near blue bird skies. light winds from the northeast at 10-15mph, lighter in the morning more prevalent by afternoon. water temp 71.5 at launch.barometer 30.01 and steady. misty passing showers till 9 am. lake level at 74.5 on the usgs gauge. air temp was 69 at launch with mid 70s by noon, although with the breeze in the shade it felt much colder at times. water clarity ranged from 1-2ft, much more stained in south fork much clearer in the main basin. the moon was just a sliver off the new moon phase, i believe sunday will be the new moon. started the day out round the bend into south fork as we have on our last few trips. water level is visibly down about 3-4ft since last time. i was throwing a big balsa red crank bait with a square bill, dived to about 3-5ft. my son id in love with his buzz bait, its very visual for him to watch it gurgle along. its also very weedless/treeless hahaha good for me. its getting good at casting it and it has a special blade that floats so its perfect for him, id hate to try to find another if he ever loses it hahaha. it also has caught fish for me in the past so it has a good track record that could lead to his first fish he hooks on his own! it didn't take long maybe 10 casts or so down the bank to get a red devil, not what i was hoping for but a good start anyway. we worked the whole perimeter of the cove area with no further success. worked the steeper side of the straightaway. i had switched to a strike king wake shad along the grass edges hoping to lure up a giant mama bass or tuc. i was alternating between the crank bait and the wake shad. right before the gravel patch on the straightaway( i really need to name these areas and make a map) the crank bait loaded up with something huge! fought it for a few seconds and realized it was fighting like a tuc or bass. tried to give the pole to my son but it nearly pulled him and the rod overboard hahaha got the net and landed a nice 7lb channel catfish. it really pulled and fought! quite a thrill even though not our target species. we worked the grass banks all along the next few straightaways and did manage one nice little largemouth on the wake shad, unfortunately my son didn't keep the pressure on the fish and it got off right at the boat.. fished the ironwoods pretty thoroughly with a jig and craw. went up into rose street slough fished it with the crank and some jig and craw, nothing. went up to the old military bridge and fished some lay downs as well as the bridge itself. water level is perfect right now to get under the bridge even for a larger boat, and there is a lot of flotsam and jetsam along the bridge itself. but no fish seemed to be there, perhaps a penetrating bait of some sort with some heavy flipping line might have done better in the mat. worked as far as the east range bridge and even into the cove along the other old bridge pilings up there. had a hit on the jig and craw at one of the pilings but the bass struck at the boat and only had the trailer. turned around headed for the boat ramp, fished a lot of the way back with no luck. it was nearly lunch and time to trade the lad out. south fork has been getting better potential wise, still not to where it was in the days before the salvinia and hyacinth invasions. a lot of the lay downs and grass beds were cut and taken out to combat the weeds. i really need to work on adding cover and it could make a big difference. all of my biggest fish have been from south fork. ran down to the main basin and fished the ironwoods by pink retirement condo, used the crank and a texas rigged worm alternating. with no luck. moved down to the coves along county yard . was hoping to get them on the outside points staging before the coves but they went there. ran down to boy scout island and threw at the long ridge that runs out along the kunia side. i held out on the deeper side and threw a poes 400 in green and chartreuse , first cast caught a nice little largemouth about 1lb. as i was unhooking it a boat with some new people in it ran right between myself and the point, you'd think common sense would dictate etiquette about that, after all they had just seen me catch the fish and still ran right over my spot!! tried several more casts and switched to a drop shot but no more luck. ran down and drop shotted the cove right after miki miki flats. no success. ran down to kemo'o island fished the saddle and a couple of small points around the island alternating a deep diver crank and the drop shot. nothing there. ran across to kemo'o pub side of the bluffs and worked it along with a tube bait texas rigged but got nothing all the way to condo loin. switched to a black and blue 3/8oounce jig with a mister twister black 4 tail grub trailer on it. didn't take long to hook a bass on condo point. nice little 1lb largemouth. ran along the condo cliffs facing mauka into the straight and wind. caught several more pitching it right along the cliff face. including a nice tagged 4871 largemouth, it was kinda skinny and should have been much bigger but the scale registered 2.4 on the boca grip and 1.13 on the rapala digital. it was nearly 19 in long and should have been a 3 lb fish! after the first pass turned back and tried again with storm storm tube texas rigged but drew nothing. time was running out so i headed back and threw at boy scout island point a few more times. no luck. ran back up to that large tree that is in the water near the bridge into wahiawa. worked the perimeter with cranks and a spinnerbait. finally pitched a tube into the innermost branches and caught a 1.5lb largemouth , nearly didn't get him out!! that was a braid situation for sure hahaha i was brave throwing 10 lb mono in there. I'm sure i could have flipped that tree apart but it was late and ending the day on a fish is best! all in all a great day, but then most fishing days are! couple of red devils, some nice bass, and a monster catfish. if i had to fish it again on sunday id say throw a topwater till 9 am, maybe a rebel pop r or a small buzz bait around the grass edges. switch to a creature style bait or a jig and craw afterwards. a dark color would be best, i don't think it needs to be a specific color. i had lost my camo jig earlier on a hangup and the switch to the black and blue seemed to work just fine. i think the dark color and the trailer are more important than the color. the trailer just needs to have a action of some sort, wether it be a thumping rage craw or the squirming mr twister trailer, as long as it moves i think it will work. the fish had moved exactly where they should have with the dropping water, they were off on points and vertical banks. they wanted to be able to move up and down quickly and i think most bass i caught were in the 5-8ft range of depth. there was another piece of the puzzle i didn't quite get fit it, but not all banks and points held fish even with the depth right. wind might have been a factor. cover didn't seem to be. tried out the go pro camera today, battery dosent last long, will have to dial it in to get it right, but video will be coming soon!
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