What would you expect?

[keithdog]

Thought this would make for an interresting post. Here is the scenario. Plan on being on the water about 5a.m. tomorrow morning. The past 5 days has seen lines of rain and storms move through nearly every day. The strong storms missed us, but we did get our share of rain. In fact it's raining right now lightly. BUT...tomorrow is supposed to be clear and sunny with a high of 82. Air temps haved ranged from low 70's at night to highs of 82 - 92 durring the day.Tonight is supposed to drop to low 60's. The lake is in far northern Indiana. It's a natural lake, no submerged creek beds. There is a fairly consistant weed growth around the lake. The average depth is 12 feet, but there are three holes that range between 25 and 55 feet deep. Weeds are a mix of lilly pads, cabage and what I would call crap slimy stuff. The bass are just comming off the beds. It was a late spawn. Not sure what the water temp is. I would guess low 70's.
I stopped by the lake a few days ago and suprisingly the water is not really that murky, but fairly clear.
Now where would you expect the fish to be? If you were faced with these facts, what would you expect?
I'm guessing the bass will be in shallow early on. Plan to work surface baits near cover in shallow water early. Buzz bait, Baby Torpedo, ect. I'll be working a frog also early in the pads and slop. I'll also have a spinnerbait tied onto a rod for more open water near cover, and a shallow crank. And probably a hollow body swim bait rigged T Style weighted on the hook. As the sun starts to climb above the trees I'm expecting to have to work deeper in the heavy weed cover, and also use mid depth crankbaits around deeper weedlines. Maybe get out a shakey jig to work a 5 inch worm if the strikes are hard to buy. Also durring mid to late morning, I'll be pitching a Tiki Stick into shaded areas where a big ole bass may be hiding from that bright sun. If still nothing seems to be working, I'' try a T Rigged 10 inch worm in deeper haunts in and around deep weeds.
Is there something you would do differently? Any techniques that you think I'm forgetting to try, or that you would recommend over any other? What would you do?

[Jim80]

sounds like you got it pretty much nailed man , the rain does usually push the fish shallow so that should work for ya early on but you got a good game plan in place .
i would stick with it , and maybe drop shot a area or two mid morn .

[carolina-rig-01]

well i would think that the abbundant rain over the past week and then a sudden snap of a clear sunny warm day should have all the topless middle aged women going crazy suntanning on docks so i would focus there. lol, no really it sounds like you have a good plan.

[keithdog]

Well here is what happened. Got to the park to find the gate locked. The park guy was 45 minutes late opening the gate! I finally was on the water casting by 6AM. Not a cloud in the sky and about 64 degrees outside. The wind was calm and I couldn't stir a single bass for about an hour. Stared using buzz baits, frogs, surface baits, a medium crankbait and spinnerbaits. One thing that quickly became obvious was the change in my lake. Other than the lilly pads which were still there, the weeds which were very abundant when I was here 3 weekends ago were now oddly missing. Turns out the state came in and did a weed kill about the same time as my last outting. I couldn't find a live growing weedbed to save my life. All the deeper weedbeds which are normally green and lush were now either gone, or slimy brown as you would expect in late fall. The lake is only 62 acres, so it does not take long for me to check out all my prized locations. Not a single live green weed was to be found other than the lillies like I said earlier. By 9 AM I had figured out what pattern was going to catch bass. Only one technique worked today. Using a surface bait very close to shore, and only in shaded areas with either a little grass or brush. The grass didn't look all that great, and was very sparse, but it had to be there. No shade and grass or brush and there was no bass. The only lure taking bass in these locations was a Baby Torpedo. I tossed spinnerbaits, other surface baits, worms, jigs, cranks, you name it. If it wasn't a Baby Torpedo, they were not interrested. I hooked 23 bass, landing 20. Not a bad day in all except that every bass was no larger and 1.5 pounds. Where the larger bass were I have no clue. I spent plenty of time searching deeper water all over the lake. Even tried dragging a 1/2 oz. weedless football jig with a Chompers Twin Tail grub along deeper drops near the lilly pad fields, and also in the lilly pads themselves. Nothing. Deep diving cranks, medium diving cranks, slow rolling spinnerbaits, carolina rigs, and nothing. Some days I wish I could scuba dive to see where those larger bass are hiding out. But still in all, 20 bass is a lot of fun when nothing else is catching. Oh, did I mention I caught 3 redears on that Baby Torpedo? I didn't expect that.

[JB]

Nice report...the same thing is going on at brookville lake, water was 7 feet up and now back down to 2 ft over pool.
Lots of 1.5 bass in shallows but the big sacks that have been weighed in this week came off the tree tops of submerged big trees.
I think most of them are there due to the quick dropping of the lake.

[keithdog]

It's going to be tough pinpointing the larger bass in the lake I usually fish with the weedkill having takin place. The lake is largly an L shaped bowl with two deeper areas grouped in the corner of the bend. Without any weedbeds to hold the fish there isn't really any type of structure for the bass to relate to. I worked those deeper areas hard yesterday without a single strike. There are a couple points. I think I'll concentrate on those next time out.

[MIbasser]

Keith, sounds like a great day to me. I have a hard time catching more than 3 fish in a day... 20 sounds great!!! keep it up.