Day on the Lake (Part 2)

Well I was able to return to LeAnne two days later and hoped to convert on the fish that I had found. The water had warmed a little, 46.5 degrees but the sun was not out and it was a little windy. I had trouble getting the fish to bite on a stable sunny day and wondered if it would be even tougher today. After all, it was the second week of November.

I decided to hit a few of the small bays where I saw fish in two days earlier but could not manage a bite. I knew where the fish were and decided to go and try to catch them instead of trying to find new fish.

9:30 Moving back into my big bay I noticed the bait was still there and figured the bass were too. I caught one rather quickly on a Zoom Super Fluke although it was only 13 inches long. Moving further back into the bay I noticed that although the sun was not out and it felt colder, the bait seemed to be more active which suprised me. I decided that a Manns Baby Minus-1 crankbait would be the best bet but after one pass through my best area I had not received one bite. I could see the pike still feeding as was the case two days prior and figured the bass would not be far behind. These fish are still here and they'll bite something but what?

10: 00 A spinnerbait seemed like the logical choice because it resemble a school of bait and could be worked through the weeds effectively. Five minutes later my hunch was answered with a solid keeper on a slow rolled 1/2 oz white Nichols spinnerbait with white blades. A few minutes later I caught another solid keeper on the spinner and figured I'd figured them out. But after fishing the whole area without another biteI knew some tweeking needed to be done.

10:30 With the sun starting to pop out I decided I needed to try and match the bait a little more closely. I downsized to a 3/8 oz spinnerbait with silver blades and a more translucent skirt. The move paid off handsomely as my first cast resulted in a 4 pound largemouth that inhaled the spinnerbait as I slow rolled it through the sparse weeds. I followed that up with a 3 lb fish, two that went 2.5 lbs and another that went 2 lbs even. My slight adjustment however so insignificant was all I needed. I caught a few more good ones and lost one that was close to 4 lbs and then one that was near 3 lbs.

11:30 Afte the onslaught was over I decided to try and find a few new areas where I could exploit the biting fish but was unable to replicate what I'd found in my backwater bay area. I'm not sure why this seemed to be the only spot where I could catch them but after fishing deep into several backwater areas, I was convinced this spot was unique.

12:30 Well I once again had to be to work soon and never returned to my hot spot but explored a lot of the lake that I'd never seen and made a few notes for future reference. I ended up catching about 10 fish with 7 being keeper size and 12.5 pounds for the best five. Not bad for this time of year and I was very satisfied being able to figure out how to catch fish that I'd found earlier. Who'd have thought the bait of choice would be a spinnerbait but I was proud I could figure it out and do so well on an unfamiliar lake. Why can't I do that in our tournaments?