Know thy water!

[Spoonminnow]

I've been fishing in a local county park lake for five species recently because of how near to my house it is. The state stocked it recently with decent size crappie and bass an it shows with daily catches over 40 fish and crappie averaging over 10". The kayak anglers yesterday were beating the banks when I got to the lake but I knew better the open water pattern that has been happening daily since the water temperature has been staying above 80 daytime.

The fish location pattern I discovered and that has persisted for over a week, involves finding flat areas with rises such as humps and flats adjacent to drops of 2 or more feet. Depth fish were caught in averaged 6.5' - 8' and at one point I anchored for an hour catching fish all around the boat. No point fishing shaded banks because fish haven't been there for a while. I even caught a few fish beneath the sonar transducer after seeing a fish arch.

8# test braid with 6# test f/c leader proved a better combo than braid alone. It's something about how braid allows for the best strike detection and hook sets with long distance casts and how fluorocarbon allows the best lure action at any depth. 1/24 oz jigs with plastics no larger than 2 1/4" and in different designs accounted for over 135 fish in three outings and included crappie, perch, sunfish and bass. I caught a catfish that put a nice bend in my light action rod.


The lure used was a hand poured stick worm, wacky rigged on a light jighead.


I also caught fish with them rigged the usual way:

Up until a few years ago I always thought grubs should have and action tail to generate strikes. Guess I was wrong.

What helped hold boat position in hot areas 70 yds from shore was a buoy marker I made using a swim noodle:

Drifting too shallow or too deep put me off fish when the boat wasn't anchored and kept me over bottom structure few if any knew about not using sonar. (The taped on screws kept the float from rotating and preventing more rope out than necessary.)

The only thing that forced me off the lake was the thunderstorm with a torrential downpour that was approaching from the west:

Awesome to look at, dangerous to be in!