Yellow Magic- Act 3

Tonight I got out fishing for about an hour until it got to dark to fish. I gave Jenny's a try from shore and didn't get a strike. I then went to the boat and set out to fish water I thought would be good for poppers. Conditions were overcast with about a 7MPH wind out of the North. I fished a bit of the North side of the big Island and down the Eastern shore where Pete caught a few bass last week.

I took the suggestion from Big Indiana Bass to tie direct to the Yellow Magic Popper. I believe the line I was using was 17lb Gamma Co-Poly. It did seem to help in working the bait just a little bit, but it was still pretty inconsistent in terms of performance. The chop on the water might have had something to do with that too.

Even though the objective was to put the Yellow Magic Popper through it's paces, my first fish actually came on a bullfrog Berkley Frenzy Popper.
I was using the bullfrog color because of the overcast and it is similar in color to the lime Yellow Magic. The fish was about 12.75". As soon as I caught this fish I switched to the YMP.

A couple of minutes later I had this dude swirl and get hung on the YMP.
This was just over 14". I kept fishing the YMP and had a small bass get hooked up, but it got off right by the boat. I kept throwing the YMP for a while, but eventually switched to the BFP. I had a small pike strike at the BFP right by the boat and that was the last hit of the night.

I am not sure why I didn't get more action than I did. Maybe the fish were turned off for the most part. For the second night in a row it was a pretty equal showing for the two different poppers.

Yellow Magic Act 2

Tonight I didn't get on the water until after 7:45PM and then on the way to my first spot there was a boat in need of a tow, fortunately not far, and that took up about 10 minutes of fishing time. I started off throwing my new lime Yellow Magic Popper. I made a great cast right up by a dock and two jetski's on lifts. Sure enough this 14.25" largie sucked it in.

I did throw back to the spot a couple of times and didn't get anything. I pitched in a blue/black craw tube and had a small bass pick it up. On my hookset the little guy went airborne and came off.

A little farther down the way after I had tried some Snagproof Frog fishing in some slop, I had a smallish fish, maybe a pike, hit at the Yellow Magic and not get it. I tried casting back to the spot without luck, so I picked up a purple Berkley Frenzy Popper and tried that without any luck. On the next dock I got a 12.75" on the Frenzy Popper.

On the next dock down I made a cast which spooked a great blue heron which promptly flew right into my line. I let it take out a little line before closing the bail and as soon as I did the heron dropped down into the water. I figured maybe I could get in behind the heron and find the Frenzy Popper, take it off and then reel in the line without any problem. It was kind of dark and the area had weeds, so I wasn't sure I would be able find the lure. While I was looking the heron took off and was totally untangled from the line, so it was all good. I didn't have any more hits from fish.

More thoughts on the Yellow Magic: I haven't yet mastered control of the lure. It seems like you can be working your rod a certain way and the bait reacts differently with each twitch. Sometimes the lure slurps but most of the time it doesn't. I threw the Yellow Magic twice as long as the Frenzy Popper tonight, yet ended out at 1 fish a piece.

Tonight on Platte with Pete

Tonight Pete and I got out for about an hours worth of fishing in the boat. I got the only fish with the "Viking" Snagproof Frog about 4 feet to the side of the end of a dock in open water. I got this fish when we were fishing close to our lake place.

We closed the night fishing on the East side of the big island. Pete missed a couple of hits.

I did get a chance to throw my new lime Yellow Magic Popper and my first impression is that I am underwhelmed. Pete had pointed out that it looks like a Rebel Pop-R, so I was kind of expecting it to have the chugging sound of a Pop-R. It doesn't. It is definitely more of a spitting popper, which is what I prefer. It seemed to cast pretty good for a 1/4oz lure, but I never did try to really chuck it a long way. I don't know that I was around fish with it much tonight and I didn't get so much as a swirl. I definitely will be playing around with it in the coming days.