versus typical dark green for bass.  Just wondering if the bass are not getting engouh oxyegon due to all the debree in the water which was disrupting clarity?????

So, my recommendation would be to go in the afternoon so the bass can see the overhead bait, while working with the sun overhead. The last harvest report in August was very successful and was in the afternoon for what it’s worth. 

Sep 12 2024

Adam Bellar

Fry

Member Since :
2024
Number of Posts :
11

You will find that clear water bass have a much darker color and muddy water bass have a lighter color. 

Sep 13 2024

Steve Alexander

Admin

Member Since :
2002
Number of Posts :
1161

Bass match their environment. In clear water, bass are dark, in muddy or turbid water that are washed out, often almost white. Many folks mistake the color of the fish with fish health. Darker fish are not more healthy fish. Although, I think most of us prefer the darker color.