Brian #2 came down for the weekend and we put in our time at Dixon this morning. I threw the generic swimbait pretty much all day. Brian primarily threw crankbaits of various models. We headed toward trout cove right away and I saw a nice fish sitting on a rock in about 15ft, not moving at all. Luckily I had been really cautious on the trolling motor around that area because I'd seen some good fish on it the last couple days. I saw the fish kind of mid-cast so I sped up my retrieve and dropped the swimbait down to her. There ended up being a 2lb follower behind my swimbait, but I didn't even notice until Brian pointed it out. My swimbait dropped down to where she was and she was into it for about a second and headed straight at it and then veered off at the last minute and cruised into the weeds. I dropped a jig down and she kind of spun around on it, but then she took off for good. I figured we'd come back later. That one was 10 to 11lbs.

Threading the needle through the powerbait lines in trout cove there wasn't much else happening besides some smaller fish milling about so we left that to the trout fishermen and headed across to the catfish cove area. I stayed off the tullie bank a little ways and checked out the deeper stuff. There were a couple 4 to 5lb fish cruising around but they weren't about to eat anything. We got up to the tullie clump where I caught that 7.6 a few months ago, and it had frog mats in front of it and another isolated clump of frog mats out further. I put a couple casts on both and then took the boat to the outside edge of the isolated frog mat. Looking ahead I saw a giant fish right over this white rock. There was some ripple on the water and the fish was moving, but it was only in about 10ft. so I got a pretty good look at her before she joined a few smaller males and headed for the depths. I'd say 13 to 14 on that fish. I put a cast on her, but she was pretty much gone by the time my trout got near.

Worked around the fishing pier and up to the point where I got the best follow of the day from about a 3lber. This fish was right on my trout, maybe an inch behind the tail. I didn't think it was a fish at first because it was so close and was moving so fast. I couldn't believe he didn't bite the thing. There was one right behind him too about the same size, but they darted off when it got close to the boat. Approaching whisker bay there wasn't much going on so I started to spin the boat around to get up to whisker bay but as soon as I swung the bow around I saw another big one kind of swimming circles on top of a bed. I got stoked cause we saw a couple small fish earlier that could've possibly been bedfish, and there was also a cloud of micro sized fry, so I thought we could have something going here. I didn't put a cast on her but backed off and set up on the other side of her and made Brian drop the anchor. By the time we got positioned she was gone and never came back. There was 2 or 3 one pound males in the area but we couldn't convince them either with dropshot and texas rig. Gave up on that pretty quick and breezed through whisker bay and over to the buoy line. Nothing in that corner so we trolled the swimbait along the buoy line over to the other side, but no fish in that corner either. That surprised me a lot. There's usually fish over there and I figured they'd be stacked up waiting for the trout to come off the dam.

Fished on down past bass point and got a couple follows. One of em might've been a good one but I just saw it's ass end and it's tail kicking, but from the way it was kind of putting so much effort into kicking, yet barely moving I think it could've been a big one. Tried to catch up to her but she got into the weeds before I could see her. We made one last ditch effort over at where we saw the first big one and the surrounding area and then resorted to worming for a few minutes before we took off. Next attempt should be on the 7th with an after class session when they plant trout.

On a side note, I never got around to testing out the megabait charlie because to be honest I forgot about it. I would also like to commend the dixon lake maintenance staff for their superb upkeep of their troling motor batteries. While sitting down, driving the boat back to the dock, apparently one of the batteries was leaking acid. I didn't notice until I got in the truck and my leg was itching. I reached down and found a hole in my pants and my flesh burning off of my leg (alright, not quite that dramatic, but it was all red and black and stuff). So that was just terrific. One other thing, the water was about 3ft. clearer than it has been the last few days so I could see all the stuff that's normally just out of sight. It was pretty cool to see the deeper stuff on some of my spots, and I learned a lot of water for the spring time.
-Brian

