June 23rd trip report

weather- partially cloudy, no rain .wind calm in the morning and speeding up around 9 am to 10-20mph out of the east north east, trade winds.
barometer 30.08 and rising.
68% humidity
waxing crescent moon with a 51 out of 100 on the astro tables.
water temp was 79 at launch with a hight of 81 by 11 o clock am
water clarity was 2-3ft  along the south basin with better than 4 ft in the main basin.
water level at dam was 69.60ft

well the trip started out with such promise, we had made a fish house, a structure of a plastic pallet and 1/2 water line cut into various lengths. and we were gonna deploy it and see if we can start working on getting south fork back to its heyday by adding good structure in some areas. we arrived at the ramp at 6 30 am and were the 4th boat to be in line to launch. it looked to be a busy day on the water. we had to nose in at the tip of the ramp as the side had another boat loading up and  there was already another boat behind us waiting to launch. got my son life jacketed up and started to put him on the boat but I'm not sure what happened if he pushed the boat as i set him down or if it just pulled away or what but i was soon extended full arms length with the choice of stepping off the dock and landing him on the boat dry or dropping him in the drink and saving myself. of course i took the first option without a thought........ unfortunately i had my wallet and iPhone in my pocket. stepped off and straight to the bottom into 8ft of water. bounced up and grabbed the gunnel and hauled myself in in one fluid movement. i couldn't have been submerged but 2-3 seconds tops but i opened my pocket and the iPhone was dark...... not a good way to start the trip, not to mention the air was a bit nippy that early and i was completely soaked. all in all i wasn't about to let it ruin my  trip, of course as i looked down at my phone that was hard to do, after all its a company phone and i didn't relish buying a replacement at 300-400$ or explaining to the office manager  what had happened. we headed up into south fork to deploy our "fish house" and decided the lone island that becomes a underwater hump when the water is high would be a good spot. set it just below the surface  figuring with the rising water it would be in 6ft of water most of the time and 2 ft at low water. the plan of having water fill the plastic pallet and carry it down didn't work so well. ended up using rocks from the island and put them in the indentations to weight it down and get it to stay on the bottom. luckily i was already wet so the swim to get the house down wasn't a problem. we got it set and headed back down to robbies tree to start our fishing day. of course i don't have any pics seeing as my phone was dead, i really wanted to get a few of our fish house. honestly i have kinda forgotten most of the details on the trip i was pretty bummed and i think my son was feeding of that because i mostly remember him being fussy and me worrying because i couldn't contact mommy to come get him so i knew id be leaving early to get him home. we managed 3 fish in the 1-1.5 lb range. I'm thinking one was on a crankbait. one on a plastic worm texas rigged. one was on a devils horse. i honestly am not 100% sure but i do know we were done by 11 am  and headed back in. its good that they went biting because id have been more miserable leaving with a bite going on. still 3 fish and got home in time to do chores, guess there was some good out of it. this 2 weeks to finish reports sure makes it tough to remember the details. i really got to get up on keeping this more current. will have to report on how i saved the phone in a later blog ;)

Fathersday and fishing

well sunday was fathers day and we had a pretty successful trip on saturday. as i sat looking back on it i couldn't help but look at it from a fatherly point of view. there isn't anything more natural than sharing the outdoors with your child, its like christmas morning every time you go out. dosent matter if its hiking,fishing,surfing. for some maybe hunting or biking. whatever it maybe the outdoors just naturally lead themselves to memorable circumstances for children and parents. and especially the father son/daughter fishing experience. the excitement of preparing the night before. the anticipation of the early wake up call to get out with first light. its a magical time. hell there are  a lot of negatives involved too, but its usually negated by the positive 10 fold! its like dealing with malls and stress during the holidays, it all goes away christmas eve when the magic in their eyes can be seen. the long hours preparing tackle and boats, the impatient kids, the tangled/lost lures. all worth those moments of magic when they get that fish on the line. that picture locked in time,just like the first sight of presents on christmas morning. the key to having a great trip is remembering its not about the fishing always, but its about the experience.feeding a few ducks, in our case geese, can be another positive experience adding to the "fishing trip". driving the boat,helping launch and retrieve the boat, exploring nature. I've even got my son excited about picking up lake trash by making it a game.all this makes it a positive reinforcing experience. the fishing can be great but in a childs eyes  and with their attention span you really need to fill out the day for them. I'm very lucky to get half day to myself when he's tired i get lunch and a hand off with the wife. he gets a good morning session and i get a few hours to decompress by myself. its something that works for all, after all the wife gets to sleep in and be child free for several hours as well. the best part is that some day these positive memories  i hope he's getting will be passed on to his children one day, perhaps if I'm lucky i may even get to share some with them.and the magic will make him and his better for all that is learned and experienced on each "fishing trip"

Trip report june 16th 2012

well i really did a bad job of keeping a log on the particulars of this trip and now it got lost along with the info from my last trip when my phone went in the drink. I'm gonna try to remember as much as i can to keep it accurate and if i can't recall oh well.

weather- partly cloudy in the morning with calm winds 0-10mph by noon it was blustery at 15-20mph and clear skies with no rain to be had.air temp unknown
barometer- unknown
moon phase- waning crescent with at 62 out of 100 for the astro table.
water temp-unknown
water clarity- 2-3 ft common with a slight stain to the water. clearer in some areas with a 5ft visibility but still off color to stained.
water level-68.85ft

started out the morning in line at the ramp. seems it was gonna be a crowded day at the lake with 4 boats in front of us at 6:45am. launched and headed down toward robbies tree. figuring the pattern to be similar to the previous week. look for busts in the morning and throw lots of top waters and go deeper and slower as the sun rises and the day heats up. tied on a devils horse hoping to elicit a big tuc into biting, worked our way along the bluff from robbies tree to retirement home bank but got nothing. there were no busts in the area as there had been the previous weekend. finally in the transition where it gos from steep bluff to more moderate depth i got a strike on the devils horse. turned out to be a nice 1.3lb 14in bass. fish one boosted our confidence that if we kept searching we could get more top water action. alas we continued throwing at shallow lay downs and cover for the next hour or so with not another look. ran down to boy scout point hoping to get in on a few busts but the place was dead. perhaps the other boats knew something we didn't since we still hadn't run into them and were nearly half way down the lake. cranked the point and along the sides of the point with no success. turned to a drop shot to try and get bit and started working the deep part of the point as well as down the steep sides of the point. got a hook up on the side in about 12ft of water, to our surprise it was a red devil! i was kinda shocked a red devil would hit a 6 in drop shot worm but it did and got the hook no problem. anyways at least it was a fish and my son was stoked to put it in the live well. our lake is catch and release on all gamefish so bass and tucs go free but red devils are invasive so they gotta get taken out. shhhhh they goto that farm somewhere ;) anywaysworked that point like nothing and after nearly an hour there we only had the red devil to show. ran down and hit condo cliffs and fished a shakeyhead along the bluffs. got another red devil,what the hell was going on??? hahaha was alternating cranking and dropshoting mixed with shakeyhead fishing trying to get some idea of where the bass were. still had no idea where the largemouth were but  decided to keep going down the bank toward kemo'o pub and that when i hooked into something huge just behind the dive shop building between condo cliffs and kemo'o pub. threw out my havoc bottom hopper jr. in black emerald on a 1/4 oz vicious shaky head rig. and connected with a huge fish that immediately took off reel screaming! chased it to the back of the boat and had no though of handing it off to my son, it was way to much of a fight for him. he was still excited and jumping up and down just the same hahaha. i had my falcon cara t7 rod and diawa fuego reel spooled with 8lb yo zuri hybrid line and it was screaming drag out on the surges. i maneuvered around the boat trying to tire it out. saw the green and black of what i though was a really nice bass, after all shakyhead right???!! but as i got it to the surface finally it was DEFINATLEY not a bass. my son got the grips and i got it up and out of the water. i didn't know what it was at first but i measured and weighed it and it was massive for something I'm sure was supposed to be more like a red devil in size. figure a good size red devil may be close to a lb but this guy was going 2.12- 3.4 on my crappy rapala scale and boga grips suck for accuracy but it was over 3 on that! put him in the live well and started searching the smartphone to find out it was a jaguar cichlid. another invasive  and another aquarium release run amok! well whatever it was it had to be a record so i kept it and besides its all about getting the invasives out of the lake so they don't compete with the bass, trust me this guy was more than doing ok food wise!! moved over to the saddle on kemo'o island and worked it for a bit with no luck. son fed the ducks then decided he was done for the day. we headed back not really stopping to fish along the way. he wanted to drive so i let him  enjoy himself. got back to the dock got some pics of the fish in the live well and traded the lad out for lunch. wasn't sure what to fish or where to start but i was tired of the invasives so i upped the size of my crankbait and worms and ran back down to fish the saddle. finally got another bass on a crankbait but the saddle didn't produce any other fish on the baits i was tossing. ran up to north fork and fished some lay downs across from randalls point. i was using a 4"swimming senko in silver on a 2/0 vicious wide gap hook. first time i had tried that bait and i was really liking the action, falls like a senko but its got a swimbait knobby tail on one side and when you jerk it to you it swims just like a swimbait. really great to let fall then jerk then let fall. like a dying baitfish. anyway it skips great too on the spinning rod and i was skipping it into the forks of the lay down up deep against the trees and letting it sink with just enough jerks once in awhile to look like it was trying to get away and i connected with a nice bass. 1.6lbs 15in , he was deep and tight to the tree. maybe only this or a flipping presentation would have gotten him. fished more of the lay downs but none produced another fish. fished randalls point then morgans point with no luck. ran down the bluffs alternating cranks and a texas rigged berkley worm. came back up the other side of kinkaids with the crankbait running and gunning but no luck. i think this is probably where all the boats had been seeing as i had passed em on my way here earlier. ran back to the bluffs dam side of the saddle and shaky headed em with no luck. then drop shotted the saddle and got another red devil!! i just can't get over they were whacking the worms! it was getting late maybe 3:30 or so and i ran looking for trees in deeper water to skip my senko against. passed stan and found a nice lay down fitting my criteria just next to the effluent plant. got a nice 1.5lb 14in bass on the first cast. worked the rest of the cover with no success. ran back to stan showed him my fish and he said its a definite record never seen anything like it. decided to take him to a certified scale to weigh as soon as i was done. ran up to the bamboo cove where another lay down was that fit my emerging pattern. and first cast bam had one on but it came unbuttoned. cast back and worked it a bit, letting it flutter down several times ohhhh so slowly and bam hook up! 1.6lbs 15 in bass. and people wonder why they call em cookie cutter bass hahaha they are practically all the same size, like out of a cookie cutter sheet. worked the cove and several lay downs but no more luck in there. ran back to robbies bank area and fished the senko and worm with no success. finally hit several trees along the straightaway near the bridge but the senko failed to produce. this area has so much cover but never any amount of fish, its so odd. one here one there but never  any decent amount..... odd. back to the dock. ran into chris baires and talked to him a bit about the wtb tourney coming up and then told him about my fish. showed it to him and all the people along the ramp were oooing and ahhhing. no one had seen anything like it that size. chris made a call and the hffa wanted it after i had it weighed, so i got it weighed and its currently sitting up at the middle school in a tank. it dwarfed the "large" one they thought they had hahaha. tough day by most accounts but a pattern of slow and tight to cover emerged later after the water heated up and wind came on. I'm not sure that this pattern would have worked in the morning but its probably worth trying the top water in the calm morning anyway hoping to get a lunker tuc or bass just the same.

