Lake Barrett Opening Day!

My congratulations goes out to the approximately 100 anglers that got to fish Lake Barrett on opening day this past weekend. The first anglers of the 2009 season to have a chance to fish for those fiery northern-strain largemouths.

Fishing reports are out on sdfish.com and looks like an epic day on the opener. I was reading reports on 2 anglers in a boat catching & releasing over 200 fish. It sounded like the anglers who were fishing on boats were averaging over 100 fish a boat. I have not read the reports from the float tubers but I'm sure they did well.

Anyways, I was not fortunate enough to get a ticket for opening day, not even the opening month. I guess I'm just not skilled enough with the touch tone phone or just plain not lucky enough. But hopefully I can get a reservation for June, tickets for that month goes on sale on May 12th so can be sure I'll be on that phone at 7:00 pm.

Again, congratulations to those fellow anglers who got to fish opening day. I can't wait to get back to Lake Barrett again and hopefully I will next month.

Lake Murray With The Boys!

Got out to Lake Murray yesterday with a couple of fellows at work, Mate (Graeme) & Steve. I got there at 5:45 am to find out that they have already lounged and they're lines on the water, but they were nice enough to pick me up at the boat dock. 

We started fishing the shallows for spawning fish, but the water was stained and skies were cloudy, so we couldn't really see under water. So, we all switched to the dropshop, not too long after, Mate & Steve got double hook ups. I got kinda worried cause I didn't catch my first fish till a couple of hours later, but ended up the day with the most fish. We fished from 6:00 am-1:00 pm and managed to catch 8 fish between us. Final fish count: Me=4, Mate=3, Steve=1. Most fish were caught on a dropshot and also caught some on the weighted Fluke. 

It would have been nice to catch more fish, but it was a great day to hang out with the fellows. Thanks guys, for the fun day.

Catching Bass After The Spawn

After the female bass has deposited her eggs in the nest, the male will stay near the nest to protect it for about a week after spawning. During this time the male is not a feeding fish, however, he can be provoked into attacking a lure which is presented very close to the nest in a defensive effort. After spawning both the male and female become active feeders again.

Back to Lake Dixon

Got the day-off from work yesterday, so I decided to fish Lake Dixon again. I got there at 7:00 am, which surprisingly work cause it has been cold the last few weeks.

Knowing that the wind is going to pick up later in the morning, I decided to sight fish. Found fish right away by cruising the shoreline on the west side of the lake. Lots of fish on the beds, but mostly males, didn't see many females. Managed to catch 9 fish in 3 hours by flipping texas rig Zoom bedbait. The wind picked up at 10:00 am which made it hard to sight fish. It made it hard to see under water with the ripple created by the wind. It was also hard to keep the boat still, especially with 30 lbs thrust trolling motor that comes with the rental boat. After 1/2 hour of frustration trying to look for bed fish, I gave up and started to do regular fishing. Managed to catch 2 more fish tossing a fluke close to the tullies.

At about 1;00 pm, got tired of fighting the wind, it got hot and I got hungry so I decided to call it the day. It was definitely a fun day with 11 fish caught & released, mostly 1.5 to 2.5lbs, biggest one at maybe 3.5lbs. Not a bad day at all, sure beats working.

Bed Fishing Lake Dixon

Had time for a few hours of fishing this morning, and since it is full moon tonight, I decided to hit up Lake Dixon for some bedfishing. It was a little cloudy when I got there so I couldn't really see the beds, but later in the morning, the some came out for a little bit and I managed to find a few beds. I ended up catching & releasing 6 fish, all were right around 2 pounds, no big ones. As always, I could not get the big females to bite and I didn't really have much time to spend working on a fish. Wind started to pickup, got cloudy and cold so I got out of there by noon. Since there is a full moon tonight, it should make for good spawn fishing tomorrow, but there is suppose to be a storm coming tonight, so I won't be out there. Caught all fish dropshotting a white Zoom Bed Bait on 6lb flouro.