Another good day for a buzzbait Round Lake 7-14-17

[djkimmel]

So, I need the practice this year... losing way more fish - especially bass - than normal... so off the Round Lake again this past Friday (July 14, 2017) for a real early morning (pre-6am) weekly 'alone-time' therapy practice session.

Because it's early with no one else on a smooth, quiet lake (for a few hours only...) I pick up what I was looking forward to first - my new Titanium Freak Buzz buzzbait - the 1/2 oz one with a trailer hook and 5" inch Zoom spinnerbait trailer.


This is the way I LOVE to start my day!! Big ole humpbacked muscular darkwater largemouth bass that has eaten my buzzbait!!! I share this picture also so you can see the weird color of the water in Round Lake - kind of a brown-black mix. There can be a few feet of clarity though as I've mentioned a lot this year (I know) the comparatively heavy boating traffic this year keeps churning and stirring the water up as each day progresses...


Here it is!! Only my 2nd cast of the morning at 5:58am!! I stopped at the first good weedline on a broad shoreline point seeing plenty of signs of surface activity including nervous panfish and minnows, plenty of dogfish - most active inside the weeds shallow - and some that sure looked like bass. I had seen something swirl above the milfoil - grass mix that is still alive along the break and cast the buzzbait past it. As soon as the buzzbait traveled over the weeds this 4+ exploded on it, following up with some really cool jumps before I landed it though it did its best to bury me in the weeds!! Good start!!

I saw enough signs of bass feeding behind the weeds that I risked my nice new buzzbait against the giant dogfish that were also obviously back there... some of the other fish looked like they were better than dinks so I made some longer casts back over the shallow weeds. My experience with dogfish is that most of them do their best damage on slower moving things. Once in awhile one will get real worked up and crash on something moving real fast but the odds are that they'll short strike the buzzbait so I won't have to deal with their rolling, twisting, flopping challenges...

I ended up with 7 good buzzbait bites but missed a few, lost two bigger fish that I'm pretty sure where short-striking doggies that didn't have the hook real well and caught another pike and a few small bass before the morning topwater bite started to slow down. It was a fun start though no more big ole bass...


The first couple hours of the morning were pretty good. I landed about 7 or 8 bass so far but no noteworthy ones starting with the buzzbait, then some wacky rig bass and then I switched over to the 7" Power Worm. I still had the black-chartreuse 'old school' worm on from the last visit when I popped this nice keeper off the good edge of the big point. I was trying to fish faster because it wasn't quite quarter to eight in the morning yet. I was seeing lots of surface activity still but since I was no longer getting bit well on moving stuff I thought I better test the Texas-rig underneath some of the fluttering small fish. It was a good switch...


You'd think on an overcast morning like this - around 9am here - the bass would be chasing fast lures better but for some reason I wasn't getting many bites on faster lures (other than pike on some of course...). But I could spot cast and fish the Power Worm quicker anyways so still move along. I had fished most of the best of the big point, and then decided to head over to my new summer hot spot again. As soon as I got there I missed one that made my line jump good. I pitched right back in towards the weedline and this real nice, hard-fighting bass crushed the Power Worm!!! A really good fight - these fish are so strong...


I may have got excited and fish too fast...?? Or the bass on this spot have been seeing so much of me this year they're getting weary...? I made probably 25 casts back to the same general stretch without landing anything. I had two odd bites and each time when I set the hook I reeled in less than half a worm bit or torn off?? I even switched lures including throwing the wacky rig in there a few times. Then I pulled anchor and went the other way for about 10 minutes (where the pike are thicker!?!). As soon as I returned and tossed in the same black chartreuse Power Worm (I may not have mentioned because of the dark water and fishing somewhat deeper at times I've added a glass rattle behind the hook) to the same stretch of weedline another really good bass thumped it!! Another awesome fight, and I thought I'd caught the same bass twice?!?

After closer inspection it was just similar but not the same... longer tail with a deep split in the middle of the tail fin on this one... some real nice bass hanging out in this area... I'm going to keep milking it as long as it produces a few bites.

