I fished my first post-Tropical Storm Hermine trip today solo. I put trips on hold after this past Tuesday’s rain and flooding brought several feet of new water into the lake and dirtied the upper end of the reservoir.

Despite marginal water conditions, the fish are still biting. This 16″ largemouth smacked a slab in some of the clearer water I found today.

Because the rain fell ON our area and not UPSTREAM from our area in the watershed, over 12 inches of rain led to very little rise in pool level at Stillhouse. This was taken at Rivers’ Bend just at the rise peaked.

Today I sought out clear water, fish, and bait, and found that combination at Areas 482 and then 644. At both areas I found fish suspended between 25-28 feet, very near the bottom, and somewhat reluctant to strike a downrigged bait. The fish were also not very mobile, as I continued to see fish within feet of their initial location on pass after pass as I downrigged. Given this scenario, I buoyed and experimented with vertical jigging. This worked very well, as after just a few minutes of jigging, fish seemed to come in from the immediately surrounding area to check out the commotion and, when they were well-congregated, were easily taken on a smoking retrieve. I picked up 4 fish at Area 482, but the best success came at just NW of Area 644 where I stayed on the fish for over 2 hours, all within a 40 foot radius of my initial buoy drop. A 1/8 oz. Rattle Snakie did the trick today for exactly 30 white bass at this location. I did try a 3/8 oz. TNT180, but that was just a bit too large for these reluctant fish today. Once the fishing got soft around 10:30, I continued downrigging to get a bait in front of the few still-active fish among the many sedentary ones. I picked up 2 more whites and 1 largemouth that way.

I then moved on to Area 462 and found sparse, suspended gamefish at 30-32 feet here in open water. I ran a single ‘rigger here due to the presence of timber, and quickly boated a 16 inch largemouth, and began seeing fish on sonar more regularly. I set up for vertical jigging, and managed to tease 2 white bass and another short largemouth into striking before the bite got soft for good on this morning’s bite.

I looked over a few areas with sonar on my way back to the dock, but found little and so called it quits for the day.

TALLY = 40 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:10a

End Time: 11:35a

Air Temp: 77F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~81 to 831F

Wind: Winds were light from the SW at around 8.

Skies: Skies were nearly 100% grey until 8:00am, then cleared to bright and fair.