Things Heat Up 6/4/12

It's amazing how much things can change in a week when you live in the mountains.  It had been hot since my last fishing trip.  I almost didn't go out because it was stiflingly hot, and extraordinarily windy.  When I arrived, there were whitecaps on the water.  I seriously contemplated leaving, but thankfully I endured and gave it a try.  I started off fishing a Damiki Gladiator spinnerbait.  I quickly caught a small bass or two, and then oddly enough, another foot long rainbow took a spinnerbait, and this time right in the mouth.  I tried to get a picture, but he spazzed out and just about destroyed my lure.  I got him back in the water where he belonged and began working my way up the far shore, catching a fair number of cookie cutter bass.  I finally caught a better one.

I was catching fair numbers of fish, but I really wanted some higher quality bass.  I tried throwing a soft jerkbait, but the wind made it extremely difficult.  I had an idea, and it paid off.  I got up against the bank and began throwing parallel to the shore along the inside weedline.  This cut down on slack line tremendously.  I was now able to make long casts and still get solid hookups. 

I began a system of fishing the spinnerbait, working my way up the shoreline, then I would paddle up to the shore and fish the jerkbait tight to the bank.  It was fruitful.

The wind even died down for a bit and I scored the best fish of the day.

The wind got going again, but I caught several more skipping the bait across the surface. 

I switched to a different spinnerbait, a Damiki MTS as I thought it would be better in the wind.  I put a small swimbait on as a trailer and began to hammer the fish.  Most were small, but it was still fun.  I realized it was time to get home, so I reluctantly kicked back across the lake.  I had about a quarter mile to go up this bank before reaching the car, so I cast the spinnerbait to the reeds as I went.  It was a fish on almost every cast for a while.  Most were typical 11-12" largemouth, but I caught a few that were a little better.

I had decided that I wouldn't look at my clicker until I got to my car.  When I arrived I was impressed at the total, 84 fish for a four hour trip.  Not too shabby.  I was kind of bummed that I had to go as I would have easily topped 100 fish again, but that's just the way it is sometimes.

Total for trip:  83 largemouth, 1 rainbow

Total for year:  681 fish