05-25-2006, 10:51 PM
[cool][#0000ff]TubeBabe and I launched our Fat Cats at the ramp about 6:15 AM. Lonely except for a bajillion pelicans, grebes, terns and gulls, all gathering a fish breakfast. Water temp was 62 at the ramp and 65 at the buoy line. Warmed to 68 before we got off the lake at noon.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The weeds are growing in the warming water, but the fish are not yet swarming like they will after the water passes 70 - 75 degrees. Couldn't find any cooperative fish in the shallows. Moved out past 15 feet and began to see stuff on sonar. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Just after 6:30 I heard someone hit "high C" and then a splash. TubeBabe claimed she was hooked up to a nice bass. Nice, yes. Bass, no. Turned out to be a 20" rainbow that went 3.6 pounds. Nice start. First fish and biggest fish of the day.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I kept changing depths, lures, bait and presentation. Finally got a couple of small bluegills. Then, I got into an area with a lot of perch. Went 5 for 5 on medium sized ones and then zip for awhile. Found more from time to time, but they were in small pockets and it was easy to drift off them. Shoulda had my marker buoys. Making an X on my tube or on the water didn't help.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe kicked over to the fish holding area and we had slow but steady action on gills and perch. Ended up catching about 60 or so perch and maybe 15 bluegill. I also got one chunky bitty bass to the tube and lost another that was quite a bit larger. Never did fish aggressively for the bass. Just kept throwing small tube jigs and caught all the species on small plastics.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We used several colors, but smoke sparkle, white and "confetti" worked best. Toward the end of our day we got a few on brown with chartreuse tail. Tipped with both worm and perch meat. The meat caught the most and the biggest. Also stayed on the hook best.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Most of our fish came in 12-16 feet of water. Saw lots of fish on sonar in deeper water but they all had their little mouths closed. We could sometimes look down in the clear water and see the schools of perch surround our jigs. Often they would just bump the head (with the eye on it) and would not even munch the meat. It was worse than ice fishing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There were several boats that hit the lake after we did. They all moved around a lot, which told me that they were never really on a pattern.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A bothersome breeze came up about 11. It made it tough to fish finesse style and we quit getting fish, so we got out and boogied.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Still not hot action for kids yet. Maybe another couple of weeks.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The weeds are growing in the warming water, but the fish are not yet swarming like they will after the water passes 70 - 75 degrees. Couldn't find any cooperative fish in the shallows. Moved out past 15 feet and began to see stuff on sonar. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Just after 6:30 I heard someone hit "high C" and then a splash. TubeBabe claimed she was hooked up to a nice bass. Nice, yes. Bass, no. Turned out to be a 20" rainbow that went 3.6 pounds. Nice start. First fish and biggest fish of the day.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I kept changing depths, lures, bait and presentation. Finally got a couple of small bluegills. Then, I got into an area with a lot of perch. Went 5 for 5 on medium sized ones and then zip for awhile. Found more from time to time, but they were in small pockets and it was easy to drift off them. Shoulda had my marker buoys. Making an X on my tube or on the water didn't help.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]TubeBabe kicked over to the fish holding area and we had slow but steady action on gills and perch. Ended up catching about 60 or so perch and maybe 15 bluegill. I also got one chunky bitty bass to the tube and lost another that was quite a bit larger. Never did fish aggressively for the bass. Just kept throwing small tube jigs and caught all the species on small plastics.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We used several colors, but smoke sparkle, white and "confetti" worked best. Toward the end of our day we got a few on brown with chartreuse tail. Tipped with both worm and perch meat. The meat caught the most and the biggest. Also stayed on the hook best.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Most of our fish came in 12-16 feet of water. Saw lots of fish on sonar in deeper water but they all had their little mouths closed. We could sometimes look down in the clear water and see the schools of perch surround our jigs. Often they would just bump the head (with the eye on it) and would not even munch the meat. It was worse than ice fishing.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]There were several boats that hit the lake after we did. They all moved around a lot, which told me that they were never really on a pattern.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]A bothersome breeze came up about 11. It made it tough to fish finesse style and we quit getting fish, so we got out and boogied.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Still not hot action for kids yet. Maybe another couple of weeks.[/#0000ff]
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