Another shot at Round Lake before the big weed die-off 6-3-17

[djkimmel]

I saw the rare forecast for sunny skies and light to no wind!! I couldn't pass it up, and adding to that I might still find some feeding bass before too much of the weeds have died off, I went right back to Round Lake on Friday June 3rd.

I had rerigged a few things, changed some line, moved a couple reels, hoping to increase my land to hook ratio! Wanting to catch some more bigger bass too I rigged up a 6" Canadian Mist X-worm with no weight on a weedless wacky hook! I had high hopes for this on late spawners and post-spawners/panfish bed cruisers!

I went right to the inside weed edge along the big point. Attracting a bigger bass worked... but my land to hook ratio was not improved. I was floating the wacky rigged stick worm down into the shadows early and a bass over 3 pounds ate it but jumped as soon as I set the hook and threw the X-worm 20 feet back at me!!! @#$%@$!#!!?! Not the way I wanted to start the day...


It helped a little moments later that I tossed the wacky rig into some thicker patches of that odd, short pond weed that Round Lake has so much of and I had a decent little keeper grab it and run! Got this one...

But I wasn't getting many bites - a few dinks so I started heading towards the thicker weeds closer to the break closer to shore.


I tossed this wacky X-worm off the end of a long, skinny clump of milfoil near some more pond weed when this decent keeper grabbed it and ran. This one actually had a buddy a little bigger with it. I took a quick picture (forgetting to smile because I'm happy to catch a bass, but I'm concentrating trying to get this new selfie stick to work!?!) and then tossed back towards the weed bed end. The other bass (or another one maybe) grabbed the wacky rig but somehow, maybe in my rush to catch a bass, or something, I failed to properly hook the bass and it came off. Another lost bass... at least it wasn't a real big one.

Something I haven't mentioned once but feel the need to mention here is that a few weeks ago I damaged my good eye - my right eye. I had minor surgery and have been recovering ever since after a week and a half of lots of eye problems. The short story is that I can't see very well particularly small things like little letters and the small screen of a cell phone on a selfie stick... Add to it the glare of the sun and my old prescription in my sunglasses and I can't see worth crap half the time. So I'm sometimes completely forgetting to think about taking a picture verses trying to figure out if I have it even remotely lined up, hence some of the goofy faces coming up... Plus, I get in a hurry and forget to line up the light better sometimes especially since I can't see the screen anyways. A few times, even when I thought I got the picture, I let the fish go and THEN look at the picture...?? Doh... so I'm stuck with whatever I got! Been fun, that's for sure. Really enjoying trying to get my line through the hook eyes lately!!


About this time the last two seasons I started catching some bigger post-spawn bass deep (relatively speaking for this little lake) off of the spawning areas and key structure. So I keep checking it each time, more as the season is progressing. While it was still fairly early in the day I headed off the break toward an underwater hump that has been good in past years but not too great last year and nothing so far this year. I was approaching the weeds along the drop when I did hook this small keeper on a Texas-rigged 7" Power Worm (5/16 oz Tungsten bullet sinker, 30 lbs test P-Line Spectrex IV braid). I thought this might be the start of it but I had one more bite I didn't hook and then nothing... I tried several of my outside the break key areas and other than a few dinks and a pike, nothing was happening for me.


So, I decided maybe many of the keeper bass are still up on the flats. Maybe they're just a little deeper in the weeds roaming around now? So I picked up an unweighted Texas-rigged white-gold Kickerfish Shad Worm (half fat fluke, half stick worm - great action!) and went back up the weed flat near where there had been a bunch of beds I'd fished those few days before. Boy! Where there bass up on there!! And they were eating the shad worm as I just twitched and jerked it across the various weed types on the flat from real shallow out closer to the break weeds!! But, the only real keeper I caught was this one. The rest were almost keepers and a BUNCH of dinks!!!

But I caught a lot of bass while I was up there! One after another! Even had a little 10-11 incher hit the shad worm when it rolled to the top so hard that it sounded like a toad slurping a big frog!! It was exciting... but after a bunch of little ones I had to admit that it wasn't getting me bigger bass.

I moved out on to the big point and tried the same thing a bit but I had the same results. I was seeing a change happening around me though - a lot more surface activity. Most of it appeared to be panfish related with feeding bluegills - sometimes nervous - and some crappie chasing little minnows.


But a couple times I saw what I was sure where bass busting something. I was way out near the tip of the big point where there are lots of empty panfish beds and saw one bass come up back in a little near the inside of the thicker break weeds - mostly milfoil with a mix of pond weed. I picked up the ghost minnow Gunfish (I think that's which one it is) and made a long cast to the area. As soon as I started walking that dog this nice bass blasted it hard!!

I always love a good topwater bite!! I had recently switched to 15 lbs test P-Line braid Hydrofloat on my main big topwater rod. It's bright yellow yes, but the important thing is it floats and has almost no stretch so it is easy to work the lure and hook fish even on a long cast. The only thing I noticed is that it was snagging the front hook of the lure a little more often...

I wasn't actually seeing a lot of obvious bass topwater action but I decided to finish the day out that way to see what would happen. Unfortunately, I went a long ways without another bite until finally a little one slapped it. Got that one but it wasn't what I was looking for. Maybe by the next trip there will be some more topwater action??

Once again, I saw a few more dogfish too. I actually had a medium one swim up from the break right to my boat like they do. I couldn't help myself - I tossed a Bullet Craw out in front of it and it immediately turned around and went right down on it. I probably set the hook too soon because I had it on a moment and then lost it... but I have found they are sometimes very hard to hook - they have hard mouths with those few sharp pike-like teeth. I'm sure there will be plenty of dogfish to come though, so no worries.

I'm still somewhat  befuddled about not catching more bigger bass as in years past? Most of the few better bass I've had on I've also managed to lose so that doesn't help very much...