Joined
·
10,887 Posts
I decided I didn't want to drive any long distance today so I opted to fish one of the private farm lakes where I have access. This one is much larger than the one I normally fish but it hasn't really treated me all that well in the past.
Here's the lake:
![Water Cloud Blue Sky Vehicle]()
Weeds were a problem today. My sonar unit was marking lots and lots of fish but they were primarily in the vegetation so I knew I needed to find deeper water if I had to use subsurface patterns... which I figured I'd need to do. I ended up finning all the way across the lake to the tree line before I found water that wasn't so damned weedy.
I started with surface poppers but other than one hit on a frog pattern, zippo for poppers. My trusty mouse popper didn't even work.
I was starting to wonder what the devil my fish finder was marking. So, I switched to a two fly presentation and went subsurface. Nothing. I was loosing faith in this lake and was seriously considering moving over to the smaller lake which is only a half mile away.
Finally, I hooked up. The line was going in circles so I thought it must be a gill... but it must be a big one. After fighting the fish out of the weeds I discovered I hadn't caught one something or other fish but two LMB! This is a new one for me. I've caught lots and lots of trout two at a time with a two fly presentation and I've done likewise with smallmouth. But I have never, ever caught two LMB at the same time. They weren't huge (one wasn't bad) but when you have two on at the same time, it was a heck of a battle:
![Organism Food Rectangle Fish Tail]()
Catching the bass gave me two bits of knowledge. 1) there are LMB in the lake. 2) one of the bass hit a smallmouth perch pattern I use at the reservoir.
So, with a bit more confidence, I started moving around the lake and finally caught a perch with a white WB.
Ahhhhhah! Most likely my sonar unit was marking perch and if that was the case, the LMB would be looking for something that looked like a perch.
I kept snagging up on weeds with my perch subsurface patterns and that was becoming aggravating. So I thought, what the heck, I'll try one of perch pencil poppers I made for the smallmouth at the reservoir and see in the LMB like it.
It didn't take long to start getting hits on the pencil popper. I caught a few smallish LMB so I was onto something. Then it occurred to me that perhaps I should be casting away from shore and into the middle of the lake. LMB normally move into the shallows in the evening to feed so chance are, considering it was almost noon, the bass would be in the deeper zones.
I made a cast away from shore and further into the lake. While the popper was sitting on the surface I took at look at the Fishin' Buddy to check the water temp. When I looked back at the popper it was gone.
WTF? Where did it go? Eventually my incredibly quick mind figured it out. A bass ate the popper. So I set the hook and realized, primarily due to the fact my 6 wt rod was bent double, that I had hooked a fairly large bass.
After a fairly long fight that included pulling the critter out of the weeds, I finally got this one in my SuperCat:
![Blue Fin Fish Fisherman Marine biology]()
You'll notice the perch imitation pencil popper in its mouth.
This was one of those days I could have used someone else fishing with me take a decent photo of the bass but I was on my own.
It was the largest of the bass I caught during trip. I did end up also catching gills so I know that the lake is healthy and can produce large LMB. The smaller lake I fish holds nothing but LMB so they have no baitfish to feed on other than their own kind.
So, it was a good day. I figured out where the bass are located so next time I won't park on the wrong side of the lake. Plus, if I want to target gills, I can.
Thus, this is my new favorite LMB lake -- 20 minutes from my house.
Here's the lake:
Weeds were a problem today. My sonar unit was marking lots and lots of fish but they were primarily in the vegetation so I knew I needed to find deeper water if I had to use subsurface patterns... which I figured I'd need to do. I ended up finning all the way across the lake to the tree line before I found water that wasn't so damned weedy.
I started with surface poppers but other than one hit on a frog pattern, zippo for poppers. My trusty mouse popper didn't even work.
I was starting to wonder what the devil my fish finder was marking. So, I switched to a two fly presentation and went subsurface. Nothing. I was loosing faith in this lake and was seriously considering moving over to the smaller lake which is only a half mile away.
Finally, I hooked up. The line was going in circles so I thought it must be a gill... but it must be a big one. After fighting the fish out of the weeds I discovered I hadn't caught one something or other fish but two LMB! This is a new one for me. I've caught lots and lots of trout two at a time with a two fly presentation and I've done likewise with smallmouth. But I have never, ever caught two LMB at the same time. They weren't huge (one wasn't bad) but when you have two on at the same time, it was a heck of a battle:
Catching the bass gave me two bits of knowledge. 1) there are LMB in the lake. 2) one of the bass hit a smallmouth perch pattern I use at the reservoir.
So, with a bit more confidence, I started moving around the lake and finally caught a perch with a white WB.
Ahhhhhah! Most likely my sonar unit was marking perch and if that was the case, the LMB would be looking for something that looked like a perch.
I kept snagging up on weeds with my perch subsurface patterns and that was becoming aggravating. So I thought, what the heck, I'll try one of perch pencil poppers I made for the smallmouth at the reservoir and see in the LMB like it.
It didn't take long to start getting hits on the pencil popper. I caught a few smallish LMB so I was onto something. Then it occurred to me that perhaps I should be casting away from shore and into the middle of the lake. LMB normally move into the shallows in the evening to feed so chance are, considering it was almost noon, the bass would be in the deeper zones.
I made a cast away from shore and further into the lake. While the popper was sitting on the surface I took at look at the Fishin' Buddy to check the water temp. When I looked back at the popper it was gone.
WTF? Where did it go? Eventually my incredibly quick mind figured it out. A bass ate the popper. So I set the hook and realized, primarily due to the fact my 6 wt rod was bent double, that I had hooked a fairly large bass.
After a fairly long fight that included pulling the critter out of the weeds, I finally got this one in my SuperCat:
You'll notice the perch imitation pencil popper in its mouth.
This was one of those days I could have used someone else fishing with me take a decent photo of the bass but I was on my own.
It was the largest of the bass I caught during trip. I did end up also catching gills so I know that the lake is healthy and can produce large LMB. The smaller lake I fish holds nothing but LMB so they have no baitfish to feed on other than their own kind.
So, it was a good day. I figured out where the bass are located so next time I won't park on the wrong side of the lake. Plus, if I want to target gills, I can.
Thus, this is my new favorite LMB lake -- 20 minutes from my house.
