Platte Lake Oct 7th: Prime Time

I wish I would have gotten out sooner on this lovely day. Today had a light SW wind with sun and temps in the 70's. As it was I didn't start fishing until about 5:40PM. I started on a weed flat in the Big West Bay (Public Access Bay). First I went with the Repo Man, but that didn't get looked at. I switched to a white spinnerbait and caught a small pike on that. Eventually I switched up to a purple (blue shiner) Berkley Frenzy Popper. I got a 13" bass on that, then had a pike steal the lure, glad I've still got tons of them. I tied on another purple BFP and threw that some more along with a Herb's Dilly Buzzbait. Eventually I worked myself in shallower where there was sort of a dense patch of brown rice; Here I was throwing a white Sizmic Toad and on one of my casts through the rice it looked like a little pike was waking the thing. I cast back and it happened again. I cast back one more time and when the fish showed behind it, I killed it in place. After a second there was a big swirl. I made sure the fish had it and set the hook. It wasn't a little pike, but a 19.75" bass that was close to 5lbs(pic).

I worked my way over to some thicker slop (rice, reeds, and pads). I had a hit on the end of a long cast that didn't get the Toad. I worked the area hard with a number of lures but couldn't get another strike. With the sun setting I made the call to head across the bay by the maidencaine where I got fish a few nights ago. There was a little breeze and ripple on the water. I went with the Herb's Dilly but that hauled water. The farther I got into the weeds the calmer it got and I started fishing the Sizmic Toad quickly hoping a fish would show itself. I got something to wake a few times but it wouldn't hit. I kept moving in towards shore and had a hit on the Toad on the end of a long cast in the pads that didn't hook up. I got a second chance at this fish on the Toad and missed it again. I pitched a junebug crawtube into the pads and sure enough it got picked up. It was a 13.5" bass. I was now close enough to cast to the last patch of bullrushes. Something waked on the Toad. On a subsequent cast a fish lit it up but I missed it on the hookset. That was my last bite of the night.