Kings River 9/13

[Donna G]

Started an hour after daylight launching at Viola marina. We fished from Sweetwater down to the mouth of the Kings and put it on the trailer at 3:30 p.m. It was tough. We managed around 25, but all small fish and no real consistent pattern. We had one keeper the entire day. The morning started off promising with good cloud cover and wind. It was pretty nippy running. I began the day in my rain suit and sweatshirt and finished in shorts and golf shirt. lol We saw active shad at every stop, but it was hard to get bit. When the sun popped out and the wind slacked off, the little feeding bite was gone. Caught them on seven baits - top water, buzz bait, spinnerbait, square bill, drop shot, finesse jig and shaky head. Really figured it out, didn't we? I can always count on Champ188 to get me on enough bites to keep it interesting, though.

Most were spots, with a couple of LM and SM mixed in. We fished backs of windy pockets, channel swings, main lake bluffs and bluff ends. Wood, rock and boat docks. We had about the same success on each, which wasn't much. The shad are very active and it feels like it won't be long before the fishing gets good. We stayed predominantly with green pumpkin or watermelon variations on the jig, trailer, drop shot and shaky head. Square bill was a Bandit 100 splatter back with chartreuse belly. Champ188 fished a couple different colors of War Eagle 1/4 oz spinnerbait. I threw a white War Eagle buzz bait.

Very little boat traffic until the sun came out this afternoon. The few boats we saw this morning may have been from the Central Pro-Am championship. We didn't see anyone jerking on fish. Recreational boat traffic later in the day was still fairly light and no one was in the water. I imagine getting wet and scooting across the water on a wake board would have been somewhat crisp.

[Quillback]

Thanks for the report. September fish are always interesting.