Round Lake Return of the Buzzbait 7-6-17

[djkimmel]

Oh how I've missed the buzzbait... Why I haven't been giving some buzzbait love much the past few seasons... I'm not sure. Probably a combination of only so much time for so many lures, I get bored easy, I like to experiment and try new things, I forget and I just needed a little push...

Got them push when Dan Hatchew came out with his new 2K Jigs tuneable Titanium buzzbait! I have a light one and a heavier one... I remember now, my trip to round on Monday - the holiday wonder... I tried out the lighter one. I missed a number of strikes and thought maybe I need something a little bigger, longer cast, a little faster retrieve to make them commit... so I had tied on the bigger one for this morning.

About the buzzbait - being light tuneable Titanium, it has a lot of nice movement in the water. The head is flattened out horizontally so it planes really nice and quick - I use a left handed reel and floating P-Line Hydrofloat braid on a soft rod with a left-handed reel so I can engage and being the retrieve immediately keeping the lure on top easier. A nice long shank, round-bend sharp hook. The most important part may be the noise the combination of wire and blade make with the addition of a faceted glass bead. It has a really nice constant squeak to it! Sounds great to me and the fish seem to like it too!! It's called the Titanium Freak Buzz. I guess the actual weight is 3/8 oz and 1/2 oz though I thought the lighter one might be lighter than that... probably because of the freak-shaped head.


I believe the one I was throwing this day was the 1/2 oz Pro Tie Shad. After finding the fish coming up short last time out I added a red trailer hook and a chartreuse-silver flake old Zoom spinnerbait trailer for some gaudy color and two wiggling legs. It seemed to help!

I should mention... I thought with the original arrangement I was told the new boat rental had for this year I was going to have to cut back on my trips but I found the actual owner (Barry, who lives across the road from the store) is a pretty nice retired guy. He doesn't want to get up super easy but after I found out he's married to the sister of one of our good neighbors I was able to work something out with him that gets me on the lake as early as I want... everybody else has to wait until about 7am -sorry. Call Barry at 517-331-5148 if you want to rent a boat with an electric motor, just not too early (or too late).

Okay... back to the fishing report! I did miss what looked like a decent, probably keeper bass pretty quick. I was actually fishing by about 15 - 10 minutes to 6am and had the lake to myself! I started on the far side of a weedline along a broad point where I know the dogfish have been after my other topwaters but I find that only the most aggressive, determined dogfish tend to actually hook up on a buzzbait if you keep it moving moderately fast... it's a fine line between letting them have it and keeping off the dogfish!


Unfortunately... the pike are a different story!! Though they often come out of the water and down on top of the topwaters in what would be a spectacular strike... if it wasn't a @#$%$# pike!! this one slashed at the buzzbait from the side, missed it and most likely because it was early in the morning (5:53am when I took this picture) I just kept retrieving the buzzer after only a slight flinch instead of jerking it away 10 feet or more like I often do when I'm on the hair trigger. The buzzbait only made it about a foot further before the pike smashed it again from behind getting the whole thing... and no, this is not my happy face... @#$%$# pike!! You can have them all!!


Ahhhh... much better and a happier face. Less than 15 minutes later, this nice bass tried to smash the buzzbait but didn't aim very well... but I had the wacky-rigged stick worm laying right next to my hand with a the different hook with a tiny bit of weight on it this time to drop it right in on top of just such a bass! I dropped the stick worm in on the splash and this bass grabbed it and ran just like it should... much better!!


I don't know if it's the dark water, the weeds, the extra fishing pressure or what but many bass are short-striking this year, especially on topwater. This was a barely keeper that just bumped the buzzbait but again immediately grabbed the stick worm that I tossed at it! For almost the 1st hour of the morning I caught a bunch of small keepers from 2 different stretches on a combination of the buzzbait and follow-up wacky-rigged stick worm.


The fairly hot almost 1 hour morning topwater buzzbait bite ended when I got smashed by this nice solid chunker of a largemouth bass! I was casting near the weedline when I saw a flutter of nervous panfish and minnows behind me over water 2 or 3 feet deeper. Mostly open water but I turned around and shot the buzzbait out past the spot and as the buzzbait traversed the nervous bait spot this bass jumped all over it!! LOVE a nice buzzbait bass about as much as anything!!


Okay... this is the dumb face you make when it's still early and overcast but you're having a hard time seeing the weed tops so you put on your polarized glasses and then you can no longer see the phone screen at the end of the selfie stick!! So you're trying to figure out if you're even in the picture completely forgetting to smile because you just caught a decent wacky rig bass.

