I’ve been on vacation with the three kids on a 3200 mile road trip.  Daddy needed a vacation from vacation.  Spent the night at a hotel in Tyler not because I needed to but… I needed to!

What a beautiful morning on a really pretty property.  Water temp started out about 87 degrees with almost 4’ visibility in the East lake.  Lots of small bluegill in both lakes.  These bass will only get bigger.

Boated 7 crappie and a half-dozen bass on the East lake.  All on my go to jig with a white body/chartreuse tail.  The breeze was blowing occasionally and even though the temp was climbing to triple digits, it was a beautiful morning. 

Went to the West lake after lunch and the breeze disappeared.  Man it was hot, but at least I was fishing and had a cooler with about a gallon of home brewed ice tea.  Couldn’t find the crappie on the west lake, but I found the bass.  My first pass along the dam and the second cast netted a 5 lb. fish.  The third cast hooked the second biggest bass I’d ever seen.  I’m guessing in the 8 lb. range.  I held him out of the weeds though he tried valiantly to get down in them.  When I wouldn’t let him do that, he changed tactics on me.  About 10’ from the boat, he came straight up out of the water nearly 3’.  Shook his head back and forth and nearly hit me with the crawfish crank bait as he spit it out.  I swear that if he had fingers, he would have given me the bird.  Heck…that alone was worth the drive.  Fished for another hour or so with a few smaller fish and called it a day. 

Everything was caught on small jigs or crank baits.  Nothing happening on spinner, swim or chatter baits. Next time I’d throw some frogs along the edges.  My guess is that my bass count would have increased substantially by using some soft plastics, but I’ve never really learned how.  Maybe next time….