Reservation Number : 28906
Property Name : Deer Trail Ranch
Reservation Date : 06/18/2021 AM - 06/18/2021 AM
Total Fish/Sizes : 8 to 3 lbs
Lures Used : Frogs & Punching Plastics

I have kept a fishing log for two decades.  Looking back, I can see a pattern.  My summer fishing is non-existent.  When I lipped my first bass, I remembered why.  Even the BASS felt warm!  They were BURIED in the moss.  Every bass came from there with water temps reading 89+ at 6 a.m.  It had “cooled” to that amount overnight.  My electronics were signaling a thermocline at 8’ so the massive moss that has collected around the edges were providing shade for the fish, even early in the morning.  Warning: every bass landed was an arduous “weeding” process.  I told my son, “The fish were strong, but with every catch I spent 10 minutes finding the fish in the bulk of weeds, and another five helping the trolling motor escape.”  

That being said, I caught no culls, and “punched” my way to bass up to 3 lbs.  The lake was filmy glass, sky was clear, and the heat and humidity spiked quickly, so by 10:30, my boat was green with weeds, my face was red, and my body was soaked.  It was all too easy to call my morning early.

On my last trip to Timber Lake, I heard a group of Barred Owls give a concert near noon.  On Deer Lake, that group cranked up the concert at 8, so for 10 glorious minutes, I listened to their song echo over the still lake.  A herd of hogs rang out frequently from the southern end of the lake until 10.  The fishing was complicated, but the sounds were Audubon Society Greatest Hits!