I spent most of the day yesterday at Hat & Star. While I was there, the water temp climbed from 88.2^° to 93.3^°,  and the visibility was about 3 feet all over the lake. There was no wind at all until after noon, and then it was just enough to put a small ripple on the surface. I put up with a very light sprinkle for about 10 minutes, but that's all that fell - it was mostly sunny  and hot the rest of the day. I launched just at daylight and stopped at 3:00 due to a heat stress index of 105^°. I just can't take the heat like I used to. Anyway, I had very poor luck at fishing. I did catch a 5-04 from a brushpile early and two 2-pounders after that, but those were the only 'releasables' I was able to boat. I lost two, but neither of them was big. Four released dinks (all < 8" long) completed my bag for the day. The big one and one of the 2-pounders hit a red shad 12" Zoom Magnum Ol Monster worm, and the other one hit an old, 1 oz. Rattletrap in the bluegill pattern that looks to me more like a tilapia. I was 'ripping' it over the grass in about 8-10 feet of water. All of the dinks hit a wacky-rigged senko.

There was NO thermocline evident on the lake. What looked like 'snow' on my 'bird was nothing but grass.

What didn't work:  buzz bait, smaller 'trap, squarebill, deep crankbait, 8" and 6" Hud swimbaits, spinnerbait, 7" Senkos, topwaters, frogs

Posted By: Tom Dillon