[Big_D]

Gave it a go on Saturday 9/10... fished 6:30am to ~3:30pm. Lovely day, mostly sunny with some occasional cloud cover. Cool early, warming up into the low 70's by afternoon. Light SE winds early, picking up and getting into that pesky range mid-morning. Water temps (surface) are hovering ~67/68F and the weeds are starting to loosen up and thin out a little bit.

Bass fishing was pretty slow. Completely dead in the morning, and then I managed to pick off a couple here and there in the afternoon to finish with 5 SMB, 3 LMB and a rock bass. A pair of 16"ers and rest were little guys. Action came on tubes. I was also dragging a ~14" sucker (Mr. Peat) behind the boat all day. Had two confirmed grab/run/drops and numerous other nervous sucker moments throughout the day. No visuals but notable slashes on Mr. Peat... both looked like tail-grabbers so probably good that they were gone before I could get to the rod, or I'd a just ended up ripping the hooks right out.

One more note... take 'er easy in the channel, it's running a bit thin right now.

Take Care,

D.

[Big_D]

Back at it on Saturday 8/20... fished 6am to ~5pm. Had some frontal activity early with a T-storm blew through ~9am, but after that the skies parted and it turned into a fairly nice day, temps up into the upper 70's. Medium N/NE winds early, light variable winds after the storm. Surface temps have dropped a little to 77/78F, Algia stain still persists, water clarity ~2-3'. Weeds are still beligerent and numerous.

The frontal activity really slowed things up this morning. Had a buddy with me till ~noon and we struggled to put 10 bass in the boat. Kept at it (solo) through the afternoon, and finally got a little bit of action later in the afternoon and put another 9 in the boat before packing it in for the day. Really had to slow things down to get it going... senkos/yum-dingers on the weedlines did most of the damage. Finished with 14 LMB, 5 SMB, 2 rockies and a small pike. Size was nothing special except for one... 23" smallie. My new personal best, and YES I did get a picture this time... so no artist rendition needed.

Take Care!

D.

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[Big_D]

Back in action after taking a weekend off to chase salmon... Fished Saturday 8/6, ~5:45am to ~3:45pm. Nice cloud cover to start the morning, but the sun eventualy broke through ~11am and warmed it up into the mid-80's. Occasional light winds out of several different directions, but mostly calm most of the day. Water temps are very warm 84-86F in spots, and water clarity was around 2-3 feet.

Focused on LMB with senkos on the weedlines for the better part of the morning but then found a little bit of smallie action working tubes up on the flats in the afternoon. Finished the day with 16 LMB, 7 SMB, 9 Rock bass and one suicidal 3" perch. It was smaller bass in the morning but then the larger fish started getting active mid-day. Finished with about a dozen bass over 14", including these two 19" smallies.

The 3rd pic is sunrise on Lake Michigan 7/31... just thought I'd share.

Take Care!

D.

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[Big_D]

Another Late Report (Heat must be making me lazy)... Got out on Saturday (7/23) from ~5:45am to ~6:15pm... Had a friend with me till ~3pm... Weather was cloudy with a few minor fronts moving through in the morning with a couple of sprinkles... then things cleared up mid-day and it was back to blue skies and sunshine... temps up into the upper 80's. Variable winds out of the SW/W/NW... mostly light but some occasional gustiness. Lake conditions remain the same... Water = warm, Clarity = Low, Weeds = bushy.

Had a good bite going during the frontal activity in the morning, but when the skies cleared up, things toughened up quite a bit. Finished the day with 27 LMB, 3 SMB, 11 Rock Bass, a small pike and also got to tangle with ~38" Gar for a few minutes too. About a dozen of the bass were over 14"... 17.5" smallie was the largest. Largies are still dominating the action but there was a little more smallie action than the stats show... I just need to sharpen my hooks or something, lost 4 nice ones. Senkos and tubes did most of the damage once again.

Take Care,

D.

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[Big_D]

Late Report from Saturday (7/16)... Fished 5:45am to ~5:30pm in the heat. Had some nice cloud cover for the first few hours but that cleared up and temps got up into the upper 80's. Light/medium winds from the South throughout most of the day. Water conditions will be pretty much the same-ole/same-ole for then next month or so.... Weeds are bushy, water has a thick stain of algia (1-2' clarity tops) and surface temps ranging from 78-82F, depending on where you're fishing.

Largies are still pretty frisky out there, but the smallies remain elusive. Senkos and tubes worked on the breakline weed edges took every fish for me today... the normally active flats have been all but dead for me for the past few weeks now... but my past few trips have certainly been some exceptionally sunshiney days... so maybe that is at least part of the explanation. Anyway... finished the day with 22 LMB, 4 SMB, 7 Rock Bass, 3 pike and a walleye. About half of the bass were in the 14-18" range... but no tiny-tikes mixed in the rest... lots of fiesty 12/13"ers.

