Well it was a toasty day on the lake yesterday. Reasonable at predawn of 70F. Unreasonable at a little after lunch at 107F in my truck, cooled down to 99F driving. At 0430 water temp was 78F. Without a moon, it was pretty dark at that time and the sun isn't really doing much until about an hour later. So getting to the first spot is a little more difficult. My first spot was Becky's and the pompadour was greeted with fish right away. From 0500-0530 I caught 4 decent fish (3 at 3+, one 4,2#) in the dark. Then it stopped until 0630. Around then the popper seemed to be the ticket and the pompadour was retired for a bit. Thanks to Pourboy, I have a new trick in my bag and along the rocks, I can now scan with the popper and then probe with a jig. The jig was very popular in a green pumpkin body, with a ghost crawdad trailer. It seems to me that the skill set needs refining, since I am at about 50% of landing hooked fish with the jig.
Moved along the walls to the back of Hauser and towards the big opening in the back. Combo of popper, pompadour and Rapala produced well. Last week the busters were smaller, around 3/4 to 1 pound and some occasional smaller, so I brought a 4 pound ultralight with a #3 ( yes #3) Rapala. I figured I'd size the rod to the fish. That was fun for a couple fish and then a large fish destroyed the lure. So I upped it to a #5 and that produced just fine and casted further. On the BFS rod I was using an OSP broken minnow and that lure was like candy. I'd cast it out, do nothing and twitch it. If I didn't get a bite I'd reel it in a bit and do the same. It was really a lot of fun, because the hits were true topwater.
Definitely a hot day though. Pack your sunscreen and extra water, you'll need it.
- This one was kind of thin.
- Not thin, he was finding food.
- Bent minnow and a 2 pounder
- Surprise bluegill
- Water surface at 1200. Very little wind. Topwater all day!
