Lake Pleasant 8/03

Lake Pleasant Today 8/03
Weather Sunny with a tiny bit of breeze and hella hot.
Water temp: like my pool, mid 80s
Visibility: 5 - 10ft
On the water at 5:45am and off at 12pm

I have to preface this by saying that I had taken my wife and her pals the whole day Saturday for some tubing before this. I am really breaking in the new motor proper! I think I am gonna need a tune up before this summer is through.

Rolled out of bed about 4:40am, forgot to turn on the damn alarm. I raced to the lake. Missed first light Again by a half an hour. I decide I am going to spend the morning in the river. I plan on working on my vertical and canyon presentations.

6am
I went up River by the no wake bouys and started casting jerks and my trusty spook. I get a few blow ups and that's about it. The boils were small and the blow ups quick as the big bass would hit the top then dive back down to the bottom. The baitfish were not in big schools but in little balls. Finding one quick enough to get a topwater on was tricky. I decided to go to my plastics and fish that. After a while I got bored and headed for a point my buddies and I work that is normally lucrative. I see some dudes chasing real tiny boils. My point is fruitless, enter the lake lice.

9am
MAn when they come, they come. They showed up in the river a couple at first, then in 5s and tens and none of them believe in any of the boating saftey rules. I got waked by jetski wakeboard boat and tuna boat alike. I at least slow down and give fishermen a lot of room when I am up river cruising and not chasing fish. It was like surfing and fishing at the same time. I just wish they would give me more room. And what happened to no skiing in the no ski area? Damn! one lost jig and still no fugging takers. It was 9 am and I can't believe I was still tossing toppwater. I was getting blowups and followers, but they were all dinks. Every boil I tossed to were friggin just large wolf pack schools of juvinile and sub adult LMB. They would trash my spook and puppy but just a waste of time. I always hoped big daddy would slam it from below but no luck. I still worked every boil I could, no matter how small of fish I saw.

10:30
I head to this one cove where I saw a few blow ups, I decide to tie on a Sammy. I fired it out there and the strikes were more vicious but THEY WERE STILL THESE FRIGGIN TINY ASS JUVIE BASS!!!! And some of the Largemouth fry were actually rolling with schools of Striper Juvies, It was cool to see all these fish in mixed schools. Too bad they WERE ALL TINY! The larger Bass would also attack these tiny schools as well as baitfish. Damn I couldn't catch a break then I got a taker! When it hit I only knew I had a fish from the splash, but there was no weight on the line. When I brought it in it was THE SAME DAMN SIZE AS MY SAMMY. I went to grab the camera but he flipped off the hook and hit the floor so I just picked up the little guy and tossed him back. He was the exact same size as the Sammy. Frustrated I left these tiny azz fish in search of some bigger ones.

11am
I went to a bluff that has been good to me and broke out the dreaded D/S rod. I used to love to drop shot, now I hate even looking at that rig. Anyways, I broke it out and tossed it along the bluff. First cast got me a respectable 1.75lb bass. At that point the heat got to me and I wasn't in the mood to take photos so I tossed him back. I worked and shook off bites from tiny aggressive bass, at one point I saw what looked like a three pounder cruising this shallow ledge. He even busted! I thought I would hit him on the nose with my DS. The water was so clear when I hit the ledge, he spooked. After working the bluff for an hour, the heat got my brain, I took a dip and I called it a day.

Total Fish for the Day : 2. a fish stick and a 1.75lb bass, both LMB and both aggressive. At least I didn't skunk. I was hoping the Stripers could come to the table but I think I was a little late to the party.

What I learned:
I get spoiled fishing lakes like BArtlett or Rosey. I forget how humiliating Pleasant can be.

Bass I chased seemed to prefer a suspended and top approach. I could get them to come up from around 5 feet or so out of a tree or bush but that was it. They would come out of bushes and trees to chase my lures but would only come out so far before they backed off. It wasn't my boat, it was the distance they were willing to come out of cover. The bigger (smarter) ones would only come as far as the surface or a few feet to the side from the center of a submerged bush or tree. The juvies would chase it all the way to the boat. The good sized ones would only flash on my topwater. No love for the cranks. My d/s got the love on the drop.

Small fish will hit big fuggin lures.

The juvie largemouth, at least up river, seem to be just as aggressive right now as the juvies in Bart. So I wonder how fast these guys grow and how soon before these guys are slot size. I am glad I have a good memory. They were on small spots along huge expanses of nothing, then they will drop the water and I will have to figure it all out again. I hate this lake.

Spend more time with my maps. I really need to mark my maps.

Gotta remember to set the alarm.

Sunblock not only keeps the burn away, you also don't feel the heat as bad. Too bad I forgot it, damn alarm.

I guess it's still a bit early for the big Striper and Whites boils. I think once the water cools down a bit, the Striper will boil up. Right now it seems like the most aggressively feeding fish I ran into were the LMB.

I forgot my Tin Foil Helmet. It could explain my luck with this place.

the 4 Lane is the craziest place in the world in the miuddle of the day. PRICELESS!!! I don't care who you are that's funny right there.