We were on the water by 6:30, fished for 12 hours, and landed 20 fish. 14 of those were bass, two fairly solid, but most were only between 1 and 2 pounds. The rest were feisty Bluegill. Oh, and me and my youngest boy doubled up on bass again which was cool.
Our “go-to” lures (stickbaits, crankbaits, solo swim baits) weren’t generating any interest and our go-to spots weren’t happening. We landed 5 at the mouth of Echo Cove with no other action for us around Hauser. There seemed to be a lot of folks on the lake (relatively speaking), but many seemed to leave Hauser around 11.
We caught a couple more on the “outskirts” of Pine Creek (just before going into the narrow cove on the right). After that point we were just tooling around having fun and exploring — we all switched to really light tackle and not-built-for-bass lures and flies to mix things up.
We caught the rest of our haul in places we didn’t expect and on lures we didn’t think would work. In the middle of the pine creek arm in about 15 feet of water with no cover, in small coves by desolation point, on a steelhead streamer, on a trout nymph, on a 50 year old Mepps #5 trout lure…
Before that, we did catch one lucky bass on a cherished whopper plopper (cherished for that oh-so-satisfying sound and previous Barrett success), and Bluegill liked the trout presentations as well. However, except for the new-to-me Alabama rig, no other bass lure was generating strikes.
Side note: there’s something about the A rig that almost feels like cheating to me. And while I love catching fish, the rig’s heft and almost “sure thing” confidence takes away some of the nuances of fishing for me. Love/hate at the moment.
Hope ya’ll enjoy your last few days of the season out there! This has been my first season at Barrett, and my first season’s end. I’m not ready to say goodbye! (I’m not crying you’re crying!)
