Date Fished: 8-31-19 (All Day)

Fish Total: 23 LMB - 22 (.5 to 2 LBS) and 1 (3 LB 3 OZ) 

Lures used: Whopper Plopper, Hollow Body Frog, Chatterbait, Jig, Swimbait, Fluke, Stick Bait Worms (various brands)

What worked best: Stick Bait Worms - Casting far from the boat

We started the day at the property at about 7 AM. Luckily the storm passed far enough East of us that we were not affected. It did leave us with clouds nearly until noon. This was good for getting the majority of the bites for the day. I fished with fellow member Thomas Reyna. We both could not resist the pier when we got there. He threw the Whopper Plopper and I threw the frog. We both got bites but they were not getting hooked. So we set up the onsite boat. Once we flipped the boat over there was a long thin snake with white stripes. Looked harmless and ran into the front lip of the boat. We never saw it again. There was a huge spider in the boat that was promptly dealt with. 

Once we were on the water, we saw how far out the vegetation went. The water was very clear and you could see nearly 2+ feet down. We continued top water and I caught a huge frog - on the frog. Tommy caught about 2 on the Whopper Plopper and I wasn't getting anything else on the frog. Tried multiple lures and nothing else was happening until we switched to the stick bait/Senko style worms - Texas Rigged. Tommy was using a Strike King KVD worm that was grey/white on the bottom and blue on top. He was hitting them left and right. I started with a dark green senko and started having success as well. Noticing that Tommy was catching more I decided to switch colors and size. I switched to a 7" black and blue Bass Pro Stik-O Tournament (weightless because it's already big and heavy enough). Then it was on for me. We had caught about 15 by noon and started to head back for the pier so we could grab lunch. However, I convinced Tommy to let me get a couple more casts at an area we left at the beginning of the morning. BOOM 3 pounder! Then we got off the water. 

Headed to Decatur for BBQ and drink/snack supplies.

We got back and hit the water about 3 PM. Only fished for a couple of hours and I picked up the only bass on the same worm. So we took another break to get out of the heat. 

Got back on the water after 6 PM. Bite was still slow. As we get to sunset, the fish started to turn back on. I switched to a wacky rig set up because I was losing a few bass. We both noticed that the bass would hit the worm on the first fall. I had one hit literally right after the worm hit the water. The wacky rig seemed to have better hook up ratio. Both rigs worked though and we finished the day with 23 bass. All returned as requested. 

Just watch out for the spiders when you go to the pier while it's getting dark. We wanted to unload the boat onto the pier, to remove weight from the boat before getting it out of the water. 

Overall had a fun time, but definitely have to get used to fishing with lots of vegetation. Going weedless is highly recommended. Although when we did get weeds on our other lures, it was easily removed and returned to the water.