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NumenOn the Water

Date:  July 17, 2017

Body of Water:  Reeds Lake

Boat:  Numenon

With:  Alone

Target:  Largemouth Bass

Time:  7:15 AM - 2:30 PM

Conditions:  From overcast with an easterly wind to clear, bright and calm; 60 to 80 degrees F; water was 76 degrees and with a greenish brown bloom; visibility about 3 or 4 feet.

The steeple at Reeds Lake's northwest corner has been a familiar landmark for me for  over twenty years.  It was nice to be back after a couple of months' absence.

Given another "Flex Day" from work, I considered "Going Big" at Lake St. Clair or Saginaw Bay.  I also considered exploring some more local waters, but ultimately the comfortable allure of simply bass fishing my "home" water of the last many years, enhanced by the recollection that cranking the deep weed line had paid off handsomely at this time last year (see this), won me over.  Plus, I figured that it would be okay to take it a little easy after a ton of traveling.  Finally, I trusted my ability to assess the day based on previous Reeds Lake experience, and to be able to adjust as necessary.


I started on the edge of the main-lake hump, working the outside weed edge in 10-12 feet of water.  I started with a blue craw DT10 crank bait, and I enjoyed some quick success with pike between 24 and 28 inches.  I bounced around through a few spots, but I was back on the north side of the main hump when I connected with my first bass of the day at about 9 AM.  It ate a bluegill-colored DT10 on a specific feature on this hump's north side.  This 17-incher was quickly followed up by a solid 15-incher from the same spot.  This spot is virtually over a waypoint from last season; I'm developing some spot-on-spot knowledge, here.

The first few fish of the day were keeper-sized pike.

I was lucky this guy could eat my lure.   One side of his jaw was badly damaged, but it's another testament to the effectiveness and importance of catch and release bass fishing!

No. 2 came quickly thereafter.  The bass boat in the background decided to idle up and poach a waypoint.

I continued my milk run of productive humps, points, weed line turns and ledges.  I continued to connect with a good number of pike, and I lost a heavy, unseen fish.  I mixed in various other baits (tubes, wacky Senko, Neko), but kept returning to the DT10.  At one point, I switched from the casting rod to a spinning rod with braid, while continuing to throw the blue craw DT10.  With this set-up, I could force myself to retrieve the bait very slowly, while feeling each contact point during the retrieve.  Perhaps the bait was running a bit deeper, too, but once I got into a groove with this set-up, I didn't put it down for the remainder of the day.

At about 11:30 AM, on perhaps my third visit to my new spot-on-spot, I swung on a slight hesitation in the bait's cadence; and hooked and landed legal-sized bass No. 3 for the day, a nice 16-incher.  This broke what had been a long, quiet spell, and further established my pattern for the day.

No. 3 ate at the same place.

I continued to rotate through known productive spots, especially those featuring points or turns in the weed lines associated with major structural elements.  Pike kept me pretty busy during the mid-day, and several bass to 13.9 inches came aboard, too.  (The latter at least revealed a couple of locations with concentrated bass activity; I would subsequently (and productively) return.)

At about 1:30 PM, I landed bass No. 4 (a true "squeaker" at 14 verified inches), and just a few casts later, lost my Limit Fish on a classic largemouth bass Leap and Shake.  This was easily a four-pound fish, and losing her at this time was slightly sickening.  Fortunately, I kept throwing the blue craw and at about 2 PM, I hooked and landed bass No. 5, another solid fish at 15.5 inches.

I had to WORK for No. 4, which just squeaked in at 14 inches.

I found solace in No. 5, just after I had lost a beautiful Limit Fish.

So, I had achieved my primary goal of catching 5 keeper-sized bass.  Along the way, I'd also caught at least four throw-back bass, had lost a couple of dandies, and had caught at least 11 by-catch pike, of at least half were between 24 and 28 inches.  That's always a solid day of fishing!  My "limit" probably weighed 11 pounds, with no opportunity for culling.  This was not an Earth-shaking catch, but it was satisfying; it hadn't been easy, and I'd had to concentrate at making it happen.

What do I have to say about this?

In the net!

My only real issue for the day was that I didn't get to try any of the other techniques I'd had in mind for the day.  I didn't crank any of the deep offshore spots away from obvious structures that have produced in the past, and I never slow-trolled bottom bouncers with crawler harnesses.  I was looking forward to using these techniques to get more of these offshore fish to reveal themselves, not only to enjoy this day's catching, but to assure future catches, too.

Finally:

Should have used the net!  But pike are sometimes their own worst enemies with their thrashing and spinning; plus, even though it's a tangle-free net, the lure always gets tangled when a pike is involved.  I decided to save some time by simply grabbing a little pike, and ...  Don't go fishing without pliers and cutters!  This barb pinched down smooth and the hook backed out, easy.  This Blue Craw DT-10 and a Natural Bluegill-colored companion caught all of today's fish for me.