Launched on McMurray at about 3pm and instantly saw a school of fry breaking the surface near the launch, so I motored out past them and changed a couple rods and rigs around from Clear Lake earlier that day. I tied on a black and chrome 3' floating Rapala, a small watermellon swimbait, and a DT-6. I started with the jerkbait, casting past the school and twitching back under them causing them to boil, nothing. So I switched to the swimbait, again nothing, same result with the DT-6, hmmm?

I continued down the shoreline casting jigs and grubs with not so much as a nibble. Finally I got near a dock about half way down this particular bank. As I approached I made a cast and a 3lb bass followed my jig right to the bottom, watched it hop then turned and swam away. I quickly picked up the jerkbait, and again he followed it but didn't strike... I wondered if he was on the bed I saw nearby, but just then the wind let up and I could see the mass of fry he was guarding! I pinned myself against a log and decided to test different lures and colors on him to see if I couldn't get something figured out?

After several offerings, I tied on a perch patterned chatter bait, and boy did he hate that AND so did the bigger female that was still under the dock, cause they BOTH chased after that thing until they saw the boat! Sooo, I tied on a spinnerbait that was somewhat of a perch color, a perch pattern jerkbait, and a perch colored DT-6 and began blasting down the bank looking for fry schools.

The lake gets pretty deep the rest of the way down on that side so I went ahead and motored to the n.e. corner where most of the spawning takes place in this lake, and worked my way back west on the north shore. I would cruise along alternating between the spinnerbait and the jerkbait depending on the vegetation until I spotted a school of baitfish, then I would cast past the school and run my bait right through the center repeatedly. The first school I came to I casted my spinnerbait and burned it right back into the fry and WHAM, the 4.5lb'er in the pic inhaled it!

I missed another fish near some pads, and then worked another ball of fry with my jerkbait, producing a 3lber....no photo cause he was bleeding just a bit and I wanted him back in the water asap! Once in a while I would still try the jig and grubs, but it was definately a baitfish type of day. I had to leave at 7:30pm but I was sure curious how the topwater bite would have been around dark?? Another time maybe? Water temps were low 70's. I spoke with one other angler and he said he had caught one bass as well.

Also, the trout in this lake want to be caught so bad they were leaping clean out of the water all over the lake, so get out there and give the eagle and two osprey some competition!

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