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I headed out to wards lake in the afternoon and stayed till night.

During the day I was targetting some of the largemouth bass that were hanging close to shore and guarding their beds.

I caught 4 largies and ironically they measured 8 9 10 and 11 inches.
Started with the 8 and each fish got an inch bigger.
The last fish that measured at 11 was fat and registered just over 1 lb on my scale.

I caught that one using a Storm Wild Eye Sunfish.
Since the bass are constantly getting annoyed with the pumpkinseeds and chasing them out, I figured this would be perfect.
I began jigging this close to the beds and she hit it and hit it hard.

The others I caught using misc lures and just jigging them around or swimming them by their face until they got annoyed.
Those lures consisted of a Red Ratl Trap, just a size 6 hook with a small berkeley gulp honey worm, and soft plastic worms.

We then proceeded to fish until night time and an officer came.
He simply asked if we were done and then told us that he was locking the gate.
He sort of smirked and told us to take it for what it is and that the park is closed and he took off.

So I decided to stay a little longer and the catfish action heated up.
Caught a ton of Brown Bullhead Catfish on the bottom using worms.

Then I got my unexpected surprise!
A 14 inch Fat Largemouth that registered on my scale a little over 2 lbs!
I was only using a size 6 hook with a piece of nightcrawler when I caught her too!

I didn't target pumpkinseed sunfish but if you ever want to take a child fishing, take them to wards because you are guaranteed to catch sunfish all day long without any effort whatsoever.
A bobber and a worm is all you need for this.
Just try to use a small size hook because the pumpkinseeds have small mouths.

nickbell

5/21/2010 8:46:00 PM

Man, iv been trying hard to catch a bass at ward but i cant get a single one. Im going back for my third time tomorrow. Im thinking about using tube jigs. Do you think that will work? I know that you have to annoy them enough, and tubes seem like the best things for them.

nickbell

5/21/2010 8:47:00 PM

Also, what did you use to catch the catfish? What was your rig?

returnofthefish

5/21/2010 9:56:00 PM

Did you eat the bullheads? Muddy taste?

r.sok

5/22/2010 2:14:00 AM

That's a nice bass!
Question about fishing off the bottom..what's your setup for it? Everytime I tried off the bottom I ended up hauling a whole bunch of weeds.

Elijah.Loves.Fishin

5/22/2010 6:15:00 AM

i love to fish but i don't like to eat fish haha..
personally i wouldn't eat anything out of wards lake.

there are a lot of weeds when you cast out far.
i only cast out maybe 15 - 20 feet where it's still shallow.

my rig is really simple.
i used a 1/4 oz egg weight above a snap swivel, with about 24" or so of leader going to a size 6 hook.
put a piece of worm on and you're good to go.

the catfish are more active towards the evening and you can catch them pretty shallow, just cast a few feet away from the weed edges and they'll come out.

i never expected to catch a bass that late at night, especially not one that big, and even more especially not on a small piece of worm!!
i'd post pics of the bass i caught during the day but i could only chose two pictures to post!

Elijah.Loves.Fishin

5/22/2010 6:21:00 AM

oops.. forgot to answer the first post.. @ nickbell i've only caught small largemouth roughly 5 or 6 inches off of tube jigs.. but then again i've only used very small tube jigs that were meant for panfish.. however, the color tube jig i used that worked really well was dark green at the head and a lighter green with speckles towards the end of it. my guess is that they mistake it for a grasshopper or some other sort of bug that they feed on. as they say, match the hatch!! try to use lures / baits that mimic their food source!! also, i've never really tried this but i heard using an entire nightcrawler might entice them into biting as opposed to just a small piece. but there is the risk of the bass simply stealing your whole worm!! i wish you good luck!!

knotabassturd

5/22/2010 2:11:00 PM

These are some of my favorite reports, smorgasboard fishing and on a small lake!

Thanx...

Elijah.Loves.Fishin

5/23/2010 10:51:00 PM

thanks man :) i try to be as detailed as i can

islandbass

5/24/2010 9:36:00 AM

Nice report! How is shore access? I think my kids would love to catch those pumpkins but we don't have a boat. Thanks!

Elijah.Loves.Fishin

5/26/2010 12:33:00 AM

hello island bass, there is plenty of shore access! the very front of the park has a decent shore area, enough room for at least 4 - 5 people to fish. there is a small hole on the side to fish as well as a dock. the dock area is overrun with weeds but you can still catch fish by dropping into the openings between the weeds. also, this lake is so small and shallow that a boat won't do you much good. i tried with lmbdave when we were still in highschool and it didn't really improve the fishing at all.

islandbass

5/31/2010 12:55:00 AM

Elijah,

Thanks! I just might check it out tomorrow and if it isn't too far down the road, that Waughop lake too. Steel Lake bass are just too stingy for shorebound folk.

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