Just When I Thought We Had Them Figured Out

[Olebiker]

Had a tournament Saturday on Lake Talquin, just outside Tallahassee. It's the middle of summer and it has been hot as blue blazes so I figured I was in like Flint when I drew a partner who is a whiz at Carolina rigging the ledges. We were fishing out of his boat and he told me to bring two rods: a Carolina rig and a back-up Carolina rig.

We went to Hurricane Ledge first thing. He had caught ten bass on ten casts there one morning last week. We fished it for about 90 minutes with no strikes at all. We then started a milk run of five or six spots and finally, after noon, he caught two fish and I caught one.

We got to the weigh-in and found that the guys who had done well had caught them shallow, in the lily pads. Whouda thunk it??!!

I got thinking about it and remembered that the water temperature started out at 84 degrees and topped out at about 88. This time of the year it is normally well into the 90s. We have been getting afternoon thunderstorms just about every day and it looks like the fish were taking advantage of that highly oxygenated water up shallow.

I'll just have to add that set of circumstances to my data bank.

[Nice_Bass]

Been there...

[Nitrofreak]

Been there done that too lol !!!

Anytime you get to a spot and it becomes non productive, especially after a lot of cooling rain, I am focused on the shallows that have feeder creeks, cooler water and food sources are replinished during these times and they will often enough be staged in the shallow grass and plants all around the area.

Oh well, at least you learned a little something for the next time, but then again, every day is a school day on the water.

Thanx for sharing, good luck and be safe !!!

[Pleiades]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

[NILBasser]

Same thing happened to me here this past weekend. I've been killing them on drop offs for 2 weeks with the water temps in the upper 80's. Well Sunday was tournament day and I went right back to where I've been and NO ONE ELSE came to my area which is very strange. After struggling to put a limit in the boat I ran up to the shallow end of the lake and they were stacked up shallow something fierce. I got 4 in 15 min and upgraded one to finish in the middle of the pack and the guys ahead of me spent the entire day in the shallows. Didn't think they would go that shallow with a 5 degree difference but I learned a valuable lesson.