Kayaking Rodman Reservoir 23-5-2016

[HeavyTwenty]

This is my first time to Rodman Reservoir. I've been trying to visit all of the major lakes in my area before I purchase a boat hopefully within the year. I'm not sure how often I'll actually visit Rodman after I get a boat because those hidden tree stumps seem dangerous... I almost tipped over in my kayak when going over one at about 4 mph. I caught 7 fish through 9 hours, which is better than I expected since I wasted a lot of time just exploring. Missed a 5+ lb bass, a smaller bass, and a bunch of gar.

Red = flipping catches, green = gar missing my swim jig, blue = 5+ lb bass jumped swim jig hook, purple = big school of 3 lb bass

The flipping wasn't as good I expected. All of my flipping catches were at isolated matted vegetation near the shore, but besides those spots I didn't really see anything that stuck out as high probability. I went to the matted islands way off shore and fished those for nearly 2 hours and didn't get a single bite. I might try punching through some of them, but I'm pretty inexperienced at that. I went out to the stump fields but only seen a ton of gar. Seen a big school of bass about 200 yards away from shore and caught two before I spooked them (second catch pulled me onto the group). I came across a lot of bass just sitting in sparse weeds (too thick for chatterbait or swim jig though), so I tried buzz baiting through those sections but not a single bite. 

Next trip I'll try going west of the boat ramp. There seems to be better flipping opportunities out there. 

[buzzed bait]

nice going man!  fun to explore some new territory in the yak!

[Ski]

Nice work. Glad you caught some, there are still some very large Fl. bass in that lake to be caught, however Rodman is by no means the fishery it was before the fish kill in 1985 where over 8 million fish died and an estimated 10,000 over 10 lbs because of oxygen depleted water do to aquatic vegetation over run. But still remains a viable bass factory even though Green Peace and other eco friendly groups want to return it to its natural state and remove the dam which would drain the lake. I wish the state would have put a catch and

immediate release on  black bass in that lake as they did in the Stick Marsh, Farm-13 and a few others that have proven to be a  very effective management plan and would once again bring people from around the country to that fishery.

R/ Chris