Well, I’m very happy to be able to report that Deer Trail Ranch is still alive and well. I fished it today (Oct 17, 2014) from 12:30 until around 6:30, and was quite surprised at what I found. First of all, I found no cormorants. None. Maybe they’ve all moved over to Timber Lake, but all I saw on Deer Trail was one blue heron, a kingfisher looking for a meal at sundown, and buzzards up high. The bass? Well, they’re there, too. I caught 17 over 14”, and they were all between 2 and 3.75 pounds. The 3-12 was only 18” long, and the other 4 fish over 3 pounds were all between 17 and 19” long. For the most part, the bass were of two types:  short and chunky or longer and thinner. Overall, I think both body types were very healthy, and they fought like fish almost twice their size. I only caught 4 dinks, but they were all under 8” in length.

Water temperature was 69° all over the lake, and the topwater bite was definitely on. No luck on a Zara, but they hit shad-pattern Yellow Magics (both sizes), hollow-body frogs, buzz baits, and silver Rapalas. I only caught one on a weightless Senko, and that was the only fish I hooked on soft plastics. They hit buzz baits and Tornados  late in the day, mostly relating to openings in and outer edges of the pads. The biggest two fish of the day hit a Rattletrap retrieved very fast over the grass. Several of the other bass also came up out of the grass to hit the Tornado, Rapala, and buzz bait. I got short-lined 3 times, which was fun. I only lost one nice bass in the grass, but lost another big one in the pads. I did pick up 3 bluegill on the Rapala.

Visibility was 3-4 feet, which surprised me – I thought it would be clearer. There is still some matted grass at both ends of the lake, and some of the deeper grass is still reaching the surface, but not thick enough to mat. I was tempted to try a dropshot rig, but just didn’t have enough confidence in it to punch the mats. Except for the deeper water out from the dam, most of the coontail is pretty shallow.

All in all, it was a good afternoon. I wish I’d boated some big ones, but it wasn’t in the cards today. The numbers were, though. The road and launching area are in great shape, and the grass had been mowed within the past couple of days. The gate was open when I arrived and when I left.