Lake of the Pines 5/5-6

I was able to get in a couple evenings fishing, after doing home improvement work most of the weekend. It is a tale of opposites. Monday, I went out with a jerk bait, rattle bait and swim bait, and had no luv until 7:00, when I hooked two fish within minutes of each other. The first one felt like I hooked a log, only the line slowly rose to the surface, where the bucket mouth shook the rattle bait free. This was a good solid fish from the short look I had of it. Maybe a 5 pounder?  Lesson learned - set the hooks when the snag starts moving. Second lesson, maybe a Medium Light action rod is a bit too week for non-finesse fishing. A couple casts later, and I finally had a fish small enough to take home - a nice 14 incher, that felt much larger.

Today I changed tactics, as it had been a couple weeks since I'd been on the lake, and the weeds are growing something fierce. So yep, no swim bait and no jerk bait. Tools were a wacky rigged Senko, a jig/beaver combo, and the rattle bait that worked so well for me yesterday. However I got fish almost immediately using the Senko. I missed one and landed one, then missed a third that actually made off with the worm. Switched to the jig, and soon landed another, and then a swing and a miss. No more action for the next hour and a half when I quit. First fish was a chunky 16 incher, and the second was another 14 incher.

Lots of fish on nests, but I was leaving them alone, preferring to fish in water over 5 feet deep. I also noted that there were sunfish on nests in 6 feet of water on the west side of the rock pile. Water temps are definitely up over the past couple days. I did a 600 yard swim on Saturday, and my wrists were aching from the cold. Today, the surface water temp was reading 71 degrees. I'm fairly certain that topwater could work right now, early and late, as I saw fish busting the surface going after flies.

Regards,
Scott

Nice report Scott any colors better than others?