My 1st visit to South Lake north of North Lake 7-28-17

[djkimmel]

So being off our normal schedule this week (going on a Friday) I had picked a lake that looked possibly intriguing to me thinking neither of us had been there before - South Lake. But, Derek had been there once before, and he didn't sound real thrilled to go back (from what he could remember). To humor me I guess he agreed to give it another shot.

The short story is I didn't like it, but I want to go back because I think I might end up liking it... how is that for a definitive answer?? I am suspicious however that Derek may like the lake better now than he did... we shall see.


New lake... New lure... Broke out the Yellow Magic for South Lake (which is North of North...) and here's my first bass on it! My bass didn't get a lot bigger all day... Lost 1 nice keeper swimming a Dock Monkey over some milfoil. I saw these rings in the water outside the break and threw my expensive Yellow Magic popper over there. This little monster pulled it under almost immediately!

We started near the boat ramp because the weeds along the quick to steep drops looked interesting. For a while, nothing much happened. Then, as we were working a big turn in the break bass out behind us started busting minnows like a saltwater bluefish attack!!

We should have put the motor on high and got over there fast but I guess we weren't fully awake and alert yet. Plus, having seen lots of small attacks this year we probably expected it to be over quick. But as we turned that way it kept going on, and spread to a larger area. I could tell most of the bass were not big (see my whopper above!) but then I saw a really good come up near the left edge of the fairly large area of action, and I got excited. I may have hollered at Derek to 'get a move on!' Not sure...

As we approached, they were still busting though it was fading. I was throwing the Yellow Magic but I quickly switched to the clear/pearly Sammy to fish it more aggressively and like the small gliding minnows I was seeing! I must have had 20 hits on it to hook one more small bass. I forget what Derek was throwing but maybe a buzzbait. He also had a bunch of hits and maybe hooked 1 or 2 small bass.

The topwater action petered out as we glided in close to where it had been happening. 45 feet deep!! Oh boy... I had a feeling the bass were going one way and we'd go another. We tried finding them with electronics but quickly lost any readings. I tried to get a few lures down to the bottom to see if they sounded. We also turned towards a deeper, sloping flat near a point and the inside turn. We had a few more small bass strikes there that we mostly missed and then it was over, done, gone...

Never saw it happen again and we came back later near the same area without finding any action there... (probably the main reason I still want to go back - I'm intrigued by any lake where this kind of action can happen!!)

After we moved on pretty much the rest of the day was the 'All Derek' show! He was mostly tossing an old 7 1/2 inch ring worm - black with a white tale, doing the Derek dead-stick a lot down the steep breaks.


Derek caught a bunch of dinks, all the pike inc 1 bite off (thank you I says, you're not welcome he says) but he also caught 3 real nice keeper on a Texas-rigged worm - this 1 well over 3 lbs! He wasn't even running the boat when he caught this one behind me... I started feeling more than a little snake bit.

I even got to fish one prime hump almost all by myself only to have the one bite when I was reeling my Dock Monkey jig over the inside edge tops of a milfoil clump, that I completely blew because I had just taken my eyes of the lure when the bass rocketed up and lip-smacked it!!

So Derek even caught 1 nice keeper on the worm that hit right on top of the drop edge next to some pads as soon as his worm hit the water...?!? Why I couldn't buy a bite this day I do not know... ??



An hour later he snatched a bigger largemouth - well over 4 - from @ 20 feet on the worm. He was doing the Derek dead-stick when he set the hook. Said it hit good. Then it fought like a banshee. Figured out why when we saw it was actually pushing 5 and he uses a fairly light spinning rig. ...maybe that's the secret to South Lake bass - finesse? I wouldn't know...??

We got off to a fairly late start this morning due to circumstances. After seeing the big topwater over deep water action I would definitely like to go back and get an earlier start. I might even come to like the steep drops bite if I can actually start to make it work for me. It didn't seem to matter if I was running the front or parked on the back! Plus, there are 2 other small lakes connected to South and we didn't go near them so there's some adventure waiting to happen (maybe?).