Canoeing Round Valley Reservoir for Bass

Maureen and I took her canoe to try for bass at Round Valley. I had a distant spot in mind, but it seemed we didn't have time to paddle there, especially since we felt unsure whether the breeze would die or possibly increase. Unlikely as this is in the evening, we just didn't feel like a long haul and settled for a shoreline with some weeds and gravely stone bottom, sure to hold some bass. Some time or other.

Fred and I have done well with jigs in recent years. Little more than a week ago, he caught three largemouths one to two pounds each on Senkos fished deep. We usually have action 18 feet deep or so on rocks with bottom edges of weeds combined. When the sun gets real low we switch to topwaters. This evening, Maureen and I roused nothing with jig and synthetic leech combinations nor with Senko-type worms. I marked a lot of fish 22-28 feet down suspended off bottom, many large enough to trip the fish alarm, but none hit. I tried jigging for them vertically. We also saw a few trout break water. Surface temperature registered 72 degrees. That's not much beyond the 70-degree range bringing them in close to shore in September. The way the fishing reports are written, you would think they're always at the depths reported, but they do surface for any herring up top. They just don't remain there. I wondered if buck bass still guard beds, but I saw beds 10 feet down and no bass.

We switched to topwaters and had action but got no bass over the gunnel. I lost a little nine or 10-inch largemouth right at the canoe's side. Maureen had hits on a Pop-R but hooked none. Interested in a miniature cove indention, we paddled over and missed hits. I set my rod down after casting, drawn suddenly to photograph a view. The Pop-R simply sat there in the shallows for half a minute when I felt pressure on my leg. I looked sharp and saw the plug was gone, ripples from a swirl receding. I had my hand on the rod when the bass leapt, throwing the hooks. Nothing big but maybe a pound.

We paddled to the dike near the main launch and didn't have much more action. I kept retrieves very slow after the encounter with the bass hitting the motionless plug. I missed a hit, another hit without much deliberation behind it, but that was all for this outing.

Very nice, warm evening. Looks like we'll do this again.