4/24/24 Cape Fair

[Dutch]

Jeff and I met at 06:30 in the fog.  Most every spot on the lot was full (derby).  We idled for a mile or so before we started fishing.  The bite was slow.  We really had to work for the fish.  The water was 64-66° and nasty red/brown.

We managed 34 mostly lmb with 6 keepers.  Ned was still the best bait but shaky produced some.

There were boats everywhere.  The lot was nearly full at 06:30.  The regular Wednesday tournament was today but I saw license plates from KS, OK and TX in the lot.  We went into Piney for a while and shared it with 7 other rigs.  I will say no one crowded us or cut us off all day long wherever we were.  I noticed that a 50 boat tournament will be there tomorrow.  Good luck with parking.

[Quillback]

1 hour ago, Dutch said:

Jeff and I met at 06:30 in the fog.  Most every spot on the lot was full (derby).  We idled for a mile or so before we started fishing.  The bite was slow.  We really had to work for the fish.  The water was 64-66° and nasty red/brown.

We managed 34 mostly lmb with 6 keepers.  Ned was still the best bait but shaky produced some.

One of those days where you wonder does anyone work anymore?   I saw seven or eight bass boats being towed towards the lake on the way home.

Dutch got big fish of the day with a 3.5.  I hooked onto a monster "something", it wasn't a bass, an un-stoppable force that swam off the bank (slowly) and swam under the boat and found a tree to get me hung up in.  Big cat or maybe a drum is my best guess.

[cheesemaster]

The cats are eating. We caught 3 on a rock crawler last weekend - 2 flatheads and 1 channel. Big was almost 15 pounds. 
34 in the boat is a good day - thanks for sharing!!

[willyfish]

20 hours ago, Dutch said:

The water was 64-66° and nasty red/brown.

Wenners said the same thing. What do you think is causing the water color? Is it runoff or turnover? Rain in the forecast over the next couple weeks. I'll be down on the 6th and a spinnerbait sounds like it could be the deal.

[Quillback]

Doing a little research on this and it appears it is an algae bloom.   That's my best guess.  😀

An algal bloom is a rapid increase in algae growth that can occur in freshwater and marine environments. Algal blooms can be green (see image above), blue, red, or brown and sometimes they are so bright that it looks like a layer of paint is covering the surface of the water. Many algal blooms release toxins, but some are non-toxic. 

Algal Blooms - Missouri Coalition for the Environment (moenvironment.org)

[Dutch]

We used to see that a lot and at the time it was said to be tannic acid but I have no way of knowing if that is the case.  The algae bloom is as good as anything.  All I know is that end of the lake is nasty red/brown with low visibility.

[Targa98]

And it has been that way for at least 3 weeks now.  I noticed it back on the 5th of April when we were fishing the Big Bass.  It started just above Aunts creek and only got worse the closer to hideaway.   We Imediately turn around and went to cleaner water just because we didnt want to risk it.  I had a buddy that fished in it all weekend that week,  They caught fish on friday and saturday  it just quit. They moved to the white sunday.