Grand Lake, Deleware County, Oklahoma, July 28th, 2010: Little bit of action near marina, bass are deep

Marina near Bernice State Park

My first Oklahoma largmouth!

I got a chance to fish Grand Lake O' The Cherokee's (Grand Lake) after working in Kansas for the day, and hit the water around 3:30 p.m. or so.  The put in spot was Bernice State Park.  Grand lake is a beautiful lake and today turned out to be excellent.  I paddled up to the bridge that crosses the arm of the lake and went to the other side of the bridge. 

Grank Lake Largemouth Bass

There was a marina and a shady rocky shore with docks, shade, and depth, so I chose to fish that area for the day.  I was using a natural colored Wave Worm on a texas rigged baitcasting rod.  I got a couple of really small taps and caught a 6" green sunfish (the bait was as large as the fish!).  After fishing the drop off points for about an hour, I paddled to the cove that had the marina.  About 10' out on the corner of a dock, I landed my first and only fish for the day.

  They call this spot the "Crappie Capital", so I will make sure to come back to it soon, and most definitely check it out for spring crappie fishing.

Fish ON!

MLT

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Big Lake, Whetstone Creek CA, Callaway County, Mo. August 9th: Deadsticking is the way to go in August!

Big lake was awesome today on the kayak. This is a nice, large, deep lake. Water quality excellent, not a lot of negative plant growth (that is something to be said for August). Paddled to the back and worked my way back toward the boat launch. Caught my first Largmouth on Berkley Gulp! minnow on a shiner rig w/ slip bobber. Was getting hits on Gulp Power Worm (recieved two of these for re-upping with B.A.S.S.).

Caught Channel Catfish on the slip bobber rig with a night crawler. Also caught a nice size Bluegill on a bottom rig....this was towards the south side of the lake around 2:00 or so. Ate lunch on the south side of the lake and started to paddle back (had the wind on my back). Got a little slow, so I started to think about the things that have worked in years past. You really have to retrieve slow in August. So I took a Gamakatsu 5/0 hook and a very, very light bullet weight (texas rig) and put a Wave Worm (Senko) Sweet Potato Pie colored and cast towards shore. These were the "hot" item a few years ago at Lake Sherwood, but have not caught anything on these in awhile. Success!! Caught about 6 or so right between 4:00-5:00 p.m. Got a lot of other bites as well....so much fun.

Life is better on a Kayak!!

Fish ON!

MLT

Lake Sherwood, Warren County, MO, July 4th

Before we start, quick report on Lake 35, Busch CA. This is a dying lake. I fished it in the spring, and the lake levels were at normal pool- it is lower again and has hydrilla growing all over it (even in the deep section- saw it on the fish finder). Seems that lake still has problems. Went out around 4:00 pm. and came back around 8:00. One small tap and that was it.

Let's talk about Sherwood. Rob and I got his pontoon boat out and hit the lake around 7:30 a.m. Something to keep in mind- we are in a summer pattern. My thought are that you need to fish the soft plastics much slower. We got several "taps" but no fish (I had 2 that were either small fish, or bad hook sets on my part). This pattern continued until 11:00 a.m. or so. Then they turned on (how weird is that).

Rob caught the first couple and it looked like I was going to get skunked (no problem- it has happened before!). I then caught the real nice bass- such a light hit, he was laying on the bottom with the plastic in his mouth- when I pulled up, I felt the weight and set the hook.

We were really tearing them up on Senko worms, in particular, Wave Worms, Sweet Potato Pie Color (yellow,black, red, etc) using a spinning rod with 10# test and a very small bullet weight (so it almost went down "weightless").

Later that day, we took the kids out and they caught a good amount of panfish on slip bobbers and worms. Good day of fishing

Fish On!

MLT