Round Valley Reservoir Still an Option

Driving into the ramp area, I met with "boat launch only" signs, and a college-aged girl who stepped out of an unmarked van.

"I came to fish from shore," I said.

"That's OK," she said. "Can I see your license?"

So I drove down near the primitive launch to try off the dock. A good weedline exists there. From the dock, I noticed someone walking along the dike. I wondered. Maybe I had read signs wrong. So I hiked over at fast pace. Sure enough, it's the Ranger Cove area, just beyond the dike, that is off limits after Memorial Day. The area just beyond the Cove is pay as you go until Labor Day.

I tried my favorite corner of the Pond. Nothing. But the far corner resulted in two taps on my Senko, which I had cast to near the opposite bank, then worked slowly down into deep water. I tightened up, the line not moving away, and set hard, not feeling much resistance as I instantly reeled very fast knowing this ran towards me. I felt weight, drag gave--a good fish--how big I couldn't quite tell. Then it was gone, the hook never having secured.

Rain began falling steadily. I went to other side of the dike, down those treacherous rocks and fished the reservoir corner. I got in three casts and marched out to my car. Just after I had got in, rain fell very hard. I had no time to catch more bass, but both sides of that dike hold them. On the reservoir side smallmouth likely frequent the boulders.

Sun came out later. But as I worked at home, I heard rain patter outside shortly after sundown. I tied on a triple-doozy Strike King buzzbait (triple bladed) and walked to my local pond. Three fourths of the way around--I had decided to give it the old once over--I released my ninth bass, six of them about a-pound-and-a-half, two near a pound, and one two-pounder when rain stopped, and so did the fish stop hitting. I missed the strike from only one more, and lost another during the fight, but my total remained at nine having completed fishing all the way around, casting in close, working the buzzbait along the bank, although I did try some casts over the rather shallow open water without hits. 

Where is the pond lunker? I haven't caught a single bass over two pounds in the pond this year.