Catch of the day was a 21.5" Smallie... which is my personal best out here. And of course, as luck would have it... she flopped out of my hand after I pulled her off the tape... I zigged this way... she flopped that way and sploosh-gone... No Picture. Now I know you're just as disappointed as I am, but worry not... I petitioned this artists' rendering of this stunning creature, so that you could all share in the joy with me. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Take Care,

D.

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[Big_D]

Report from Saturday 7/9. Fished 5:45am to 5:45pm. Hot & Sunny most of the day, temps up into the low 80's. Meduim winds out of the SW/S/SE on and off throughout the day. Water temps 79-82F and the algia bloom has set in pretty good... water clarity down to 2-3' in most spots now.

Tough one for me, but may have spent (way) too much time searching for a smallie bite that just wasn't in the cards. When I got out of that mindset, I did find some decent Largie action working the weed edges again with senkos & yum-dingers. That action was good, but size was small for the most part. Finished with 15 LMB, 5 SMB, 8 Rock Bass, 2 small pike and a suicidal 4" bluegill. Only 5 legal bass, but did loose a 1 nice smallie and 1 nice largie almost back to back. 18" LMB was the only thing worth snapping a pic of.

This is the 3rd week in a row that senkos have out-fished tubes... Might be a sign of the apocolypse????

Take Care,

D.

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[Big_D]

Late Report from Saturday (7/3/11). Fished 5:45am to ~7pm. Hot & humid with cloud-cover for first few hours, then a mini-front blew through (2 drops of rain) and took all the humidity out with it... Mostly sunny the rest of the day. Medium/Heavy winds out of the W/NW for most of the day, temps up into the mid/upper 80's. Water is starting to cloud up just a little bit, surface temps from 75-79F. Weeds are in good and thick now in most places, and that nasty snot-weed that was all over everything, seems to be dissipating now.

Not a gang-busters day, but when you fish 13 hours you hit some highs and lows. Finished with 15 LMB, 10 SMB, 6 Rock Bass and a 24" pike. Bass were of nicer size today, 13 of those were 14"-17" plus 18" & 20" smallies.

The nicer LMB came mostly on wacky-rigged senkos worked on the weed edges. Smallies and smaller LMB came on tubes worked on the deeper half of the flats.

Take Care!

D.

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[Big_D]

Report from Saturday (6/25). Out with a buddy, fished ~5:45am to ~4pm. Mostly sunny morning then a little cloud cover moved in mid-day. Temps up into the mid 70's and little to no wind most of the day. Water temps ranged from 68-71F in different locations. Weeds have pretty well filled in, in most spots, but there are a few that are lagging behind yet.

Was a bit of a tough day... the tube bite up on the flats was pretty dead and smallies were a little hard to find. Or maybe just a case of wrong places at wrong times... but either way had to put the tubes away and focus on the weedlines with wacky-rigged senkos to get some action. Finished with 11 LMB, 4 SMB, 7 RB and a small pike. Size-wise, about half of the bass were in the 14-17" range.

Water levels are a little higher than normal with the recent storms... so the channel depth is pretty decent right now.

Take Care,

D.

[Big_D]

Report from Saturday 6/18.. fished ~5:45 am to ~5:15 pm. Sunny all morning with some cloud cover rolling in, in the afternoon. Temps into mid-70's with light to medium winds out of the East all day. Surface temps ~70F and weed growth is starting to pick up finally.

Nothing stellar going on out there... but one here and one there added up to 18 SMB and 4 LMB by the end of a 11.5hr day. About half of those were in the 14-17" plus the 18" & 19"er in the pics. Also lost a lot of fish today.. maybe 8-10... just couldn't keep the hooks in 'em.

Just about everything came shallow up on the flats... and all on the pattened smoke-color tube jigs, as usual. Odd thing though... not a single "bonus" fish all day. No pike, no walleye, no suicidal perch or bluegills... not even the obligatory rock bass. That is just plain strange.

Take Care!

D

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[toyman2k]

fished yesturday targeting eyes and found largies smallies pike lotsa bait and smaller gills and if you target them rock bass that will keep you busy along with the many smaller bass that are everywhere where there are weeds that is...was foggy as all could be sunday morning and 1st time on lake and no map loaded on my sd card so made fishing slower in morning. the launch is fine just keep her trimmed up high in river or use troll motor. SAW THAT MUSKIE in river on way back in was def. over 40' and was not having leaches for an afternoon snack!

[Big_D]

Was back at it again this Saturday (6/11). Fished 5:30am to 5:30 pm. Cool and cloudy all day, Temps up maybe into the low 60's and light to medium winds out of the NNW all day. Water temps (surface) were a pretty consistant 68F all over. Weed growth is kinda spotty.. some areas are starting to fill in nicly and others are still pretty baren. Also, I've notice a LOT more of that snot weed (that's what I call it) occuring all over the lake. Way more prevalent than I've ever seen here before.

Mediocre bass fishing today, but lots of other fish biting too. Finished with 14 SMB and 6 LMB... about half of those ranging from 14-17". On the bonus were 9 Rock Bass, 8 pike and a bluegill... and then in the 11th hour... almost like a reward for a long hard day of fishing... I boated a 44" musky... and the quick picture I snapped actually turned out pretty decent for a change.

Morning hours were more active but mostly small fish... bigger fish in mid day and afternoon, but it was it was a quick flurry 2-3 here... then an hour or so of dead time in between. Everything came on tubes, little more than half came up on the flats and the rest right on the breaklines.

Take Care!

D.

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[Big_D]

Back at it again yesterday (5/21)... fished ~6am to ~5pm. Lovely cloudy day with a few patches of light rain on and off and medium winds out of the SE. Clouds cleared out a bit late afternoon and temps warmed up into the mid-60's. Water temps were 61-63F everyplace I fished and the weed conditions are about the same as last week.. just a few patches of green here and there.

Morning was a bit slow... maybe because of the front moving in... but things picked up mid-day and were steady well into the afternoon. Action was pretty good, but lots of little'ns... finished up with 25 LMB, 5 Smallies, 21 Rock Bass, 7 small pike and a Bluegill. Maybe 10 of those 30 bass were 14" or over... Biggest LMB was 16" and one of the smallies was 17.5".

Most of the action came up shallow working tubes, but I did catch a few pitching at some of the few clumps of weeds that are starting to form on the breaklines.

Take Care!

D.

[Big_D]

Time to blow the dust off of this thread! Hit the OC for the first time this year yesterday (5/14). Fished ~6:30am - ~4pm. Was cold and windy just like the weatherman said (for a change)... Heavy winds out of the N, but many spots were still very fishable. Cloudy all day, with a few drops of rain here an there. Water temps are already a consitant 58Fall over the lake. There are a few small patches of weeds that are already starting to green up... but overall not a whole lot of growth just yet.

Headed out expecting a tough day, but was very pleasantly suprised. Even with last yoars early-spring warm up, water temps were still only 54F. this time last year and action was hard to find, so was really expecing it to be colder and slower today, and it was just the opposite. The warmer water has jump-started the action up on the shallow flats already. Ended up with 20 LMB, 8 RB and a couple of pike. Most of the largies were between 13-16.5" but there were a few little'ns mixed in in there too.

As mentioned, most of the action came up shallow on tubes, but I did pick up a few off the breaklines with tubes and shakey-head worms on wind-blow structure.

Take care!

D.

[Big_D]

Late Report from Saturday (9/11)... Got out and fished ~6:30am - ~4pm. Nice cool cloudy day, light rain on and off. Medium winds on & off from S/SE then S/SW later on. Sun finally peaked out ~3pm. Water has cooled down now (~67F) and the algia is starting to clear up a little... visibiliy is around 2'-4' depending on where you're fishing. Weeds are still very thick.

Weather was lovely, but the bass fishing was pretty slow... picked up one here and one there throughout the day and finished with 6 LMB, 6 SMB, 3 small pike and the obligatory rock bass. There was a bonus, though... Little beknowst to me, there must have been a tube-jigs for musky charity event sheduled for the morning, as I got to tangle with 5 different ski's... 4 hooked directly, and 1 that try to steal a 13" SMB from me. Started right away with a smaller ~30"er... dove down into some thick weeds and got stuck... I slowly pryed him up/out and the second he was free, he shook his head and the jig popped out. Couple hours later #2 (low 40's) grabbed a smallie and I played tug-o-war for a couple minutes before he let go. A couple hours later, hooked into #3 (low-40's) got to fight for a minute or two before he bit me off.... 6 casts later... another low-40's (could very well have been same one) hooked up and I got a 4-5 minute battle this time... was maybe a foot too far away to take a stab with the net... and then he bit me off. Was feeling pretty dejected at that point, but 15 minutes later hooked into #5, a little smaller... another 4-5 minute fight and finally got one into the net... 38.5"er, sorry pics are not so good, best I could do with one-hand and trying to CPR quickly. It's too bad I left my musky tackle at home... they were really active in the cloudy/rainy weather.

Take Care!

D.

