Upon arriving I quickly set out the equipment and put out on the water. I made a few casts along the boat dock and fishing pier with no interest. By this point the lake was at safe light and I could see the sunfish cruising about the surface chasing bugs. I made a few casts with no interest by the sunfish. So it was time to head over to the rip-rap and work on a tried and true pattern.
I started the day using the small 1/32 oz jig with a plastic grub. The ultra light rig allowed me to put the bait right up against the rocks at the water's edge. It seems that higher success is achieved when putting the bait right up at water's edge or within 10 cm. Further than that and it seems that it doesn't work so well.
My surprise was when I moved over to a small cove within the rip-rap. My first cast was greeted by an unsuspecting lateral movement. Apparently the LMB took the bait and swam off with it upon entry into the water. So I didn't have to wait long to take up the tension. Interesting point, upon tension there was not much loading on the line. I'm guessing that it changed azimuth and vectored towards me minimizing the loading. It wasn't till I got several winds of the reel in when it realized what I intended to do. That is when the tussle amplified up to an impressive level. The drag on the spinning reel sang out in a high pitch during the several spirited runs. This put the 2 lb test line right up to capacity. Fortunate for me it held. I was able to quickly release it and return it back. The jig was seated right in the upper lip in the 12 o-clock position but it was seated about 2 cm into the mouth.
Within a couple of follow on casts, came the the next LMB which was roughly the same size as the first, approximately 36 cm. Very good fun with the pulling power of these early morning bass. So my first hour on the water was full of activity with both ends of the size spectrum. The LMBs are of really nice size while the green sunfish are really on the small end.
I'm most impressed with the tenacity of the green sunfish. They typically put on the most tussle and they don't give up easily either. The really small ones that I caught early on in the morning could barely get their lips to open much wider then the grub they inhaled. Fortunate for me that they didn't get the hook beyond the jaw hinge. So it was simply the case of where I had to arc the grub laterally to ease the hook out. The larger one that took the weedless grub configuration was caught on the south side of the lake in the deep thick of it.
The following two photos really don't show the intensity of which I had to wrangle this fish to the boat and then work the 1/0 hook out of its mouth.
After the fun of hitting the rip-rap, I moved on to the south side and poked about the deep weeds and sent the baits down the various holes that I could manage to accurately toss to. I figured that I would give the bait cast reel another go. I didn't bring the graphite pole, I brought the fiberglass casting rig. During my practice sessions I was able to get the bait tossed to within 20 cm of the intended landing. I was not that successful today with the bait caster. I believe that with the cooler temperatures the grease in the bearings were much more viscus than when I was practicing in the heat of the day. So the casts were landing far from the intended spots. That is why I reverted back to the medium, 6 lb test spinning rig with the weedless grub. That is also when I found the green sunfish in the photos.
The sun was getting higher in the sky by now. It was also mid-morning so I was planning my concluding fishing effort. I figured I would cruise down the dam area to see what I could do there before calling it a day. There were no visible boils that I could see or target on so my hopes for a mid-lake catch faded as I approached the dam. The gentle breeze worked in my favor as it moved me along reasonably well as I explored the various areas between rock openings. I managed to connect with several smaller green sunfish that were most enjoyable on the line.
Once past the dam area I cast to a prospective pocket where something quite large hammered the little grub and immediately broke off upon tension. I found this initially odd and suspected that perhaps I was tricked by snagging of an underwater feature. I retied another jig with a small grub and sent it right back to the same pocket. The identical action ensued. So whatever was down there now has two of my baits.
Ok enough of that I'm switching over to the larger rig and sending that twin tailed trailer down to the depths and see what happens. Nothing, not a thing. Not interested in that big skirted jig. It was already satisfied with my two little grubs. It is really hot by now and I'm getting low on water. So it was time to call this gig good and head on back.
Of course along the way there are pockets of opportunity that were just too good to let go by without some investigation. I did manage to find some more small green sunfish that were more than happy to pull hard for me. None were larger than 16 cm but all were really fun on that light line.
It was a very enjoyable time out there on the water. I managed to have some good fish on the line and several that I would have liked to see too! That is why it is called fishing and not catching! I'm thinking that I'm going to shelve the 2 lb line for a time and work out the 4 lb line a bit. The combination of the 4 & 6 seem to work well.
I may investigate the new Nanofil options for the larger spinning reel or just keep using the bulk 10 lb line. The Stren line appears more supple than the big game Berkley line. Also I'm not sure if the heat has something to do with it, but I'm suspecting that my batch of line on the reels appears to be getting brittle. < Might have something to do with sitting in the Subie for all those afternoons > So it could be a good thing to spool up with some fresh mono. Till the next time I get the line wet. Chao!
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