I got another chance today to put the boat in the lake. I hit the water at 7:00. I knew there was a tournament being run out of Paris Landing and I didn't want to interfere with those guys, so I purposely went out late. By that time, it was already 82 degrees.
I made a run to an underwater hump I've fished before. As I was running, I noticed every bridge abutment had at least one boat on it, and every mainlake point had a boat sitting too. Thinking the same would be said about the hump, I ran there anyway thinking it's big enough for a couple boats. I was surprised to see only one boat on the hump, so I dropped off plane and started fishing a Carolina Rig.
The water goes from about 28 feet and tops out at about 3 in fairly short order. I could see fish on the locator down fairly deep, but the C rig, a texas rigged worm, a shakey head worm, a slow rolled spinnerbait and even a wacky rigged stick bait didn't do the trick!
Thinking the fish might still be up shallow, I fished all over the top and the edges with a fluke, a spinnerbait, a rattle trap and the stick bait. Nothing. The other guy fishing the hump pulled in one short fish that I saw.
Well, after spending about an hour on the hump, I decided to just cruise around and take a look at the lake. By this time too, there were four other boats beating up the hump, so I left and slowly cruised back deeper into the bay.
Once I got back there, I noticed that the water temperatures were rising pretty good. The water temp on the hump was 83 degrees, back in the bay, it was 86 degrees or higher. As I idled my way back in, I began to see some trees lying in the water, and there were some boat docks that looked "fishy."
I tossed a Secret Weapon around some of the trees and brush and had one good fish on briefly. I don't know if it was a gar or a big bass, but it pulled drag on my Curado! I was keeping pressure on the fish, then it was just gone!
I checked the depth at some of the boat docks and it was between 2.5 and 3 feet, so I skipped a fluke underneath one of the docks. The lure settled into the dark water and the line took off! I set the hook into a 13 in. spotted bass. One legal bass caught.
I worked around the dock some more and picked up a 15 inch largemouth from the same dock with the same fluke, a pearl color. Two against my limit.
It was starting to get hot out, so I started heading back to the landing. As I approched the bridge, the traffic had thinned out but there was still one boat working the abutment I wanted to try. So instead, I started to work the shoreline riprap rocks. Tossing a bleeding shad colored Secret Weapon up to shore and fishing it slowly back, I got a good largemouth off the rocks. This one was a little nicer, weighing three pounds according to my Boga Grip. Three against my limit.
The guy fishing the bridge was tossing a carolina rig and a texas rigged worm and moved to the other side. So, not to crowd someone probably fishing the tournament, I continued to work the rocks along the shore. Playing a hunch, I set down the spinnerbait and picked up the fluke and tossed it to the rocks. It disappeared in a bronze swirl. I set the hooks and fought the fish to the boat. A 16.5" smallmouth. Four against the limit.
The other angler simply looked disgusted at me and left the area. I never did see him catch a fish.
So with that abutment totally free, I threw up against the concrete, let the lure settle into the water and I watched the line jump. I set the hook into another good largemouth, about the same size as the three pounder. I now had a limit!
I fished around the pilings with the fluke, then picked up the wacky rig and worked through there again. I caught a short fish, then another largemouth that would have culled the spot.
At that point, I figured I should leave some fish for the guys in the tournament, so I packed up and headed to the landing.
Here's one of the three pounders. What really doesn't show is how incredibly thick this fish was! AND, as I took this picture with my phone, I need longer arms....
To make matters even better. I hadn't gassed up the boat since fishing in Canada. As I was putting the boat on the trailer, it coughed and died! Out of GAS!!!
I went back for the weigh-in. With the weight I had when I left at noon, I think I might have taken third!
Steve