It got slow again after that. I moved around trying different depths and techniques. A few dink bites. A few more smaller pike. It was now early afternoon. Bright with some clouds. The lake was getting a little nuts again with lots of running boats, doing their circles. Since they weren't terrorizing the big point too bad I decided to go hit that maybe fishing a little deeper, maybe risking the 'pike' side of the point, approaching it a little different. There has to be some nice bass around that thing... I would anchor in a spot and thoroughly seine the area with several lures and techniques. Pull up and move a little ways to repeat it. I wasn't seeing much activity now but I fished harder wherever I saw any signs of life... life attracts life...


I made it to the very end of the point when 'this' happened...!!! BIG Gator of the year so far!! Sheesh!! It's mid-July. Midday. Hot. Bright... and the biggest pike are biting the most?!? What the...?? I had pitched my Power Worm out maybe 20 feet where I expected there to be a sparse weed patch. I looked away for a moment and when I looked back my worm was trucking it kind of towards and behind the boat heading for the edge of the point and maybe down it... I set the hook and first thought was... TOAD!!!! YES!!! Wait a minute... something doesn't feel right here...

Because the water is pretty dark you can't see much until it gets close but as BIG Gator-pike like to check you out when they're fighting for your lure with you I got a look a this ole snake as it heavily swam past the back of my boat... shoot... pike... @#$!@#$@!!

I guess, luckily, since I only had 15 pound test Fluorocarbon with no leader, the big ole toothy monster was hooked right in the corner of the mouth. It took 7 or 8 minutes but I finally got it tired enough that I started thinking how I'm going to get my lure back...?? I don't carry a net. The boat is small and it's just one more thing to get tangled in. Besides, most of my nets are not designed for BIG Gators...

I tried about 3 times to get my hand inside the gill flap behind the teeth... IT didn't like that very much so we had to fight another minute or so all over again... I finally got a grip on him after one moment sticking my hand in the wrong place drawing a little blood... (mine, I mean). But I got the ole monster and lifted it in the boat. I was expecting it to go nuts and it was heavy to hold. I would have just popped my hook out while it was in the water but the darn fish would not let my pliers get anywhere near the hook though I tried half a dozen times - we were eye-to-eye so to speak...

I apologize to pike lovers everywhere because big pike did what pike do and flop mightily jerking out of my hand landing in the boat in the middle of my stuff... if you've dealt with gators... you know how much fun that can be!!! Luckily again, it minimized its thrashing to hardly any. Just enough to cause a little bleed along the edge of the jaw - again, I'm sorry pike lovers. I always try to minimize harm.

This time the ole dragon must have resigned itself to its fate so I was able to snap a quick picture after popping the hook out of the corner of the mouth (all I had to do after that was a quick retie). Apparently, when it did the big flop it got me too so we were both bleeding a little... fair is fair, I guess.

I lowered her back in the water next to the boat... easier when you're in a low-sided little rowboat actually. After just a few seconds the old pike shook off the incident and swam towards the nearby weedbed... I think it wil be able to bite me off just fine sometime later this summer...

After that it got just stupid. I foolishly thought with the big gator subdued a big ole bass could now snap up my Power Worm... but apparently pike do travel in schools, or hang out in groups, or swarm together sometimes on key spots... whatever... I was still anchored and maybe two minutes later I caught a baby pike - only maybe 25 inches or so. oh boy... Had to retie again. The next cast back about where I hooked the big gator recently I felt something odd and snapped my worm coming up empty but I started reeling it in and the primitive brain said 'REEL FASTER' and good thing!!! Because another BIG gator almost as big as the first BIG gator was coming in hard and fast to eat my Power Worm!!!?!?! Barely escaped with my worm...

How many @%$#@% pike are on this spot!?! I turned and cast the other direction while thinking I should probably pull up the anchor and move... Right then a REAL GATOR came up about 50 feet from me and just crushed something at the surface!!! I mean this darn fish made my caught gator look like little brother!!!?!?! How the heck can a fish that big even be in a little simple 85 acre lake...?? This thing actually reminded me of some of the real gator encounters I've had in the past in Florida and South Carolina!!! It was like a 3-foot circle of destruction where it attacked and I was only seeing maybe the front half of it!!!

That's it!! I'm outta here... anchor up and moving along... someone else can come catch the pike... maybe it will eat one of the jet skiers...?? That would be cool!!!

