Searching for Bigger Bites

Nick & Rob were with me today and what a scorcher it was! From yesterdays roller coaster ride to flat calm and blazing hot conditions. I guess she has a sense of humor! I had fished with Nick last fall but it was the first time for Rob and I knew we were about to have a good day. Our first spot had the bass eating soft plastics as well as spinnerbaits and it was game on. Unfortunately it was short lived as I found out and the little flurry of activity had us relocating quickly to another area up the lake. It was here that we did the damage and spent a considerable amount of time catching a number of smallies. Both Rob & Nick were landing plenty of two to three pounders but the larger once seemed to elude us. We covered plenty of water in search of, but never really found them in this area. Off we went to somewhat deeper water and I set them up with a drop shot rig. I don’t think Nick even had the bail closed when the first fish hit him in 18 feet of water. Although it may have only been a 2.5 pound bass, it was a sign. Rob was having a tough time getting use to this technique and only missed a couple. We made several drifts over the deep shoal hooking up pretty much on every one. With below average fish only being caught still, I decided to try another shallow area and moved closer to the shore. It was here that we found some of the larger ones and senko’s were our best baits of choice. The bite was strange with plenty of fish dropping the soft plastics instead of eating them as usual. I know we could have done considerably better than we did because 75% of the bass got off. At least a few of the larger ones stayed buttoned though and made it to the boat for pics. As with the first couple of areas, plenty of action was going on but most of the bass were smaller than expected so we moved again. In the next area, we found another mix of fish and managed to lose almost all of the larger ones. The retention time was terrible today as the fish were either just mouthing the baits or barely taking them by the tail. Either way, we lost plenty! I wanted to give another deep area a try towards the end of the day and went back to the drop shot set up over a series of humps. The fishing was pretty slow but when we did get bit, it was a better than average bass. As with before though, most of them got off when they took to the air. This was really starting to get annoying! Nick was the lucky one as he kept a few of the bigger ones pinned long enough to make it to the net. Rob on the other hand only managed to get visuals as they jumped off directly in front of our faces. We stuck it out till about 5:00 and then pulled the plug on the day. There was definitely plenty of action had today but most ended in disappointment. The fish were surely the winners overall but we did manage to bring plenty of the smaller ones to the boat and a few bigger ones too. Regardless of the outcome, it was still a great day on the lake!!