I made a point of going back over the sloping flat where we did well in September last year. Trolling. I did get a bump on my Hot 'n Tot, but judging by the perch that Brian later caught on a big Zara Spook topwater, that's all the fish might have been. We decided to head down lake to a spot we discovered last time on the reservoir, trolling the long way, catching nothing.
We came upon a stretch of shoreline indented a little, shadowy too, and I stopped the boat, reaching for my ultralight with an eighth-ounce jig and white twister. Second or third cast, I hooked up, not very surprised. That's the bass in the photo above, caught on four-pound test Stren. I caught a sunfish and then another smallmouth further along the way just a little, feeling in high spirits, expecting a lot of action. But not only did the shoreline no longer offer some rather shallow boulders and rock--no bass were there on steep drops.
We cut across Clinton Reservoir at top speed. My new Endura Max 55 seems to push a boat faster than my Endura 55 5-Speed did. In any case, Brian's 12 foot V-hull really moved, putting out a nice wake.
Jigging a shoreline, getting some taps and apparent takes, resulted in hooking nothing. We came to the shallow flat I was thinking about. The jigs didn't work but the surface was calm. The sun was on the water behind us; the flat extended some 25 yards under shade. My Baby Torpedo topwater produced the bass photographed in hand. I caught another very small bass and missed too many hits, becoming convinced the bass were knocking the plug, rather than engulfing it. Expected behavior from bed bucks.
Brian was spooking every fish within three square miles by slashing the surface while walking a nevertheless very well behaved dog with his big Zara Spook. He was able to cast three miles. He threw a beautiful curve that landed the spook under a distant tree. He moved the plug once. It got pounded. The next bass in the photo series, about 17 inches long.
Meanwhile, a bass kept swooshing water along the bank further back where we had tried earlier. Brian described it as vacuum sucks. I made sure to backtrack and get my Torpedo near that bass. It blew up on the plug. There was a lot of water in the air, but I set the hook into absolutely no resistance, so I guess the bass was just playing, as if it knocked another bluegill away from its brood.
I believe Brian's 17-incher is a big male.
We rarely target any bass on the beds, but who can resist the opportunity when it seems the only one in town? Later on, Brian did catch another bass--nearly 16 inches long--on a surface wake plug out over six feet of water a hundred yards or so from shore. I caught a little perch on that big Hot 'n Tot, certainly evidence that the knock I felt earlier was no more than another one.
We ended the evening throwing topwaters for pickerel. I missed one hit entirely, felt the pull of the second hit I missed, and set the hooks into the third pickerel, but it got off almost as quickly as it got hooked. All three of these fish were in visible cover, shallow. They just required my getting the plug right next to that cover. Brian hooked a pretty nice one on the Spook, and he had the fish on and fighting before it leapt and threw the heavy plug.
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Yellow perch are aggressive gamefish directly related to walleye. They will hit plugs nearly as big as they are.