Summer season

well the summer season is now in full swing, don't ask me why they have a season called "peak" summer season when you'd think peak meant the actual peak of the season.anyway the water temp is 78-85 degrees during the day and the air is 83-95  with lots of humidity and sunshine blazing down. water level is down quite a bit and rain is in short supply except for the occasionally trade shower.the water has stratified now with a warm surface layer and then a thermocline  about 8-12ft deep and then colder water below that with much less oxygen. the thermocline can be seen on most good graphs and  the fish will be there for sure after the morning and late afternoon feed. the thermocline is cooler and has more oxygen than either the surface or the deeper water.baitfish are plentiful now as the spawned fry are about looking for anything they can to hide around. and they are big enough now to make a meal for larger fish.the bass and tucs will feed heavily but often for short periods of time and often at first light or last light. bass will often feed aggressively at night on the very hottest of days and especially on full moons. the fish may become finicky with the easy abundance of prey they may key on a certain type of fish a.k.a. tilapia or shad. and the size of the lure , the color and the presentation will become much more important to get the fish to bite. the bass may be hitting 2" shad on the surface and your throwing a 3in popper in firetiger with no luck and wondering why. or perhaps the tucs will be slamming tilapia along a shoreline and you throw a  prop bait in silver shad and throw it 2 ft from the bank. but the tilapia are kinda gold in color and are in inches of water  so your not looking like what the tucs are after.summertime can be feast or famine depending on the mood of the fish and how fast you can adapt. the fish will changes moods rapidly with the weather and temp so you need to have a wide selection of baits ready to go and be ready to switch as soon as it stoops working or till you find what does. sticking with one style of bait or one color, perhaps one presentation can lead to a lot of missed opportunities  when the heat is on! and most importantly take care to stay hydrated and protect yourself from the sun. hat,100%  uva and uvb sunglasses and lots of sunblock are a must out on the water!BullFrog Ultimate Sheer Protection Broad Spectrum Face Sunblock SPF 30

June 9th 2012 trip report

well lets try this again.......... some kinda glitch cause my last few posts to disappear. the part that pisses me off is trying to remember the trip reports several weeks back, its gonna be tough and I'm sure most of the info will slip my mind now.

weather-mostly clear morning with partly cloudy by afternoon,winds were calm in the morning with gustier conditions later in the day, maybe 10-20mph by noon and no rain to be seen.
barometer- 30.07 and holding steady
humidity-67%
water level-68.85ft
moon phase- crescent about a quarter full with and astro table of 43 out of 100
water clarity-ranged from muddy 1-2ft in most of south fork above the ramp to lightly stained with 3-5ft down in the main basin.

we started our day at 7 am and headed down to robbies special tree. there were small inconsistent busts here and there from the area of cow point  to down along paper bark. robbie of course wanted his buzzbait on and i hadn't hooked it up so i had to take a sec to rig it for him. his other rod had a halo soft jerkbait in green shad on a small 3/16 ounce jig head. as i got his buzz bait ready there was a small bust right off the bow of our boat, just in front of his "magic" tree. he made a cast and with the buzzbait and i quickly grabbed his other rod and tossed it out at well and bam! first cast i hook up with a nice bass. he reels it in and we have our first fish of the day at 1.6lbs and 15in. worked the area a bit and busts would be going off here and there but always out of reach. seemed like every time we tried to fish along the bank a bust would happen and we would be forced to move out after it! finally  decided this was the perfect situation for my first attempt at the alabama rig. i tied it on the same setup i use for my frog and buzz baits. 35lb braid with a 10lb flouro leader and a 6.3.1 ratio baitcaster on a medium heavy 6'6" rod. its a boss all wire ,compact umbrella rig. i had lead head jigs on it but with the much publicized "gaffing" effect i took them off and switched to 5  2/0 vicious wide gap hooks. figured the weight of the baits and wire would be enough to get it down, besides the bass and tucs were hitting closer to the surface anyway. i had  hootchie kootchie 3" swim baits from cabelas on the hooks rigged texas style to prevent gaffing hopefully. the hootchie kootchie baits have extended tails that really look great in the water compared to the shorter tails on most style swimbaits. have to say i was impressed with how great the whole thing looked in the water, it really did look just like a school of bait swimming along. first cast and i can't be 100% sure but it felt like something popped it! i was stoked and made several consecutive casts with no luck. on the 6th cast i hadn't realized my braid had cross hatched on the real and as i sent it out the line went out 20 feet stopped with a snap and i got to watch all 27$ of umbrella rig sail out into the middle of the lake........... not a happy camper!!! oh well i was so impressed with how great it looked that i will most definatley get another rig to try just as soon as i can , maybe even 2! as far as the braid I'm not so sure ill use that rod and reel seup again for awhile hahaha. as i nursed my anger at the braid there was a good bust right up again the bank of paperbark point, that can only mean one thing....... TUCS! so i rigged up robbies pole with a small prop bait and tossed it out onto the dirt just at the waters edge of the point. pulled it down into the water and started to jerk it. only took 3 jerks maybe moved it 3ft tops and got a nice explosion but a miss. tried it again and on the 4th jerk off the bank  big hit! handed the rod over to the lad and he got to fight a nice 2 lb 4 oz 16in tuc. great start to the day so far! we chased busts and alternated along the bank in this area for some time without  another hit, to be fair i really wasn't trying as hard as i could of to coax another hit from the hungry fish. finally sometime around 9:30 or so the area calmed down and we moved on looking for another spot.we settled at kunia point and fished along the point of boy scout island. crank baits, top waters,drop shot, and even shakeyheads with no luck. there were sporadic busts from time to time but nothing worth pursuing.we then headed down to condo cliffs and fished along there alternating baits as well and finally got a small a 1 lb  catfish on a cabelas grave digger crankbait. my son decided we needed to put him in the live well for awhile so in the poor guy went, we would release him later of course.after working across to kemo'o island and fishing a few of the small points we made it over to the saddle and began to fish it , first with a crankbait and then with drop shot. didn't get to fish it for very long before my son wanted to feed the geese. so we packed up and got them to come over to us to get some bread. after the bread was gone he wanted to drive the boat and it was time to get him in and pick up lunch.he got to show off his catfish and we released it at the ramp. lunch and the lad were traded and off i went to find some fish for myself. went back down to robbies area but had no luck and the busting had stopped.wasnt a shock, the summer heat was on and I'm sure the fish had gone deep with the bait. ran down to kunia point and then over to boy scout island point. cranked the point and down along the sides with no luck and then started to drop shot the point itself. had made a few casts but nothing seemed interested. jeff choi came by and said he had a tough morning till he put on a shaky head and fished the saddle off kemo'o island and caught 25 bass in an hour just running back and forth along the saddle. we chatted for awhile and then parted ways. i fished the point a bit longer with my drop shot with no luck and then tied on a shaky head of course and headed down to condo cliffs. finally got a 1.4lb 14in bass on a shakeyhead along the cliffs.  soon after got another bass 1.6lb 15in  both were in about 10ft of water and the bites were more of a pick up sensation than an actual hit. kinda just raise the tip up and feel the fish. then just as i turned the corner at the kemo'o side of condo cliffs i got a 3rd bass 1.2lb 14in. so i was onto a pattern now so i thought.fish seemed to be holding between 10-12ft and close enough to the bottom to be interested in the shakeyhead. not really into  chasing or  eating. really had to hold that bait in front of them and shake it till they got pissed off and even then they barley mouthed it. enough time had gone by i figured why not try the saddle so i came in from the dam side and made my first cast to the tip where it was exposed. first cast i get a nice 2.2lb 16in bass in 18ft of water. alas i was so stoked with the first fish i stayed wayyyyyyyy to long and spent nearly an hour trying for another bite.again this seemed to fit right into the summer peak pattern of fishing.ran upto north fork and kinkaids figuring the bluffs would be the place to fish! but either it was well picked over , there had been a lot of boats out, or the pattern wasn't just as simple as i had though with wind,depth, andstructure/time of day. i spent some time working my way up along the bluffs and then came back down the other side throwing a crankbait , run and gunning as it were. finally got another 1.4lb 14 in bass on the housing side of kinkaids with a cabbalas grave digger crankbait that ran about 4-8ft deep. after that though i was doing nothing but hauling water. ran back to the dam side of the saddle and worked the steep back just prior to the saddle. had a really good fish on with the shakeyhead but it ran into some lay downs and after a few minutes of trying to get it off either he came unbuttoned or my line broke. i was still hung but i couldn't feel anything on the end. tried the lure retriever but the line finally broke further up  and i had to get another rig on. it was getting late so i ran back toward the ramp stopping at a few steep /windy banks but none produced and i ended the day on that lost fish. the day seemed to make perfect sense as far as what the fish were doing and where they were located. early morning busts as the said rose from first light to about 9 am then as the sun got high and the heat turned on the fish went deeper and pulled closer to structure. the wind helped but the key was shad. follow the shad and the bass were nearby on the closest structure in the 8-12ft depth range. top waters in the morning and look for busting fish, after it heats up shakeyhead and dropshot would be the ticket. i was loving the braid on the pflueger spinning reel. it really made a difference with the shakeyhead and its sensitivity to the bites. had i stayed out till later in the afternoon there might have been more surface action but 4pm i was tired and it wanted to get the boat back in the garage before dark. great day and got a few good fish to boot. can't beat such a great day on the water!Pure Fishing 6925X Pflueger President Reel Spinning 10bb 110-4 Size 6925x

