Almost Perfect

[Mr. Pike1]

Its been a while since I have posted but thought I would share a recent report on a small metro pond.

I had a few hours recently to get out in the evening. I went to my back pocket lake and to my horror the access was full. I had to think quick of another near by body of water as the a minor storm was on the horizon and time was a factor. I decided on another small metro lake near by. I got to this small launch and found this small launch filled as well. It appeared getting on the water was not to be but alas a genleman coming off on his jet ski saved the day.

I have never been on this paticular body of water but it held nice docks and some lily dropping to deeper water, coon tail, and other promising bassy water. Nothing beats new water and new experience. I started with cranks on the weededges and picked up some very nice pike in the 29" class.

Being a dock junky I could not fight the urge to pound the shady side of the docks. I found most shorelines were very shallow and very weedy which made me question if they would be in that shallow or if I could navigate and land a fish in this weedy wonderaland. My first bass was about 12" inches followed by another that was about the same. I was for a moment concerned that this might not be a good bass lake.

Then the tide quickly turned. I was in about 1 foot or less and tossed to the shade of an old pontoon and bang, Pig on !!!! After a nice battle I landed a 21 incher that was as fat as I had seen all year. The fish was just under 7lbs. Being a small lake I figured this was probably the resident pig. I approached a floating swimming dock and made my toss and to my absolute surprise and delight another nice fish. This one measured in at 22 inches and over the 7lb mark.

I pounded that and another swimming dock and picked up a few more pike and some nice 17 and 18 bass. I proceeded to hit the next string of docks and each dock had one or two 17, 18, or 19 inch bass. I had to get off the water as the dark clouds were now on top of me and I was begining to hear the rumblings of thunder...

I say "almost perfect" day from a bass perspective bassed on my personal scoring mechanism. What I like to do is keep the length measurement of my top 5 fish with a perfect score being 100. For that day I would guess I got 15 or more bass and the top 5 were:

22, 21, 19, 18, 18 for a score of 98. I do have a few pics on my cell phone I will try to post later.

[Katman]

sounds like an awesome day! Post the pictures!

[Craigums]

So yea we definately need some pictures and umm what lake is this by the way?

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Wow! Almost perfect? HA, I wouldnt care if I only caught two fish in 10 hours if they were 7 pounders!

Im trying to figure what lake it is and I have a slight idea what lake it may be but I wont say anything...

[Ray Esboldt]

I have always threatened to stalk Sledneck on the water, but Pike lives a lot closer to me. He's my new target.

I can't wait to see the pictures.

[Mr. Pike1]

Ray, funny you mention Sled. He actually fishes a body of water that my inlaws have a cabin on, lake Vermillion. Most of the anlgers target walleye and muskly but I can tell you first hand that Vermillion is a premier world class small mouth fishery and getting better each year. You could always fish and pound the smallies but in recent years the size has greatly improved. I think this may be in part be due to the unintended introduction of rusty crayfish to the fishery.

When I am up there for a morning or evening fishing run it is not unusual to have a 25-50 fish day. In years past those fish may have mostly been in the 14-17 inch class but the last couple those fish are 16-20 inch class and many are in that sought after football look, feel, and fight. One can find after a day on the water that they experience wrist and forearm stress that dang near requires medication or a day of rest.....Oh and I also have found a few bays that are a bit more weedy and contain large mouth mixed with smallies. Nothing beats a dock, lift, and some shade and weeds containing mix of one cast a smallie and the next a largie and on few occassiona a walleye or monster muskie mixed in to challange my fishing skills.

Concerning pics I have downloaded a few that I have sent off to friends of the biggest one. My next task is to post the picture here. I did that a few times years ago but have to figure out the process again to post pictures here, seems like last time I had to add to seperate site. If anyone know how to do this with just an emailed picture let me know as I could sent the picture to be posted.

Concerning the metro lake I got out there again a few days after my "near perfect" day. I found that the quantity was still good but I did not get back into any fish over 17. Granted nothing wrong with 10 or so fish in the 12-17 inch class and keeping in mind I missed 3 or 4 fish that could have been larger fish. It was certainly action and I like any life long fisherman has had worse days on the water. This lake will certainly remain on my short list of metro gems but I really like hitting new unexplored water, maybe its the thrill of chase and new terrain that makes is almost brand new experience. I have a few that have caught my eye, a few appear to be best suited for a kayak so I need a calm evening to explore these. One other is highly recreated and I would never even attempt on a weekend but a morning during the week should hold promise

[SledNeck]

I dont fish vermilion much anymore. Havent fished there this year even.

[Ray Esboldt]

I have probably spent more days on Vermilion in my life than any other lake located outside of the metro. In fact, I'm running up there in a couple weeks for 3 days. I still love that lake despite the presence of muskys and the presence of people everywhere. If you like it now, you should have seen it (and maybe you did) 20 years ago.

Send the pics to bornofice at yahoo dot com, and I will post them for you.

[Mr. Pike1]

Sled, my apologies. I know you had spend some time on the big V and other northern lakes and hav seem some great pics of you and your son with some smallies.

Ray, you then for sure know of the small mouth action I speak of. My inlaws place is on the East side. They bought it from one of the families with a bit of history in that area. The family still has a boat place on the East side. I fish entirely the east side and as a dock junky there a plent to be had for bass.

I will send you one of the pics to the address you mentioned shortly.

Thanks

[Mr. Pike1]

Ray, pic just sent

And, here it is.

[SledNeck]

I might run up and try for some bass on Vermilion on a weekday if its breezy. I usually only fish for walleyes past the 4th of july. Got too much going on at home to get away on the weekdays lately, but with baseball over Im sure I could fit in an afternoon.

Ive been fishing Vermilion since 1979.

[Juan Grande]

Mr. Pike1,

That last largemouth pic you posted looks like one of the mutant big headed bass I caught on Demontreville last year.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

that went 7?

[Juan Grande]

No, the biggest one we got was 21" but it wasn't even five pounds. Huge head and skinny body.