Went out with a buddy from work and his tournament partner to do some fun fishing while the weather remains fairly nice here. We got on the water around 0650 in the morning - the hydrilla was incredibly high in the water column, but there were deep pockets where it dropped off right at the edge of lily pad beds. We threw topwaters for about an hour -The boat owner slaughtered us catching 16 fish - all on a white horny toad coming through the pads. My buddy ended up with 9 mainly on Jig dropping in the deep pockets, and I had 5 on buzzbait - including a 5 1/2 pound pickerel who ended up destroying the tip top guide on my Veritas - bent the thing straight down (I was pretty mad about that for awhile - until later in the day) Fish Count: 30
We decided to load up and try a different pond down the road that none of us had been to in years. we arrived there around 0945 and started fishing. Water here was clear with little to no vegetation - you could see the muddy bottom around 4-8 feet down. I was throwing a chatterbait, while the boat owner tried jig and my buddy tossed senko and jig alternating. We quickly found that the bass where holding on the limited amounts of structure sitting in the middle of the lake. Almost every single cast by the sparse logs and lily pads produced a fish - and soon we were tied 1-1-1.
We went into a feeder creek in the back and the other two managed a few fish each - I caught nothing more on the chatterbait and managed two on senko in the creek.
We came back out onto the main lake with the score 6-4-3 (owner, buddy, and myself). We started fishing the random lily pad beds. we came across a very sparsely populated bed (lily pads were not very thick, and it was only about 4 feet wide and 15 feet long).
I summoned the power of Siebert Jigs at this point - and boy did it pay off. Tossed a black and blue dredge jig with black/blue fleck ultra vibe trailer in there and bounced it through the middle - first cast fish - both the other guys tossed in - a fish for each of them. 7-5-4 (owner, buddy, me). Spent the next 30 or so minutes moving between the two small pad areas within about 50 yards of each other and ended up with 8-7-7 on the fish count (My buddy ended up winning, the owner and I tied at 7 fish each). Fish Count: 22
Had to take off at 1245 as we all had afternoon plans. So 30 + 22 = 52 fish in 6 hours give or take a few minutes.
Best part was that everybody was having a ton of fun, and that flurry at the end really had us all excited - the fish weren't even big 1.5-3 lbs but it was a blast to have our bragging rights competition come down to the very last minute. Great day - can only hope to replicate it in the future - minus the broken tip guide haha.