Between ~7am and this bass just after 8am I had caught a number of dinks and small keepers. I was a little bummed again because I lost another nice bass on the wacky rig that was stripping out line. Pretty sure it was a bass. Didn't hit like a doggie or pike, and besides, I almost always get the @#$%$# pike!! I did land another pike on the wacky rig. But things were looking up because I landed every fish on the wacky rig except the hard charging one. Going to keep trying to figure out why I'm losing so many fish on the wacky rig. Starting to think with the double o-rings maybe I've been luckier in the past and I need a bigger hook?


Just over 10 minutes later, another small keeper I landed on the wacky rig stick worm. I think I have a new hot spot this year. Caught this one from the weedline in the corner that's been producing the last week or two.


And another better bass eats the wacky stick worm less than 10 minutes later! Doing better on my hook to land ratio with the Case Plastics wacky rig hooks. Like I said, used the ones with the weight on them this time though only 3/64th oz, so not much. It has a single strand fiber weed guard which isn't a lot but ANY hook that falls into the actual weeds on Round now gets slimed so it's just a matter of minimizing getting fouled up to give a bass time to snatch it!!


Well... there's good news - bad news... the good news is I appear to have a new hot spot so far this summer. The bad news is better than average pike really like it too!! So any time I try to fish outside the drop weedline I risk donating lures!! I lost another Tungsten Texas-rig when I switched to checking the bottom outside the weeds for some roaming bass. Then this darn toothy critter walloped my retied electric blue Power Worm rig a few casts later... same fish? Maybe but I've already caught 3 bigger pike here and jerked away from some more... darnit... I'd just like to catch some bass please. It that too much to ask?!?


The overcast is gone. The local crazies are steadily coming out in bigger numbers, starting to get the lake on a nice churn. It's hot and bright... the bite has slowed way down... but does that stop the pike from biting and steadily getting bigger?? Nooooooo....!! Of course not. I switched to the magnum B2 Nemesis Bullet Craw looking for nice chunky bass off the point break, but instead this toothy monster whomped it doing its best to steal another lure and Tungsten sinker from me!! At least this round sort of goes to me!

Another long dry spell with only a few more small pike and dinks. The crazies are kind of taking a break from circling the lake (you can see the jet boat with the load of shirtless boys in the back left sitting on my hump that used to be good but has been pitiful so far this year). So I'm sitting in what should be a high percentage spot, in the middle of the lake at the end of the big point. I've caught some nice bass there a number of times... and nice pike too (wait until one of the upcoming fishing reports!!).

It's hotter than hot! I'm fading fast despite drinking lots of cool water... Really working to pay attention to my slowly hopping and crawling lure. I've switched colors again to the old standard black and chartreuse Power Worm. The lake has been stupid  busy again with crazed jet skis and tubers doing their endless circles while whooping it up!! I feel like a wet (and possibly smelly?) rag... I'm thinking if the water looked a little cleaner I'd dunk my head...

Pretty sure this is the day I saw the rented rowboat with a guy and lady in it that every once in a while I'd hear a large splash! I'd start to be jealous but then realize one of them has just jumped out of the boat into the lake again. Every time they got back in it looked like they were going to flip the boat!! Luckily, that never happened. He was the guy who asked me when I got in what I caught. Told him bass and pike. He says, 'there's pike in here?? That must be what kept breaking my rigs!' Says he saw some dogfish and had them on but was using a light rig and something kept stealing it... of course, dogfish can do that too...

Anyway, I've been fishing the end of the point slowly moving just a few feet, dropping the anchor and straining ever inch of weed and depth for like an hour now without a good bite. Fishing the actual drop too but mostly casting out deeper looking for a big bass I just know has to be cruising out there... nothing, nothing, nothing. I'm mostly fishing side to side, and out deeper.


Because I need a change (and the darn blue-white pontoon is starting to encroach on the point again getting nearer and nearer) I pick up the anchor and go up shallow on top of the point. I anchor again shallow but not far from the edge closer to the weedy (pike) side. I cast the black-chartreuse Power Worm back out towards deep water but probably close to about where I've been anchored and POW!!! Almost immediately I hook my best bass of the day!! One thing I like about Round Lake is that there's a respectable population of these real thick, muscular adult bass that fight really hard when you hook them! That's this bass!!

Not too long after I work my way quickly back down the point and then head in to cool off and get something to eat. I'll tell you, after these long days on the lake I have my best hard sleeping nights! Just a bonus on top of some nice bass fishing...

I had lots of odd bites later in the day this day. Pretty sure some were tentative bass. Dogfish and pike usually pop things pretty solid though sometimes they can fool you so it's hard to be sure on a lake full of all three... I did decide maybe the black shad Power Worm is too attractive to pike in the lake. I seem to get bit off more and hook more pike. They don't seem to like the black-chartreuse quite as much. Not very scientific, I admit. Especially considering how many times I've been whacked and/or bit off by pike on the plain green pumpkin worms I've used there more than anything.

But I have to keep trying things and keep thinking to make progress in this bass fishing thing, and to enjoy it more.