Incredible Night On the Water, The Fishing Was OK Too

What awaited me when I arrived at the lake place tonight.

8:45-9:45PM 3 Loon Flat & S.P.S.I.
Conditons: 70℉, Mostly Cloudy small thunderstorms coming through all evening, Light NNW Wind
Water Temp: 69℉

I wanted to go fishing tonight starting at 5PM, but small thunderstorms kept developing over the lake, so I just stayed at home until about 7:40PM when I headed to the lake.  It pretty much quit raining the second I parked the Kia and there was that magnificent rainbow.

Looking NW from our dock

 I didn't know if I was there to go fishing or just drain water from the boat as the weather to the NW looked threatening and that was the direction the storms had been coming from.

An eagle sat up in a tree to the East keeping an eye on the sky with me while baitfish spooked occasionally well out front of our dock.    There were frequent cloud to ground lightening strikes taking place that I could here anywhere from 12 to 18 seconds after I saw them. I was not optimistic about getting out.  At about 8:10 someone from across the bay decided to take their pontoon boat out for a slow cruise around the lake.  I thought they were nuts.  Then about 5 minutes later a fishing boat took off from across the bay and someone else started pulling a tube around. I then noticed a guy in a boat fishing the docks across the way.

I bet he got a big fish off of those docks tonight 

Cloud to ground strikes were still going on.

 Although this picture doesn't really show it some blue sky appeared to the NW at about 8:30.  At that point I put the battery in the boat and got my tackle.  Lesson learned, with all the people with smart phone weather apps, they know what is going on with the weather as it is happening.  I need to seriously think about buying myself one.

I ended up just bringing one tackle bag, normally 3, and 4 Rods, normally 10+.  It was going to be topwater or bust for me tonight.  Should have brought a frog rod with too, because casting in the rice, pads, and reeds doesn't work so great with topwater plugs.

21" Whopper Plopper 90 (Yellow Head)

So I headed out to 3 Loon Flat where I got some bass yesterday.  I got a few pike slashing at my lures and caught this one.  At about 9:10PM I decided to pull the plug and head for the South point of the small island where I wrecked them the other night.

The reeds are off the South point of the big island

 I had to stop and take a picture of the sun as it set, then I was quickly back on my way.  I stopped well short of the juice and could have really used the frog rod to probe the pads, rice, and reeds as I made my way South.  As I got close to the juice I grabbed the rod with the River2Sea Double Plopper Buzzbait on it.  I figured it was a great chance to actually catch a fish on the thing, rather then just have them slash at it.  The first fish to strike at it didn't get it yet again, but sure enough I quickly caught a pike.

21.5" Double Plopper Buzz

And with that fish I closed out a fish on everything in Mystery Tackle Box #3.

Another Blog post on this topic coming later

At that point I immediately put that rod down and went to the Jackall Pompadour and threw it right over the juice where a good fish immediately belted it, but didn't hook up.  Several more casts later with nothing showing interest I put the Pompadour down and went to the Shower Blows knock off. Was hooked up on the first cast with this dink.

11.5" Shower Blows Knock Off (Chart/Herring Bone)

Charles Steinbauer, my boater for the Platte/Sullivan tournament, I'm sure is wondering why they didn't have that buoy out there on tournament day.  I decided not to weigh the fish because it was getting dark quickly.  I got another dink a few casts later after a couple of fish just slashed at it.  By the time I got that fish which was hooked dangerously for me off I was to far to be able to cast to the juice.  I tried working the other side of the trench, but all I got there was a couple of weeds.

I made my way back towards the buoy and a got another dink, this time on the Yellow Head Plopper 90.  By the time I got that fish off I needed to move back towards the buoy.  While underway I made a cast 15 feet past the buoy, but only 5 feet from where my line passed it.  About half way back to the buoy finally a good bass hit the Plopper.  Then the fish started fighting towards the buoy.  I kicked the trolling motor on high in case it made it buoy.

16" Whopper Plopper 90 

Fortunately, the fish cleared the buoy and I landed it.  Unfortunately, the boat went pretty much right over the juice.  I thought maybe it was dark enough I didn't wreck it, but apparently I did because I didn't catch another fish there.  I went in close to the reeds and made the mistake of trying to cast to a lane I thought I saw in the reeds.  The cast was about 7 feet off the mark to the left, so I had to go get the Plopper.  I put on the black Shower Blows knock off and got a quality bass on my last cast of the night.

15.5" SBKO

It was so dark I didn't notice the fish was bleeding until I looked at the camera's LCD screen to make sure I framed the fish correctly. One of the hooks must have clipped a gill during the fight because I didn't take a hook out of the gills to take it off.  The mosquito's were terrible tonight.

5 Bass
4 Pike

At least as many bites that didn't hook up.