I fished a “stay in touch” trip this evening in advance of a guided trip on Saturday hoping to continue to pin down fish locations as the water temperature continues to drop and the fronts continue to roll in.

I took this screen shot at Area 079. 14 of the 20 fish I caught here came as doubles on a Hazy Eye Shad tandem rig. The fish were really in high gear on the strong south wind blowing at 20 mph.

Today I searched and found fish at Area 079, right at the break as it rolls over from 30 to 50 feet deep. I boated 20 fish here, 14 of which came on a tandem rig using the Hazy Eye Shad. Once I’d boated 20 fish, I packed up and left these fish while they were still biting to search for other additional fish.

I next found fish at Area 135. These fish were more sluggish and required a jigging approach. These fish were also roughly half the average weight versus the fish I found at Area 079. I worked on this school a while to put together a catch of 20 fish, but finally did and then moved once more.

I made one last stop picking up a final 20 fish at Area 549. These fish were also very active — in fact, it was due to the abundance of solid, suspended sonar returns here that I stopped, only then finding fish on bottom (as none showed on sonar as I approached). After I’d boated these fish, I slowly motored with sonar and also noted fish action, both on bottom and suspended, from here, through Areas 702 and 108, and halfway over to Area 143.

TALLY = 60 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 2:00p

End Time: 5:15p

Air Temp: 64F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~58.0F

Wind: Winds were S20 at mid-afternoon, slacking off to S15 by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were fair.