Yesterday morning I fished the lake for a couple of hours with mixed success. I never found a single fish in the shallow waters that were full of 12-14" fish 7-14 days ago. I did manage to land 4 pretty decent fish from the trees and smartweed beds in 4-8’ of water.
I spent a couple of hours in the evening wading the shallows that had produced many fish recently. I again found the smaller fish had disappeared. However, it was a worthy two hours although I only had two strikes. The first fish measured 21.5" and was certainly 5 pounds plus. As I was working back to give up I caught another that was 20.5". This last fish jumped three times for there was nowhere else to go in the 2’ depth. Neither fish was ready to spawn yet.
Nice Fish! Glad to know that there are some big ones in there.
I was worried I wouldn’t get back to Meridian in time to fish Lowell when they spawn but it sounds like I should be good. Nice job on the fish, Any places you can recomment wading? I’ve fished the lower dam and in the trees at the far west parking spot (Access #8), but I think I’ll drive along the south side and try some other spots next week.
I should have looked for a map like this earlier, for anyone who is interested:
http://www.fws.gov/deerflat/mapbig.htm
Sounds like a great day to me. You need a water proof camera.
I fished the trees for several hours yesterday afternoon and caught nothing. I figured it was too bright around midday, so it is good to know you couldn’t find the fish in the same places we got them the week before. I talked to one party who put in while I was leaving that said they did well out deeper in the old smartweed beds in the evening. They were using the same rubber baits as me. I may have to do some evening fishing, too. Congratulations on those big ones!