Got to Whitestone around 1pm, took a few minutes to get the wife situated in her float tube and then get myself launched. We both started with worms under bobbers, hoping for anything of size in the spiney ray, sunfish, crappie families. Lots of little 3" thieves, but nothing of size. I moved to the west side of the lake and fished along some rock ledges and overhanging trees. Switched to targeting bass with 1/2 of a 5" pumpkinseed green Senko worm. I reasoned that the fish we had seen were smaller fish and at this point I just wanted to catch a few decent sized bass. Over the next few hours I hooked up with a couple of 8-12 inchers and put them in the net creel. About 4 pm as the shadows grew on this side of the lake I noticed a couple of very large black shadows moving in from the deeper water. Started pitching my half Senko up under the trees with a few strikes,but no real effect. Then I realized, I needed to stop serving up a cheese burger and get out the steaks. I switched to a full sized pumpkinseed green Senko and on the second cast hooked upon a 13" large mouth.
Now a dilemma, do I paddle over and get my wife, whom I am sure is tired of the worm stealers she had been catching, or do I keep fishing on my own. I kept fishing, and was rewarded in a few more casts with the largest large mouth of my life. But before I could count him as landed, he dove into heavy weed cover. The pole I was using was an older pole with a cheap reel and only 6 lb test, and just when I needed it to do the job of it's life, the reel jammed up. I could hear the bearings rattling around inside. A quick back turn of the reel turned it loose. I knew I was not going to drag this pig out of the weeds, so I had to keep the pressure on him (not too much) and paddle my float tube over (backwards) and finally I netted this guy. 18 3/4 " and 3lbs 9 oz. WOW - WOOHOO - YEEHAW - HOLY CRAP!!
Now I had to go get the wife.... After switching her to a Senko rig, I managed to coach her into a nice 14" largie. Of course she was not happy when I explained the slot regs and she had to turn it back. A few minutes later she said the largest fresh water fish she had ever seen swam between her flippers. Not sure if this was another bass, or I hear there are some pretty big catfish in this lake, but either way a story to share.
It was early evening by now and we had been joined on the lake by a couple of boats that were racing around and making us nervous. We have unfortunately had a few miserable moments when boaters are not conciderate of people in float tubes, so we called it a day.
We will be back to this lake again soon, very soon.

bob johansen

8/4/2016 6:13:00 PM

Nice to get a report on Whitestone. I have had the opportunity to fish that lake for bass back in the early 1990s -- And, I did catch a few largemouth bass - Not as big as you 3 1/2 pounder however. I remember it as a pretty area with Whitestone Mountain as a back drop.

dwh4784

8/4/2016 9:38:00 PM

Sounds a bit better than a two star day, catching your PB fish should bump it up to a 4 I would think at least. That's a nice fish!

fisherman92

8/5/2016 9:25:00 AM

I used to stop by Whitestone on my way to Spectacle Lake every year and would see some absolute monster LMB hanging out in the culvert on the side of the road. Also there are usually hundreds of small bluegill everywhere as well. The larger bass never seemed interested in biting, might be because they have so much food sources. Spectacle lake is a great lake for SMB and LMB as well. Good luck out there on the East side, Tight lines!

Bent hook pontoon

8/5/2016 9:58:00 AM

Great report! I love seeing reports in my backyard. There are some monsters in there.

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