Current reports

[cjac]

Not too much about current reports, so here's mine....

Relatively slow evening, I boated 6 and lost a couple others. Biggest was 18.5, another 18 and a few in the 14-16" range. Fish were on the outside edge in 8-12 fow, fairly light colored fish. The wind conditions made it tough with boat control, went to a 1/2oz J'n'P to get a quicker fall. One fish on a jig worm, but the J'n'P was preferred.

Anyone else?

PS: Fall is definitely fast approaching, the ducks and geese were flying in the late evening!

[jwhjr]

I haven't been out since last month unfortunately, but I'm hoping to get out tomorrow. If I do I'll have a report.

[RK]

Hiya -

I got out some this weekend.

Fished LMB on Saturday evening, and it was very very good. Caught several on deep weedlines on cranks (DT-10s and Strike King Pro Model 5 Series, which is a bait I'm really getting to like.) While I was heading to a new weed point I decided to check out my favorite patch of rushes on that lake. Shallow bite had been off lately but it's a spot I always check. Caught fish on my first 5 pitches, and ended up catching probably 15 or so out of a patch of rushes the size of a basketball court. Pitched a Northland Jungle Hog, and most of the fish hit as soon as it touched the water. They were definitely 'on.' It was a hoot. Oddly enough, Monday morning I was out on the same lake and the shallow fish were completely gone, but still caught several on deep weedlines with jigworms and cranks.

Fished smallies one day as well. Really an interesting experience. Fish on the lake I was on have almost completely moved off shallow rock reefs and points and are on the deep edge - either on the deep edge of shallow rock spots in 18 to 25 feet, or on humps topping out at 20 feet or so. Was able to mark fish, and see smallies suspended 4' or so off the bottom with an underwater camera, but couldn't make them bite with any consistency. Tried drop-shotting, casting and vertical jigging a tube, football heads and Carolina rigging. A fish here and there on a drop shot and a vertically jigged tube. Nothing on anything fished on the bottom. Was marking occasional blips at around 10 feet on these spots, and when I brought the camera up, there were schools of shiners around 10-12 feet. So I started dropping a drop-shot rig down 10-12 feet, and ended up catching between 30 and 35 smallies. It was almost like ice fishing - fished the bait right below the bow mount, and I saw nearly every fish I caught come up from the bottom to hit it. Caught most of the fish in 22 to 26 feet, so they were coming up at least 10 feet to hit it. Did have several bites that I am almost positive were fish hitting the sinker, which is sort of maddening...

It was a really interesting deal. Reminded me again that when smallies are looking up, they're looking up, and you can fish below 'em all you want and not get a response. The opposite is just as true - if they're looking down, nothing over their heads will get a reaction. Was pretty fascinating how far up they'd come though. In fact, it had to be that far above them in order to get them to come up for it. Anything even 4 or 5 feet over their head didn't get much of a response. They wanted it up where the baitfish were. I also tried grubs and jerkbaits thinking they'd come up for them too - didn't catch much. A drop shot rig held perfectly still was by far the best option. All in all, pretty neat deal.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm