Conditions change by the hour - you have to adapt

After yesterdays epic largemouth bonanza, I decided to see if the bass were still in "attack mode". I waited until High Noon, and went out at 12:10, under bright skies. Conditions generally accepted as "crappy". This time, I only took along a bag of Yum Dingers, 1 wide gap hook, 1 swim jig, and a bag of creature trailers for the swim jig.

I tried the west pond first - the one that is supposed to be good. The water was flowing through the inflow, but it was clear and shallow. And, for me, fishless.



West pond inlet - too shallow and not enough incoming water to pull in the fish



I walked along the east pond to the inlet, picking up one small bass along the way on the swim jig. When I got up to the inlet, the water was still flowing but at a noticeably lower rate than yesterday afternoon. Also, I was on the other side of the inlet today. I started with the swim jig, missed a hit or 2, but wasn't real impressed. I switched over to the Yum Dinger and started covering more water.

I started picking up bass on the Dinger. They were definitely relating to the current but were no longer tight against the grass. The fish were all over the Yum Dinger, and I caught 3 quick ones. Then I snagged a stump and broke off the only worm hook I had brought along. I went back to the swim jig and caught 2 more, but it wasn't as good as with the Dinger. In the span of 20 hours, they had moved off the banks about 15' - 30'. In the next 25 minutes I landed 5 bass and lost 2, while missing a few hits. The fish were pretty nice sized, including one big one (the terrible picture of the good fish is due to no level ground to set the camera on and having to tilt it up in the grass)

So, even though I caught a few fish, I had to adapt to a changing pattern. Moral of the story - ALWAYS pay attention to the conditions, and how they might affect the fish. Without a new barrage of rain, the bass in the pond will disperse back to the deeper weed edges for the rest of the summer.




This bass ate a Yum Dinger





Another chunky pond bass








Biggest bass of the morning, and one of the worst pictures ever!!




This is the view of the east pond, standing on the road above the inflow