Spent Sunday afternoon, 4/29 at the picturesque Riley Lake property near Gilmer.  Love the setting of this lake as everything was so green and lush throughout the property.  I ended up fishing 5 hours from 1:30 pm to 6:30 pm before making the 2-hour drive back to Dallas.  I caught 24 bass and 1 bream.  Of the 24 bass, I culled 16.  I didn’t catch any real large bass and so I didn’t weigh any of the fish.  My two best bass went 17 inches and 18 inches, respectively.

Although there were bright skies throughout the afternoon with temps reaching into the low to mid-80s, I caught several bass on a ½ ounce white popper near the bank on various parts of the lake.  I also caught a few on a green chatterbait.  I threw a white walk the dog style bait for a good half hour, but I only had one blowup on it that I didn’t land.  My best bait on the day was a 3/8 ounce spinnerbait in primarily white and chartreuse with a chartreuse trailer.  I caught most of the fish on the arm of the lake where the duck decoys are sitting in the water.  There was a light breeze on the water in that arm of the lake that created a ripple and the bass sure seemed to like the spinnerbait when I presented it to them for a tasty meal.  I was working the spinnerbait quickly and in the upper portion of the water column where I was able to see a lot of the strikes.

I did encounter a couple of nature’s wildlife on the day as I saw three snakes.  During my time on the water fishing, I saw two snakes swimming during the afternoon although I never got closer than 50 yards from either.  When I was maneuvering the boat into the launch area to leave, there was a small, young snake (brown with solid black stripes on it) that slithered away up by the Bass Buster boat and then went into the woodline.  I was cautious when flipping over the boat when I first arrived but there were no critters underneath to greet me.  On the drive out, I did see two deer walking as well.  All in all, a fun day at a beautiful property that is absolutely “away from it all.”