This is my favorite local lake and we have been having a lot of success fishing there almost weekly since early February, but Saturday was not one of those days. I decided to take a 14 year old neighbor boy out with me for the 1st time this year, thinking the weather had finally improved enough, and wanting to get him onto the many 13"-15" hold overs we had been catching.

The valve in the floor section of my heavily modified inflatable failed yet again as I filled it, so we started out in a very soft bottomed boat. Thom, who had gotten on the water about an hour earlier had already caught and released 4 nice ones so, spirits were back high when we got to 'the spot'. Almost immediately, the bite was off. After 45 minutes without a bite, my neighbor let his attention drift, and before either of us knew it, his line was in the prop. Tony showed up with his boat about this time, tried a new bait and caught one right off. With little floor support, I couldn't really untangle my prop but Thom had us free about 20 minutes later. Thanks Thom! After another 45 minutes or so, Thom caught and released his 5th and since the wind was picking up, he headed back to the launch. Tony agreed to take my neighbor in his much larger boat, since mine was looking even more shakey. Thanks Tony! Well I had just pulled away and started to let my line out to troll, when Tony called me back over. My neighbor very sheepishly told me his line had gotten caught in Tony's prop! Sorry Tony! I couldn't lean over to help and Tony's tools were back in his car, so he fired up his gas motor and drove off. Then the rain hit. I decided to give up trolling and tried anchoring with a fly under a bobber. Tony was back about 30 minutes later and I hadn't gotten a bite. I switched over to the Rapala, and immediately got 3 bumps then landed a nice 15" one! I motored over to Tony to let him know the bite was back on, but none of us got another bite and after 45 minutes, we all headed back to the launch.

All in all, a very tough day on the lake. It's still my favorite lake, and I'll be back, but next time with a new boat - the valves on mine have failed one too many times! Don't give up on this lake though. It'll reward you if you are patient!

BlakeP

4/23/2013 10:23:00 AM

Thanks for the report. Always nice to hear about leland. Can't wait till it gets stocked again! Should be only a few more weeks.

ShipwreckedDude

4/23/2013 2:29:00 PM

You must have gotten there right after I left. I was there from 0800 to 1135 . I was fishing from shore using various color and sent power bait and even threw a couple lures for awhile but didn't get so much as a nibble.

DavidA

4/23/2013 2:49:00 PM

Must have. It was slow from shore too, I understand, and that hasn't always been the case. Once this year, before I got out of the car I saw two pulled in right near the launch, and saw 2 more before I could launch. It could be we're fishing 'em out, or more likely, they are changing their behavior as the water warms. Now the trick is to find out how to get their attention again!

BlakeP

4/23/2013 6:07:00 PM

There probably aren't too many left. It hasn't been stocked since October, and even then it was only stocked with around 1800 fish, and most of those fish are caught pretty fast. Late spring really is the better fishing, it gets stocked the first week of may with over 4000. I did notice, that the fish change behavior as the water warms up though. I always do pretty well when the water warms up, using half a worm with a size 6 hook 2-3 feet under a weighted float, pulling the worm just above the eye of the hook(But still on the hook), making it look almost like a jig.

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