Lake of the Pines 1/6

I know that the rest of you can't get in here, but the information on water temp, depth, and successful tactics would apply to other bodies of water.   And if any of you are coming through Auburn, you've got an open invite to fish here, assuming that I'm around to grant you access.

So, I took a quick paddle in the late afternoon on Saturday the 5th, and saw a couple fishermen in a small skiff near the dam. The water here is 30-45' deep. Asked them how they were doing, and as good fishermen do, they were kind of vague, becoming more and more detailed about just how good it was, as they sensed I wasn't a total fish killer. They had a pretty good days fishing - about twenty fish to 7 pounds. Almost all were taken on drop shot rigs, from 28-40' of water. Watermelon was the hot color. While I was there talking to them, I was marking fish on the bottom in 35'.

So I'm out the next day at 1:00 PM (want to let those fishies warm up a bit, right ?) looking for schooled up bass. No luck there... I even paddled a grid to see what I could come up with. Still nada.  So I just drifted the 35' depth contour, not really feeling all that good, as this was my first serious attempt at drop-shoting.  After a couple minutes though, my rod loads up. I'm thinking weeds, but there's just a hint of a wiggle. So I set the hook, unfortunately on nothing. A few drifts later, I get a real wiggle, and fight the fish for a few seconds before it gets off. Now I'm feeling like I might have a chance. Sure enough I do manage to boat a good 2 1/2-3 pound class fish that gets released. And a 14" er that comes home for dinner. Unlucky fish, as this is the first bass I've actually kept from his lake in 4 years. Maggie and the nanny were really wanting steamed fish for dinner. I had hoped to bring them some Crappie, but had no success with the flatsides, even though I did get a couple tugs while over some schooling, suspended fish.

A couple things of note. I'm not all that happy with the Gamakatsu "drop-shot/split-shot" hook. I think it is too close to a circle hook design. Both of the fish were hooked in the roof of their mouths, and not all that solidly. I was using size 1, and think that maybe next time I'll go with an Owner cutting point lightweight live bait hook in size 4. I doubt that even a large fish will bend the hook, considering I'm using 6 lb test, on a medium light spinning rod.

Both fish had red lips. Supposedly a sign of a spawning male ??? Or perhaps it was dieting exclusively on food right on the bottom, thus causing abrasion?

Water temps were 47* on Saturday afternoon, and 47*- 49* on Sunday. The water was pretty darn clear - a good 8 feet, if not more.

There was a huge flock of Mergansers (fishing ducks for the non-ornithologically inclined) that were diving in an area of 10-14' of water. I paddled over to find that this spot had lots of weeds from 6' down to the bottom.  I'd have fished it, but all I had were two light-ish spinning rods, the heaviest of which had 6 lb test. I'll give those weeds a try next time, as rule #1 for bass, is the fish are often where the bait are. I'd not be surprised if I took fish with a 1/4 oz jig/craw

Regards,
Scott

....and where are the pics 

I spent a lot of time a Lake of the Pines when I was growing up in Grass Valley. Oh the memories!

CHEERS!

Joel,

I don't take my Canon S50 out on the water. One of these days I'll get something waterproof just to be able to provide pics of the C&R fish.

Scott

Scott I had the same problem with those hooks. Then I fished with a guy who has swears by them he showed me not to set the hook but just lift the rod and reel. Works great I went from hooking less than half to hooking almost all. It's hard to do  especially when the fish hammers it you just want to  hammer back. Most of the fish are hooked in the corner of the mouth. 

I was wondering if it would make sense to just reel in like a full on circle hook. It won't be that hard to not set the hook, as it's not like you get a "grab". It's just that all of a sudden you feel more than the weight of the sinker when you are quivering the rod tip.  I'll give it a try next weekend and see what happens. I'll also get some of those Owners, just in case

Scott