Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service
Can't let FishingFool be the only poor bass guy posting on this great site. Sneaked out Friday mid-morning with a couple sandwiches and a cooler full of soda. Fished the east side for a few hours with nothing to show for it except a couple dozen perch. I actually began targeting perch after it became clear the bass weren't looking up for my WhopperPlopper, nor down for my texas-rigged PowerWorm. Tried weed beds, docks, and even camped out on a couple of my favorite secret points. Tried the DropShot, and even chunked a big football jig for awhile. Had a few tugs but probably just perch stealing craw pinchers and the tails off my KVD DreamShots.
Around 3:30 the sun started beating me up a bit so I headed to the west side which was under the shadows of some slow-moving clouds. Where I crossed over was at that "nipple" just south of the eastward bend, with the big dock that ALWAYS has that guy fishing off it. DropShot gets slammed almost immediately, and for the next couple hours the 13-16" smallies kept me very happy. I use Medium-Light spinning gear to DS, and I swear there were 3 or 4 times that day that I was SURE there was a new PB on my line. Not even close as it turns out, but man those brown fish can tug hard!
Side note: I was seeing TONS more life in the water than in recent weeks. On many casts, my bait would be followed back to the boat by what seemed like a hundred finger-sized perch. I'm guessing this year-class was spectacular for perch.
By 6pm my back was tired so I decided to troll the 20ft depths with a texas-rigged crawfish (BioSpawn Vile Craw in black/blueflake). The weed line ended at 19ft in most areas, so 20ft kept me close to the beds but not fighting snags every second. I was amazed at the abuse that VileCraw took from perch peckers. I laughed out loud sometimes at how hard they pulled without ever once getting the hook. To my great surprise, that bait did get eaten by a smallmouth. Then another, then another, until I finally broke off on a buoy line and called it quits at around 8:45pm.
So I might have a new favorite summertime technique for bass. Dragging a bait outside the weed line at super slow speeds — essentially, Carolina Rigging. In the spring, you can't get the Jerkbait rod out of my hand, and I'm always gonna love the DropShot, but I just re-rigged several rods for dragging craws. We'll see if I can repeat.
Another note: I'm a skeptic on the whole solunar tables theory of fish activity, but Friday was a 1st Quarter moon (half moon), and the primary period was very nicely overlapping the 4-hour window of my bites.
Finished with about a dozen smallies between 12 and 16 inches. None above 2lbs (according to the weight charts), and all released. Fun day, though, and it's always uplifting to have success with a new idea.
Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service