Near fishless afternoon

[Olegiller1]

Yesterday I spent the better part of the afternoon fishing a large strip mine lake.
The surface water was a warm 80 degrees. It had a greenish cast to it. I first tried a wide shallow bay fishing at 4' - 5' . The few fish I had marked on the sonar were between 4' to 8' deep. I managed one girl gill in the bay and moved on. I caught quite a few bright colored males by setting the float to a little over a foot and tossing up against the shore in weed openings . I am troubled that all these males were only around 7". I can only hope that the large males have finished for the year and have left the spoils for the off year class.
I covered a lot of water both shallow and deep with very few markings of fish anywhere. I did get one more girl gill on a large 10' deep flat before giving up the day. I had only 2 in the basket that I turned out before leaving.
One of the jigs I fished was a black orange kiptail 1/80 that I just never got around to trying. For some reason there was a full row of these and a row of brown/yellow that I had not tried in one of the boxes. The one I used yesterday done as well as the black I had on the other rod . I'll have to fish these on a better lake to pass judgment.
The weather couldn't have been better and almost no breeze .
I wish all a safe and enjoyable 4th. Give pause for all those in the service that can't be here with family and friends for the 4th .