I agree, there seems to be a lot of fish. Given how warm the water is (almost 77F at the top according to my sounder), not sure how many will survive to spawn.
I made the trek out last week, braved the 37C heat and the myriad of jet skis, wake boats and the white Oakley crowd, with the aim to get my 2 fish per day limit. The lake didn't disappoint, giving up 2 fish early leaving me all day to bake in the sun waiting for day two.
Fishing was easy in the early hours of the day. I had close to a dozen hits and shakers from 6am to 9am, with 2 in the boat before noon. Once the heat took hold, hits became few and far in between. I finally called it quits before 6pm as nothing seemed to want to cooperate. The next morning was a repeat.
The fish were holding in 60-70 fow, with the occasional school deeper to 80 fow. Trolling dead slow at 1.6 mph was the ticket. Anything faster and the hits dropped off. As everyone on here has already stated, small pink hootchies produced the best, although I did pick up a few hits on a lime green/white striped variant. I only had silver flashers, but they seemed to work regardless, one plain and the other with a strip of reflective tape on the side. Can't say either one was better.
As it was my first time fishing the lake, I just followed all the other boats as they trolled pretty much right in front of the marina in 90 to 170 fow. There was no need to go anywhere else. Everyone was catching fish. The hardest part of the trip was finding parking, as the lot in front of the marina was full by first light. I was fortunate to arrive just as someone was coming off the water after catching their 2 fish limit...and they were headed off to work. They mentioned they were on the water for less than an hour!
At one point as I was trolling around, my fish finder went a bit wonky, as it was unable to pick up sonar returns from the bottom. Turns out I was over a school of fish in 60 fow and my finder registered a false bottom as it couldn't penetrate the school of fish. There were so many fish that it happened many more times throughout the morning.
The fish were a bit slimy and on the dark side...pinkish really...but the fillets were still firm (for now...as we all know it's bound to get worse).
Pretty happy with the trip in general. All the info provided by other members on the forum were spot on and made my trip a success. For that I'm quite thankful!
B
Go figure. Sure a lot of schools on the sounder. Nice to see!
