With August over half way done, I am looking forward to the fall jerk bait and plastic bite that was so good last September and October. I however cannot overlook some of the great fishing that is currently going on in my neck of the woods. With weed growth just about peaked out to my knowledge is makes fishing the weeds almost easier than it is in some of the earlier months. A few weeks prior I had put some fish in the net trolling leadcore but now am concentrating on a few different bodies of water fishing relatively shallow depths from 5-10 fow throwing Rapala Shad raps for hungry eyes.
Buddy Mike with a nice eye on a SSR #7 in that famous Hot Steel
Depth and bait choice have been heavily weather dependent. With more wind and cloud cover naturally we are getting away fishing slightly shallower with #7 SSR in hot steel as well as electric perch and Fire Tiger. With less wind and high sun slightly deeper out to 10 fow has been good with regular #7; hot steel still being a go to color with olive craw a close second. We have been keying on tiny miniscule points that maybe only have 40 yards of good little weed edges on them. Some of these small weed points will have 6-8 fish stacked up on them while others may have only 1. With high sun we are cruising with the trolling motor on high covering water. Fish are more spread out and long stretches of shoreline weeds and reeds have scattered eyes on them. So basically when the wind is blowing and you have some clouds it has been awesome. With less wind and high sun either get out there at 0600 or look to really burn some water. Fish are still cooperating just have to work a little harder for them.
Dad got big fish the other evening with this chunky 23 that hit a #7 SSR in 6 fow
People are trolling the same lakes with less success, it seems that every once in awhile during casting you should be taking some weeds off. I believe partially the success goes to the fact that we are able to hug the weeds so closely. I am running my shad raps tied directly to a snap on 10lb 832 in hi vis yellow. On the high sun days a pause in the retrieve has triggered a few more bites than the standard retrieve. Line watching and small subtle changes like this put a few more fish in the boat when conditions are tough.
Nice added bonus to some bluegill fishing, and a good fight
Panfish and bass continue to make up for slack time. We fished a couple different lakes last week and found sunfish, crappies, large and small mouth all hugging the weedlines. We put some smaller jigs on with a few trigger X mustache worms and let the fun begin. Dad had a blast as did I catching some bluegill to fry up, along with smallmouth crashing the party every 5-10 minutes on ultralight tackle making for a lot of laughs and some good fights. – Look for fishing to improve as labor day comes up and the temps start to drop in the next couple weeks. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to call or PM me – Tight lines fellas – QB
Dad with a few nice gills at sunset