Lake Ovid follow up - Day 2 - Sunday 5/28/06

[djkimmel]

Lake Ovid, Sunday 5/28/06
Subtitled: What a Day!!!

I had them figured out and I was motivated. Ok - I didn't get up at 4:30 in the morning, but I was on the lake shortly after 7:30 AM today. I wanted a little better light angle, and I wanted to see what was on the other flats that usually hold deeper beds (deeper being relative).

I went around the big point near the beach? and started around a couple deep spots that come close to shore. Maybe bigger bass would be in those areas?

I saw another zillion bluegills swarming all the open spots along shore. Some of the spots were muddied and I could see bass were blasting these gills at regular intervals still. To see if there were better bass along here, I started with a buzz bait, but it was ignored. I broke out a white Zoom Horny Toad ? my first time trying them.

I made a toss up quick into a shoreline opening that had just been showing signs of extreme bluegill distress. Before I even could turn the handle, a solid bass jumped on the toad. A sturdy largemouth over 16 inches. Good start.

After that, I had on bass - out deeper over weeds just starting to mat ? knock the toad sideways. No chance to hook it and I couldn?t tell the size. A few minutes later, while retrieving the toad over a near-shore hole, a small feisty bass ate the toad, but he never got it far enough in his mouth for me to hook him. It wasn?t big enough to need to nail him anyway.

I was surprised that I wasn?t getting more of the shoreline bass to hit the toad. I tried a few other things, but it wasn?t rocking my world (or the bass?). I saw a few bass on beds just outside of the gills. I tossed at a couple, but didn?t try too hard. They were jumpy and may have been caught before.

I turned out farther onto the flat into milfoil 3 ? to 5 feet deep. I saw a familiar dark hole in the weeds. The water was clearer here, so I opted for a Zoom finesse worm ? some kind of minnow color. Whack! A solid keeper.

I follow the pattern and quickly pick up 4 more solid keepers. Not big, but easy, no measure keepers.

Alright ? I?ve waited long enough. I head for the humps. I move down from where I was yesterday and the script doesn?t change. I just keep pitching the Super Hog ? today a green pumpkin ? and almost every hole that looks obviously like a bed gives up a solid keeper!!! It?s like? well, like shooting fish in a barrel. I?m laughing like a school girl!!

Pitch in the hole in the milfoil. Let it sink. Feed line if the hole is deeper. Wait a few seconds. Weigh the lure. Still nothing, drag it a few inches. Shake it. Some of the strikes are pretty hard when I work on them like this!!

Set the hook and bull another thick, strong largemouth bass out of the milfoil. All the way down and around the humps. I just keep picking them up. I do find that as I get closer to shore, the average size of the bass goes down overall. But I don?t care. I?m whacking and stacking ?em!

No pictures today, just catching them. After actually starting to get bored of the repetitive nature of the day, I decide I need to try something different. I know there are more bass on the humps, but I?ve had a ton of fun and now I want to try some different stuff. Different areas.

I try a summer offshore hump and finally find bass schooling on a summer spot ? but they are all only 11 to 12 inches. They readily grab the Texas-rigged worm. I catch a few, try my new Chatterbaits a little too ? interesting action, but no bites.

I said I?d be home a little earlier, so I decide to head up the lake towards the swampy end. I figure there?s probably a few bass on beds shallow there, but how many are there deeper?

I try fishing down the old narrow river channel. A musky swipes at my crankbait, but my crankbait survives. I do flip a small keeper out of a deep hole in the weeds near the channel edge, but only one. Doubt it was a bedding bass, but you never know.

I find a few bass ? decent ones ? on shallow beds no too far from shore, but they are really disinterested in my lures. The water is crystal clear. The bass are chasing gills away, but only rarely show any interest in any of my lures. I do pop an almost keeper out of a big black hold in about 6 feet of water, but I don?t see any more? until I get farther down the lake where the channel bends and there?s a deeper run in the flat.

The bluegills are swarming and getting blasted but I only manage 1 small bass that way. I see a number of okay keepers cruising, along with some smaller bass. I get along the edge of the deeper run and see a few suspicious holes. Sparser milfoil and more crinkly cabbage, but the holes look right. And they are. I catch several more bass ? a couple 13 to 14-inchers, and a couple 16 to 17-inchers. The beds are different and the same in a way.

Amazing how many bass are bedding deeper now on Lake Ovid. Some always did, but it seems like more bed deeper now than they used to. I?m not a bedfishing freak. I enjoy doing it, but eventually I want to do something else. I actually did try different things quite a bit these two days, but I couldn?t find anything that was working real well.

On the way up the river channel today, I practically ran over 5 more muskies just hanging on the outside weed edge or suspended over the middle of the channel. Two were pretty big. They seemed less excitable today. Unlike yesterday, where I had follows all day long every time I was outside a weed edge, today I only had a few half-hearted follows and most of the muskies were just sitting there. I still think a $15 jerkbait would have gotten some notice

So, two great days of green bass fishing. Ovid is a bass factory. Now off the Burt and Mullett to look for some big brown bass!

[djkimmel]

Did I mention that my thumb is sore?? Scraped all the way down onto the base of the thumb. A good kind of sore...

[cameraguy]

Okay, now you're just rubbin' it in.   I waaahhhna go. 

[fiker]

Me too.

I'd even settle for the muskies!

[djkimmel]

Man! You would not have a hard time getting at least a bunch of follows from those muskies.

The torpedo bait steelers are all over the place out there. About every 50th cast here comes one after your bait. And then they just hang around. I want to shoo the things away from the boat, but I know the sneaky devils usually just hide barely out of site, waiting for the chance to attack without warning right at the boat. It really makes me jumpy!!!

I'm thinking maybe I should just put together some cheap, big lures I don't really like and go out there and just sting a bunch of muskies. I wonder though if I try to catch them on purpose, how that will work out.

(and yes cameraguy, I knew you'd feel that way )