Thought we'd get a jump on the weekend and fish today. Seems like lots of tourists and locals thought the same as the Park was quite busy considering a pandemic and a Thursday. Swimmers, paddle boats, fishing boats, rafters - wow. Nonetheless, we started at 11 and finished at 4. The winds were almost calm all day; (imagine....not the usual hurricane on this lake). About 72 degrees and partly cloudy. The lake temp had gone up about 1.5 degrees from last week and recorded at 71.6. The water was even more clear than last week and the weed growth seemed to really accelerate.

The first hour was slow and we were wondering where the good fishing from last week had gone, but then the fun began. No trout on the trout troll, so because of the warmer water we thought casting for bass was in order and it was. Each of us starting bringing in largemouths of all sizes. I hooked up and thought how odd this fish felt - unlike any other I had ever caught. The earlier bass I'd boated were small so when I asked for the net, the reaction was, "Really? You sure?" Yup, I was sure something big was on my line. When it showed color imagine our surprise to find two nice bass on the same lure. (I've had this happen with perch, but never any other kind of fish.) Two for one - what a treat.

K. found more trees than fish but still had a good day with 6 in the boat (5 bass and 1 trout - the last fish of the day).
P. and I ran neck in neck all day. To hear P. tell it - he caught one more than me only because one of his bass had a visible smaller bass in his mouth....(how did that fish think he could jam one more in there when the first wasn't even swallowed?) So P. called that a twofer. I said he was just jealous of my twofer. He boated 14 for the day.

We found some shade and had a hot dog and potato salad lunch and went plugging again. Earlier in the day P saw a very large bass but couldn't interest it. Then later in the day I spotted a monster suspending near a log. I pointed it out and we all threw lures to him, but couldn't get him to bite. (Man it's tough to SEE a big one.)

We decided we were wearing down so started the trout troll back to the launch ramp and I connected with our first rainbow of the day, followed by K getting one, too. After scattering the wading people and dogs at the launch ramp we trailered and counted ourselves lucky to have boated 34 fish. During these crazy times....what a blessing to enjoy those we love and the fishing we love.

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