Braided line for finesse fishing

Recently i had read an article about aaron martens. in it he described a growing trend of the top pros and elites to use braid for nearly all of their finesse fishing techniques. i remember the days when spectra first came out and we all had it on nearly every reel as it was the "THING" to have. eventually the cons and price  won out and it faded away. well it came back strong for a lot of specialized techniques and i have to agree that it does have a place on a few reels just for certain techniques. heavy cover,flipping and pitching, anything that requires horsing a fish out of something, but finesse????!!! well after reading the article i was sold on the idea and decided to spool up one of my extra spools with braid and try it for myself. after all summer is coming up and shaky head and drop shooting will be in full swing, and as crowded as our lake has gotten recently I'm sure finesse will be the way to go slot of the time. so here is how martins instructed the setup of the line. he said to use 10 lb braid, not alb not 12 lb, but 10lb. according to hime it was the best diameter all around for keeping enough strength and manageability  to make it work on a spinning reel. use a leader of 6lb or 8lb fluorocarbon keep the leader the length of the rod tip to reel. i ran mine about 5 ft or so. use  a rod with a quick tip and a fast action to absorb the shock of the hook set .reel wasn't as important but a faster ratio he liked better than a slower one. so i went out and bought some power pro braid 10lb, it was the only braid i could find in 10lb on such short notice, i have never used it before and wasn't sure how it would perform. actually i have been pleasantly surprised with it. i thought it was a junky line but its on par with fireline or spiderwire. i think i got a 150yrd spool for around 20$, not a bargain but it was wal mart in hawaii after all so there is always a big mark up. again it performed very well on the spinning reel , i was quite happy with it. the 150 yards seemed to be just the right amount to fit the spool of my pflueger president reel, i didn't have to put any backing to fill it out and it was close enough to seem like it wouldn't  affect the casting ability of the reel. i added a 8lb leader of berkley vanish flouro at about the length described above. and tied them together with an albright knot. the knot may not be the best for this application however as it was very tough to tie with the small diameters of the line involved. it took several tries to get one to take that didn't  fray the flouro or actually just cut it in half with the braid. perhaps next time a couple of uni knots might work better. something i will have to try i guess as i work to improve the rig. the first outing with the new setup i was having a very very tough day and by days end had decided to throw a shaky head on it. i worked down a bank that actually i had seen several other boats hit and one even parked there for some time before i got to try my luck on it. i knew they were fishing it all wrong and was confident i could get one on the shaky head there. i was right! second cast got plowed by a nice 1.5lb bass. quickly got 2 more in short order all along the same stretch of bank maybe 20ft apart or so. the first thing you notice it that the braid does cast extremely well of the spinning reel and the albright knot dosent effect the line coming out of the tip to much.the wind is much less a factor with braid on the spinning reel as well, a bait caster often cross hatches on the retrieve causing overlaps of line or backlashes as the lighter braid catches in the wind. i experienced neither with the spinning outfit. the flouro leader and braid really transmit the feel of the bottom and its easy to become overwhelmed at every little tick. but the actual bites i got were so well felt that there was never any guess as to when it was a fish and when it was something else. the second time i fished this rig also proved fruitful, same feeling same kind of success with it. however i did loose several shaky heads to  various underwater obstacles. several the flouro gave and a couple broke at the knot. again i may have to find a knot that dosent stress the flouro out so much. the one problem i do see with this is drop shooting . it would be a lot of re-tying to switch to a drop shot  or to repelce one. it bad enough when its all flouro line but at least your just tying a few easy polamar knots and done. event tried wacky rigging or anything else but the shaky head but I'm already sold on the whole braid for finesse idea, i really can't believe i never tried it before back in the day when it was on most of my reels.

Summer Peak

 summer peak is here now. water temps are in the high 70s to low 80s. its light by 530 am and won't be dark till 730pm. most of the spawning has taken place and there is an abundance of fry milling about. there may still be a tucanare nest here and there but more likely there will be mated pairs guarding fry in deeper water. when they guard their fry off the nests its nearly impossible to get them to bite unlike when they are on the nest. most bass will be scattered at varying depths and in many different types of cover or structure. as long as the water is stable though the general mood of the fish will be positive, and good catch rates should hold. although smaller fish will be the norm now. there is always the chance for a good fish early in the morning or at dusk but its not quite been hot enough to really get the night bite going yet. oxygen should still be good although the lake is starting to stratify by this time with the warmer water rising and the cooler water sinking. thermoclines should be very well defined and thats is always the best place to look for fish.food is plentiful with  all the fry and shad milling about. a lot of the bass and tucanare will now begin to shadow shad schools in deeper water and will often suspend through the midday.right now on our lake the water level was dropped to the 69ft level. not that its a bad thing but most of the grass lines are now high and dry, luckily our weeds are emergent so they will grow further out and thicker so if this level maintains we could have some great weed growth for next fall. the bad thing of course is the fry are pretty exposed and it is our dry season and we could lose a few more feet and be without a ramp to launch our boats. its a great time to get out on the lake. we just had a sewage spill thanks to a power outage so its off limits for a few days  but fishing should be great and the weather is certainly cooperating so as soon as I'm not worried about HEP C i will be out in this early summer season and you should too!

May 6th report

so the largest full moon of the year was just that previous night,so you'd think it would mean the fishing was on fire right? hahahaha welllllll lets just say i came very close to being skunked for the first time in a very very long time! my personal experience is following full moons is one of the toughest days of fishing, i think they feed heavily at night and  by day are kinda lethargic from the nights feed. so if your gonna fish a full moon fish it at night. we launched at 730. we got to the ramp at 7 and much to my displeasure, i hate fishing on sundays( club days) there was apparently a tournament going on. there were 6-8 boats in front of us and its a small lot! they were polite and waved my into the line, i offered to wait but they insisted i launch  , so we did. clear skies no rain whatsoever. air temp was 74 and warmed up into the upper 80s by noon. water temp was 74 at launch and warmed to 78-79 by afternoon. ohh yes its summertime now! wind was 5-10 mph at launch and got quite blustery by noon with gusts making boat control impossible they were in the 20 -25 mph range with higher gusts.water clarity had faltered a bit and was 3-4 ft pretty much lake wide. moon phase was well full hahaha with the lunar table at 63 points out of 100. the water height at the dam was at 77.7 ft and had risen a foot in the last 24 hours. barometer was at 30.13 and rising. we decided to avoid the crowd and ran right up to he grassbeds in south fork. i was throwing a rage tail frog and my son his mans floating agitator buzz bait( his fav lure) we pounded the grass beds hard to no avail. worked the rocky bluffs in between them with a spinnerbait and crankbait. all the way to my lucky ironwoods and didn't get anything there either. we followed the grass beds up all the way to the old bridge and not a single bite. several kayakers and a couple of boats went by. apparently this wahiawa bass club was doing a trolling only tournament. so now i guess there are 3 clubs? hawaii fresh water fishing association, northshore bass club, and now the wahiawa bass club? usually its the 3rd and 4th sundays of the month that are tournament days but noow with another club i guess its the 1st ,3rd and 4th? sundays? ahhhh screw it ill stick to saturdays hahaha. we decided to run down to retirement bluffs but worms, jigs, crank baits all to no avail. all the while having boats run by trolling. made the run down to the main basin but there seemed to be boats everywhere. we fished several deep sots that were reading shad balls and bass or tucs underneath on the graph but no matter what we tried we got nothing. most of the shore spotts were really getting worked over between the trollers who were right up against the banks as they went , to the 6 or 7 other boats that were out. it was a crowded day for our little lake.still plenty of room to share though. we fed the geese and my son was done, no action he was bored and it was hot. so we headed to get him in. then i headed back out determined not to get skunked! i started fishing just after the bridge into wahiawa and worked my way along both sides throwing a texas rigged worm and a crankbait all the way down at any kind of lay down or structure i could find. no luck. moved down onto robbies lucky spot and worked that whole bank till it leveled out near the retirement home with no luck. i then ran down to the main basin and the tournament that was going on  was a trolling tournament , it was terribly annoying with 7 boats running up and down up and down every where i went. i pretty much dropped the idea of any fishing in the main basin. ran up into kinkaids and fished a few points pretty hard . nothing, tried morgans and nothing. used worms , jig and a spinnerbait. ran down the bluff bank and finally got one on a crankbait. it was 2pm and my first fish, a cookie cutter 1.4 lb 14 in bass. continued down the bank but only managed to haul water the rest of the way. worked down the opposite bank and got another on the same crankbait. but that was to be it along that bank and again a small cookie cutter bass in the same range. did a lot of run and gun but by 4 pm i was tired and there just wasn't any game join on i had no pattern and the fish just went appearing. the tourney had wrapped up so i made a last ditch effort along kemoo island and condo cliffs with a shaky head worm. i was trying a new technique i had read about , i will go into detail on that a bit later in another post but it worked great and i pulled 3 skinny largemouths out from along the cliffs . all small in the 1.5 lb range and all in kinda skinny. i was glad to have em after the tough day. managed 5 for the day and by 5 pm i was well over done! headed in and was glad to have caught what i did. learned a few things though and that was well worth the effort. this post is so very late, blogging is tough to keep up with when you are so busy. wish i had more time to fish and post , no wonder so many blogs have such long  times in between. i have a ton of topics to talk about and so little time to sit and write thoughts out. this month almost went by with none!! i hope i can get a few down early next month and maybe a trip or two in as well!!

