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I had the day off on Friday and got done with my chores. It was overcast with a light drizzle. I loaded up the kayak and headed to Scotts Cove. I fished from 5:30PM until 8:00PM.
Some guy was fascinated by my kayak as I was unloading from my trailer. It was like he had never seen a kayak before. He was nice and a little nerdy and probably in his upper 50's. So after that delay I paddled off and up the reservoir towards the Route 29 bridge.
I began trolling a green pumpkin curly tail grub on a light action rod. I got near the "rock slide" type area that Ben described and got a solid thunk and bend on the rod. I did a sweep with the rod and I knew it wasn't a crappie or a white perch. After a nice little fight this 12 inch bass came to the kayak. The fish stayed down and didn't jump and I thought it was going to be bigger. But I was happy to catch it and got the skunk out of the kayak within 15 minutes.
I trolled the grub a while longer and then decided to use my sonar unit and try to find some of the rock structure off the end of some lake points. I didn't have Ben's photos or map with me, but remembered a few of the points. I am terrible at fishing deep points so I spent probably an hour trying to drag a crawfish jig slowly along the 20-25 foot deep points. Along the way it was spitting rain off and on. I'm glad I tried the technique and I'll give it more effort the next time out.
I observed lots of schools of shad at the surface, but no observations of bass attacking them.
I finally paddled and came close to a very long cove/branch arm on one side of the reservoir and remembered it went way, way back. At this point I put on the bottom bouncer and home made worm harness and trolled up into the cove. About 1/3rd the way into the cove I got a solid thunk on the bouncer. I swept the hook and could feel a fish. It felt heavy, but not like the bass. I was thinking it might be a small catfish, but in the end it ended up being a good sized white perch. About 10 or 11 inches long, I didn't get a good measurement on the tape measure sticker. I should have kept it to eat, but threw it back.
I finished paddling the length of the cove and threw the crawfish jig some more at fallen trees. No takers at the fallen trees, but I did see lots of young of the year largemouth bass schooling in the tree branches. The branches also had some strange masses of eggs stuck all over the branches. Looked aliens, but I'm guessing they were perch eggs or frog eggs or something like that. I should have taken a photo but didn't think to do it.
I got back to the main reservoir and paddled up towards the Route 29 bridge but turned around just short of the bridge. It's the spot where the reservoir narrows and has rock cliffs on each side. As I paddled I gave the curly tail grub another try and had no luck.
I had about an hour left of sun light so I began the long paddle back to the car. I gave the bottom bouncer and worm harness another try and hooked into another solid white perch.
It continued to rain off and on and while paddling back the setting sun caused this rainbow to arch over the reservoir.
I paddled back to the ramp and only lingered at a few fallen trees to toss a buzz bait.
A great evening on the reservoir and it was like fishing my own private 800 acre lake.
Tom
Some guy was fascinated by my kayak as I was unloading from my trailer. It was like he had never seen a kayak before. He was nice and a little nerdy and probably in his upper 50's. So after that delay I paddled off and up the reservoir towards the Route 29 bridge.
I began trolling a green pumpkin curly tail grub on a light action rod. I got near the "rock slide" type area that Ben described and got a solid thunk and bend on the rod. I did a sweep with the rod and I knew it wasn't a crappie or a white perch. After a nice little fight this 12 inch bass came to the kayak. The fish stayed down and didn't jump and I thought it was going to be bigger. But I was happy to catch it and got the skunk out of the kayak within 15 minutes.
I trolled the grub a while longer and then decided to use my sonar unit and try to find some of the rock structure off the end of some lake points. I didn't have Ben's photos or map with me, but remembered a few of the points. I am terrible at fishing deep points so I spent probably an hour trying to drag a crawfish jig slowly along the 20-25 foot deep points. Along the way it was spitting rain off and on. I'm glad I tried the technique and I'll give it more effort the next time out.
I observed lots of schools of shad at the surface, but no observations of bass attacking them.
I finally paddled and came close to a very long cove/branch arm on one side of the reservoir and remembered it went way, way back. At this point I put on the bottom bouncer and home made worm harness and trolled up into the cove. About 1/3rd the way into the cove I got a solid thunk on the bouncer. I swept the hook and could feel a fish. It felt heavy, but not like the bass. I was thinking it might be a small catfish, but in the end it ended up being a good sized white perch. About 10 or 11 inches long, I didn't get a good measurement on the tape measure sticker. I should have kept it to eat, but threw it back.
I finished paddling the length of the cove and threw the crawfish jig some more at fallen trees. No takers at the fallen trees, but I did see lots of young of the year largemouth bass schooling in the tree branches. The branches also had some strange masses of eggs stuck all over the branches. Looked aliens, but I'm guessing they were perch eggs or frog eggs or something like that. I should have taken a photo but didn't think to do it.
I got back to the main reservoir and paddled up towards the Route 29 bridge but turned around just short of the bridge. It's the spot where the reservoir narrows and has rock cliffs on each side. As I paddled I gave the curly tail grub another try and had no luck.
I had about an hour left of sun light so I began the long paddle back to the car. I gave the bottom bouncer and worm harness another try and hooked into another solid white perch.
It continued to rain off and on and while paddling back the setting sun caused this rainbow to arch over the reservoir.
I paddled back to the ramp and only lingered at a few fallen trees to toss a buzz bait.
A great evening on the reservoir and it was like fishing my own private 800 acre lake.
Tom
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