12/17/2025 Deep bite Dam to 86 bridge

[Dewayne French]

I got away for my annual winter trip over to the big pond. It takes me all day for this trip as I have to leave by 3:30 to get over for the early bite and I almost missed it this time. Unloaded at old 86 about 6:30ish and had visions of big bass eating the ice jig and they did not disappoint me. Had a great day with a solid limit early and 15.50 for my best 5 at the end of the day, I was happy with that for me🤣. The deep fish seemed to bite in windows throughout the day, but for sure early was the best bite for the bigger fish. I had a 5.10 largemouth and a 3.09 smallmouth before I ever saw another boat. Best baits were Ice Jig, damiki, and a small paddle tail with a 3/8 oz slow rolled though the roaming spotted bass packs and the were out today. I tired the A-rig, spoon, jerkbait to no avail, they would react to my offerings, but not bite. Surface water temp was 52.5 when I started and 53.2 when I loaded up to head home. I tired around 9 different locations between the dam and the 86 bridge and caught fish on about every one. One spot middle of the day I lost 3 that I never got to see that I guess were biting short and not getting a good hook.  The water was a different color between the dam to the bridge and I had to adjust at several of the locations from different color baits to tweaking the graph. Deep fish were anywhere from 30-70 and like normal a single was hard to get to commit to the bite, they would follow and act interested, but if you could get 2-10 in a group you could make that work. The big 5.10 largemouth had 2 others with him about the same size and they zoned in fast and if you could have got another bait down you could have had a double because they was ready.  I never caught a fish that was high up in the water say 5-10 feet deep, they would streak the bait and hit it but it is almost like those fish where hitting the bait with their mouth closed, maybe slapping at it because even with a jerkbait I did not get a hook up. Just a good day on the big pond. Lots of boat trailers were at ever ramp I passed and most boats where out between 9-2pm looked like. Good fishing and enjoy the fishing deep or shallow. Only thing I did not try was a shallow crankbait on the rocks maybe next time? 

 If believe the ramp talkers, I did talk with a couple different guys loading up after me and one had a good day shallow on a crankbait and one only had a few small fish for his efforts dang fishermen never can believe what they say

[Flysmallie]

That's a nice day! Thanks for sharing. 

[Quillback]

Dang, super day, congrats!

[Bill Babler]

Great day👏👏👏

[rps]

When I had one of those days (maybe twice), it went in the memory bank forever.