Lake Ovid still a great largemouth lake - Sat 9/30/06

[djkimmel]

cameraguy and I went out to Lake Ovid to see if we could get on some good bass - the weeds died early this year way back in mid-August for some reason. I was hoping things had stabilized in the few weeks since I last fished to little reservoir.

A little worried about the weather forecast, but we got lucky and only had one short period of steady rain. Otherwise, we had a cool breeze, dark gray clouds and off-and-on drizzle, which just meant we had the lake almost completely to ourselves. And to cut to the end for a second, we had a few minutes of sun in a break in the clouds... right when we had to go home, but it was a good thing...? a bad storm moved through just north right after we got on the road to head home.

Some scary lightning and a hard rain that soaked the boat. The boat was still a little damp from the rain I drove through last Saturday coming home from the DK Open.

Now, lets backup to the beginning of the day again. cameraguy had a goal to test some new swimming jigs and I just wanted to catch enough bass to make my thumb sore...

I sometimes struggle on Ovid this time of year so I was curious to see how we'd do. We started out with a double of 12 to 13 inch largemouths - mine on a spinnerbait, cameraguy's first on a swimming jig. A good sign maybe.

I was thinking we'd get some bass deep on the wood, especially seeing how dead most of the weeds were looking. The milfoil was in really bad shape. We were seeing a little sign of life in the lake - minnows skipping and a few swirls. And we had the double, but we did not seem to be getting bites in the channel and off the wood.

cameraguy was patient while I tried to find the sweet spot to turn on the deep bass. I gave up after a while of nothing happening. We moved back shallow, but weren't catching them great that way either at first.

I wanted to test how what I found this time last year - some bass hanging in the few live weeds along the channel edge in the upper end near the bridge to the swamp. Without the weed edges to follow easily and with the odd lighting, I missed the channel bend near the last point, but casting a black/blue Chatterbait to a thicker weed edge produced this bass below - only my second bass on a Chatterbait.


I got back on track on the channel and was flipping to some still green coontail when I lost a maybe keeper in the same exact stretch I caught a few from this time last year a couple times. I failed to connect completely. cameraguy was messing with a muskie, but didn't hook up.

I then lost one on a jump on a white jig with a white Zoom super chunk cast to the edge of the river channel. The small keeper caught me off guard because cameraguy didn't think I'd catch anything on my white jig (I like it in the fall on many lakes). It seemed like that anyway, but maybe I don't remember that right.

I want to fish the 'bite-off' tree off the big island next - usually in the summer when I fish this tree, I get bit off by a muskie. I let cameraguy cast to the actual 'bite-off' spot first - I'm a considerate guy... no, really!

Somehow, cameraguy avoided getting bit off (although somewhere along the way - I just don't remember where/when - cameraguy also missed a really big pike at the boat. He says he wanted to catch a big muskie, but he sure pulled that lure away from that pike in a blink of an eye!!

I fished a couple pockets next right along the island that I don't normally fish. Usually the weeds a solid here, but lots of holes and openings in the weeds now with so many dead and collapsed stems. Wham! A small keepers drills my War Eagle spinnerbait (green shad) as it bumps through a sand spot. I was retrieving a half ounce version at whatever speed it took to keep it bouncing over the half-dead and still alive weed strands and clumps - throwing right to shore here.

The next one was a very nice bass - awesome strike! I tossed past a bare sand spot and pulled the spinnerbait into the hole. I actually saw the bass come shooting over to the edge of the hole. I fluttered the baits just a little (already getting lots of erratic movement deflecting off the weeds) and whoosh! What a hit. Nice largemouth about 18 inchs! Awesome strike - saw the hole thing even though the 'kill' happened in a split second!!! Now that's why we fish!

Got another one on the spinnerbait in the next pocket where we shared water with this 'guy:'


We decided after that to stick with the shallow weed pocket pattern, but I had some ideas how to maybe improve. I took us to a bay with scattered wood that I had done well in a couple seasons ago. We got a couple-three in there - one did come off a nice stickup, but the others came from the shallow weeds again.

So off to more key weed shorelines. Some spots, the weeds were still thick enough that it was very hard to get the spinnerbait or swimming jig through, but we still popped a few more just undersized to small keeper bass from holes in the weeds. Plus I was getting a few bass now from the 'outside edge' (what there was of it) too by casting my spinnerbait about parallel out in front of the boat.

The wind actually was helping push the weeds enough that it turned out to be easier to bring our starting lures through. Still, we missed some great strikes because our lures weren't always real accessible targets to the bass in smaller holes. Even the missed strikes in the skinny water were pretty awesome. Nice boils. Couple times knocking the lure out of the water.

I tried some more deep wood for a few minutes. Nothing again. Back to more prime shallow edges nearer the beach. We were more protected now and I couldn't seem to get my spinnerbait through the weeds much now. Very inefficient. cameraguy was having better luck with his swim jig, and he whacked this decent bass on it:




The swim jig started doing well along this edge. You can see what we were fishing real well here with this really nice one cameraguy caught shortly after he lost a really nice on in the weeds (I thought he was making salad here... you can see the dying milfoil and the green coontail mixed in):


but no, there's a nice largemouth under all that garnish:


I switched to a white horny toad since I caught my first horny toad bass earlier this year along the same stretch. Didn't take long to catch a small keeper. Then, on our second pass along this stretch, I dropped the horny toad into a weed pocket nearer the boat and whoomp!!! a really nice bass boils disappearing the horny toad. Fantastic strike! Fun fight - here's a closeup of the lure:


And a nice picture by cameraguy of a solid Lake Ovid largemouth:

What a blast!

For the remainder of the day it was about the same - small to decent keepers kept hitting his swim jig or my spinnerbait on the outside shore weed edge or in the holes. I'd go between that, the horny toad and the chatterbait. In fact, my last really nice bass shortly before we went came on the chatterbait. Hard strike several casts after I had missed on in the same stretch moments before.

Not sure how many keepers I was fortunate to land, but it was a very respectable number. I also added several bass to my Chatterbait tally without getting bit off once! (And I have a sore thumb )