April 28th report

i really have fallen behind in these trip reports, its a lot harder to keep up than you'd think. you come home from the lake tired and clean the rig and put stuff away then your to tired to care. next day is chore day or back to work so its out. having to find time during the week is tough! so here we are 2 weeks out from this report and i hope i can remember all the details. ok saturday morning. 7 am launch and the suns already up. lightly clouded with just a slight drizzle but only intermittently, carried in by the trades that are building. air temp is 76 degrees and water at launch is 74 degrees, with the air warming into the upper 80s by noon and the water warming into 77-78 by afternoon. wind was in the 10-15 mph range then ramped up by 11 am into the 15-25mph range.water clarity was incredible with  maybe 4-5ft visibility all along upper south fork and near the ramp. it actually worsened in the main basin but was still in the 3-4ft range which is ultra clear. there was a slight tannic/greenish tint to the water in places that made it seem less clear till you got a lure in and saw how far down you could watch it till it disappeared. the moon phase was about half moon with the lunar table at 53 points.water level at the dam read 78ft and steady. barometer was at 30. 14 and dropping. we started out into south fork and worked our way along the ironwood trees away from the ramp . my son throwing  a buzz bait and myself a spinnerbait. worked our way all around the next big round cove  and got to the grass beds where i switched also to a buzzbait. we followed the grass lines up switching sides as we went to whatever side had the most grass to work. i was have a lot of trouble with my braid backlashing in the wind even though it was only slight. this problem even with adjustment continued for some time. we worked till we hit the lucky patch of ironwoods and then switched to the spinnerbait and a cranbait. eventually also back casting to spots with a jig and plastic chunk. no luck. we ran up to the old military bridge, a place my son insists on seeing every time we fish, i dunno why hahaha. but no matter what we threw, it was just hauling water. we headed back into lower south fork and headed toward the main basin. stopping at my sons special tree( he caught his first bass all by himself there,casted.caught.fought.landed) so now its "HIS" tree hahaha anyways i was determined to learn from the previous week and listen to the fish, i just had  to find the fish!!! i decided to downsize and go with a texas rigged bass pro shop 6" curly tail worm in red with blue glitter. its a very subtle worm with just enough action and is so small and skinny its just right for finicky bass. we worked along his tree and past with no success. there was a new  set of broken limbs in the water from a large tree so i pitched the worm into the midst of the branches. let it fall all the way to the bottom and sit a sec. about the 2nd lift and drop i felt a pressure. at first i though i was snagged but as i raised my tip to check it felt more like something moving. this is the point where you just have to hope its a fish and set the hook cause that fish is feeling you just as much as your feeling him and he's a millisec from spitting it out! i won this time! set the hook and fought her out of the wood cover and then handed it to my son to fight. it felt good but i didn't realize how good till my son got it to the surface and she rolled that i realized i needed to take over. by our lake standards she was a lunker and i was worried my son would snap her off! he has a tendency to reel a fish nearly to the eye, especially if the rod tips in the water which it was as this fish surged. anyway got her in and a very nice 19 in 3lb 11oz bass too start our day. it was around 9am i think. we worked our way down the bank along the retirement condos and caught 2 more nice fish, a 14 in 1lb 6 oz and a 14 in 1lb 1oz. so i guess the downsizing worked. i was just casting the worm into the bank which was maybe 5 -8ft deep and letting it go to the bottom. all the hits were coming on the 2-4th hop, guess the little curlytail was helping em decide to take it. we then ran our way to kunia point  and fished the bank just before and just after with no luck. tried boy scout point with no luck. threw a drop shot and cranked it. we ran down to kemoo island and i drop shotted the island and saddle . then it was duck feeding time. by now my son was tired and it was time to take him back and get lunch. ran back to the ramp and got him handed off. made the run to the big tree just after the bridge and fished it a bit with no luck, although i didn't really try to hard. then made the run down to condo cliffs and worked along them but no luck. finally ran to randalls point and cranked drop shotted and slow rolled a spinnerbait all along it with no success. ran upto kinkaids and started my way up the bluffbank pitching a jig and chunk in black/blue/purple with a blue zoom chunk on it. got another nice 2lb 4oz  17 in bass on a log in maybe 4 ft water. worked my way down the bank and lost a couple that tail danced their way to freedom. same scenario with them holding in 4-8ft of water on isolated wood cover and taking the jig on the first or second hop. picked up another 13 in 1lb bass at the end of the stretch. moved across to start my way back with the wind at my back on the shallower weedier side and alternated the jig with a crankbait depending how hard the wind was blowing.lost the jig and tied on another pumpkin with chartreuse tips 3/8 oz jig with a  pumpkin zoom chunk. i dipped some scent i had  that stained the tips chartreuse on the trailer and it was looking pretty yummmmayyyy. i guess mr. tuc though so too, just a few casts down the bank i hooked into a nice 2 lb tuc, it grabbed it as i swam it back to the boat. i reached for it to lip him but he flipped around so much i didn't want a hook in my finger, anyone that keeps up with pro bass fishing knows there has been a rash of hooks in people lately on the tours hahaha and i was having those images in my head as he thrashed about. went to grab the yoga grip but then had a though that i needed a pic to send to my friend in kaui seeing as this was a rare feat indeed to get a tuc on this kind of bait.as i reached for my phone he thrashed so violently one last time that the line snapped and off he swam with my jig! it was getting late and i decided to make the run back to the retirement bluffs and fish it with the worm one last time. worked my way along and got a nice 1lb 7oz 15 in bass on the corner. fished a couple more spots on the way back in just before the bridge but with no luck. i hope i got most of the details right. 2 weeks is a long time between posts and things get fuzzy, especially when you have another trip to post about  after this one!all in all a great day with a nice lunker to anchor it, and even better it was the one to start me off on a good pattern!

Strike king trip log app for iPhone

 so i had seen this thing advertised on the outdoor channel show "strike king pro journal" good show by the way. looked like a great log to have easy to use, good way to keep track of catches with time and date stamps all the pertinent weather and even the gps coordinates. 99 cents why not right. well i got to try it out last weekend and was kinda disappointed. it does do a lot of what its supposed to do but its just so damn time consuming. you have 6 steps to do every time you catch a fish and thats after you weight measure and release the fish! it takes like 10 min to log in the info of the catch!! who dosent wanna get right back in the water asap! step one  is the new trip add, name of the location and gps is added after you type in the name. it times stamps it and then moves onto step 2 which gives you the weather . you can edit it if your weather isn't what its saying it is, mine was not right had to change it every shot, but then thats usually the way weather works right hahaha. set the moon phase and then onto step 3 water temp,color,visibility. and depth. it gives the tides too if your in the ocean or subject to tidal changes our lake is not, all of these have to be set by you, they aren't like the weather set from NWS. step 4 is the rod and reel and line line info. again very basic choices you can't go into any detail on them you get to pick very general selections from a list.5 you can add a photo of the location or fish or whatever you want, but it has to be taken before the whole process starts , you can't snap away once this app is engaged.6 is the fish you add you catches  weight, length and a choice of strike king lures only what you used to catch them, i was using a terminator spinnerbait and there was only strike king pro models to choose from but if you don't care to be exact it won't matter. every time you catch a fish you have to add the location to the trip log and go thrue the steps and can't even get the right info in a lot of the slots. some parts of the app are great but i don't see myself using this much, it too time consuming and inaccurate. its just as easy and much after to goto the note pad on the phone type in the weight length and anything pertinent and be back in the water in a minute or two . get home and get much more detailed. i mean i may be getting old but i still can remember trip info even weeks out, besides whats this blog for hahahaha. id save on the 99 cents and room on the phone and maybe there is a better log out there, if there isn't I'm sure there will be. every day I'm amazed at how much more stuff is added to these damn things.

