The above fish made my day and as you can see, it was caught on a white/red spinerbait and in a spot I would have never thought would hold fish (which once again goes to show how much I know).  There were a lot of baitfish on the surface in the area I caught that fish, and we stuck around and tried for more but that was the only one caught there.  Heh, check out Gochu in the second pic; he’s making sure that bass won’t be giving us any more trouble.  We had a slight technical malfunction with the scale so we never found out how much it weighed and on top of that, the fish fell off the scale and was flopping around in the boat so I didn’t want to waste any time measuring it either – back into the river it went for another day.  In hindsight, I’m not sure why we didn’t take more pics…but we were pretty intent on the fishing and also checking out John’s new fish finder which is a pretty neat unit.  I also spent time watching John pitch jigs – he’s obviously had a lot of practice and was able to put that jig exactly where he wanted it every time, with almost no splash at all, which was pretty amazing.

The water is so low that they’ve moved the houseboats out of the northern part of the lake because, well, there is no northern part of the lake anymore.  And the island in the second pic is not an island anymore.  It is now part of a long piece of land which you could walk from shore to maybe another 100 yards or so past the island (see the 3rd pic).

See those trees laying on shore?  The one on the right is the very same tree where I lost that big bass about a month ago (see here).  The worst part is that with the water so low, almost every spot is super shallow.  I only found a few areas where the water was deep enough to even try fishing.

Here is what’s left of the cove, which as you can see, isn’t very much.  There were two vehicles parked down there when I got there, both of them carp fishermen, camped out overnight.  I took that pic about 1/3 of the way into the cove so those of you familiar with that part of Idong can see just how far out the water is.

As for the fishing itself, it was tough because I had to look for places where the water was deep enough to fish. And as hunterdave mentioned in an earlier post, the usually crystal clear water of Idong is really dirty right now.  I ended up catching 5 or 6, but the above two were the only ones worth taking a pic of (Last 2 pics are the same fish).  Notice how skinny they are?  I also spent about two hours walking back and forth with my ultralight rig, looking for bluegill but couldn’t find a single one.  This would be a perfect time to be out there with a boat, because I bet all the bass are schooling in the deep pockets of the lake right now.  One good thing is that now I have a pretty good idea of some of the layout of the lake for when the water is up again.

I also managed to lose not one, but two spinnerbaits in the rocks with absolutely nothing to show for it.  Blah.

The river is still a little muddy from yesterday’s rains and as you can see, the green algae is coming in strong as well.  How the bass can see a Senko in that mess is beyond me, but see it they did.

Things started out nice as I caught 2 within 10 minutes of each other, and also missed a few.  Once it got light, however, the action slowed down.

The fish above (both pics are the same bass) was the only other one I caught once it got light – all bass were caught on 5 and 4-inch Senkos, black, and black with blue flakes.  I also threw spinnerbaits and chatterbaits but once again, no takers.

This past weekend my brother-in-law took me out on Lake Barkley in Kentucky for a little summertime post-spawn drop fishing.  It started out kind of slow on Saturday morning with my brother-in-law catching a nice catfish on a jig, and both of us catching a few dinks.  So, after an hour or two of that we decided to hit another area, one that to me looked like the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but in reality was a nice little drop that had a slight bend in it, which thankfully for us proved to be one of the best spots on the lake (for bass fishing) that particular day.  For an hour and a half we hauled in largemouth after largemouth, on nearly every single cast, with at least ten of them being 4 pounds or better.  It was truly a phenomenal day, and one that I will remember for years to come. 

Oh, and by the way, I bought a new camera too. 

Here are a few pics:

Wait a minute, that’s not a bass!   

As soon as I got close to the river, it started pouring down buckets but I figured what the heck, as long as there was no lightning or strong winds, I may as well give it a shot since I was already there.

The above were the only two I caught this morning, one on a black, 5-inch Senko, the other on 4-inch Senko, black with blue flakes.  I also tried spinnerbaits and chatterbaits since the water is stained and has that green crud/algae which seems to start up every summer around this time, but no takers on those lures today.

The above was the only bite I had this morning and I caught it on a black, 5-inch Senko fished off one of the points.  Actually, the Senko did all the work for me because I had cast out and then let the worm sit while I was tying on a different color spinnerbait.  When I picked up the rod again, the fish was already on there and hooked.  All I had to do was reel it in and take a pic.  By the way, if anyone has any 1/2 ounce spinnerbaits with a white/red skirt and silver double willow blades, please send them my way because I’m all out

As soon as it started getting light, I started throwing spinnerbaits and Karu Lures Vibraspins and you can see the result over on the left.  That was the only fish I caught this morning, once the sun rose and I figured that was it for the morning, I headed on base to wash my car, which had about 2 pounds of bugs on the front of it from driving along river road.

I caught the above on a black grape-colored, 5-inch Salty Trick Stick from Alluring Baits.  I thought the water was going to be really muddy so I had put a glass bead on the line to make a little noise as I was reeling in, not sure if it made any difference or not.

After I caught that first one, the wind really picked up so I switched to spinnerbaits but only managed to catch this one – and I must have hit that fish in the head with the lure because it grabbed the spinnerbait after I had only reeled in about a foot or two.  Shortly after that, a carload of carp fishermen showed up, 5 of them to be exact and they proceeded to set up right next to me, like I wasn’t there.  Two to the left and three to the right, which made fishing impossible so I packed up and moved down the way a bit for the remaining time I had out there.

Dave