Reservation Number : 29851
Property Name : Salt Lick Lake
Reservation Date : 09/24/2021 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 28 up to 3.65lbs
Lures Used : Sqbill, Jerkbait, Crank, Shakyhead, TRIG

Not sure what it is about this lake, but it just agrees with the way I like to fish and I happy to oblige it.  It reminds me of one of the ponds I fished as a kid, water color/depth/etc and I can read it pretty well for having only fished it twice.  I think it also helps that it hasn’t seen a ton of pressure yet and the fish are relatively young.  

1. Water temp was 75 at arrival at 11am and 80 when I left at 7pm.  I fished straight through, though I did take some breaks in between sitting in the boat and reading.  Water clarity was down since I fished last time from 5-6 feet to 3.5ft or so.  Variable wind from the South and East, and calm at times.  
2. I started out cranking and running a shaky head on the south side  where I had caught some bigger fish before.  I graphed them at the bottom of the lake near the rocks, but couldn’t get them to bite except for one fish that took the top off a shakyworm.  
3. Switched to the other pattern that worked, sqbill and jerkbaits – both of which were succcessful but they seemed to prefer a sunfish patterned 1.5 run over the top of grass in 9-12 feet of water.  
4. Would occassionally see some schooling action and would twitch a jerkbait through and got some takers at various points.  
5. Overall, most of my fish came from the timber – same pattern as I did before – slow roll a small sqbill through the trees, as soon as hit would hit a limb, my line would feel mushy and it was on. 
6. I will say, they weren’t quite as aggressive as last time – still fought hard, but it took a split second before they ran with it. 
7.  The high point of the day was catching 7 in about 12 casts off the same branch at one point near the evening.  The low point was when I broke the branch.  
8. I had a couple run at a spook a couple of times but only broiled it so I stuck with what was working. 
9. No luck with plastics of any kind – swimbaits/worms/speedworm/etc – needed to move and hit stuff to force a reaction. 
10. I saw 15+ pods of shad in the lake on the surface at various spots though the bass didn’t seem to be chasing them as much as I thought they might.  Some breaks in the water, but not like before, but I suspect the schooling increases as we get into October/November. 
11. All fish were between 1.5-3.65lbs except 3  yearlings that I caught. 
12. I lost a fair number of fish at the boat – new rod and lighter line – I couldnt’ quite horse them in the way I normally might – including the largest fish I hooked up with which I suspect was a heavy 4. 
13. I saw fish at various parts of the water column all through the lake – seems pretty loaded – just need them to age a couple more years and this place will be even more banging than it already is.