Alabama rig " A-rig"

 so much uproar over this thing. its actually been around for some time, largely in salt water circles. oddly enough i have seen one before used by guys catching opelu for bait. so all this fuss and people saying its changed bass fishing forever and OMG is it for the good or bad of the sport! to be banned or embraced!! so paul elias comes out and throws one and smokes the competition for a tournament and its suddenly a craze, one has to wonder in this media driven world, just exactly how much of this is hype and how much is actually worth following, i mean come on shortly after his victory ever bait/lure company flooded the market with these simple rigs and damn a lot were and still are well over 20- 30$ a rig!! without the jig heads and soft bodies!!  a total frenzy driven market over one guys win at one tournament. lets track a few other fads shall we. hmmmm the most recent one before the A-rig i can recall is the  strike king rc 1.5 craze after the classic.KVD wins it using the 1.5, never mind he threw a spinnerbait the first day and a half, several other pros fish it as well to keep up with KVD and then the pros tout it to the cameras and there is a run on this "must have" lure. never mind there are bombers and wardens and bandits and normans act act out there that are pretty much the same just went endorsed. hell the square billed shallow runners have been around forever! hmmm before that it was the sexy shad color, man KVD seems to be starting a lot of these fads isn't he hahah perhaps that why he isn't endorsing the A-rig. seems if he  isn't at the starting point of the fad he won't endorse its use. before color there was the hydrowave!! ohhh come on thats fair? a lot of sponsored pros have said its a must to get the fish turned on and again there was a run on these things. before that it was side imaging again touted as a game changer, KVD heavily sponsored by both. I'm not dumping on KVD he is a phenom, but follow the money trail KVD was instrumental in getting the wave accepted at B.A.S.S. tournaments and the A-rig banned. hell i fully agree with him!! i don't think it belongs in the tournament format! but i think neither does the hydrowave! anyways paul elias wins guntersville and smashes the competition. how many have seen this footage? i have  and  the panic among the competitors was plain as he brought in bags of bass. oddly though on day three when everyone was armed with this very lure i only saw one guy get a double. everyone else paul included was getting single fish. not the 5 or 6 fish that people are so worried is gonna happen. a lot of misinformation and panic spread as this lure took on a life of its own. heres my personal thought on it. i don't get the need to get multiple fish on a bait. I'm stoked with one, i don't need 2 or 5 too feel better about a catch. will it or has it changed bass fishing forever, well i doubted swim baits,hydrowave, sexyshad, side imaging/down imaging/360 imaging haven't. i predict by end of year it will go the way of microguides and 100$ realistic japanese lures. a novelty that works but just can't sustain the hype over time. should it be allowed in tournaments? NO! should it be allowed for personal use? WHY NOT! the reality is people aren't loading it on every cast its hard to throw all day and takes dedication, at some point the fish will figure it out and it won't work as well, that always  ALWAYS happens. here in hawaii as in many states its illegal due to the restriction on the amount of hooks, however there isn't any enforcement and it sits in a grey area because its kinda one lure not on separate lines. I myself will probably invest in one just to try it out. we have peacock bass here and i really think that they will be the test of these rigs. bass just don't work in the wolf packs these tucs do. just check out the underwater footage of an A-rig in action, pretty damn impressive! it really does look like a pod of bait fish when fished properly. however the tucs being the way they are i can see a lot of multiple hook ups once they start busting shad , which will be any day now. i just foresee  mangled rigs, i mean these fish straighten spinnerbaits and hooks all the time they snap lines and poles all the time, and your gonna have 2,3 ,5??!! on the line man thats just gonna lead to heartache. if the line and poles survive the rigs themselves will be twisted into unusable messes I'm sure. still there are aloof of cheaper 9-10$ ones coming out so i will proboly test a few myself. again i don't understand the hype but why not try it. besides i have to give it a shot before the fed wears out and you can't get one!! hahaha

April 21st trip report

 got a rare day on the lake by myself today. i kinda missed having my son with me, sometimes it's the simple things in life that add the most to any experience. anyway made an extra effort to get out at first light. its hard to do now that the sun is up by 6 am and the gates to the freshwater park open at 6 am. i managed to time it right though and got out on the water the first boat exactly at 6:10 am. beautiful morning, nice clear skies and the promise of a great day of fishing. water temp was 74 degrees at launch and warmed upto 76 by noon with 77 in some areas of the lake. partly cloudy most of the day with just a light sprinkle here and there in the morning. wind was calm till about 9 am when it ramped up and became 15-25mph  for the rest of the day. water clarity was great and was about 2-3 ft from the ramp up into most of south fork and averaged 2 ft all along the main basin with spots in the 3ft range common.north fork was a bit murkier with 2 ft the norm but some less than that. moon phase was a new moon. barometer was 30.11 and rising.the water depth at the dam gauge read 78.6 ft . and the astro table for the day was 77. i started my day working the ironwoods right off the tip of the ramp and followed them up around the corner up into south fork. i was throwing a terminator spinnerbait 1/2 oz in clown color with a turtle shell gold blade. alternating with a crankbait and soft plastic creature bait. no luck today in the ironwoods in this area. i worked up into south fork and picked up a lot of trash as i went. no fish i worked the bluff side of that first straight away and the grass beds using a strike king wake shad and the same spinnerbait and got nothing. working my way along i finally got my first fish a nice 17 in 2.2 lb lmb on the rocky corner just in between grass beds, he really slammed it as it ran just under the surface. nice start to the day as it was only 7:30 am or so but it was to be a fluke. from there on out i fished my usual south fork spots but got skunked and threw all manner of baits including the secret frog lure for clear water. but nothing after that first fish. went all the way up to the old military bridge but got nothing. by 9 am i turned around and headed back. fished the opposite side of the bank across from the ramp just to satisfy my curiosity, after all i had caught 4 there a few weeks back, but nothing this morning.lots of trailers in the lot this morning, looked like it was gonna be a busy day on the water. made the run down to robbies tree and fished that whole bank all the way down past the retirement home i used the spinnerbait and a soft plastic creature bait but got nothing, not even a bite. saddled up and ran down to boy scout island, stopped at the main lake point across from the masons lodge i noticed quite a few suspended shad pods and bass or tucs underneath them on my graph. i fished crank baits dragged a jig drop shotted and slow rolled a spinnerbait but nothing. things were beginning to look desperate. continued down to boy scout island and more shad pods appeared on the graph with more suspended fish around them. i fished the middle of the lake with a soft plastic jerk bait but nothing i tried drop shotting boy scout island point but nothing. dragged the jig but nothing. ran down to kemo'o island and fished the saddle and my secret secondary points but got nothing. i was alternating all 7 poles i had on the boat and no lure was producing for me. made the run up into north fork and worked morgans point and randals point but got nothing. finally started down the bluff bank and got one that tail danced his way to freedom on a jig. in the clear water i should have switch to pork but i had neglected to bring any. i was using a pumpkin 3/8 oz jig with a pumpkin zoom chunk trailer with the tips of the trailer dipped in a chartreuse scent that colored the tips. fished the whole length of the bluff bank with this jig and managed to get 2 more bass both inn the 14-15in range maybe 1.6 -1.8 lb range. ran along up into south fork kinda hitting steep bluff banks with ironwoods although i had no real pattern i was kinda in a this is where i think they are mode so i was basically pounding water and lucking into whatever i caught. as i came back down the other side of kinkaids i ran into jeff and marc who informed me they were doing great with 17 fish between them working grass with his patent agent utah bait, basically a small soft plastic jerk bait. for whatever reason i didn't head the grass part of the  story. i continued to pound steep banks and points to no avail. eventually working my way back to the ramp after hitting many areas. 5 fish for the day and a nice 2.2 lber for my anchor, not a bad day just not the stellar days i have had recently. as i looked back on the day later i thought to myself jeff was wowing em in the grass and i caught my first and best fish in the grass, why didn't i start trying to develop a grass pattern???!!! i was so caught up in where they had been i failed to look where they had moved to!! its a trap even KVD fell into just recently on bull shoals. i got caught up in the baits i had used to knock them dead in recent weeks and the locations they had been in and when that didn't work panic started and clouded my ability to find something that was working and make a rational switch in technique and lures! i read KVDs online article on the B.A.S.S. website and it was spot on with how i had run my day also. he ended up in 45th place for the tournament i ended up with 5 fish instead of the 20 or so jeff and marc acrewed by end of day. i guess to sum it up in a cliche like KVD did, I'm gonna say i failed to let the fish tell me what they wanted and where they were. instead i went in using old info and no game plan and was lucky to get the fish i did. i will have to use less of a preconceived notion next time and use it more as a starting point instead of trying to force a pattern that no longer exists.

Full moon V.S New moon

 a lot of people feel the moon phases affect the fishing. the lunar tables are often one of the most popular parts of the fishing magazines,not just freshwater but avid salt water anglers follow them as well. they effect tides most noticeably and often people and animals! do i follow the astro tables? YES!do i base my entire fishing philosophy on them?NO! heres how it works, the table gives a rating from 1-100 based on the time of year proximity of the sun and moon and the phase of the moon. this number will be higher when you get more pull on the earth, a.e. full moon/new moon or moon,sun,earth in alignment. all of this is supposed to trigger the fish into feeding periods that can be charted. anyone that has kept track of what the lunar tables were doing when you went fishing will know that they really don't predict the trip of a lifetime. the tides make a big difference in tidal waters for sure. fish move and position with the water so of course it makes more of a difference there! but in a body of water that dosent connect to the ocean? well lets just say over the years i have caught big fish and quantities of fish on bad days and struggled on the best days following the chart. i still watch the charts though , kinda like most people do their horoscopes. sometimes they hit and sometimes your like huuuu? here is what i do believe about the moon and sun. full moon rising can be great, but mostly at night and early morning. i think the magnetic pull does influence the fish but not as greatly as the light it gives off at night. i think the light and magnetic pull trigger spawns and feeding patterns but other factors have a much greater influence on fish catching. the new moon is much better for day fishing. the pull is there but the the lack of light at night means the fish didn't feed as good, so you have a better chance of finding hungry fish during the day. if i had to pick a day trip id go for sure with a new moon, save the full moon for a night trip. if i had to chose between a day rated at 27 and a day rated at 89 id have to say........... HELL JUST GO!! hahaha use nature to put together a plan but don't let it dictate when you go or don't go, any time you can get out is a good time to be on the water!

