The Real Report from the South End

We'll, we finally got some nice weather. I launched at Redbud at 11Pm into some lightly rippling, 70 degree water. I went out into the lake and anchored up under the stars, my light, and my new friends-lots of bugs. It was very nice and very quiet. I could hear the pump running across the water at the pipeline. Never heard that before. And there was a sweet aroma wafting across the lake, like a cheap perfume. Something must be blooming. I smelled it two nights, AND while traveling Mt. St. Helena. Never smelled that before. The algae is right on schedule. There are nickel size balls floating all over the place, but they haven't changed the color of the water. Remember, when not too extreme, algae is a sign of a healthy lake. I, however like to tell people the lake is covered in algae and I would NEVER go to Clear Lake. That way we can keep to ouselves.

So during the night I got a 7 and a 10. On Thursday I drifted around and got 7 cats from 6 to 10 pounds, and 2 bass at 2 pounds each on mackeral!. Isn't anybody feeding those bass?

Thursday night I anchored next to a hole back in the creek a little ways and got into a few 4 and 5 pounders between 1 and 2 AM. I pulled the lines. That's a tough time of night to keep dealing with those twerps. There sure was a good flow though.

Friday morning, back on the lake and got a couple six pounders and a nine. I survived an attack by some big carp too. They were thrashing around like carp do when they are doing what carp do and I could see at least 4 BIG fish, schooled tightly, cruising right past the boat. Pretty cool.

So after 15 cats, it started getting a little cool and breezy, with no bite, so I hung it up. All fish lived to tell about it. They all took mackeral, but since they are starting to shrink, I think if anyone goes fishing they need to break out the secret bait to entice the big ones, because I am seeing the incredible shrinking catfish.