1st cast at about 8:30AM.

Saw some surface activity, so I tried my weightless jerkbait for a bit again. Just pecking and nipping from perch.

Switch up and fan cast with a dropshot in ~12' of water. Didn't feel the bite, but saw my line swimming away. Fish on! 15" SMB. Not bad for a start. I continued working that area to see if I could entice anything else, but nope. Tried targeting the nearby boat and dock too. Did see lots of small bluegills, maybe 2" or so.

I move to a different spot and start working the deep rocky banks. I know there's some boulders and timber down there. There's also a couple of docks I tested out first.

Got to the dropshot and I pitch it along the bend and it drops off really quickly. ~12-13' or so is what my lure was at. Again, didn't feel the bite, but see line moving. Fish getting smaller at 13".

I continued along that bend and see some timber. Dropped my DS straight down to reduce risk of snagging, ~10' and felt the bite and set the hook. Even smaller, maybe 12". I keep going along that rocky bend and getting closer to a single dock. Hey, what's that around the corner.... I see another fisherman coming my direction. I made a couple of casts with my DS and see a big school of ~6" SMB. Caught a couple and decided to take off to the other side of the lake and let the other guy finish up.

On the other side, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. In direct sun and minimal wind. I tried DS, then switched up and with my swimbait. I cast on the backside of a dock in about ~4' of water and get a bite on the swimbait. Thinking bass all the way, until the fish gave up quickly..... ~16" squawfish!

Alternate between my setups and fan casting by docks, underdocks and out into deeper water. I get a solid bite on my swimbait again near a dock in 8' of water. 15" SMB. Not bad.

I keep working that swimbait and was in a bit deeper water with grass all around. It got caught in the weeds and I ripped it to break free. All of a sudden, I see a SMB dart out from nowhere and snatch my lure! I got too excited and set the hook way too early pulling it away. I stop fishing for about 5 mins to let the fish settle down. Then started fan casting the swimbait and DS in the area to see if it would come back, but nope.

Ran my swimbait along another dock and see a fish dart out and snatch my lure. This time, I waited until I felt the weight, but unfortunately, it was another squawfish! Bummer.

Caught a couple of dinks on the DS and they are destroying my lure. I'm getting 1 fish per lure at the moment and run out of the "hot" color.

I decide to boat back to the other side of the lake again. I had a place picked out in my head and heading there.... I see a red boat heading towards that area too.... Cant tell if it's a fisherman or watersports.

Ok, I see the boat go pass where I'm heading towards, so that's good. As I get closer, I see it's a fisherman and it's going the other direction. So I didn't feel so bad getting close to him. I looked over the area up close and decided to pass on it. Just didn't have what I was looking for, so I boated away without fishing it.

I stop off a spot. Hit the docks first. Nothing but perch. Tried a new color DS with no love.

I continue along and there's this spot that I always thought it was suppose to have a fish at, but I've never caught anything there all these years. I always try though just because. It looks fishy and I'm sure it's textbook fishing spot. I wasn't getting any bass bites there.A perch ripped my DS lure off, so I decide to change colors to something as close as possible to my "hot" color. I saw all these bubbles rising on the surface a bit deeper. I always said it's fish farting. It's about 15' of water. Anyways, cast my DS to it in a joking fashion and to my surprise, tap tap... fish on! 15" SMB and it had a buddy the same size chasing after it. Sweet. I throw it back in there to see if I could get that buddy and after a couple of casts, tap tap.... set the hook and ooooh, this feels like a nice fish. It digs down and ripping drag. It flashes up top and I see it's a pretty big SMB, guessing in the 17-18" range and it had a slightly smaller buddy chasing after it also.... It turns and rips more drag and all of a sudden, my line just snaps! I do have my drag set a little tight, because it helps with the hookset IMO, but I'm not too sure what happened. I don't remember having a breakoff like this in a long time. I know it's 6# test, but oh wells. So, if anyone catches a ~3# SMB with a tiny swivel, 1/0 hook, and sinker attached to it, can you return it to me please, thanks.

Instead of retying right away, I decided to toss my tube out to see if I could get that to work.... Nope, no bites at all.

So I retie the DS. Bump and see line swimming away. Get me a 14" SMB. A couple of dinks. Then a pretty decent 17". It was thick and fat. Felt heavy to me, but my scale said only 2lb 10oz. It had it's mouth wide open and I look inside and see crawdad antennas sticking out of it. I was thinking maybe this is the one that broke me off, but didn't see any indication of hook marks. I don't know why they are hitting my dropshot but not the tube. I thought the tube is suppose to imitate craws.

I parked myself at that spot and kept making the same or similar casts for about an hr. All on the DS. I think caught 7-8 fish there? I'm calling it the "fart hole" and I definitely pounded that hole good and thoroughly.


It's 12:30 and I'm trying to decide on what to do. Continue fishing for a bit, since I seem to have something that's working...

I go to a new spot and make several casts with the DS in ~10' of water. I'm looking down in the water and I see a ~15" SMB nearby. I feel tap tap, but it's not the fish I'm seeing. Set the hook, fish on! Fish is staying down. A quick flash and see it's a pretty nice SMB. Scoop it into the net for a quick measurement. 17" @ 2lb 9oz. What's interesting about this fish is, it spit out 2 crawfish at me. One was fully intact and the other, 98% intact. It must have just gobbled them recently. Again, this fish looks and felt bigger than the scale says....Will have to test my scale.

I caught 3 more small SMB, 10-13" in the same area. I called it quits at 1:15PM. As I was packing up, I see something interesting on sonar at the bottom in 52' of water.... Curiosity got the best of me and I had to drop the DS down just to see what would happen.....Nothing happened, lol. I do wonder what it is down there.

So I think the count was somewhere around 15 SMB. No monsters, but overall, good fishing and catching.

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