Pre summer bass

the water is heating up into the 73-76 degree range. the lights lasting longer and the air temperatures can be downright broiling already. welcome to hawaiis pre summer !! as with any part of the fishing season this part will often coincide with the post spawn part. and actually in our little lake this is now the tucanare spawning season!!the bass move out onto main lake points and bluff like banks quite often deeper weed edges also hold good quanities of bass too. this is a good time of year to fish, the bass are usually grouped up a bit more than before and are still shallower than they will be during the summer. get on the right point with the right lures and you can really lose your mind! here in hawaii the tucanare( peacock bass) have moved shallow and made nests in water about 1-4ft deep depending on clarity. large females and smaller males will ferociously guard the nest! personally i don't like fishing for bedding fish but a lot of people haven't a problem with that and if your one of those people now would be the time to cruz the shoreline in search of your trophy. often any type of lure tossed just outside of the nest and hopped,dragged or jerked through will elicit a rod snapping strike. the bad part is your often in a flipping/pitching distance to the nest so you really don't get to enjoy the kind of fight that makes catching a trophy tuc so worthwhile. the bass however are more than willing to take just about any offering and type of lure once you find them and long casts make for much more enjoyable fights with the bass. the key to finding a good place to fish for the bass during this part of the year is usually find water that has deep water access and shallow water access, hence points and find a depth at which the bait may be holding. often a very defined thermocline will appear as the now warmer surface water separates from the cooler deeper water ( winter water is reversed but still has the thermocline) usually around 6-10ft will be a good depth. match it with your lure and look for bait on the graph. when you find it work that spot good and hold on! while the majority of fisherman will be harassing spawners and hopefully not destroying nests. follow my advice and you can catch a sizable amount of fish in short order. maybe not a trophy but some of the fights with a 1-2lb bass will beat jerking a 5 lb tuc right out of the water anyday!

Postspawn bass

well its a bit late but there are still a few fish in the post spawn stages I'm sure. most of the past spawn happened in mid to late march. i suspect that the actual spawn was in late january to late febuary this year. the high muddy water from the storms kept most of the spawn a secret except for a few tidbits of info garnered from catches. the post spawn is a short transition period after the spawn. the bass, starting with the females will move off the nest after they have released all of their eggs. this usually takes 1-3 days depending on conditions. the males will stay behind to guard the nest and protect the fry. the eggs should hatch after a week and the male will continue to guard the nest for awhile longer, perhaps a week or so. the females move off to the same areas occupied in the pre spawn. secondary points and cover or structure located close by to the spawning areas. often to catch a few all you have to do is back off the bank and search a bit deeper, perhaps just around the mouths of coves. they don't go far so you don't have to search and search to find them. its simple as locating where they are spawning or were spawning, then look for the nearest fish holding spots in deeper water providing forage. the females will often gorge for a bit to regain strength from the spawn. they won't be schooled up yet, often very scattered actually. but you still have a chance to get a "HAWG" under the right circumstances and conditions. within a week or so the females will move off into more of a summer haunt and the now starving males will be taking up residence in the same locations. i have found that the males tend to group up a bit more than the females. catch one female and after a few casts id move on but if i get a male i really work the area. often i can get 3-4 males in a short time within a short distance. during this period the fish will be very finicky, often a very slow methodical approach and slow bottom bumping lures will be a must. however for whatever reason, I'm assuming they are starving after the spawn and weeks of not feeding. they can come to life briefly and a faster reaction bait can really be the ticket. as far as knowing what to throw and when. welllllllll thats where you have to be prepared and try different things till you luck into something. personally id start with a texas rigged worm or perhaps a drop shot, maybe even a shakeyhead. and id keep a crankbait or spinnerbait at the ready on another setup. if the slow is producing then fine but if its not, run and gun a bit of the bank and try various depths. there will be a lot of trial and error to find the fish at this time of the year, but the rewards can be well worth the work!

Jig fishing

  well i have been doing a lot of it recently and  its been really working well these past few months. when i first started fishing i really had no clue what i was doing and gravitated to the easier faster baits. i think i did most of my fishing with a spinnerbait but a lot with various kinds of crankbaits too. the more i read and saw on fishing shows the more i wanted to learn different styles. i guess a lot of people cut their teeth on plastic worms but when i tried the slower baits i was just so lost i quickly became uninterested in them. eventually i became interested in the old " jig and pig". i forget why or what drew me to it. they say its a bigger fish technique, I'm not so sure about that but i think one of the main reasons i started doing it was that the weights of soft plastics texas rigged or carolina rigged made them very hard to keep the "feel" of the lure.  i was always wondering " what will a fish feel like?" " how do i know I'm working it right?"  the more i read the more i was confused. i knew i needed a slower technique for tough days on the water and really wanted to expand my game. after some experimenting i found that the jig and pig let me keep good contact with the bottom and was surprisingly weedless and snagless for having an exposed hook. i was able to feel what i was going over and thrue much better and i had always read that i shouldn't worry what a fish biting will feel like,  you only have a fish on your line 1% of the time so don't worry about it. you have nothing on your line 99% so concentrate on what it feels like the 99% of the time. when suddenly it dosent feel that way SET THE HOOK!!the jig let me get in tune with this "feel" much better than a texas rig did. so that was many many years ago and it seems like an eternity has passed but i would say I'm pretty confident in my jig fishing. and its come a long way too, back when i started plastic trailers were limited and if you used one it was a worm or plastic crawfish. pork was the standard then, today plastics are in every shape action and color. pork is messier and hard to find these days. it dries out on the hook, you must always keep it wet  or it shrivels into nothing. its hard to get on and off a lot of the time. the jars leak salt all the time and that causes rust so you have to constantly add salt water and keep the jars away from your tackle. plastic is so much more easy to deal with. match any color these days. change shapes and styles of baits to match the bite. never drys out and on and off is a snap. a lot of them are pre-scented with salt and all sorts of stuff like coffee and garlic.  so heres how I set up and pick my jigs. there are 3 basic types of jig heads. football( for rocky bottoms) tear dropped( an all purpose) and pointed ( for swimming through grass) there is a large selection of line tie placements and flat bottom to sit with the hook upright, different gapped and sized hooks. and a meriad of weights. with all lures these days it can be pretty confusing. i know i was lucky not to have so many choices when i started. basically pick 3 weights, i like a 3/4 for heavy heavy cover or flipping matts of debris . a 1/2 oz for windy days or when i really need a fast decent to get deeper or get a reaction bite. and finally a 1/4 oz for more finesse situations to get finicky fish or in a small stream setting for smallies. i like the wide gap hooks, size is usually relevant to the jig head so being precast its usually already chosen for you. head shape dosent really concern me too much. theres not a lot of rock to worry about and i never really throw the swimming jigs deep into the grass so most of my jigs are the old cheap tear drop shaped ones. things are so expensive now i remember when jigs were like 1.80$ for one  now they go for like 5$ and more sometimes!! skirt sizes very but get em longer and you can trim em up to match the need. bulky on some, thinner on others to keep with what the fish are looking for. colors these days are out of control crazy, I'm a firm believer in keeping it simple and my color selection shows this. the old tried and true black/blue is a must! hands down one of the best all time colors. i would say 75-80% of the time i have a dark colored jig on, it dosent have to be black and blue  black and any combo work, just dark. it provides a great silhouette in the murky and muddy water. works well in low light and even in clear water gives a great target.  i use a lighter pumpkin or natural color in clearer water when i need to tone it down or the fish aren't going for the darker bait. sometimes its a better match for the hatch as they say. finally i use a white or silver or some variation of that color for when the bass are feeding heavily on baitfish and I'm swimming it or trying to get bit on the fall more so, especially when the bass suspend in limbs. the pork or plastic question just depends on the conditions. i think the mechanical movement of plastic makes it more ideal for low light or dirty water. its very much the same movement and transmits well through the water on the fall. when I'm going for reaction bites i use plastic , when I'm going for visual bites i use pork. pork is much more subtle and in clear water or when the fish need a less intimidating look it dominates. put the two in the water side by side and see what i mean. pork undulates by itself and seems almost alive. plastic needs more movement to get it to do stuff. i am lucky to have  some bo hawg frog pork rinds from strike king. they were discontinued and blow the doors on uncle josh any day. longer with better action and  just such a better look, i really don't know what I'm gonna do once they are all gone. they are deteriorating now to, dead matter can only last so long and no amount of salt is gonna keep pork fat from falling apart eventually. there is a new product out form uncle josh called "MEAT" i haven't tried it or seen it other than online but it sounds promising and is supposed to be much cleaner and easier to deal with than the traditional pork rinds. i work my jigs in a variety of ways, i let the fish tell me what they want. often a different retrieve every cast till i find what they want. fast or slow,popping it off the bottom or dragging it. jerking it once in awhile to mimic a crayfish scooting. eventually you will find what works and then you can get going on making a pattern out of it. i use a couple of set ups for fishing jigs. my favorite and most used is a cabelas prodigy rod with a shimano curado reel. got it as a package deal a couple of years ago and was pleasantly surprised how awesome the combo actually is, very light and very sensitive. the shimano reels speak for themselves! the rod is a medium heavy 7ft rod with a fast tip. its very sensitive when your dragging the jig you can really feel whats down there. it has plenty of backbone and for the price id take it over a lot more expensive rods any day! this particular setup is spooled with yo- zuri hybrid line in the hi vis green 14 lb. love this line! its very castable and very abrasion resistant. not to pricey and maintains the feel without losing all of the stretch. its the best of mono and flouro combined! i do a lot of line watching so the hi vis green is a must on certain days you may see the hit before you feel it. the great thing about the color is its so visible outside the water but its completely disappears once its in the water just like any other flourocarbon. this setup is my most used jig setup and is in my opinion the best  all around choice. the second setup i use is  the same rig i use for topwater frogs and buzz baits. its a  high speed 6.3.1. quantum pt tournament reel spooled with 20 lb spiderwire braid and its got a 5 ft fluorocarbon leader, usually seaguar 8lb or vanish 10lb. joined with an albright knot. the rod is a shakespear intrepid medium heavy rod with a fast tip . 6ft long and has aluminum oxide guides made just for braid. again a cheap rod by a lot of peoples standards but perfect for braid and again the price is well worth it! you could get 4 of these  to one g loomis and still feel like you have got a great rod. this is my flipping setup. heavy matts, deep grass, anything i know I'm going to have to horse a fish out of. i don't use this rig as often for jigs, the water has to be really off color or a lot of debris matts for me to bust it out. its basically for throwing a very heavy jig or creature bait and punching through deep heavy cover and thats the limit of its use as a jig rod for me. the final setup is a  7 ft spiral graphite bass pro shops rod in medium heavy, again not the most expensive rod but does well for the price. paired with a bass pro shops pro qualifier reel in 6.2.1. it has 14lb suffix elite mono on it. this is my deep water setup for working points or anything i know i will be dragging or slow hopping in 12ft of water or more. this is a rod i carry a lot during the summer months when deep is often the mid day pattern. often i use my electronics to find a good spot then drag and hop a jig down there to entice larthargic mid day bass. over all jigs are very versatile and add a lot to your arsenal. but just like any bait once you get confidence in them you can really knock em dead with a jig. like most lures they have good and bad days, you could probably throw a spinnerbait or crank bait all day and just keep changing till you found what worked and a jig is the same in that aspect. its not a cure all by any means but paired with the knowledge and right conditions you can't help but have fun pitting yourself against the bass with one!

