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
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