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.
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