Havoc craw fatty

so this past trip out i got to thoroughly test out the craw fatty. designed by bobby lane for pitching and flipping into heavy grass. the color i have is okeechobee craw  and the lure is 4 in long. its very wide with 2 good sized pincers and very thin. i guess to allow it to get down in the grass easier??. i made the mistake of using not changing my hook when i switched to this bait and the 5/0 gamakatsu was way too big. the result was the first bite i had on the bait never got the hook and held on to a pincer and the body and eventually let go when i pulled, leaving a nice set of scratches from his teeth down the length of the body. the bait is designed to be flipped and pitched in heavy heavy matts like florida has. here in hawaii that type of cover really dosent exist often, although after a flooding rain we do get thick debris matts that take some punching through at times. hence i was using a 1/2 oz sinker and a 3/0 vicious wide gap hook and texas rigging the bait on 14lb  yo zuri hybrid line. first impressions are that its not gonna do much. it isn't a fisherman catching lure. it looks pretty plain and of course the Havoc line has no bells and whistles so you get a few baits without the berkley scent in them and at a cheaper price.as i pitched it up into the ironwood roots and around the laydowns it didn't seem to have much action , i would hop it a few times. shake it a bit, maybe drag it a few feet. trying to get a feel for what it was gonna do best. i tried a few shallow casts to see how the bait looked underwater and despite the lack of water clarity the color stood out well in the heavy stain. it also had great flapping movement to the arms but it required a lot of speed to active this. perhaps the 1/2 sinker wasn't getting this and you'd get much better action on the fall from  3/4 oz or 1 oz sinker. it looked better suited on a retrieve than as a flipping bait. i could really see it working behind a spinnerbait or maybe a  swimming jig, perhaps a buzzbait. something moving  fast enough to get that action out of it. still the bass seemed to have a different opinion than mine. caught and lost 2 pretty fast just hopping it. caught another on the fall next to a log. so i guess the water movement it puts out or vibration it makes still works to attract. its worth noting that i didn't get a single hit when i was retrieving it quickly back to the boat and getting all that arm flapping action. again what do i know its a fish catching lure not a fisherman catching lure. all in all i wouldn't go out of my way to make sure i had a few in the boat. its a fairly generic design and most creature style baits would fit this type of fishing, some might be worth a little more money and get a built in scent to help on tough days. its not a bad deal though for 8 baits its 2.99$ and they do hold up well. 4 fish and the bait still had some life in it, even for being tugged on during that first fight.

march 24th 2012 report

started at the ramp around 730 am. conditions were as follows, air temp at launch was 69 degrees and warmed to a high of 83  by noon.water temp was much warmer to start than last weekend with a temp of 72 at launch and warmed up to a high of 75 by noon.wind was calm and from the northeast and became stable 10-25 mph by 1 pm out of the east to northeast.barometer was at 30. 07 and rising. weather was clear and partly cloudy to mostly sunny all day.water clarity had greatly improved from the previous week, it averaged a 1 foot to 18 or so inches up in south fork with a heavy greenish tint/stain to it. in the main basin it was still heavily stained in areas and ranged from an orangish to greenish stain with visibility around a foot or so. up into kinkaids on north fork the water was less stained but still greenish with clarity at 18in to 2 feet in many spots. the astro table for the day was a 52 out of 100. water height at the dam gauge read 80.21ft a slight increase from the weekend before.we started up into south fork just like the weekend before. exact same grassed with a double bladed buzzbait. again got nothing. worked toward my lucky ironwood trees and along the way pitched the black/blue/purple jig to some steep banks and worked the buzzbait along the grass edges all to no avail. finally got to my trees with great anticipation. flipped and pitched my brains out down the stretch but no interested parties there apparently . made a run up to the old military bridge and pitched the jig and a brushhawg into the debris matt on the other side of the bridge. i risky endeavor to say the least considering how sharp the jagged concrete of the bridge is and youd have to horse a fish over the supports and debris. gave up after a few futile attempts to get it over the supports and into the matt, it was gonna get lost or snagged for sure so i gave it up despite the promising look of it. ran back down to rose street slough and began fishing the ironwoods along the whole of the cove area. some spinnerbait action and jig pitching but with no success. mad the run back down to the ironwood stretch again. and threw a spinnerbait this time, burn it along the top, then drop it to a 3 ft depth and run it , lastly let it go to the bottom then slowly roll it back. none it this worked, it was as if they had totally a banded the joint! ran down to the ironwoods and grass beds in the cove just before the ramp but still couldn't find a bite even on a crankbait. finally talked my son into the run down to his spot, although he insisted on feeding the geese first. managed to convince him to fish his magic tree spot. we worked it with the jig and his buzz bait. move on down the bank and finally had a hit up under a log on the jig but it came unbuttoned after a second. the pattern i had followed the week before was a dud this week. worked our way down the paperback stretch but cranking,spinner baiting wasn't pulling up much but sticks. began running and gunning trying to get a few so i could find them. the problem with a pattern is you have to get fish to have one!! hahaha till then its just a hunch or game plan and without at least 3 bass theres no way to say for sure your onto something . ran down to the geese at kemo'o island and fed them some bread, then my son was done....... no really he looked at me and said " I AM DONE!" managed to talk him into going upto kinkaids for a quick peek and worked the 1st 50yards on the bluff side with the jig ( i stuck with this because it was all i had to go on from the previous week) pitched it up under the ironwoods. finally got a little 1lb 14in bass next to a laydown. it wasn't really near the ironwood roots where they had been. worked down the bank and managed another cookie cutter bass a bit further down again on wood laydown, and not in the ironwood roots. i was seeing the promise of a new pattern developing!  my son was over it though, nothing even angry birds could cure. he was  DONE! hahaha we headed back toward the ramp for the lunchtime exchange. we didn't stop really, he was adamant about just getting back to meet mom. as we got there she called and said she would be late so we fished the stretch of ironwoods away from the ramp toward south fork. threw a 6 inch brushhawg in junebug. the very same that had gotten me the big bass the previous week.  about half way down i got a solid thump! no doubt it was a bass! a better one two, after a brief fight we landed a nice 2 lber. i think we weighed him and he was actually 1.15lbs to be exact. always nice to put on a show for the people fishing the ramp,sounds vain dosent it hahahaha. we fished further with nothing and turned at the point switched to a havoc craw fatty, i didnt like the look of it but hell have to try it right. smaller than the brushhawg so maybe i will temp a few. we worked down the bank and got another hook up just next to a log. pattern established!! wood cover along steeper bluff banks not nessasarily in the ironwoods but close by! maybe slow moving baits in 6 -8 ft of water popped a few times off the bottom then onto the next cast. but the bass didn't have the hook, i neglected to change the large 5/0 hook from the brushhawg and i think it was so big it kind of made it tuff for the fish to get the bait in its mouth. it fought for a few seconds then came off. upon inspection the bait had teeth marks about half way up from the claws with them dragging back onto one claw and finally a tear at the claw. a telling story of a unhooked fish holding onto its meal till i pulled it out of its mouth for sure! switched down to a 3/0 hook which seemed too small but i went with it instead of the 4/0 because well........ hell i dunno hahaha anyways switched the hook , the weight i kept at a 3/8 oz. it was just right to get the action i needed in the wind even with the smaller bait. the craw fatty didn't seem very interesting , its very wide and has very loose claws but it dosent flap the claws unless pulled pretty briskly. it didn't seem to have much action on the fall. but hell it got a couple of bass interested so what the hay right!  got another fish on a lay down same situation but the hook worked this time and got him right through the nose perfectly. a lot of disgusted looks from the ramp hahaha. gotta be tough watching someone get fish just out of casting range. you know they are there but you can't get to them without a boat . we all been there!! finally wife came dropped son off got a burger and fries hand off and back out i went!! the sky was starting to look ominous but i continued down to my indicator bank, just before the bamboo cove. i call it my indicator because it has everything on it. grass, lay downs, steep bank mixed with sloping bank, 2 points and a cove. its a good place to start if you looking to establish a pattern. fished it with a crankbait, the jig, and the craw fatty. but didn't get anything all the way to the cove. then i ran into the cove and threw the spinnerbait ( purple skirt with a black head and single copper number 4 colorado blade and a purple grub trailer) all through the cove. threw the fatty craw in to the bamboo but no luck in all those lay downs in there. it was really starting to get black and dark. and the only other boat was running by to head it. a man his wife and 2 kids in a fiberglass dinghy maybe 6 ft long hahaha knee to knee to back. at least they had life jackets on cause man they were like 4 inch above the waterline!! i  pulled out the phone and the doppler was all yellow and orange coming in from  kahalu'u side so i decided to call it a day. it was 130pm i followed the boat upto the bridge then decide to give them the chance to get in first so i stopped and pitched the craw fatty into the ironwood just before the bridge on the dam side. no luck no last fish to make it a  great ending. i really wanted to hit kinkaids again, I'm sure id have done well with my new so so pattern. as i got to the ramp it started to pour rain, like cats dogs and small farm animal rain!  i grabbed my keys and went to jump off the boat onto the sidewalk along the ramp but slipped and ended up  one leg on the sidewalk one in the boat and finally both in the water! pulled myself up but realized i was missing an important part of the equation.......... the keys had gone to the bottom, pouring rain banged up knee, scraped up hand and now a chest deep wading mission to fell the keys with my feet. thankfully about 15 min is all it took. i had a pretty good idea of where they had went it. at least the rain kept anyone from seeing my embarrassing predicament . got out, saved the keys, alarm stuff still worked surprisingly and caught a few fish. all in all not a bad day but its tough to follow las weeks luck and not feel bad hahaha

