Cold morning today on the water. Had to put on a sweater and my hoodie. Anyways, fishing was also tough. I land my first fish about 1 hour into fishing and it's just a small squawfish on a mid crank. I had the obvious nips from the perch all morning, but they couldnt even stick on the lure.

I go farther up the lake and stop off at a point. Now I'm actually catching fish, but all perch. But pretty good sized ones. 9" or so and very aggresive school. On shallow and mid cranks, both landed these perch. I put on a deep diving crank and cast out. A couple of rotations of the handle and fish on! Lure didnt get a chance to go deep. Anyways, swing it in the boat and it's a 12" SMB. Continue the area with nothing but perch, so I kept moving. I get all the way to the north end of the lake.

I saw something break the surface. I'm thinking it was one of those carps, but just in case, I tied on a Sammy top water lure. I haven't used any of them yet. I've never caught a fish on top water yet. So I cast around the area with it trying to walk the dog. Didn't take long to get use to the action. Anyways, I get to a spot where I know there's a fallen wheel and frame thing. I get a HUGE explosion. Set the hook and it feels like a big one. Then slack! FFUUUU. My first top water bite, almost a fish too. I tried follow up with soft plastics but nada. I even left the area and came back after 30 mins to try again. Did catch a decent size squawfish while I was waiting it out elsewhere.

I had a relatively short day today, so I was starting to make my way down the lake. I really wanted to try and catch something with the top water, so I forced myself to use it for about 30 mins non-stop. There's this stretch of bank that anyways looked fishy to me, but I've yet to get a bite there. Well while going down it, I see something swimming in the water. It's a otter or muskrat. Cute little bugger. I'm watching it to make sure it doesn't chase after my Sammy. I'm thinking, no wonder I never catch anything here. All of a sudden my lure gets knocked completely out of the water by a fish, lol. I do a follow up cast and see a decent SMB about 15" chasing it, but turned away at boat side. Anyways, the muskrat/otter swam near by and was staring right at me for a bit. He might be used to people feeding it I think.

Even though fishing was tough, I had my opportunities today, just didn't capitalized. Maybe next time.

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