5-15-10 Fifteen Pounds a Flippin

LAKE/LOCATION: Rodman

WATER TEMP: 75-82

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: tannic, but clear clear

WEATHER: partly cloudy, winds kicked up ~9ish 10 SSE

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: pre summer, summer

BITE TIMES: till 8am, then after 11:30

FISH BEHAVIOR: Right off the bat I ran to the lock canal and went to fish the pad fields just north or the campground figuring there would be new matts coming up – there weren’t.  Spent a bit tossing a Rage Tail around the pads without luck although there was bait all over on top.

I ran back down the barge canal and threw the Rage Shad to the north side at any matted hydrilla.  I ended up taking one 3 lbs that hit on the inside edge of the grass and then missed another in about the same area.  It seemed following that (and a mess of boats with the Wolfson tournament) the topwater bite shut off.  I flipped a bit in mixing in a trap and a worm.  Got a couple bites on flipping but no takers.

Just outside of Kenwood I flipped some matts of hydrilla along with some isolated spatterdock  that was wedged in between pads and cattails.  Had a couple bites and took a dink on a BDS from a 7’ channel between matts but that was about it.  There were a bunch of left over – I’m assuming – bream beds but I didn’t see any bass cruising them.

Moving further south I tossed a frog on the scum/hydrilla flats next to the river channel (south of Orange Springs in the stump field).  I moved pretty quick pausing in the holes but couldn’t get anything to come after it.  There were definitely some fish in there but whether it was my cadence or what, I couldn’t get them to bite.

I finally started getting into fish when I started flipping isolated matts.  I caught fish both off straight hydrilla and pads inside of matts.  It seemed however that isolated pad clumps inside of matts were more consistent.  Basically, I would flip (1.5oz, punch skirt, bb cricket) small isolated patches – sometimes as small as 5’ and then start the motor and idle to another matt.  Fish bit both on the drop and on the pump along with on the edge and a ways into the matt.  The main key was pads mixed in and “isolated”.  The matts that produced a bit better fish were along those cuts coming from the barge canal and thus deeper water, i.e. 9-12’.

4-11-10

LAKE/LOCATION: Rodman

WATER TEMP: 68-73

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: tannic, clear

WEATHER: somewhat overcast until 10ish, winds kicked up to 25 ESE after 11, high low 80’s

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: spawn, post-spawn

BITE TIMES: all day

FISH BEHAVIOR: Started off in the bay north of the barge canal tossing a ¼ Red Eye Shad in the 5-8’ flats around the lily pads without luck and I noticed some matted “spatterdock” mixed into the pads.  So I moved in and started flipping isolated to somewhat isolated matts with a 1 1/2oz setup and took a 5lbs fish after 1 pump out of some matts that had a lot of boil action going on in them.  I flipped the rest of the bay and saw quite a bit of movement but took no other fish.

From there I ran to the lock and fished the rip rap with a jig and a couple other isolated areas – just running and gunning – without a bite.  Running back up to the mouth of the barge canal I found some more isolated spatterdock matts and got 2 good bites once again pumping the bait once.

I mixed it up a bit for awhile at that point and fished the shoreline on the east side going down to the dam.  There’s a ton of shallow water and hard bottom but I didn’t get a bite tossing the ¼ trap or ripping grass at the mouth of the entry to the park.  I did however find an isolated “log jam” of matts in the bay north of the park that I flipped and took a 2lbs fish out of.

I went back into the barge canal for a bit and fished the matts in the bay on the north side and took a 2lbs fish and got a couple good bites but at that point the wind started really kicking up so I headed back to the bay I started in.  I basically reflipped the matts I’d fished in the morning being a bit more thorough and trying to fish matts as far back as I could find them (there was a good 3-5’ of water nearly all the way back in the pad fields so it was just a question of getting to the matts).  Again things got hot and I took a 2.5lbs fish and a 5.5lbs fish out of the matts.

There was an Xtreme tournament out there and winning weight was right around 20lbs.  with a couple mid to upper teen weights then dropping off quickly – seemingly it was a tuff day out there.  Also to not there was a guy sitting on the area (the 3^rd opening into the main lake) where I’d taken the crank fish and jig fish over the past couple weeks.  I did see him catch one about 3lbs but nothing more than that however he sat there all day without moving.