Dog Days Fishing at Round Lake 7-23-2015

[djkimmel]

Just the way things worked out I either didn't go fishing twice this week, or I fished on the weekend - always risky on any lake in Michigan as most of you well know...

I got there right at 7am when the store opens so I got 1st choice of rowboats! I was the first person on the lake and it stayed that way for over an hour (a little surprising being a warm Saturday morning).

Unfortunately, not much was happening at first. A little surface activity, mostly again from panfish and tiny largemouth bass on the hunt, and my two bites being a dink bass and then another mystery fish! (you know how much I despise mystery fish) A hard hit on the green shad Strike King KVD 1.5 shallow crankbait reeled over newly growing shallow milfoil near the drop of a point. The fish ran hard towards bottom (pike?) but then turned towards the top (bass?) and boiled in a hard 180 coming off the crankbait like I never hooked it (dogfish??).

Whatever it was, nice fish of some kind, it was gone never to know what it was. My one good early bite. After working half the point shallow and along the edge with the crankbait I started tossing the Nemesis Baits Bullet Craw (KLK - green pumpkin pepper and purple and gold flake) off the edge of the drop off.

I fished around the point end for awhile with a couple hard hits I didn't hook but I'm sure were probably pike again. They do that.

My silence ended as before 10:30am a very loud jet ski came roaring out follow by a jet boat full of really dumb, thoughtless kids (thoughtless because they ran full speed withing 40 feet of my little rowboat thinking they were funny guys... that's not what I was thinking...), and some pontoons running around with another jet ski towing a skier around and around the little 80 acre lake in a circle. We call this 'the weekend.'

I worked the other, weedier (dogfish) side of the point I like looking for something different. I got hit hard and immediately went to Defcon 1 when a heavy fish turned and ran away from the boat before I fully even set the hook, stripping line and then dove into the thick weeds! That was the end of that fish. I had 14 pound test fluorocarbon line and put as much pressure on the fish as I could to see if I could pull it out of the weeds (6 or 7 feet deep). Before I got a chance to try to take off pressure to see if the fish would swim out on it's own my line was cut clean! #@$%@#$! Not a bass anyway. I've had both pike and dogfish do this to me before of course. The saddest part of the situation was there goes another Tungsten bullet weight. I'm almost out of them less than 1 ounce!?!

After not getting much else to happen other than a few dinks I moved out to another point that wasn't getting run over too much. Yet... For a change of pace I started tossing the new (white) Kustom Kicker Jackpot Swim Jig (had spinners on wires along both sides and with a white Angling AI swimbait develops a nice spinning, flashing, wobble). I can fish it slow and fast, and in between like a swim jig and a spinnerbait.

Bam! I got hit and an almost keeper bass jumped and threw the lure back at me. On the next cast I got hit again twice. I saw the fish and it was a decent bass.


I quickly grabbed the Bullet Craw rod and made a short pitch off that side of the boat towards where I last saw the bass. My line took off and I set the hook into a solid keeper bass that looked really healthy! I made a few more pitches but nothing.

I started tossing the Jackpot again and got hit hard again without hooking up. This fish followed almost to the boat again and I saw this time it was a small pike. Not my target species.

I kept tossing the Jackpot around the point getting several more hard hits but no hookups. I saw a few of the fish and some where smaller bass, some were smaller pike.

I gave up on that point to work a turning dropoff and another earlier point again. I worked them with various lures without much happening. It was starting to get busy on the lake with one fishing boat seemingly wanting to see the fish not catch them because they motored down a long stretch of shoreline drop I had planned to fish but not right after they motored right down it pointing out fish they saw...

I tried to fish another place but the dumb kids decided to use it for a turning point including running just past me way too close. Another pontoon full of swimmer shutdown right on top of the best part jumping and splashing in the water.

So, eventually I went back to the point where I caught my earlier keeper since no one besides me had fished it, and it wasn't getting run over too bad by boaters (it doesn't take many on an 80 acre lake to make things interesting...). I got out the Jackpot again and was working the same stretch of mixed weeds, newly growing milfoil and algae clumps when I got hit again but a smaller bass that I landed - nice hard hit!


The very next cast to the same spot I immediately got slammed and this one felt better. I landed it on the Jackpot - swimbait combo - a solid, fat, healthy bass.

The very next cast I got hit again but didn't hook up. I followed up with the Bullet Craw without getting anymore bites. I went back to throwing the Jackpot through the weeds and got whacked again on the other side of the point near dropping weeds. I set the hook - nothing. I started reeling and got hit again. It was calm and visibility was about as good as the brown water in  Round Lake gets so I got to see a bass over 3 pound following my Jackpot popping at the tail of the swimbait one more time before coasting away.

I cast the Bullet Craw and the Power Worm several times hoping to get the bass to bite but all I got for it was another small pike on the Bullet Craw.

I decided to keep casting the Jackpot around weed edges for awhile because it found me two groups of bass. Maybe I could find a better school somewhere and pick them off with multiple lure presentations? I kept getting hit on the Jackpot but the end result was one small bass, a small bass lost on a jump and several pike following it to the boat. One fish even bit off the tail of my swimbait. I probably should have tried a trailer hook like I would on a spinnerbait, or maybe a smaller swimbait, though I might have lost the wobble this bigger swimbait imparted on the jig? I'm not sure which part of the multi=phase action of this lure was attracting all the bites - I had about a dozen bites on it during the day.

After awhile of finding no further good bass fishing faster, or in combination of fast and slow, I decided I better slow down and fish deeper again. Or go home. Since I wasn't ready to go home yet and the other boaters weren't running me down too bad yet. I fished with the Bullet Craw for a bit with a couple bites I didn't hook. I switched to the lighter-rigged Power Worm and worked from the weed edge out and back in again.

Finally, in a corner of the lake that was still quiet I caught 3 small bass in a row on the Power Worm and decided it was now time to go home. There wasn't much of the lake not getting attention anymore from speedboats, swimmers and jet skis, plus it being really, really hot, and slow, it was time.

An okay day but pretty tough and slow. I did find a small group of bluegills still on beds but saw not bass nearby trying to take advantage of them. I fished from them for a few minutes but they were mostly interested in chasing other bluegills away. Surprising to still see some on beds but not that much.

Hopefully, the dog days of summer don't continue the rest of the summer on Round Lake. There's some new milfoil emerging in several spots and I keep thinking that will concentrate some bass in better water quality though so far my 'theory' has not proved itself true. I still don't know what the bulk of the bass are doing right now? That partly has me not wanting to return to Round too much, but also wanting to go back and solve the puzzle! Not sure which thought will win out yet. Meanwhile not sure where I'll go this coming week but possibly back to Lake Ovid one day if things work out.