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