Cindy and I took time off from our daily activities to float around on Roses today. The weather was perfect with temps in the mid 80s and calm wind. Picture perfect day to relax on the water. As we haven't gotten our main engine repaired yet, we opted for Roses because we can use the electric bow-mount to fish the entire lake. We got on the water around 11:0 and there was only one other boat fishing at that time. We started down the south and west shoreline, out in about 12 feet of water. we were casting jigs with plastic minnow immitations. Whe also tried some of the berkley Micro baits, but to no avail. I had a bag of the 3" smelt by Berkley that turned out to be the hot item. We tried 1/8 and 1/16 oz jig heads, but the 1/16 oz seemed to give the action the fish wanted. We caught crappie--5-7 inch--, LMB up to 1 1/2 pound--released by the way for the bass fishemen out there--, bluegill up to 9 inches, and yellow perch. We were able to catch scads of fish today, with the perch being the one we started to target as they were running on the large size. We caught a few in the 7-9 inch range, but most were 10 1/2 - 11 1/2 inch. Most fish were caught in 12-18 feet of water, fishing the jigs close to the bottom. We kept a few of the larger bluegill and quite the mess of the yellow perch. We decided to keep them after we cleaned a few and noticed they were larvae free. Coming from the deeper water may have had a bearing on this. Anyway we came off the lake between sundown and dusk, and there were several persons fishing from shore as we were taking out.There were a few boats that showed up in the afternoon with some of the tossing spinners and cranks, and some trolling, and some bait fishers. Saw a few fish caught by the other boats, but not a lot of action displayed. We had a great time, and a zip lock bag full of fillets at the end of the day. We caught fish scattered over a large area, and weren't able to find any concentrations, but pretty steady action. What a great time of the year to experience the beauty of our waters.
Tight lines, sharp hooks, and hungry fish.