7/2 - 9/11 report

[fishbone]

Just finished up a week on the lake for the first time.
If someone had to travel more than 20 miles to get to BL at this time of year I would advise to save the gas and go to a local farm pond.
The fish bite turned dead off for a couple of days, the wind/waves were a menace for 5 days and the normal size bass were smallish.
I know some guys who do very well in the spring, but July is not worth the cost and effort.
You say I don't know how to fish? That may be correct, but look at some of the other reports for the past 2 weeks. Not resounding successes.
Fishing BL in June/July......take a pass.

[fishUC]

suprising././

this year was one of the best June's I can remember...they hit anything you threw and they were all decent to BIG. and its only 2-3 weeks removed from that. They are probably transitioning a little deeper as summer is settling in and the water is dropping, weeds coming up/

You probably got bad weather more than anything in conjunction with a lake that is changing and has usually chaged / settled into summer patterns now.

wind is almost aways a menace - can't escape it up there.

[vinnerbaits]

Me and my gang just got back from the same week as above and had a totally different result, some of the best fishing we ever had, both numbers and size. I will agree that Saturday-Tuesday the wind and series of fronts passing thru kept numbers and size down, but the rest of the week was nothing short of phenomenal. We had 6 guys, 3 boats, with each boat averageing 50-60 bass a day. Me and my partner had a total of 82 bass on Thursday alone with equal amount of largies and smallies, with at least 20 fish surpassing the 3.5lb mark. The key was fishing deeper weeds in at least 6ft of water with wacky rigged, 4" soft stick baits in darker colors. More importantly was to insure that the bait fell all the way thru the weeds and settled on the bottom. The hits were more of a slurp than a bump and were hard to detect until we figured out what they were doing. Finding areas where rock and weeds met was also another important part of the puzzle, basically, any point with a danger buoy was the place to be. Burning soft plastic paddle tail swimbaits in bright colors early and late in the day produced some of the larger fish of the trip also. Hope this helps some of you in the future when fishing the early part of July. I certainly will be coming up the same week again next year. Tight lines, Vinny
ps..I uplaoded a short video on youtube that we made one of the days if anyone is interested. We would have gotton more video but nobody wanted to stop fishing long enough to film, haha.
All fish we caught were released to fight another day. I saw more people keeping shorts than I could believe, that issue needs to be enforced more for sure. Could be a part of why there are so many complaining of less numbers of bigger fish IMHO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxQo_irkRH0

[TomK]

We were up the same week. The fishing was... different than the same week in previous years, and took a little bit to adjust to fishing in slightly different areas. I think the definition of insanity applies: repeating the same thing and expecting different results. A lot of people would try one shoal. Then another shoal, then another... all with a lack of success. From previous years, I've figured out that you can break the lake down into half a dozen or so types of structure - shallow weed edges, deep weed edges, steep rocky dropoffs, etc. But, before long, I found them. Took 4 kids out on the boat with me one of the evenings; having 2 kids in the process of landing a bass simultaneously was fairly regular. And, at one point, 3 of the kids were reeling in decent sized bass simultaneously. (Actually, one might have been a bowfin.) It doesn't get better than that.

Speaking of bowfin, what's up with them? We caught and saw more people reporting catching them than in any other year. Caught some larger perch than we've ever caught on BL. And spent part of a day catching bluegill for a fish fry on friday night. I'll be returning in 2 days to spend another weekend fishing.

[wildchild]

Thanks for the reports all. Love the video as well, getting to BL itch as my trip is about a month away!

[bassbuzzer]

Great video,, can't wait to get back up there in Sept. hope we do as good as we did in june.

[rhettslaw]

Hello all
me and my son came up 7/5-7/9 we stayed at camp carol and are coming back 8/11 the fishing was real good lb most in the am and pm. this time we got a map so we will know were to go see you soon

Rhett & Devon

[kspako]

just finished a week at the lake. bass fishing was very tough most of the catches were small with water temps in the low 80's . only a couple nice one's with 1 smallmouth over 3lb.

[tmutt]

Me and my gang just got back from the same week as above and had a totally different result, some of the best fishing we ever had, both numbers and size.

We had 6 guys, 3 boats, with each boat averageing 50-60 bass a day. Me and my partner had a total of 82 bass on Thursday alone with equal amount of largies and smallies, with at least 20 fish surpassing the 3.5lb mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxQo_irkRH0

Just plain excellant video!