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!
