Cranky

NumenOn the Water

Date: 7-23-16

Body of Water: Reeds Lake

Boat: Numenon

With: Alone

Target: Largemouth Bass

Time: 5:45 AM - 10:45 AM

Conditions: Hazy, hot, humid and greasy calm.  Hottest day of year to date.  Water temperatures were 80.3 degrees F at 5:45 AM.

I have several reasons to be cranky.

• It's very hot and has been for several days.  It's about as hot as it gets around here.
• My only two "keepers" of the day (totaling maybe 3.5 pounds) were in the boat by 6:15 AM.  These both ate a Whopper Plopper, offshore.
• My last bass of the day came at about 7 AM.  This little guy ate a swim bait along a deep, offshore weed edge.
• But why not rely on deep cranking to catch some bass?  It worked well last time!  Unfortunately, not today.  I covered a lot of water with the DT10 and DT20 without touching a bass.
• A small pike took my green crawdad DT10.  The fish was subdued and at hand, but somehow twisted away with my (current) favorite crank.
• Wake boarders.  Water skiers.  Boats on plane within 25 feet.
• I still enjoyed cranking some offshore hard bottom.  My DT20 got slammed by a decent pike, but despite all the fish I was seeing on the electronics, I didn't catch anything else out there. I offered a swim bait scratching bottom, a hula grub and a drop shot; none of these got hit.

What do I have to say about this?

I'm not really cranky, I caught some topwater fish and I enjoyed the best part of the day (a quiet dawn.)  I even claimed a bonus, free marker buoy that somebody had left overnight.  Meanwhile, I'm learning a bit about the offshore scene; I'm getting more efficient out there!