Fished Puddingstone Friday night and Saturday night, both times with Kenny, Mike and a couple of other guys from the shop.
Friday night we fished the Picnic Island but we had to park down the street and walk in because they won't let you hop the gate anymore? Anyway, my day starts out lovely, first cast I hear a wretchid sound and examine my reel for the problem. I soon realized I had lost my bearing cap! Fortunately it was right by my feet and I found it with the flashlight. Absolutely everyone was fishing some kind of worm the whole night and we were hardly getting bit. At about 9:30 I switched to a black 5/8 ounce jig with a black/red brush hog trailer (I wonder where I got that idea from? :) ] to get some practice in for this winter. To my surprise, second cast I get an animate bite, set the hook and within a couple of minutes I lipped a #5.1, a personal best for me. I fished that until the park closed at 10 with one more bite around a piling. Kenny got two that night, one on a senko and one on a hula grub.
Saturday night I bought a couple more jigs and got out there. I intended to fish a jig and a worm due to last night's fish and the weather we had been having but there were fish jumping and birds diving in the overcast, stormy conditions. We fished Picnic Island for about 15 minutes before getting kicked out all together? The officer said this whole area of the lake is closed? When we asked him why he said some fishermen pissed off the sheriff. I think they just don't want to have people getting into the lake for free. So anyway we fished the finger between the Picnic Island and the Boat Rental docks. I started throwing a white buzzbait, I have never had so much as a blow up on a buzzbait but it just felt right. All of the sudden I get blasted and to my surprise the hook sticks and I land a 3#. What a rush, that thing hit it a lot harder than they hit the Pop-Rs. I periodically fished topwater, either a buzzbait or a frog, throughout the night but nothing happened. I threw a jig on the right side of the finger where the bank drops off rapidly. I was standing on a rock and fished the jig all the way in until it was directly under me in about 4 ft. of water when it gets slammed! I set the hook, took maybe three cranks and had him on a slightly submerged rock within seconds. All of the sudden, I get a true idea of what size this fish is when I see about a bowling ball sized boil as the jig comes flying vertically out of his mouth almost hitting me in the face. I just laughed it off because I'm just happy I'm getting a feel for jig fishing. One more missed bite on the jig and that was it. Kenny missed maybe 4 bites, Phil got a 2.5 and missed a nice one on a crank and Mike caught one small one on a curly tail worm. OK I'll shut up now.
Tommy