Something to add before I go on... because it was weird... After I had the BIG Gator at the boat for the first time a bunch of apparently curious bluegills swam up around the pike to check it out...?? It was weird because if I was a little bluegill I would go anywhere near a pike with a maw full of teeth like that... After I let it go, the wind had pushed me onto the end of the point over one of the slightly deeper sand patches where lots of bluegills had spawned earlier this year. As I'm fishing I keep looking down because bluegills in groups keep coming up onto the sand spot...? The whole time I was there they kept coming in there, kind of swarming. If I didn't know better, it looked like they were trying to spawn again?? Went on the whole time I was there... maybe there's something good to eat there that I couldn't see? I don't know. Was just kind of odd to see in the middle of a bright, hot afternoon.

For almost 2 hours after that, other than watching a handful of boaters circle the lake yelling 'whoo hoo' not much else happened. I avoided part of the lake to be out of the way. I tried fishing some deeper water again. I didn't even have much in the way of small pike and dink bass bites... it was hot, though it was getting cloudier again. There was only one other boat out fishing - another rented rowboat with 2 ladies having a good time on the other side of the lake.


I decided to check hot spot #2 one more time... maybe I could whack another 3-pounder!?! I think I had gone back to my old Round Lake special green pumpkin Power Worm on that rig. I came in from the side and outside the weeds about sitting over where the bigger pike like to hang. I slowly working my way into the wind towards the spot on the spot. One of my first few casts as I neared the outer edge of the key stretch I finally got a nice bite. It's a keeper but a smaller one. It's a start. Caught one more sub-keeper from the same general spot.

Then, I made the mistake of working the worm out a little too deep, a little too close to the boat. THUMP! GONE... #@%@#$ pike... I hadn't mentioned there was a pretty stiff breeze. The last time I had stopped fishing for just a moment to do something I got blown about a 150 feet onto the flat so while I retied I dropped the anchor to stay close. I turned my back to the wind and the spot while I got out the pieces and parts. I had noticed the 2 ladies had moved about halfway across the lake recently but there was no one else out on the lake right now and even most of the handful of crazy boaters where being kind of quiet or sticking to the south half of the lake.

I was just about done retying my Texas rig when I suddenly heard voices that sounded real close...?? I turned around and maybe 40 feet behind me, anchored right on top of the spot I've been casting to are the 2 lades in the other rowboat... the only other anglers on the lake. 85 acres available and we're both sitting on the same 0.1 acres of water...?? I guess I'm not the only person who likes this spot. The 2nd time I've had someone come right practically on top of me on this spot.

I sat there staring at them trying to figure out what I was going to do now? Move? Keep casting near their boat? Cast the other way (and probably get bit off again...)? Maybe my being in a boat full of rods with the sweaty look of a hot afternoon was just too much for them because after less than 5 minutes the one lady, who was staring back at me, said something to the 'anchor' lady about maybe moving a little. They pulled up anchor and moved about 150-200 feet the other way and I went back to casting the spot. Try as I may I only got one more dink though.

Weird that I can be in pretty varied parts of this little Round Lake and one of the few other anglers out there will want to be in the same spot... this actually happens to me fairly often out there. I try to keep some distance but some people just decide that's where I want to be and other factors aren't considered... If they're just tossing bobbers out around their boat it doesn't affect me too much (unless they're really LOUD maybe - why do people have to TOSS the anchor - KABOOSH!! Did someone fall in?!?), but sometimes they are also casting lures and a few times I've sat there while their lures are landing only a few feet from my boat?? Or they're casting to the same spot I've been fishing...

It's particularly weird the several times like the above incident when there's only me and one other boat out fishing. I was fishing the end of the big point one morning hoping to put my lure in front of a big postspawn bass or two. I saw a kayaker launch at the little boat ramp. He started paddling out into the lake heading generally in my direction. I watched him while I fished out there in the middle of the lake. He kept coming. Kept coming. I'm thinking 'maybe he's heading to the back corner so he's just cutting across the middle of the lake...?

Nope. He curves just a hair inside of me and around the left and stops on the end of the point 30-40 feet from me...?!? Again, 85 acres. Only 2 anglers on the whole lake... and we both need to be on the same 0.1 acre??

I probably had my mouth open a little as I looked at him while he's starting getting his rig ready to fish... He stops and looks back at me, "Is this too close?" I kind of looked around both ways at the other 84.9 acres of lake completely available to anyone... and he says, "I'll move a little ways away."

Okey-dokey...

