We pulled onto the ranch just after sunrise and started throwing topwaters from the bank for the first 45min. I worked from the boat launch across the dam and John S. moved west towards the bridge. Given the complete lack of topwater action we decided to launch the vessels and fish the brush piles and mid lake channel. John’s set out in his Predator Kayak and I used the onsite bass buster.

Over all we had a great day on this fine property, with a slight wind out of the SW and bluebird sky. The water was very cool to the touch (sorry no water temp reading) with water visibility less than 2ft. Together we caught 34 LMB and had one or two get unbuttoned. The bass were a very light color with a strong lateral line coloring. We caught a full spectrum of sizes. Most of the bass ranged between 14-17” with the few dinks offset by a half dozen of beautiful 18 – 19” LMB. John caught the big girl (6.94lbs) late in afternoon (4PM) by the submerged tree stumps in the mid channel portion of the lake. We also caught and released two very aggressive sunfish.

What worked: John had great success catching the majority of his fish from 9-11AM throwing chatterbait and sq bill reaction baits. I had minimal success with reaction baits and didn’t get my day going until I changed my strategy at 11AM and started using a “horizontal*” drop shot set up using a 1/0 Trokar worm hook with a Zman Hula Stick, Zinker or Big TRD plastics (watermelon or green pumpkin colored) suspended 12 – 18” inches up from the 3/8oz bottom weight. The bass just got all over this set up till about 4:30 PM when the wind started to die down. All totaled 13 caught on moving baits and 21 on the drop shot set up.

Areas of the lake that produced: mid lake channel in the field of submerged tree stumps, a near shore bite (*primarily the drop shot set up cast from vessels close to the shoreline and then slowly toyed back toward the deeper water), and the deeper portions of the small western extension of the lake beyond the bridge. Note that the drop shot technique did not yield any bites when thrown from the bank and we had zero luck fishing the brush piles.

All in all, a very satisfying day on a fine PWF property!

Bob

P.S. John caught the big one pictured below using the drop shot set up in the mid lake channel!

Posted By: Robert Scheidemann