Bert, Brad and myself made a Sunday trip up to Brushy Creek in hopes of breaking the Brushy Creek Curse! The Curse is that the lake is so full of standing timber that its overwhelming and we usually only catch a very few number of fish, Hence a curse of no fish. Well, the curse still stands for me! I lost a nice bass on my frog early and struggled to only catch one total and it was only 14″. Bert and Brad however had a much better outting. Brad fished solely with his MoneyCraw and Bert fished a little with everything. Bert caught 3 total keepers and 6 total fish. He caught them on the Gonzo Grubs and a couple on a Frog. Brad caught 4 total with 2 being keepers. This is the first time we fished around the island at the South End and along the Dam. The fish definately were in small schools and when you found one you usally found another if not a third. But those schools were few and far between. The biggest thing is that you feel like every tree and every stump should have a fish and maybe they do but they sure are picky. All in all I would say it was a good outting. I could come up with tons of excuses but the only one I’ll throw out is that I was very tired and just wasn’t on my game. Next time I break the curse for real!
Lower Pine 7-26-11
We ended up doing some shuffling this week due to storms predicted for our normal fishing nite. So we all got our stuff together and got on the road and headed back up to Lower Pine to try an evening fish. It was not the same lake… haha… but they never are. Only 1 keeper was caught and that was by Brad. He actually caught the keeper in the creek channel between Upper and Lower Pine in like 1ft of water. Top water bite was not present much. It was just an all around much slower nite and probably a more normal night for that lake. Which begs the question… “Why was Saturday so Good??”
Upper Pine Challenge 7-23-11
The challenge is still on! Weather is threatening an early start but storm chances, at this point in time, are only as high as 40%. My goal is to be up and on the water between 7am and 8am. Since I have never fished this lake before I’m not exactly sure how we’ll start. I am thinking as the sun comes out and the temps start tp rise that fishing along the dam with craws and drop shots will be the ticket… maybe even around the island as it transitions to deeper water fairly quickly. I think my opening plan will be fish toward the back of the lake. It seems the further you get away from the ramp the shallower it gets. Maybe with such a big Shallow end there will be some good frog fishing in the morning or even in the heat of mid day. I have been pumped all week and am very excited to get going tomorrow. I pulled the most recent IADNR electrofishing survey from 5/26 and the results excite me. In their survey the shocked 17 bass from 14″-16″, 7 bass from 16″-18″, 3 bass from 18″-20″, and 4 bass 20″-24″! The fact that they shocked that many bass shows me that this could be a good fishery since they only shock a small sampling of a lake when they do shock it. Hopefully those fish are still there and are hungry for my lures tomorrow. I have rambled enough, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings. I am hoping for at least 1 bass of 4-5lbs and that shows my optimism right there.
Anniversary Red Rock 6-7
Tomorrow is Robyn and my anniversary and for the day Robyn wants to head down to Red Rock Lake and get some sun in the boat and maybe catch a few fish. The day will start with us dropping Katelyn off at daycare like normal day and then we’ll grab the boat and head down. Since its a Tuesday their shouldn’t be much boat traffic and as of this writing the weather is supposed to be HOT and SUNNY. Of course there will be a stop at Jaarsma’s Bakery in Pella and probably a Van & BonBon Jersey Freeze on the way home. Should be a terrific Day even if the fish don’t bite.