Anyway, back to the final part of the fishing report...

[djkimmel]

Things got slow again... if you haven't noticed yet, on my 'alone-time' therapy days I tend to stubbornly stay out fishing pretty much all day. I sleep really good and hard most nights after these days - a bonus! Evening was approaching and though it was Friday evening so even more than average boaters were now out going in circles, tearing things up, shouting whooo hoo, towing stuff and generally having a good time, I decided to again try to end the day how I started it!

I picked up the 2K Jigs Titanium Freak Buzz and started flinging it. I had motored back to the weedline I started on and a good sign - some panfish were nervous again near the surface, dogfish were rolling, blooping and thrashing, and I saw one attack that looked like bass. In my first few casts I got a vote of confidence when a nice bass crashed on the buzzbait!! Unfortunately, it missed by just a little... but already my interest and excitement level shot back up after the recent dry spell. Yup, this was how I'd finish the evening. Nothing else.

Also unfortunately, a big pontoon boat loaded up the kids and a couple tubes right then and drove out from the dock right through the weedbed I was fishing... tearing it up pretty good. Then, he stopped just outside the thick weeds and revved the motor in reverse a few times to get the weeds he just churned up off his prop, before flooring it out of there... so much for surface activity in that stretch...

I turned and went the other way down what was left of the weedline on that end and, since much of the lake was now a screaming playground - lots of anglers now out too and more launching - I angled my boat towards shore deciding I would find out some shallower weed flat bass had moved in and/or were getting active? I've been curious anyways about when these shallower bass are biting exactly. I did see another small boat that had just launched going right down the shoreline... but as I've mentioned, that has not been very productive on Round for me outside of the spawn. I kept my eye on them as long as I could and didn't see them catch anything...

I'm just starting to get on the edge of the flat and I get another decent bite on the buzzbait. It misses completely. Couldn't tell what it was or how big. Tossed the wacky rig up there a few times. Nothing.

I move along. There's a spot where the deeper waters indents towards shore a little. There was a weed bed there earlier but it seems to be dying back quite a bit. Still, it's a difference. I throw up on the flat and reel the buzzbait back. As it gets over the slightly deeper water away from the shallow weeds and almost to the boat, a nice bass comes up behind it and attacks. I saw it coming at the last moment and I may have set the hook too soon... got to keep those nerves in check when doing this!!

Probably because it was close to the boat and in basically open water I can't get it on follow up casts and tossing the wacky rig around. Even made a couple casts with the Power Worm... off I go again. KABLOOSH!! #@%@#pike! Didn't miss that one... I actually had a couple pike earlier today hit the buzzbait and wrap the line around it with the trailer hook trying to bend it in a pretzel shape!! Good thing it's flexible, tuneable Titanium...

Trying to hurry in getting this pike off the hook and getting the buzzbait back out there it manages to pop my neat red trailer hook off and into the lake... #$%@#$% pike! I quickly dig out another regular spinnerbait trailer hook and a new Zoom trailer bait because the pike tore the back half of that off... I think I forgot to mention that in many of my missed strikes the bass or pike actually tore my Zoom chartreuse-silver flake trailer in half. This is the 4th or 5th time today I've had to get a new trailer out... maybe the next time out I'll shorten the trailer...? Might reduce missed strikes?

I'm rerigged and off I go again heading up onto the flat. It gets pretty shallow for a stretch even though I'm still a fair ways from the shoreline. My buzzbait is clanking and squeaking over a thin stretch of grass and pond weed fairly shallow when a nice looking bass crashes on it!! Awesome strike but we miss each other again...!?! Rats. That was a surprisingly nice bass for shallow water with little cover. The back half of my trailer is gone again too!! I toss the wacky rig several times in a circle around the spot the bass came up from but with hardly any cover there and being pretty shallow it's probable the bass has swam somewhere fast in who knows what direction...


I reload the trailer and off again. I turn back onto the flat towards the deeper indent and only a few casts later another nice bass comes up and overruns the buzzbait from behind. This time both our timing is right and we hook up!! Fish on!!! Again, a pretty darn nice bass for shallow water. Obviously, some decent bass either get active or move up onto the flats again in the evening... good to know.

I head back towards the launch and call it a day with no more bites... but it's been a pretty good day. I think I'll go back... how about tomorrow? Sounds good...