Brian, I fished Dixon Sunday- I threw the soft Rago and the 9" Osprey, I had followers starting on my first cast outside the rental dock, pretty much continuing the whole time I fished. All these fish were decent, 3-maybe 5 lbs., but none really charged my baits. I would drop the baits down to the smaller shallow fish, they would check it out but most were little guys- saw a couple bigger units, maybe 6-7, they would show a little interest but not much. I don't know the names of the spots, but the little cove down by the spillway, where I got a nice one last week, was clogged with trout guys, as was the limited bank. Didn't even bother trying to thread the needle and cast in there, figured the bass were probably over the crowd, etc., anyway. I would have liked to throw down around the other end of the lake, guys were doing great on the trout, but too crowded for me. Threw the frog on all the mats I could, not a blowup, didn't seem too many decent fish were up under there anyway- after throwing the frog I would slide the boat up into the mat as a kind of anchor and throw the swimbaits deep, didn't see any bass up in there like I did last week. I think the big girls probably ate their fill Saturday, Sunday night and were chilling deep. OR maybe they weren't ready to go, you guys know how finicky they are. Visibility was a lot better, makes for good viewing but I think poor fishing. The fish that followed my baits seemed like the guys who hadn't mastered the art of trout gorgeing (sp?)and might have been looking for a smaller, tastier trout, although I did coat the baits in Hot Sauce. Probably could have whacked them on a senko or something, I didn't bring any of that except for one stick with my favorite frog. Well, I guess if it was easy we wouldn't all be nuts trying to catch 'em. I did get my Rago to run pretty well with lead strips on the treble (kind of like a keel?), got it to keep from rolling and ran a little deeper- Heard some reports of the bait ripping on casts, mine held up well from two days of casting, lack of big bass probably contributed to it's lifespan. I aim to make it die a slow, productive, chewed up death. Tight lines, if you want to hook up at Dixon, Brian, I'm up for the drive down on a weekend, maybe split a boat or something.

R.I.P. my brand new 7" BWW Osprey from last week, forgot about those metal lines holding the docks! At least she caught one decent fish, that's worth it. So close yet so far, just out of reach on that cable!!

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one getting whooped on by that lake. Didn't see any giant ones eh? That's a bummer with the osprey, I hate losing trout baits. We came across one of my jigs stuck on a rope that I broke off from shore a few days ago, that was kinda funny. We saw it and Brian was all, hey there's a jig with a madman trailer. And I was like whoa, somebody else knows about the madman trailer... wait a minute... har.

The weeds are getting pretty thick in there. Hopefully they'll start dying down a little bit. I didn't even bother fishing the frog mats. I saw one fish cruise up under a mat but I think it was just in the course of his cruising routine.

I'd be down to share a boat. Send me an email the next time you're comin down and we'll hookup.
-Brian

Right on, I'll do that. I actually saw more clear spots from the weeds this time, maybe it was the water clarity though. They (weeds)should start buying the farm soon, there was some dead stuff in the water. All the clear spots had multiple smaller guys on them, at least the ones in more then 12 feet or so. Just think how many are in those weeds, wow. Last week was the first time I fished Dixon in years. When I was a kid my folks would drive me down there, it was all clear sand and stuff, completely different. No 20+ bass then, no tulies, but there were still toads, they would get me so pumped up as a kid. You could see them cruising from so far away. Still waiting to land one, but I will be putting in some time there this year. Maybe we can figure something out, I know Mike Long and his buddy, I think John Kerr?, they whack them all winter, not just the spring. But then again those guys could pull toads from the gutter after a rain. Lots to learn.

Toads from a rain gutter, haha I know what you mean. Yeah John Kerr I think is the man at Dixon. I was lookin through the pics on trophy bass only last night and that guy catches a lot of jig fish out of that lake. Granted about half of those pictures are undoubtedly sight fish (namely the one caught 'on a flat next to the boat dock on a jig') but I bet more than a few of em are from secret rockpiles.
-Brian