Here's what I found for today. Got to the lake at 0515, on the water by 0545. Decided to peek about Wilson's creek for the early session. Buzzed around with some topwaters and then some underspins, but no takers. Water was a brisk 71.4 F, I didn't notice the air temp. Finally picked up a couple nice fish on the popper. Saw some boils at 0700, which felt early for that kind of thing, but like a good little citizen, I pedaled over to the boils and started casting everything in world. Nothing happening. I brought a very light rod ( super whippy ) with 4 lb test and a #3 ( yes, #3 Rapala) and cast to the boils. Instantly I was a winner. And got a bass that was maybe 6 inches long. With my new theory in mind that these boils were the sample size fish I spent the next couple minutes catching a fish on almost every other cast. The prize was maybe 8 inches long. These fish were not counted in my daily count. But I learned some boils are just small bass schooling that you don't want to catch until next year, or later.
Moved away from that over to Becky's cove and picked up a few more decent bass on the popper and the jerkbait.
Finally moved to the back area in Hauser, saw a lot of boils ( decent size fish ) and got to work. Managed somehow to long line release 5 decent fish in a row on two different lures, so the problem was definitely me. Picked up one last fish, mostly to convince myself I could still land a fish and that was it for the day. 9 bass ( keepers) 5 or 6 sample size bass, 3 bluegills. Fun day.
Talking to a few others the numbers were in the high single digits and a couple with 15-18 fish. They are suspended in several areas at about mid depth, the picture I attached shows at 19.5 ft, they are from 10-15 feet down. The bait balls weren't really moving much either. Water temp when leaving got to 74.6 F.
- The prize for the day for me.
- This is my fall colors picture.
- Look at that school of bass.
