Been eating major crow lately, so planned on hitting Otter or one of the other local ponds where the bass can't just disappear into the depths. Saw the wind forecast on Saturday and took a right turn towards Hancock instead. I have a masochistic streak. Calm would be an understatement, especially for Nubi
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Figured I'd find the bait, then the bass. Never found the bait.
Fished the midlake reef (top of the pic) with jerkbaits, Silver Buddy and dropshotting a Reins swimbait. Picked up one small SM on the blade.
The lake trout must be spawning, as there were dozens of them on top of the reef and circling around the edges. Water visibility was easily 20', and I'd see pods of several 2#-5# fish swim by. They were not spooky and occasionally would hit the SB or DS if ripped by them. I landed & released one 3#er and went back to scouting. Whatever fish are in the lake were right on the deck, as a clean screen was the norm.
I brought the old Combo-C-Lector with me and dropped the probe in 50'. Water temps (53) were even all the way down, so turnover has occurred. Had a big fish follow the probe up
An unusual first happened: Caught a OK SM on a Duel jerkbait in 15' of water
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Got one more 2#er and that was it for Nubi.
Clement was a little rougher.
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Started out on the edges of the big hump (top of the pic). Didn't waste more than a cast or two at the top, as the weeds are history and there's no place to hide in the clear water. There are a few rocks and hard bottom areas there that I fished the same baits on as Saturday - nada. Moved to a weedy 10'-13' flat (still some green!) that also has some rock on the deep edges. Watched several follow the dropshot on Livescope, just couldn't get them to commit. Figured I'd try for a reaction bite and picked up a crankbait (River2Sea Tactical) that runs 15' - had one on for six turns of the handle. Data is good.
I don't have any more flats like that there, so hit a deeper one for zero.
Got a 12" LM flipping a tree. No love on the other deep laydowns.
Fished the deep end of of the little hump (there's some hard bottom there) and got one decent fish, and one other hit on a 6XD (runs 18'-19' for me). Not far from there, there's a 18' flat that runs out and has a couple clean hard spots, right before it tips off. The 6XD was perfect to clip them at a slow pace, and I got two more on it. Went back and hit the edges of the big hump, but it was over for me.
Could have been worse. I thought the deep CB bite was over, learned differently.