Dam area 5/11

[m&m]

What a difference a few days make. If you want to see some color in the water in the dam area now is the time to come and see it. I launched from the State Park marina as Moonshine is still closed. Fished for a few hours and caught only 1 keeper LM and 18 dinks. Mixture on the dinks. Keeper and the bigger fish were caught on a spinnerbait near the walkways leading to docks. WT was 67 - 70 when I took out at 11:30. Water was dirty for the dam area. 2' visibility in most areas. Most of the dinks were caught on the Ned on secondary points. I switched from a PBJ to a gp/orange and started catching them. 

Mike

[big c]

I also noticed the dam area was getting more stain to it. We found some secondaty points that had clear water about 30 yards down the bank but obviously close to the point. Where the clearer water started we picked up more shorts after the point action its self slowed down. Forgot to mention that yesterday.

[NebSchmidty]

Haven't tried the GP/orange yet... but have found the canada craw to be working pretty well in place of the usual PBJ.

[NebSchmidty]

Wow!  I highly advise against throwing gp/orange on the ned.  It's downright opressive.... makes them them upset and angry.  Too many people start throwing it, we're gonna run out of safe spaces for all these triggered fish.  

[m&m]

The secret is out. 

Mike

[dtrs5kprs]

 

Haven't tried the GP/orange yet... but have found the canada craw to be working pretty well in place of the usual PBJ.

Trick with GP/orange is finding a bag with a good mix of colors, not just shot full of orange. Manufacturing consistency on that color is a mess.

[vernon]

We fished yesterday from 200 - 700 and couldn't agree more about the change in water color/clarity. The clarity almost reminded me of last spring after the winter flooding. The color is much different but visibility is similar. 

We found water temperatures as high as 78 from point 1 to the mouth of Big Indian but the biggest change for us was the spinnerbait bite. After very limited success with it all week we caught more than twenty on it yesterday. At least four feet down seemed to be really important and some were probably closer to ten feet down. All were gorged on shad and fat as pigs. 

All of them also hit like ten pound stripers! 

While many were only fourteen inch fish, they obviously didn't know it and pulled like freight trains. One thing that didn't change much was location. Points were again key. We tried fishing in and behind the flooded stuff as well as pockets and the back of coves but only caught a handful at best and all were little ones. 

Around fifteen feet of water was still most consistent for us. I was throwing a War Eagle "compact" style in green shad, silver and gold double willows, 1/2 oz. weight but 1/4 oz. size.  Mark was using a regular 1/2 oz. in chartreuse and white and we caught a pretty equal number so size/color wasn't an apparent factor.

We also caught a dozen or so on good 'ol Ned in the same locations and those bites were also very aggressive. 

I also would very much like to point out that ALL of the Ned fish were caught on - wait for it - WATERMELON RED!

Bad news is, after the Super Dave ruse resulted in me disposing of many thousands of dollars worth of the dang things I had to restock. 

Consequently, don't waste your time looking for any either online or locally anytime soon cause there ain't any!

Heading back out shortly to take on the pea soup conditions on grand finale day. Hope the SB is still working!

[Royal Blue]

I'm telling you.  The SB bites are insane right now.  If they hit it they're trying to kill it.

[m&m]

Yep on the an bite. I recommend using a trailer hook because they hit it fast and hard but sometimes miss. 

Vernon, sounds like a good time. Good luck today. Sorry we didn't get to meet this week but I was only able to get out Saturday and Thursday for a couple of hours launching from State Park and I stayed down that way. 

The dam area should be clearer today because my boat collected a lot of the gunk in the water  it was a mess when I took out yesterday  I had to scrub it down to remove the water line  

Mike

[Longball22]

Got out this afternoon and caught a 3 fish in just over an hour.  All were shallow, all were keepers, and best was just over 3lbs.  Marked a lot of fish in the 12-17ft range, but couldn't get them to eat.  Can't tell you what I caught them on.