I fished a solo scouting trip this morning just to keep up with the movements of the fish and forage. I launched at 6:25am and spotted some topwater action right away in open water at Area 129. These fish were “wolfpacks” of white bass pursuing young of the year shad. I moved on after boating just one white bass as a confirmation. I found a similar situation at Area 594, albeit in shallower water, thus contributing to the presence of small largemouth mixed in with white bass here. I boated 2 whites and 2 blacks to get a feel for what was going on here and moved on. My next stop came just yards to the west of Area 476. I spotted a large school of suspended white bass with my sonar in sidescan mode and circled back on them to try to work them over. I got on fish on the downrigger I had down at the time, another white bass on a cast bladebait, and one channel catfish on the bladebait as I jigged it off the bottom.

This was today’s largest fish of the trip, a 7.00 pound, 24 1/8 inch largemouth

UMMMM…FISH ON!!!

Start Time: 6:25a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 70F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~75.5F

Wind: Winds were SSE at 4 at sunrise, staying light until around 7:45a, then picking up slowly and steadily to a peak of about 16mph around 10:30, then leveling off around 14mph thereafter.

Skies: Skies were mostly cloudy with high humidity causing haziness.

I again moved checking different areas as I went and came up with little in the way of gamefish and bait until I got to the vicinity of Area 122. Here, in about 31 feet of water, there were actively feeding fish holding 12-18 inches off the bottom. As I began fishing for them, it turned out to be a mixture of white bass and largemouth holding together. I vertical jigged and also put down a tightline with bait on a circle hook. The fish stayed active here for quite a while as the wind and increased and got some movement going on. Cloud cover also stayed thick, so that extended the bite, as well. In all, I boated 21 fish here including 4 largemouth over 3 pounds, with the largest of the four going exactly 7.00 pounds on the certified Boga Grip and measuring 24 1/8 inches. Thankfully, it was cleanly lip hooked and didn’t require fizzing (which large bass from 30 feed often do), so I snapped a quick photo and back to the depths she went. I stayed on this area as long as the fish stayed active. The bite began softening at 10:45 and went dead at 11:30am.

TALLY = 29 FISH, all caught and released