Dam Report, 5-19-15, a lesson in Ned

Since this forum has been a bit slow, I'll add yesterday's trip.

Hit the water at the crack of 10:30 at Dam Site and left at 3:30. The wind was a bit stiff, but the forecast showed it dropping later in the day. Started trolling crankbaits in the wind because of boat control, and then changed to spinners after a pass at one of my spots with no one playing. Saw a bunch of bait or debris on the graph and ran over a couple of schools of fish, but they didn't want to say hello.

Since I needed Ned practice, and the 'eyes weren't cooperating, I headed to one of the creek arms where I had the smallies surrounded on my last trip. I started with the ZMan leech in a pearl-translucent color (Blue Steel) on a 1/16 Gopher head. Hooked a nice smallie that I'd guess--you can see where this is going-- over three pounds and perhaps as much as four. Got her up to the boat before she gave me the fin and got off.

Started playing with the Ned seriously--tried Fireline, fluorocarbon and XL lines to get a better sense of the hit. I also tried ZMan's new head, the ZMan leech and the TRD. I also used the 1/16 Gopher head with a Canada Craw TRD. Didn't have enough time to switch things around between lines, so my results may vary. However, the most success came with the 1/10 ShroomZ Finesse head in red with a New Money TRD on XL. The Fireline rod was rigged with a fluorocarbon leader and 1/16 Gopher head with a leech in Blue Steel. The fluorocarbon rod had a Gopher head and craw TRD. View attachment: smalls.jpg

I did have swing-and-misses with each rig, but the most success was on the XL rod...don't know whether it was because of the heavier head or the color or the fact that the mono line didn't transmit the bite as quickly as did the other two. The leech was a magnet for small fish--bluegills or whatever as I'm thinking a lot of the bites were only tail grabbers. While I had a lot of strikes, I hooked fewer fish on it.

I didn't keep count, but I'd guess I landed maybe 25 smallmouth (two that would keep) and a dinner guest, a maybe-five-pound channel cat, which was a hoot on light gear. View attachment: cat 2.jpg

Water was 70- 72 degrees and visibility was eight feet or so. Having said that, there was a lot of trash in the water--leaves, sticks, logs, deck chairs, styrofoam logs and whatnot.