march 21st 2012 report

air temp at launch was 67 degrees high was 82 at noon. water temp was 70 degrees at launch and 74 by noon.wind was calm in the morning with winds ramping up to 10-20mph by mid day. water level at dam showing 80.12ft. moon phase was new moon. barometer was 30.13 and rising. weather was light rain showers in the morning and mostly sunny by afternoon.water clarity varied greatly by area, in south fork is was still muddy with 6 in visibility at best. main lake was still kind of orange with visibility at 3-6 in at best. north fork was looking much better with a heavy stain but with more of a greenish look than the brown and orange of the other 2 and a visibility of a foot. the astro table for the day was at 62 out of 100.well i started the day headed into south fork the muddy water seemed daunting but it actually led me to come up with a game plan for the day. i started by tossing a spro popping frog into the deep grass. most of the grass is under water with  a band along the shoreline.  i was tossing it into the shore line grass and popping it out over the submerged grass till i got into open water then reel up and cast again. kept this up for about an hour with not a single hit. tied on double bladed buzz bait to get the most noise and action for the muddy water and continued on for another 20 min or so but again not a single hit.as i ran out of grass on the bank i was on i decided to hit  one of my good spots on the south fork, its a particular stand of ironwood trees that always seems to attract a bass or two. i pulled out my black,blue.and purple jig with a electric blue zoom  chunk on it. it rally contrasted the water clarity for max visibility. i also added a crawfish scent to it for added pizzaz. i started to pitch into the ironwoods. the water was covering the roots really well and they fan out like a big floating ledge underwater, the bass really love to get under those floating matts of root material. it didn't take long to get my first bass, a nice chunky 15in male. nothing heavy but maybe 1.8lbs or so, he did have his lower rear fin worn down jagged from fanning a nest. a good sign they had been spawning, it was healed up not to red and raw so I'm guessing maybe 2-3 weeks prior maybe?? within 3 casts i got another one same as the first. then another one a couple of casts later, the a hit and a miss, threw back and got him the second time. all about the same size all in the same location all on the same bait. not bad for a stretch of bank not even 20 yards long. i continued down a bit but after the trees ran out the fish stopped. i had a good idea what i needed to do, but being the tinkerer i tried the old military bridge and then into rose street slough but even the ironwoods in those locations didn't match the bank i had caught them on so well earlier. i went back and tied on a berkley 6" brush hawg in  junebug and ran down the lucky ironwood stretch in reverse. the brushhawg is much bulkier and presents more of a meal to a bass so i was hoping to get a better class of bass, i wasn't disappointed............. i had made it all the way down the trees with not a hit was was regretting throwing something that might be too big when in the last few feet of trees it gets slammed and i knew it was a big one!fought her around the boat and the carrot stix did a greta job holding her on. i had a great hook set too she was perfectly hooked in the upper nose area with the full hook. when i lipped her and felt the size of her mouth and her weight i was stoked! she weighed 4.7lbs which by hawaii standards is a hawg! took a few pics and released her. she didn't have a hard belly so I'm guessing she was spawned out?? odd i was worried i had dragged the nest but she shouldn't have been shallow unless she was full of eggs. she was in maybe 3-5ft of water at best,i wonder if the muddy water had made her go shallow to forage for the post spawn.in any case i now had a solid pattern and it was only 930 am!!  ironwood trees , but not just any stand. they had to be on a steep bank not sloping in any way. they needed to have root systems under the water to provide the cover for the bass. they needed to have enough clearance to the water to let you cast all the way to the bank, anything off the bank didn't produce a bite.armed with this info and my magic jig color i headed down the lake looking for banks that fit my criteria. actually there went a lot of spots that did, many were to sloping or too much into the water to get a good cast into the bank. i tried several locations but unless all the criteria were met i got nothing. as soon as i found a match to the pattern it was like i could call my shots, cast and bass, cast and bass. it was crazy! i wasted time  chasing the occasional log or grass bed but they went there or on points either. the jig and ironwood pattern was magic so by 11am i was exclusively on it. ran upto kinkaids to fish the bluff side of the stretch and it fit the pattern perfectly, nearly a mile of exactly the type of criteria i needed. and it didn't disappoint!!!! i caught bass after bass after bass by  the end of the stretch i had tallied 14 bass caught and 10 lost with tail walking release( in other words they jumped and threw the hook) i was flabbergasted  i really should have stayed and gone back down the bank with the brush hawg but it was nearly 2 pm and i wanted to hit a few more areas . i hit several on the way back to the lucky stand of ironwoods and got a few more bass. threw the brush hawg a bit and got a couple of nice ones that got off, i was using a 4/0 hook and i really needed to be using a 5/0 hook. the 4/0 didn't get far enough down the bait i think several smaller fish didn't quite get the hook all the way in their mouths with all that plastic in the way. about 4 pm i made it back to the stand of trees where i had caught the big one in the morning. i  worked it  hard with both baits but got nothing. i tried several other parts of the stretch with nothing as well, they had vanished. called it a day and headed in exhausted by the great day of fishing. i had loaded to boat with all sorts of garbage as i fished, maybe picking up so much trash had given me some great karma , either way it was a magical day on the water.  i made a video with my go pro but the lens had fogged up and  its mostly white although you can kinda see me getting bass after bass for about 30 min till the battery died. got to the ramp and there had only been 2 other boats out, as i walked up i noticed my trailer light dangling and license plate bend nearly in half, my trailer moved over 2 ft. it was kinda obvious from the angle and the lack of damage to anything higher up or forward that another trailer had rubbed into my back end as it had been backed out of the stall next to me. there were two boats out both old timers on the lake, only one had been on my left and i knew who it was!! i had dropped off garbage at lunchtime to make room for more and i had seen who was parked there. no note or anything just damage and theres no way you can't notice dragging another trailer over that 2 ft, it wasn't a bump and you can't tell me they didn't see the damage.the world has become so full of self absorbed people that  common decency has gone out the window. its a fricken 30$ light and  mounting bracket for the licence plate. its not the monetary value, hell thats nothing  and the light still works i had to zip tie it on to get home. its the fact that a guy who guides on the lake all the time and waves to me as he's going by on the way in as I'm on the way back out 10 min before he does it.a guy i see all the time and sees and know who i am. a guy that gets built by people like he's so bad ass at fishing( he's not really) would do it then just scamper away without so much as a note or maybe an apology on the website his dad and he run where everyone posts. yep really shows someones character!! all in all it was still what will probably be my best day of fishing for the year. too top it i would have to really lose my mind hahahaha its gonna be my personal best bass for the year too I'm sure, that fish will be hard to top. alas had she been full of eggs  she might have gone  well over 5 maybe into the 6 lb range!!! and yes the fish were so into that jig color combo i even got a red devil on one as seen in that last pic, kinda an odd catch on a jig. the best way to work the jig was to toss it in close to the bank or nearly on the bank then drag in in a bit that pop it once and let it fall on  slack, pop it again and let it fall on slack. i did this maybe 2 -3 times on every cast and most of the fish had grabbed it without me knowing till i felt the pressure of the fish as i raised it to pop it the 2nd or 3rd time. only a few hit on the initial fall and only a few hit it so hard i knew i had a fish on immediately! i worked the brush hawg in a similar fashion and dragged it a bit too.