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[Big_D]

Out again yesterday (8/28) from 6am to 5pm... another tough/slow day. Blue skys and sunshine all day long, temps up into the mid 80's. Light/Medium SW winds early getting heavier by mid-day. Water is still thouroughly stained with algia and the weeds are still obnoxiously thick.

Finished the day with 10 SMB, 3 LMB, 5 pike, 3 RB and a bluegill. Morning was pretty dead bass-wise... I think I had all of 5 bass until 2pm, then I found a little action working heavily wind-blown flats 2-4pm that breathed some life back into the day. Size-wise most were in the 13-15" range, and two nicer 18.5" & 20" that you see in the pics. Everything came on tubes up shallow again today with the exception of the 5 pike (all 18"-23"), which came on a white spinnerbait worked over the weeds.

Take Care,

D.

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[Big_D]

Back out on Saturday (8/21). Fished 6am to ~4:30pm. Fishing was pretty tough. The front that blew though Friday night/Saturday morning, really shut things down. Cloudy most of the day, sun started peeking out a bit mid-afternoon. Little to no wind most of the day... that probably didn't help things much either. Water is still thickly stained with algia and weeds still getting thicker.

Managed to scrape up a bunch of little'ns... 15 LMB & 3 SMB, only 3 legal bass in that mix. The rest ranged from small to tiny. The side-shows were not too bad today... 4 rock bass, 4 bluegill, a small pike, a small walleye and a 9.5" perch. I probably should have thrown my bass pole back in the rod locker and done some panfishing... but hind sight is 20/20, as they say.

Anyway, I had really thought things would turn around by afternoon, and it just never happened. Hope things are better out there today!

Take Care,

D.

[Eric Haataja]

Thanks for the report!

[Big_D]

Got out with a buddy this morning, fished 6am to ~3:20pm. Lovely day, despite the forcast. Temps up into the low 80's, but mostly cloudy all day, so not really burning you up. Light to medium winds out of the W all day combatted the humidity nicely. Water temps are in the 82/83F range, water is still stained pretty thick with algia and weeds are as thick as I've seen in 3 or 4 years.

Had a slow start, first couple of hours, but then things picked up and we found consistent action for the rest of the day. We finished with 20 SMB, 14 LMB, 2 RB, 3 pike, 2 perch and a bluegill. Size-wise, they were about half n half, nice ones vs smaller ones, biggest was a 19" smallie. Action coming from the same program, basically... tossing smoke colored tubes from the breaklines. LMB are coming in and around weeds and SMB from the breaks well up into the shallows.

Water levels are still a bit high, but the slow-no-wake was finally lifted mid-day today.

Take Care!

D.

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[Sig and Gus Hanson]

Got out Friday afternoon from 3-6:30, hot and humid, storms all around us, periodic rain... water temp still at 84, limited visibility. Lake is still no wake

Probably the most productive day per hour this year. Getting out in front of the front, major feeding period as well, cloudy skies etc certainly seemed to align the stars for us today. We threw plastic worms, tubes, swim baits and spinners....everything came on the worms ( color didn't seem to matter ). Just followed the drops ( staying on top of the shelf in about 6-10 feet of water ). Ended the day with 12 LM, 5 Smallies...13 of the 17 were at least 14", including a 19 7/8" smallie that weighed in at 5 lbs.....left the fish stretcher at home so we couldn't get her to 20". All fish released.

Skirted the lightening and heavy rain most of the afternoon, finally the lightning started popping up again and it was going to roll directly over the lake so unfortunately we did the smart thing and got off the water

[Big_D]

Was back at it again on Saturday (8/7). Fished 6 am to ~6:30 pm. Lovely day... mostly sunny with a few periods of clouds throughout the day, temps right around 80F and not too humid. Mild winds from the SW early, picking up considerably by afternoon. Water is still thickly stained with algia, clarity ~6-12", and the weeds have kicked it up a notch... very thick now even in normally sparse areas. Water levels are still high and the lake was slow no-wake when I launched in the morning. They may have lifted it mid-day, though, as there were a few skiers/tubers out by mid-afternoon.

All in all, was a decent day. Finished with 18 LMB, 11 SMB and one each of pike/perch/walleye and of course, one highly obligatory Rock Bass. Size was a little better than last week...lots of 14-16"ers and the 18.5" and FAT 20.5" smallies in the pictures. Was kind of a wierd day... was almost exclusively LMB all morning, on breakline weeds and shallow weed clumps, then a bit of a lull mid-day and then almost exclusively smallies all afternoon, up on the flats. All action came on tubes except for one smallie on a Red-Eye shad. Action tapered off ~4:30 for me, but I stuck it out a couple more hours to get through a few more spots that I haven't worked in a while.

Take Care!

D.

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